Avast ye maties. Git yer tuchises on board. (Jewish pirates for them
wot needs to know.) Yo ho ho and a bottle of schnapps. But enough of
this. Down to serious stuff… if at all possible now. Pirates were a
colorful group they were they were. And with all sorts of interesting
dichotomies.
Take the parrot for instance. Take Long John Silver for instance.
You know… the squinty-eyed dude from Treasure Island. Did he have a
parrot on his shoulder… strutting along with the same aplomb as
Baretta did with his bird? But here’s the question to ponder. It’s a
nice sunny day. Yer in yer cabin atop the briny seas. Parrot just
had his breakfast. Some seeds. A cracker for sure. Polly always ate
crackers dontcha know. They waves are high. The ship is tossing.
Polly’s stomach ain’t feelin’ too good. His bowels are in an
uproar… you should pardon the upcoming vision. All of a sudden
daintiness and etiquette are tossed to the winds. And the rest is
tossed on Long John’s shoulder… or vest… or… should Polly have
taken it into her thinking to use this moment to sit on Silver’s
head… Anyway… you get the picture.
All these pirates… all these parrots… how did they handle this
situation? Still… one has to assume certain great compensations. If
you’re the head pirate on a ship of blood-thirsty buccaneers… who
can you talk to? Who can you trust. Why… Polly of course. And when
you land on that deserted island… and you need someone to scout
ahead to ensure there are no cannibals around the next rock ready to
hollow out your gizzards and have you for lunch… who do you send.
Yup… you got it. Polly.
The parrot and the pirate… they were one. A union made in Neptune’s
depths… blessed by Poseidon himself. Do you Captain Kidd and
Captain Blackbeard and Captain Rackam and Captain Spriggs … do you
take this parrot to be your lawful…
So… folks… ya wanna see a Parrot which you can wear on your lapel
as close to the shoulder as possible without being gauche. One word
of caution. Don’t feed it whilst traveling the high seas. Platinum
and gold dontcha know. Cabochon emeralds and rubies and diamonds.
Value… about 60,000 French francs in 1998.
For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits…may I
direct you to my home page at www.tyler-adam.com 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 an image of
a multi-colored parrot brooch.
And there ya have it.
That’s it for this week folks.
Catch you all next week.
Benjamin Mark