Is nothing sacred any more?
This Doug’s World post was pre-uploaded because Doug is traveling today. Live coverage of the day-to-day tedium of Doug’s life will resume tomorrow from a location in the Southwestern United States.
Has any tourist ever visited Venice without feeding the pigeons? None that I know. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if you visited Venice and didn’t buy a bag of corn seed at Piazza San Marco and use it to lure pigeons into dancing on you hands and arms and shoulders and head, then you were just pretending to visit Venice.
It’s, like, the thing you do there. The gondolas, folks can take them or leave them. We left them; maybe next time. But feeding the pigeons, that’s something so fun that we came back multiple days in a row to do it again. Those cute wrinkled little feet grasping your wrist; the way they flutter and flap right into each other, fighting over the grains of corn; the sharp little beaks moving so fast and yet never quite stabbing you. Now that’s fun!
But the do-goodniks of Venice have put an end to all of that. As of last week, feeding the pigeons of Venice has been banned because of the “damage” all the pigeons do to “monuments” in the area. Gimme a break.
BREAKING NEWS: President Bush, upon learning of the threat that pigeons represent to monuments, has asked the Department of Homeland Security to immediately position round-the-clock snipers on the Statue of Liberty. Any terrorists spotted luring destructive pigeons to the area will be terminated with extreme prejudice. The price of freedom is constant vigilance, you know.
This entry was posted on Monday, May 5th, 2008 at 5:34 pm. You can subscribe to comments on this post through its RSS feed.
on May 6, 2008 at 12:47 am AUNT MARSHA wrote:
Way back…in the LA days, I once ate pigeon in some swanky restaurant on Wilshire Blvd. Quite tasty it was.
Sadly, the desire to poo poo on the heads of statues has remained a problem for me, one that I vehemently strive to contain, though not always successfully.
on May 6, 2008 at 12:52 am AUNT MARSHA wrote:
Granny said you’re in Arizona or somewhere??
Big Cinco de Mayo doings? Will you be there for your bday or home?
on May 6, 2008 at 8:21 am Doug wrote:
Business trip, although we did have a nice Cinco de Mayo dinner last night. Not really the traditional Mexican feast: fancy greens and sea bass, very tasty and healthy too.
I’ll try to get some pictures today. This place (resort in Phoenix area) is pretty nice.
on May 6, 2008 at 9:31 am Scott B wrote:
I am not sure I want to admit in public that I visit such sites, but I thought this picture was too cool to pass up.
http://www.tmz.com/2008/05/06/finally-something-other-than-a-celeb-blows/
They say its unphotoshoped. I know how you enjoy playing with exposures and such. I wonder if this is a merged pictures…. Really an amazing shot IMHO.
on May 7, 2008 at 7:35 am Doug wrote:
Hey Scott, when you said you’re not sure you want to admit in public … I was expecting something a little different, actually.
I can’t find anybody else who has that photo, or any photo of lightning and that particular volcano, and that makes me pretty skeptical. A shot like that, if it were real, would be getting tons of attention right now, with all the press covering the Chaiten volcano worldwide, but the photo exists on only that one page on that one site as far as I can tell. The Chaiten volcano has been dormant for 9000 years, so the only time that photo could have been taken was in the last few days when there have probably been many cameras trained on it at all times, and yet nobody else has even mentioned lightning, let alone captured a picture of it.
on May 7, 2008 at 8:55 am Gray wrote:
Hug Madog, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
on May 7, 2008 at 4:32 pm Doug wrote:
Thanks, Gray!
We need to get those NOOOXML boys to give you a nickname too.
on May 24, 2008 at 11:05 am OK, so I was wrong | Doug’s World wrote:
[…] ScottB recently found a photo of lighting and the Chaiten volcano erruption, and I concluded it was probably a fake because no reputable publications had used the photo. […]