TIDBITS 02/19/06

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We encourage you to forward this email to friends and colleagues. ====================================== A Bird by Any Other Name ... Well ... in Latin the word is Aves which could mean birds, or ancestral spirits, or ghosts, or even angels. Regardless ... the bird is and was a potent symbol. And I'm not just talking peace ... like a dove with an olive branch in its beak ... though why that should signify peace mystifies me somewhat. I think it should mean the rain has stopped ... but that's me. Ladies and gennulmen ... this is Joe Smith from the National Weather Forecast. This morning a dove was seen flying overhead with an olive branch in its mouth. This means either the rains will end in the water drenched areas of the Amazon ... or the war will end in Iraq.

Shamans and prophets claim to be able to transform themselves into birds. This is the road to becoming a visionary. Yogis say that ecstatic flight is the first magical power to be attained by the practice of yoga. By a show of hands ... how many of you thought the first magical power was the ability to fold your legs like a pretzel and sit for hours on end staring and meditating ... trying to figure out how long you can stay like this before screaming out in agony. Becoming a bird is a better accomplishment yet ... allowing one to fly through the sky in ecstasy.

Boidie boidie in da sky ... why'd you do dat in my eye. I'm sure glad elephants can't fly. Another homage to the mighty bird which I thought I'd throw in gratis.

Chinese women--it is said--knew the secrets of flying before men did. I find this little tidbit fascinating. I can understand never having known how to fly. But the fact is ... I don't know any women who know how to fly either. What ... are they keeping this a secret?

Birds are considered angelic messengers ... givers of omens ... possessors of occult secrets ... and carriers of souls. This is an enormous burden for an animal to carry. But here's the interesting thing of it all. Of the birds mentioned in my researches ... I have come across the dove, the eagle, the phoenix, the hawk, the stork, the vulture, the owl, there's even a lustful dove, the magpie, and the nightingale. But nowhere ... not in any book ... not in any story ... not in any mythological reference ... has there ever been mention of the Toucan.

Of course ... in keeping with my ever wise decision-making practices ... I have decided to show you a Toucan. There is a sound reason for this ... a road fraught with irrefutable logic that led me to this decision ... and the reasoning is this. I saw a pretty image of the bird and I wanted to show it to you.

So there you have it. A Toucan ... a brooch in yellow gold, enameled in vivid colors ... with a tail scattered with diamonds at a value of

25 000 French francs.

For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits...may I direct you to my home page at

where you will scroll down the left side menu till you get to the area that says Current Tidbits ... and then click on it in order to view this Toucan extraordinaire.

And there ya have it. That's it for this week folks. Catch you all next week. Benjamin Mark

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