Bird Cage Necklace, Foxy-Man and More Buddha Please!

Last Friday night, I went out with the staff of my school to a restaurant.  The restaurant was called "Flippin' Pancakes."  They had good food, good service and a nice atmosphere.  They did decorate the headboard lining every room with different china plates, and that looked stupid.

I had a good time conversing with other faculty, teachers and even a student teacher about my age, though she is a cute ozzie girl, rather than a forgotten literature character/folklore from Spain.

The highlight of the evening though, was the woman with the birdcage necklace.  I understand that fashion now decides people, but this necklace... I couldn't help but look at it to try to convince myself it was something else.

(What I mean by fashion deciding people is that there is, in the world of fashion the "in" and the "out."  I needed a new pair of black dress shoes.  I was convinced that the "in" shoes are a bit pointy at the end.  Very sleek, very European.  Nothing really like what you would find in America.  I did nothing to choose what fashion I would wear, the fashion chose me.  How pathetic I am.)

This fashion now is wear long looping chains with gaudy trinkets wrapped up at the end, resting somewhere near the navel.  Most of these necklaces look like a hoola-hoop of collectibles from Ariel's secret stash of junk.  This necklace was, unlike most jewelry of the current "fashion," very concise.

It was a long silver, rather plain chain, that looped down, not quite to the bellybutton of the lovely lady who wore it.  Where the chain connected, there was a good 6 inches of extra line hanging off, as if to say, "I'm a necklace that works with extra tall girls."

Attached at the bottom of this necklace was a birdcage the size of those old Silly-Putty eggs.  Inside the birdcage looked to be the imitation of a parrot.

Now, I haven't been this way long, but thanks to the influence of my good friend Cyrus Wetherbee, I am a bit opposed to the idea of caging birds.  A bird, by its design, evolution, whatever have you, exists to be in the air (obviously this is not the case with things like the Kiwi, the Ostrich or the dodo (rest in piece) but you can cage those birds, as long as you treat them well!)  No one thinks about this idea... at least it doesn't seem to me that people think about this idea, because how could one reason out the justification of clipping and or caging a bird?  I'm not planning on joining PETA, because well, that's not my thing.  But I daresay it will make it much more difficult for you and I to be friends if you can't at least see the selfishness of taking flight away from a bird so you can have a companion, or a pretty sight.  Flying birds are about as free as you can get.  And take that away, well, it's like "putting a hamster in a balloon and floating it in the air, expecting it to be quite comfortable, happy and satisfied."

The point being, when I looked at this girl with the birdcage necklace, the only thing I could hear her saying was, "I'm all about caging creatures in their unnatural environment..." or something like that.  It was very odd.  Usually I am able to dismiss these things, or people, but these thoughts of wearing a necklace that was so blatantly a symbol of something unnatural and... lonely.  Well it got to me.

The next day I saw a fine Australian film called "Face-to-Face" about reconciliation and forgiveness.  It was a good message and good acting.  Pretty swell cinematography.  I was quite happy with it overall.

Then a book store.

A new looking bookstore.  Like a freshly inflated rubber raft.  It didn't smell new though.  It didn't smell at all now that I think about it, which is a shame.  I bought a basic Australian bird spotting book (what am I turning into?  I will at least look at the pictures.) and Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote.  While carousing though, I noticed a long line of books, all sharing the same row.  It began from the end of the aisle towards the back with these different sections: Spiritual, Science, Military, History, Biographies, Non-Fiction.

I am convinced that bookstores are a sort of equalizer.  Yes, just for your money, but that is better than a lot of people anyway.  I feel like I would be hard pressed to find a topic/subject/book that when you asked for it in a bookstore you would be run out, or spit on.  Maybe a book that encouraged the mistreatment and caging of birds.

Anyway, I am sure you are thinking of lots of books about supporting Nazi's and really crude things that would get weird looks in a book store... why are you thinking about these things?  Stop it.

My two favorite titles from the bookstore: One Buddha is not Enough and The Origin of Species
Both, two books down from one another, both making lots of claims about what's what.  This is making me think of the Vegan and Vegetarian I met a few weeks ago.  They are nice people.

I'm considering changing this blog to Better or Worse than Wearing a Bird Cage Necklace...
but, instead I will just say that bird cage necklaces are Worse than Nicki Minaj. Also, at least there is only one Nicki Minaj.  I fear there are dozens of these necklaces.

I'm off to a camp for my year ten students tomorrow, so enjoy a few days without feeling obligated to read this crap.

Cheers,
Melmoth

P.S. I had to come up with a super-hero to dress up as for one of the nights.  I will be going as Foxy-Man with a fur neck covering thing.  My super power is extreme political push for the right to hunt animals for their fur.  Sub-powers include seduction, bribery and arson.