Does anyone else get irritated when a topic is introduced - and Sarah Montague and Justin Thingummy on the Today programme are serial offenders - with this phrase? Whatever we might have thought, something along the lines of the tide goes out when Neptune pulls out the plug, we’re going to be shown to be wrong.
Isn’t this an extraordinarily dismissive way to treat your listener? Effectively we’re being told that we are stupid but fortunately for us our dimwitted little brains are about to learn something, courtesy of the all-knowing BBC.
As someone who tries very hard to know nothing. I’m good at it aren’t I?
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'Ere! Small brown bird. We of the plumage must stick together.
I know that small birds use up a lot of energy just flying - smaller wings than Raptors etc. need to flap them a lot more - and consequently need to eat frequently.
I’m just doing bacon, egg and black-pudding… Shall I do an extra plate, just in case you’re peckish.
I agree, Marjorie – it would be far better if they started “We might think” or “We may have thought” rather than “You may think”, on the whole and after having thought for a minute about it.
The chances are that they don’t know whatever it is, either, because I don’t believe they know (or remember) everything in their programme.
Just as all 'Awks and other raptors have to eat so’s we keep looking in our prime. So small birds have to eat so they stay large enough to see (and keep out of the way of).
It’s mostly the sidding Sparrowhawks who eat small birds … and the bluddy cats.
If you’re a red kite and you want to eat a small bird you’ll have to wait for it to die and then rot a bit so you can break into it, with those weak feet and beak, Useders. Carrion is just so much easier than live prey.
S’just a rumour, Fishy. They’re not as weak as you might think. I’ve seen them pick up dead road-kill from around here and it’s amazing some of the animals they can carry… Small hedgehogs, young rabbits etc. and perhaps the most surprising of all. elephants and giraffes. People just don’t believe it when you tell them that.
The good thing about road-kill, is that by the time one or two wheels of 4x4 or bigger has been over it, the skin does tend to be somewhat broken… As well as every bone in the ex-creature’s body.
The animal changes from it’s usual shape, into what is known as Post Office Preferred form - meaning you can shove a whole bundle of them through a letter-box AND at the same time.