This morning at work a little bird (yellow and brown with a bit of a crest) flew into my outer office/reception area. The window was only open about 6 inches so it really had to make an effort to get in. It then proceeded to calmly fly into my office and sit in the tree in the corner and sing for about 15 seconds. Then it flew over to my chair, perched on the back for a bit and subsequently flew out my window, which I had opened for its egress.
Everyone was charmed by the little critter until I mentioned that my Gram always said that a bird flying into your house meant someone was going to die. My German coworkers had never heard of this superstition before and were horrified (especially after I told them we would have to draw straws to see which one of us it was going to be…) and skeptical. So I went on the interwebs to show them that it really was a superstition (at least in America) and I discovered that when a bird that has flown inside and then perches on the back of someone’s chair, that individual is going to die.
So apparently I’m scheduled to depart this mortal coil shortly. It’s been nice knowing you, Dopers.
A bird once flew into my classroom and perched on the chairs of half a dozen people (including the teacher) before leaving. That was 25 years ago and as of this month every student in that room was still alive. I don’t know about the teacher, as she left town and I haven’t kept track of her.
Do you realize what this means you could get away with?
Go up behind someone and kick the back of their knee so they halfway collapse. When they get mad, shrug and say, “well, I’m going to die soon. Might as well have some fun!”
It was partially white (it’s cheeks) - does that count? Because I was going to go out and run up all my credit cards and you’re putting a crimp in my shopping spree…
Birds used to fly into and build nests in the rafters of a truck bay where I work. They wou-old set off the motion detector alarm at night so we cleaned them out and/or deactivated the alarm for that bay. Oh, yes, several people have died since then.
My (paternal) grandmother believed the same thing, and a female cardinal flew into my house one day. My pet rabbit died the next day. So maybe your statute of limitations is only 24 hours?
That same grandmother also said that if you inadvertently placed a loaf of bread upside down, it meant someone you loved would die. She freaked out once when she came over for dinner and my mother had put the bread upside down (which was how I found out she held that superstition). Within the week, my mother’s father had a heart attack and died in his early 60s. My grandmother blamed the upside down bread.
She was full of silly superstitions… it was bad luck to flip the calendar in advance or to celebrate a birthday before the actual date - both on the premise that you are tempting fate to make sure that those days do not come then, or if you forgot what you wanted to say then it must have been a lie, drop a fork and an unexpected guest is coming over. She had so many…
(psst – since post count will change next time Surly posts, I’ll mention here that it is 666 right now)
(psssssssssssst – I hope Surly posts soon, because it’s gonna creep me out, if it stays 666 forever)
