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Saturday, January 18, 2014

Birds

The structure of a play is always the story of how the birds came home to roost.
~ Arthur Miller
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It's interesting how we contextualize things in terms of birds, isn't it?

Early bird.
Bird's eye view.
Bird's of a feather.
Wing span.
Bird brain.
Free as a bird.
Give someone the bird.

I wonder why we do that.  Maybe because birds are common points of reference?  Maybe we hold birds in higher regard since they can fly (and walk and some can also swim)?  It's hard to say.

We anthropomorphize birds in lots of ways, too.  Wise old owl is but one example.

But when the woman said she just "Shat the equivalent of our Thanksgiving turkey," well...  I guess she wasn't anthropomorphizing.  Maybe she was anthropoomorphizing.