Today is "Bird" day. I pick up a 5 kilo (12 lbs?) turkey from the Viktualienmarkt for tomorrow’s Christmas eve feast. At least, I hope it’s a turkey. The butcher didn’t speak english, so to place the order I had to flap my arms around and use a translation I got off the internet. I have to buy a roasting pan too. There’s a kitchen store right across the street from the market so I’ll haul the bird over there to make sure I get the right size.
After that, I fight my way through the Christmas market and last minute shoppers in Marienplatz to get to my friends’ neighbourhood (I haven’t decided yet whether to walk, or to try to strap the bird to my bike). They’re doing the cooking starting bright and early tomorrow, and it just makes sense drop the bird off at their place tonight. The butcher closes at 4PM, so me and my bird (my bird and I?) have to kill some time in a cafe until my friends arrive home from work. No one minds dogs in cafe’s and restaurants here, so I presume there won’t be an objection to a turkey either. Heh.
In honour of "Bird" day, here is a neat video clip of an experiment on a laboratory animal. A crow (or raven?) is given a wire, and the task of pulling a treat out of a long-necked jar. He uses the wire to try to impale the treat, and when that doesn’t work, he withdraws the wire and does something with it. Watch what happens next. Amazing!
Download crow_080802.ram (0.1K)
I hope my poor turkey wasn’t that smart.
POLLENATRIX 