Althouse: "Bird-chasing guards rip palace painting with bamboo sticks."

August 9, 2009

"Bird-chasing guards rip palace painting with bamboo sticks."

"In their attempts to apprehend the flying fugitive, the guards ripped a hole in Fredric Westin's 1838 portrait of Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, who reigned as King Karl XIV of Sweden February 5, 1818 until his death on March 8, 1844."

24 comments:

chuck b. said...: *snort* *chortle*; 8/9/09, 4:41 PM
chuck b. said...: At least they didn't ding the marble ABBA statue!; 8/9/09, 4:43 PM
Cedarford said...: In the original Swedish article (ENG version) a snarky Brit "consoles" the Swedes in comment:

I had the misfortune of working as a security officer in London for a year a line of work I swiftly moved on from. I am delighted to hear the cognitive abilities of their Swedish counterparts are every bit as high as the mean average in the UK.; 8/9/09, 5:05 PM
Roman said...: It has to be those birds fault. If only they didn't fly away to avoid being smashed to oblivion by bamboo!

Where is PETA on this major disruption to the force?; 8/9/09, 5:25 PM
Cedarford said...: chuck b. said...
At least they didn't ding the marble ABBA statue!

The funny thing, I remind the boomers, is that a small pack of elitist music critics pronounced various popular artists and bands beneath their contempt....ABBA, the BeeGees, ELO, Rod Stewart, Elton John, etc.

But guess what? The masses and next Gens never got the message...

In fact, graying hipsters telling 20-somethings how excretable ABBA or Pat Benatar or ELO was just drives them a bit further to load those tunes up on their iPODs.

ABBAs tunes, great Broadway material to build on - and a fine cast of characters, writing and set design just made "Momma Mia" the best money-making comedy movie ever made.

Streep and Seyfried shine, and Pierce Brosnan sings so bad he is a great comedic offset (producers say it was intentional).; 8/9/09, 5:29 PM
Bissage said...: Ridiculous!

And to think the Swedes want to be in charge of America’s health care delivery system.

Can't they do ANYTHING right?

Ha!, I say.

Ha!

Ha!!

Ha!!!; 8/9/09, 6:04 PM
Meade said...: Ha!!!!; 8/9/09, 6:26 PM
Ralph L said...: In the NBC series "Kings", two numbskull palace guards have frequent scenes for comic relief. They used explosives to get pigeons out of a palace niche.; 8/9/09, 6:35 PM
rhhardin said...: One captures an indoor bird by not allowing it to rest. Wherever it lands, poke it gently to get it to fly again.

Flying at low speed is exhausting owing to astronomically high induced drag. No bird can do it for long. Five minutes at the longest.

When he's exhausted, just pick him up and carry him outside.

Some pansies use a towel for final capture.

(Induced drag: the bird supports his weight by throwing air downwards. If he's not moving forward fast, he has to throw a little air very fast instead of a lot of air slowly. The energy needed to do this goes as the square of how fast he throws the air, and so is hugely greater at low forward speeds.); 8/9/09, 7:04 PM
ricpic said...: I'll bet that's the first time anyone noticed or gave a thought to that picture in a hundred and fifty years.; 8/9/09, 7:08 PM
ricpic said...: I poked my indoor bird gently till it flew out one of the windows I had opened wide in my living room. Do I get a gold star?; 8/9/09, 7:15 PM
Kirby Olson said...: Birdbrains.; 8/9/09, 7:41 PM
Crimso said...: Somewhere Napoleon is laughing.; 8/9/09, 8:32 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Thanks for the getting-the-bird-out-of-the-house advice, rh. Would that also work for bats?; 8/9/09, 8:33 PM
Cedarford said...: Althouse - Try opening doors and windows 1st before trying to chase birds and bats around your belfry.

Keep in mind a bat in the air can turn on a dime, fly right into you and bite and scratch in panic.

A bad thing.

And you may kill a bird or bat by stressing it so much.

Patience. Windows and doors open as escape routes and the passing of time generally sees them let their own way out. Works great for flying squirrels as well (twice coming down our chimney) and for skunks (wife's since abandoned habit of leaving the backdoor open so the cat would smell the fresh catfood and come in for the night).

Chasing skunks around the house until they are exhausted is not recommended either. You do one thing - think of the skunk inside as the new temporary Boss of the home, and be grateful they leave on their own sweet time. The cats don't mess with them, we should be as smart as a cat.

(This also factors in the dog vs. cat intelligence debate. Dogs may be overall smarter, far more loyal and friendly ...but dogs show considerable intelligence holes. What skunk sprayings, porcupines quills in their faces, habit of eating piles of fresh turds of any other animal life, and rolling in long dead putred rotting things reveals is there is an inner special ed candidate in any canine.); 8/9/09, 9:08 PM
Ann Althouse said...: @Cedarford When I've tried opening windows for a bat, I've observed it continuing endlessly to fly figure-8s in the room.; 8/9/09, 10:21 PM
Penny said...: If we put rh in charge of bat training, they will be doing triple salchows in no time.; 8/9/09, 10:38 PM
Penny said...: By the way, what's with the bamboo sticks?; 8/9/09, 10:40 PM
Bissage said...: When I've tried opening windows for a bat, I've observed it continuing endlessly to fly figure-8s in the room.

Did you turn off the lights and sit down, remain still or leave the room?

It doesn’t hurt to turn off the stereo or TV, either.

Echolocation is a hell of a sonar.

Die Fledermausly Yours,

Bissage; 8/10/09, 6:52 AM
Kirk Parker said...: Norwegians did this!; 8/10/09, 10:19 AM
Kirk Parker said...: Althouse,

For your bat problems, I have just one word: squash rackets. (Ok, that's 2 words, but highly effective.); 8/10/09, 10:20 AM
Original Mike said...: For your bat problems, I have just one word: squash rackets.

I have a better word: fishing net.; 8/10/09, 10:46 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Most important, re bats, is getting the house bat-proofed, which I did successfully.

However, my plan for bats in the house, now, based on talking to the bat man, is to thwack it with a broom, then, when it's stunned and on the floor, pick it up with a work glove thick enough to prevent bat teeth from getting through. Then take it outside and let it go.; 8/10/09, 2:50 PM
Original Mike said...: Ann, scoop it up with a fishing net and give it a twirl. This keeps it trapped and at arms length. When you get outside, twirl it in the opposite direction the same number of times, and it is free to leave.

A speak from experience, though I scooped it out of the air, rather than off the floor.

Meade has a fishing net, right?; 8/10/09, 3:54 PM