Hey, Jeff. You wouldn't be willing to move the Anchor Pub to some place like Green Lake in Seattle, would you? It sounds like the perfect place to have evening birding reminiscences at any time of year, but that traffic to and from Everett puts a damper on most of us. That doesn't stop us from enjoying your posts!

Dennis


> Date: Thu, 23 May 2013 09:24:25 -0700
> From: jeff gibson <gibsondesign at msn.com>
> Subject: [Tweeters] International Drunk Birding Day
> To: tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
> Message-ID: <BLU178-W18FC75B21FE7A242A87121C9AA0 at phx.gbl>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Thanks to Nigel Ball's sane post about sleep deprived Big Day birders possibly drifting into risky behaviors ( like driving half-asleep), I was reminded of an idea I had one night, a year or so ago, down at the Anchor Pub.
>
> It was sort of a de facto 'Philosophers Night' at the Anchor Pub - nobody could plan for this kinda thing. I had Muddy Water's "You Can't Lose What You Never Had" cranked up loud on the jukebox ,because I love that song.
>
> At the bar an older fellow , with some sort of neo-taoist thing going on (had a nice two-pronged beard), giggled into his suds, "can't have Something without Nothing!".
>
> Farther down the bar some real Retro gal , with an English accent, was ordering yet one more sweet mixed drink. " A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down!" she said with a wink, and then went back up to the stage, where she was pulling a remarkable amount of sound equipment out of a standard-size carpetbag.
>
> Right about then , some local beer -sodden yahoo yelled " I DRINK THEREFORE I AM!".
>
> I was starting to feel the need for fresh air, so I went out our lower door to the sidewalk, where I found Anchor regular Bob out there having a smoke. Right then a single Caspian Tern flew over, glowing brightly in the night sky, under lit by nearby port lights.
>
> "Hey Jeff, there's two of those Terns you're always talking about!" Bob slurred.
>
> That's when I came up with my idea of International Drunk Birding Day, because, like Bob, many Anchor customers see twice as many birds, after spending several hours in the Anchor, as they had before coming in. Of course they see twice as many telephone poles, trees, and center line's too, which is why, like sleep-deprived Big Day birders, you shouldn't drive when impaired.
>
> Some advantages of Drunk Birding Day?
>
> 1. You will be excited about seeing all those extra birds!
> 2. You won't stress out about I.D problems, being drunk and all. "aw, that bird is bee-you-tee-full!" you'll say.
> 3. You can lie all you want about what you see. You're drunk! And so are all the other participants.
> 4. You probably won't remember too much the next day, which might be a good thing.
>
> I also had the idea of a local Wheelbarrow Tour from the Anchor down to nearby, and in the context of this event, the aptly named, Forgotten Creek- just a few blocks down the street. Entry fee's would cover having trained sober volunteers wheel participants down to the creek in a nice padded wheelbarrow, where you could listen to the fine song of the recently arrived Swainson's Thrush, along with other birds.
>
> Of course the legal liabilities of such an event would be too great a risk for a small business like the Anchor Pub. So you might want to organize your own private event- like maybe in your own backyard.
>
> Jeff Gibson
> Anchor Pub
> 1001 Hewitt Ave
> Everett Wa

-----
Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net



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