Nate's World of Birds

Passion?

What does it mean? I remember a recent Bill Gates interview where he spoke of his childhood.. While other kids dreamed of being cowboys and firemen… Gates obsessed over computer software. You can see that his passion turned into something that became an incredibly lucrative career. Hey… I’m working on my second million…. I gave up on the first!

I think about what I’m passionate about.. Even though the blog is about game shows, TV and Movies.. I think its time that we change the format of this blog to a topic that means a lot to me.

Birds…. I love them. Aside from women, they are the most majestic of God’s creatures and with wings that enable them to fly, they are the envy of all of us landlocked humans who must subscribe to the laws of gravity.

And what kind of a horrible anti-bird society do I live in? I belong to an otherwise fantastic religion, but it just irks me that chickens and chicken soup are a crucial part of each Sabbath and holiday dinner… I’m proud to be an American, but it shames me when we make horrible jokes about poor terrified turkeys whose deaths will lead to a bunch of overfilled tummies on Thanksgiving Night. This is absolutely horrible.. And worst of all.. If you want to be efficient… the saying is… “kill 2 birds with one stone!” Can’t we use a better statement folks? This just breaks my heart. I mean we have a saying “Don’t throw stones if you live in a glass house“.. Of course not.. you don’t want to break the glass! But why is it ok to kill 2 sweet innocent birds with a stone? How shameful!

Today, in honor of Sunday’s Mets - Cardinals 2007 Baseball Season Opener… the first Nate’s World of Birds column is about The Cardinal. . Even though the baseball team named for that bird that beat my beloved Mets in the playoffs last year.

According to the folks at Wikipedia… The Cardinals or Cardinalidae are a family of passerine birds living in North and South America. These are robust, seed-eating birds, with strong bills. They are typically associated with open woodland. The sexes usually have distinctive appearances; the family is named for the red plumage (like that of a Catholic cardinal's vestments) of males of the type species, the Northern Cardinal.

Cardinals mate in early spring. Their nests are loosely woven in tall bushes such as honeysuckle and rose. Their diet includes seeds and small berries. In fact, the berry of the holly bush, which is rich in beta carotene and lycopenes, is responsible for the brilliant coloring of the male specimen.


OK enough of this silliness.. Happy April Fool’s Day!!