I just finished reading the book "Pigeons: the fascinating saga of the world's most revered and reviled bird." I really enjoyed it. I have always had an ambivalence toward the pigeon. I don't live in a particularly urban area, so I don't face the daily scourge of ye olde flying rodent. I mean swarms of them are a little gross certainly, and copious amounts of animal poo is no one's favorite. But they are pretty. and they are calming. And I always think they are so trusting. Every once and a while i'll see one with a club foot and i'll cry a little.

this book has made me want to own a bunch of them to snuggle for my very own. plus i could train them as my avian minionsmto do things like poop on people who make questionable decisions with regard to timing when crossing the street.

it also made me thing of a very special man and his very special bird friend. When i was in elementary school my mom used to drive myself and my siblings and all the other children from the area who attended the same school. There were lots of interesting things we would see regularly around town. There was of course the wildlife as we past through the forest preserve, there was the man we lovingly called "the leprechaun" --this is not because he was short or anything, he was always on his bicycle, generally outside the kmart, with a long green pony tail, and neon green wind breaker, green zubas, and sunglasses with black frames with neon green arms; but most important, and the segue into this tale is the man in the white van.

the man in the white van, well clearly drove a large white conversion van with no windows in the sides. He is probably a tradesman of sorts. I don't remember much about the man, he had brown hair and a beard and a luxurious handle bar mustache, which was not waxed but twisted very neatly, and a white cockatoo on his shoulder. This man took his cockatoo with him every day to work. the bird would sit on his shoulder and i presume would navigate or sing songs or something.

i never saw this man without his cockatoo, though to be honest i am not sure that i would have recognized him without the bird. this prompted some wonderings of course, i mean, if the bird was always on him, wouldn't there necessarily be a big trail of bird poo?

oh no no

the best thing about this duo is that the bird would tug at the mans mustache with his beak on occaision, and the man would lift the bird onto his finger and hover him over some newspaper and the bird would take care of business.

what marvelous teamwork! man and bird working together to not be totally covered in poo
hooray!