"Walk the plank", 1763 (UNCLASSIFIED)

[George Thompson]

Not if it is a certified service bird.

An article in the New Yorker several years ago on service animals other than
dogs, and the difficulty people find in getting them recognized as essential
companions, included the story of a very large man with a violent temper who
kept a parrot as a service animal.  The parrot rode upon his shoulder and
when it sensed that the man was feeling the need to disassemble someone, it
would mutter in his ear "just chill" or something similar until the crisis
had passed.

GAT.

On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 5:30 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:

> Isn't a challenge bringing a parrot to the library?
> DanG
>
>
>
> On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 5:26 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Subject:      Re: "Walk the plank", 1763 (UNCLASSIFIED)
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > At 10/11/2011 11:15 AM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:
> >> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >> > Subject:      Re: "Walk the plank", 1763
> >> >
> >>------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>------
> >> > -
> >> >
> >> > Pirate scholars maintain that there is no evidence that "walking the
> >> > plank" was a popular diversion . . .
> >> >
> >> >
> >>
> >>"Pirate scholars" -- this brings to mind the image of a peg-legged,
> >>eye-patched, parrot-bearing researcher walking to reference desk asking
> >>"Arrh, where be the special collections, matey??"
> >
> > I see a peg-legged, eye-patched parrot, parrots being especially
> > intelligent and talking birds.
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ.
Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org