A Sanctuary for Flightless Birds
Q: what does a flightless bird have to do with a divine garden?
A: everything.  a flightless bird is just as grounded in the earth as your every day, garden variety vegetable.

there's something about a bird that can't fly that seems to make them the cutest, i think.  sorta like when you're at the christmas tree lot, and all that's sitting there in its forlorn corner is the runt of the lot, the little 2 foot sucker who's got 5 branches and a few dozen needles.  you can't help but look at the little guy and go, 'aww, ain't it cute!?'.  or you can make like a me sometimes and squeal, 'kawaii!'

so here we make a home for a few of them.
i'll even let them eat from some of the specified plots of the garden.


wark!
meet my chocobo, eljay, in tribute to my frosh chem teacher from back in the days.  i wish i could say that i adopted him through official channels, from some adopt-a-chocobo site, but i didn't.  in fact, if you want to know the ugly truth, i kidnapped him from someone's site.  sorry, but i really didn't feel like going through the red tape of actually registering it with the adoption agencies, especially since it was down at the time.  anyways, he's mine now, and that's the way it's going to be.  if the adopt-a-chocobo people wanna reclaim poor eljay, lemme know and we'll ask the bird what he wants, since i'm sure that the bureaucrats will only want what's right for little eljay, and we'll let him decide.
i don't know if purple chocobos actually exist, but whether it does or not, it doesn't fly.  not even gold ones fly.

emus aren't too popular, as birds go, but they are the second largest bird in the world.  as some interesting trivia, here's a little story about them:
On November 2, 1932 a battery of Royal Australian Artillery engaged the innocent critters with machine gun fire.  They resorted to guerilla tactics and split into small bands.  Next, ambushes were tried, driving them toward the guns.  When at point blank range the men opened fire and mowed down a dozen before their guns jammed.
cute, ne?  they're cousins of the more famous ostrich, members of the ratite family, and native to Australia.


kiwi!  golly, it's cute.  they're just little suckers, native to new zealand.  smallest cousin of the emus and ostrichs, members of the ratite family.  the kiwi is the most ancient bird, having evolved over 30 million years ago.  for more kiwi fun facts, visit the kiwi recovery programme.  you can get a kiwi screensaver and everything.  hear a kiwi talk!

hmm, alright, i'm not really a big eva fan, but i thought that pen-pen qualified as a flightless bird, being a penguin and all.  he lives in a refrigerator in katsuragi misato's apartment, and he seems to exhibit scorn and/or disdain for shinji.  obviously, this is a mark of intelligence, and puts him above quite a few of the other characters.  i don't really respect shinji - is this obvious? 'i do have to be a pilot, i don't have to be a pilot.  i do have to be a pilot, i don't have to be a pilot.... *tortured choking scream of inner turmoil*...'

huzzah for bloom county and opus!  opus is a much better penguin than pen-pen, i think.  he's cuter, for one.  i was sorry to see bloom county go.  i think i recall one story about opus who was the penguin who wished for wings one christmas.  that was such a sad story.  i don't think i've ever actually read it, though.  or was it animated?  whatever.  opus is still a cute penguin who can't fly.  and he's got cute friends.   well, here in the gardens i'd let him defy a few laws of gravity if he wanted to, and then he could go joyflying all he wanted.   and he has such impeccable taste in accessories, too.

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got any more flightless birds to share with the world?  mail me!

last updated 5.5.99