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Martin, who has done some lovely flights of pigeon reporting himself, just let me know that according to Gothamist, it's National Pigeon Day today, and here's the pigeon post from those eagle-eyed swifts at City Room. I don't want to hear any boring cliches about winged rodents; these are our birds, and we're all living together trying to peck out a living in this pitiless metropolis, so let's show our fellow citizens a little compassion. And appreciation: They've got a beauty and gumption all their own. (John Tierney knows so, too.) Cast not the first stone at a beaked neighbor, lest you be shat on in return!
So, to paraphrase Pogo's Churchy LaFemme, Friday the 13th comes on a bird's day this year.
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A few clips
- Report: Learning to read with comic books edited by Françoise Mouly (for Print)
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- Review: Charles Addams: A Cartoonist's Life by Linda H. Davis (for Newsday)
- Review: The King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Review: Does The New Republic's recent redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Proposal: A more attractive MetroCard (for A Brief Message)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Report: Eustace Tilley spruces up for The New Yorker's website redesign (for Print)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands (for Print)
- Review: books about various New Yorker cartoonists by Liza Donnelly and Iain Topliss (for Newsday)
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- Review: The Complete New Yorker (for Print)
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Edited by Martin Schneider, designed by Pretty, and illustrated by Inkleaf. Additional drawings by Carolita Johnson. Kissable pencil girl by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
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Comments
Pigeon day? What next ? Cockroach day? I like drawing them because they're yucky and filthy and aggressive and therefore amusing and observable in a way. But I don't like 'em.
I know, isn't it strange? In theory, all the time you've spent looking intently at them so you could create those intimate and lovely portraits might have increased your appreciation for these much-abused native New Yorkers, instead of furthering your desire to stay as far away from them as possible. But I know, I'm in the minority here. I don't really expect to convince anyone, but I'll keep tooting my little kazoo.
Meanwhile, in the spirit of keeping pigeons in the abstract, here's a recording of a fine pigeon poem from the new issue of Taddle Creek.