I was at a bookstore recently and came across Canceled Flight: 101 Tried and True Piegon Killin' Methods. I have such mixed feelings about this book. Part of me thinks it's horrible; I actually love pigeons (especially their iridescent throats). When I was in high school, the village of Winnetka went on a pigeon killing spree, and I had to step over dozens and dozens of dead pigeons as I walked under a certain viaduct on my way to school; I wrote letters to the editor and the local government to blast the practice, and worked myself into a genuine tizzy. So seeing this book brings all of that back. At the same time, I think the book is hysterical and brilliant--it's obviously tongue in cheek, and is full of groovy art and ridiculous killin' suggestions. I guess as author of a novel called The Book of Dead Birds (a title that I'm afraid has scared many readers away), I have to appreciate the absurdity of all of it. I certainly killed off a lot of fictional birds (if not pigeons) on my own pages.

Birds may be responsible for some strange killin' of their own. I've been following the surreal exploding toad story (over 1000 toads have swelled up and exploded in a pond in Germany in recent days). Now people are thinking that liver-pecking crows may be responsible. Maybe the crows should write a book called Canceled Ribbit.