Shots In The Dark: He Will Squawk No More

Monday, September 10, 2007

He Will Squawk No More

Alex, the talking Harvard parrot, is dead.

(Now there's a sentence I never thought I'd write.)

Even up through last week, Alex was working with Dr. Pepperberg on compound words and hard-to-pronounce words. As she put him into his cage for the night last Thursday, Alex looked at her and said: “You be good, see you tomorrow. I love you.”

We loved you too, Alex.

¶ 6:04 PM

Comments:

Now THAT's what I call primo gossip.

# posted by Standing Eagle : September 10, 2007 7:17 PM

Hey Rich, why haven't you put up this piece from today's Crimson:

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=519465

# posted by Anonymous : September 10, 2007 8:34 PM

Because he was too busy giving us the bird. (Sorry, couldn't help myself.)

eayny

# posted by Anonymous : September 10, 2007 8:39 PM

Amazing. This parrot must be an ancestor of the one owned by Roman poet Ovid's girlfriend Corinna. Ovid, Amores 2.6.47-8, records the dying bird's last words:

nec tamen ignavo stupuerunt verba palato;
clamavit moriens lingua "Corinna, vale!"

Your words did not fall silent, your palate stop working;
even in death your tongue called out "Goodbye, Corinna!"

# posted by Richard thomas : September 10, 2007 9:52 PM

This changes the way I'll think about "The Waltons" forever.

# posted by Anonymous : September 11, 2007 8:23 AM

Descendent I meant. That's a new one, 8:23.

# posted by RT : September 11, 2007 9:19 AM

Also must be a relative of the parrot who, in the 7th century Sanskrit Nagananda, welcomes visitors to the sacred grove by reciting verses of the Samaveda. And probably also related to the one the explorer Alexander von Humboldt came across in a cage in a South American village. The bird had been captured from a rival tribe that was then wiped out. It was the last speaker of their language.

# posted by Anonymous : September 11, 2007 9:27 AM

8:23 here--hey, RT, it could be worse--I know an Austin Powers. Life's tough.

# posted by Anonymous : September 11, 2007 1:15 PM

True, 8:23, and my mother, not a D. H. Lawrence reader, almost called my brother John. Btw, do you actually think about the Waltons?

# posted by RT : September 11, 2007 2:10 PM

Only when I think of you, RT.

# posted by Anonymous : September 12, 2007 10:31 AM

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