“Herons using bread or insects as bait to catch fish, carrion crows dropping nuts onto roads so passing cars crack open their shells and great cormorants timing their fishing periods in New Zealand to take advantage of the strong currents generated by commercial ferries,” are examples, Jack Guy writes for CNN this April 7, of birds learning from humans not only how to adapt, but how to avoid becoming extinct.
If only humans could learn from the birds.
Take marijuana (or, rather, don’t take it) for example.
The headline for Sandee LaMotte’s CNN article this April 10 read “Smoking weed and coronavirus: Even occasional use raised risk of Covid-19 complications.”
It’s a birdbrain who couldn’t deduce what scientists are saying: “If you’re smoking weed to ease your stress during the coronavirus pandemic, experts say it’s time to think twice.”
And yet what, during this coronavirus in which people cower at home (think Hitchcock’s “The Birds”), is an essential service?
Yep.
Cannabis.
Curbside.
The same day – April 10 – that the article appeared in CNN warning of the dangers associated between cannabis and coronavirus, the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) sent an email to pot shops ‘concerned’ about what might happen 10 days hence.
April 20 is dubiously called “Marijuana Appreciation Day”. The term 420 has become a rallying cry for the marijuana legalization movement.
Why is the WSLCB ‘concerned’?
Try to read the following with a straight face.
The WSLCB is ‘concerned’ that people might flock to pot shops on 420 and perch themselves in too-close proximity to one another, kind of like what birds-of-a-feather do.
“If you must run promotions,” wrote the WSLCB, “consider offering them across the entire week or month to minimize a rush on a single day that could compromise social distancing measures.”
After all, the concerned folks at WSLCB continued, “This” (the non-flock, please-if-you-wouldn’t-mind consideration) “will assist Washington communities from engaging in actions that compromise the health and safety of all by preventing the spread of the virus.”
How ‘bout – if you’re really concerned about preventing the spread of the virus , let alone extinguishing the livelihood, let alone the life of cannabis consumers, let alone the rest of us – that you just shut them down?
A bonus for having read this far. A trivia question:
When P.F. Sloan wrote “Eve of Destruction” in mid-1964, it was offered to an American rock band in Los Angeles.
The band rejected it.
What was the name of the rock band?
Yep.
The Byrds.
Great letter. Enjoyed it!