September 16, 2003

BIRD OF PREY

Fearful of a Magpie premiership, Melbourne Age reader Jeremy Hartley might
flee the country:

I'll NEVER support Collingwood. I'm a Geelong man but in this, I would like to see Brisbane, Swans then Port if necessary, win the flag. Unfortunately, I believe Collingwood will do it. I won't be coming back to Australia for some time after that.

Book that flight, Jeremy. The magpie omens are looming.

I stopped at a Shell petrol station outside Albury yesterday. A cashier stomped outside as I was refuelling. She was carrying a plate of meat, and wore an agitated expression.

Behind her, walking out of the store, came the source of her annoyance: a jaunty magpie. It bounced up on a window ledge and then to the top of an ice machine where the cashier placed its food. “He’s been in here three times today already,” another cashier told me when I went inside. Turns out the bird has been hectoring staff for nearly a decade. Does he have a name?

She smiled. ”We call him Daicos.”

Posted by Tim Blair at September 16, 2003 02:45 AM
Comments

I still remember snickering at a story in the college paper about "unexplained small thefts in the Quad" while looking at the Magpies strutting around on the grass.

Yeah. Unexplained.

Your tax dollars at work.

Posted by: mojo at September 16, 2003 at 07:58 AM

Well, Mr Tim, I'm a Power person myself (I can hear you hissing and spitting from here), but isn't it time you let your amazing tipping skills (like last year) off the leash?

The people demand to know next week's news today!

Posted by: Fork at September 16, 2003 at 08:57 AM

While we're on the subject of the 'Macedonian Marvel'. He has got to ge the worst commentator I have ever heard.

...on second thoughts SOS is worse.

How is is that these guys, who were such great players, have nothing even vaguely intelligent to say about the game?

Posted by: Alex Hidell at September 16, 2003 at 10:48 AM

Yesterday, as I walked through the park, a magpie swooped on me, pecking my head.

An omen?

No. Spring.

Pity the Collingwood supporter in springtime. Taunted every year by magpies at the height of the nesting season.

I didn't notice any ominous marauding lions in the park last year or the year before.

Posted by: ilibcc at September 16, 2003 at 11:58 AM

However, there *was* a power failure recently in Sydney.

(and in Adelaide, for that matter).

Posted by: LD at September 16, 2003 at 12:35 PM

So Tim, are you predicting another Lions loss?

Posted by: Random_Prose at September 16, 2003 at 01:03 PM