Birdie update!

Google celebrated Phoebe Snetsinger yesterday, in their continuing desire to celebrate people who are smart, hardworking, and often overlooked, as long as they are not white males. (See the Google Doodle Decision Tree here.)

Despite Google's prejudice, I don't mind when Google does quirky little celebrations like that. And there's no reason not to be impressed by the dedication of Snetsinger to our fine feathered friends.

Also, it gives me an opportunity to present the latest update on the birdies that have hatched under my deck:

Holy Moses! It's a bumper crop!

Those little birds---and I think there are four altogether---have doubled in size in a week, I think. I don't want to disturb them or get my eyes pecked out by Mom, so I haven't gotten out the ladder for a closer look. But they fill up that nest now. When Mom's away and they're sleeping, they're just this heaving feathery lump. Interestingly, Mom still sits on their heads at night; she barely touches the nest. It's interesting to me, anyway; I've never followed the progress of birds from nest-building to adulthood. Phoebe Snetsinger would shake her head and laugh at me.

I'm expecting it's almost graduation time at this rate, close to time to throw the kids out of the nest. Birds, unlike humans, are not going to stand for a 33 percent unemployment rate in the adult children. No, birds are much more along the lines of: You're grown, you're gone.

My wife has cautioned me to be careful next time I run the mower down there. Just in case there are four dazed chicks sitting on the grass, wondering what the hell happened, while Mom is watching HGTV and redecorating the nest.