In return for a warm home and a ready supply of food the bird would faithfully accompany you wherever you go and could be trained to remove lice from your hair, wax from your ears, feed you crisps in the pub and not to shit down your back among other things. Your level of vogue would be dictated by both the skills of your bird and it's rarity. Like mobile phones smaller birds would probably be more fashionable. I realise that this is somewhat half-baked already in that pirates are often represented as having parrots on their shoulders, but that is more of a pet/master relationship and their parrots rarely carried out any useful activities.-- stupop, Nov 06 2001 Training birds http://www.geocitie...artland/Acres/9154/ [stupop, Nov 06 2001] Symbiotic relationships http://www.necsi.or...tion_symbiosis.html [stupop, Nov 06 2001] I want an owl called Hedwig.-- lewisgirl, Nov 06 2001 Hmmm, sounds like an insinuation that this is a WTCTTISITMWIBNIIWR. I had actually completely forgotten that this happens in Harry Potter when I posted it, honest.-- stupop, Nov 06 2001 I don't have lice, I don't want a bird sticking its beak in my ear, and I'm perfectly able to eat crisps myself. I don't mind the idea of an animal servant, but need better uses.-- pottedstu, Nov 06 2001 How about if it could tattoo the side of your face? Any takers?-- stupop, Nov 06 2001 no insinuation intended, stupop; what does that very long acronym stand for?Ah, I see, thanks angel. But the movie isn't out yet... so I'm not calling MFD but I would note WICTTIRITBWIBNIIWR.-- lewisgirl, Nov 06 2001 [lg]: Look in 'help'.-- angel, Nov 06 2001 I thought this was going to be about effortless dieting, with the help of Mrs. Tapeworm. Which wouldn't be so bad, really, if her ass end wouldn't come out of yours from time to time.-- Guncrazy, Nov 06 2001 «it can put a deposit on a Mercedes-Benz» Sounds more like a banking relationship to me.-- cp, Nov 06 2001 oye, what you saying bliss -
I had a budgy who drank my wine but I suppose that was a parasitic relationship & he left my ears alone thank the lord.-- po, Nov 06 2001 I had a symbiotic(ish) relationship with a spider that lived in my spare room once. He/She (who can tell?) kept the bugs down and I let it have a free run of the house. Sadly it got fat and slow (no snidey comments please) so it was sucked up the hoover along with the moths that were making free with my curtains.-- DrBob, Nov 06 2001 lg - stupop reckons that smaller birds are more fashionable, so surely the tiny owl that Ron gets in one of the later books would be better, would it not? Personally I think JK Rowling has an infatuation with names beginning with the letter H (Harry, Hermione, Hagrid, Hedwig)-- CoolerKing, Nov 06 2001 I once spent a pleasant three minutes having a hummingbird extirpate a cloud of midges around my head. Extending the notion: owls to eliminate skunks, cormorants to collect bait, flycatchers (many of them) to knock off mosquitoes, pelicans to furnish beer, etc.-- hagfish, Nov 07 2001 [blissmiss] You must not enjoy spider milk as much as I.
On to a discussion of easily recognizable skulls.-- reensure, Nov 08 2001 If I can get a pelican trained to crap down the back of anyone who lets a cellphone ring more than once, I'm all for it.
<Once had a pelican crap on the hood of a car I was driving across a bridge. A gallon of fishy smelling stuff that instantly infiltrated the air vents, rendering the car uninhabitable. Unfortunately, I couldn't de-habit it...A less than pleasant experience.>-- StarChaser, Nov 11 2001 [CoolerKing], I've only read the first and second (and I saw the movie last night) but I shall bear your comment in mind when I get to Ron's little owl. (??) I'm going to allow myself to buy #3 if I've reviewed 10 research papers by the end of Wednesday. <aside>All you women out there... Alan Rickman is devastatingly sexy in the Harry Potter movie. Worth the entrance fee for him alone.</aside>-- lewisgirl, Nov 12 2001 oh, if only, UB."...with a spoon..."-- lewisgirl, Nov 12 2001 my heart will go on, it will, Jack.-- lewisgirl, Nov 12 2001 random, halfbakery