Sir Tristan's imminent reunion with his beloved is not the only reason to anticipate the arrival of the new delgation from the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy. Another member of the delegation is causing some excitement: an owl. The owl will be our very first-non penguin bird.
I'm certainly very excited, because I've always really liked owls, and this owl is a snowy owl, which is totally my favourite kind of owl. But this blog isn't about me. It's much more interesting to note the way the penguins are reacting, because it's quite characteristic of them.
We have two penguins with us at the moment, and they could not be more different if they tried, I kid thee not. Tibby is a baby emperor penguin, and he's an absolute darling. Very bright, very inquisitive, earnest... clearly the little guy has a big future ahead of him in the Wild Republic. He's a real pleasure to have around. Plouie, though, is kind of on another planet, in more ways than one. Don't get me wrong, I adore Plouie. But he's... somewhat challenging, and somewhat challenged. His IQ is in negative digits and he's totally crazy. We've asked Tibby whether all Adelie penguins are like this, but he doesn't know any others either.
Tibby could not be more excited about the arrival of our owl. For one thing, he's really looking forward to having another native speaker of Birdic around. It's not that he minds speaking Common Mammalian - he's totally fluent - but it's always nice to have someone to speak your native language with. (Plouie doesn't really count. Sure, he's a native speaker of Birdic, but conversations with him are not exactly inspiring, at least not in the usual sense of the word.) Also, Tibby has never met a bird who wasn't a penguin before, and he's looking forward to learning what they're like; he's even spent the last week or so making lists of questions to ask. He's particularly excited that it's an owl. Imagine a human child who has just been told that Santa is going to be his new roommate and you'll have an idea of how excited Tibby is.
Plouie has never met a bird who wasn't a penguin either. The difference between him and Tibby is that Plouie actually cannot imagine a non-penguin bird: his feeble little brain just cannot stretch that far. For him, a penguin is the prototypical bird. Read him a story with birds in it and Plouie will visualise penguins, even if they're flying. This has had hilarious if disastrous consequences, in that Plouie sort of thinks he ought to be able to fly too, since the birds in books do it and of course they're penguins. Of course he can't fly, but you have to admire his persistence, because it doesn't stop him from trying. He flies sort of like a cannonball: he launches himself into the air and then comes right back down. We suspect the head injuries exacerbate all his problems.
It's always hard to understand what Plouie is talking about, so we can't be totally sure what he's thinking about the new owl, but the little we do understand creates a picture of characteristic confusion: he seems to be envisioning a large, white, nocturnal, flying penguin. We have absolutely no idea what will happen when Plouie actually meets the owl. It will probably explode his brain, figuratively speaking - this happens to him remarkably often anyway - but a shock of this size is bound to have other consequences we can't even fathom just yet.
Just so we're totally clear about these things: no, I did not specifically request an owl just to see how Plouie would react to it. Really. Don't look at me like that.
I'm certainly very excited, because I've always really liked owls, and this owl is a snowy owl, which is totally my favourite kind of owl. But this blog isn't about me. It's much more interesting to note the way the penguins are reacting, because it's quite characteristic of them.
We have two penguins with us at the moment, and they could not be more different if they tried, I kid thee not. Tibby is a baby emperor penguin, and he's an absolute darling. Very bright, very inquisitive, earnest... clearly the little guy has a big future ahead of him in the Wild Republic. He's a real pleasure to have around. Plouie, though, is kind of on another planet, in more ways than one. Don't get me wrong, I adore Plouie. But he's... somewhat challenging, and somewhat challenged. His IQ is in negative digits and he's totally crazy. We've asked Tibby whether all Adelie penguins are like this, but he doesn't know any others either.
Tibby could not be more excited about the arrival of our owl. For one thing, he's really looking forward to having another native speaker of Birdic around. It's not that he minds speaking Common Mammalian - he's totally fluent - but it's always nice to have someone to speak your native language with. (Plouie doesn't really count. Sure, he's a native speaker of Birdic, but conversations with him are not exactly inspiring, at least not in the usual sense of the word.) Also, Tibby has never met a bird who wasn't a penguin before, and he's looking forward to learning what they're like; he's even spent the last week or so making lists of questions to ask. He's particularly excited that it's an owl. Imagine a human child who has just been told that Santa is going to be his new roommate and you'll have an idea of how excited Tibby is.
Plouie has never met a bird who wasn't a penguin either. The difference between him and Tibby is that Plouie actually cannot imagine a non-penguin bird: his feeble little brain just cannot stretch that far. For him, a penguin is the prototypical bird. Read him a story with birds in it and Plouie will visualise penguins, even if they're flying. This has had hilarious if disastrous consequences, in that Plouie sort of thinks he ought to be able to fly too, since the birds in books do it and of course they're penguins. Of course he can't fly, but you have to admire his persistence, because it doesn't stop him from trying. He flies sort of like a cannonball: he launches himself into the air and then comes right back down. We suspect the head injuries exacerbate all his problems.
It's always hard to understand what Plouie is talking about, so we can't be totally sure what he's thinking about the new owl, but the little we do understand creates a picture of characteristic confusion: he seems to be envisioning a large, white, nocturnal, flying penguin. We have absolutely no idea what will happen when Plouie actually meets the owl. It will probably explode his brain, figuratively speaking - this happens to him remarkably often anyway - but a shock of this size is bound to have other consequences we can't even fathom just yet.
Just so we're totally clear about these things: no, I did not specifically request an owl just to see how Plouie would react to it. Really. Don't look at me like that.
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