Jul
4
My inner word-curmudgeon busted out this morning upon encountering this headline -
Feathered Friends: Ostriches Provide Clues to Dinosaur Movement
Oh come on. Feathered friends? In the title of a science piece? Discovery Channel for kids, maybe . . . .
Besides, ostriches ain’t golden retrievers. Not by a long shot.
Can’t we humans care about other species without needing personal relationships with them?
Below is a roadrunner I photographed in NM last year -
Not my friend. But I care to know about it and perhaps protect its survival. Were it threatened.
Same with this canyon wren:
Isn’t it cute!
Cute? What am I, a lonely Mr. Mom looking for a surrogate infant?
Humans are so weird. And not just the birdwatching kind.
July 4th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
I read you loud and clear! And such precious anthropomorphism grates on me, too. Certainly, it has no place in a science article…unless it is one about how humans generalize their protective instincts from human babies to endangered species and–accidentally and in spite of themselves–make a contribution. That would be just adorable.
July 5th, 2010 at 8:43 am
Yes. Sometimes “weird” is good. (About the endangered species part.)
But berets on poodles and such — that’s going too damn far!
Of course, every day I talk to my dog, Tilly. At her, anyway. But that’s different. I think. Maybe not.