So that's whose fault it is that people often misspell the word "pigeon". Believe it or not, I once saw a reference to the band Lieutenant Pigeon and whoever wrote it had inserted a rogue "d" into the word "Pigeon" despite the fact that it wasn't spelled like that on the labels of their records. I never did get it why people don't look at the labels of their own copies of the records just to make sure they get the spelling (and other facts) right. Now you have posted this answer I can only assume Walter was to blame. Who else could be?
I live in South Florida on the Gulf of Mexico. We have lots of beautiful birds including eagles but the pigeons I've ever seen were in large cities. I live in a smallish town. Perfect.
Not many pigeons around here. Plenty of sea-gulls - attracted to the free food provided, deliberately or not, by untidy or thoughtless humans. I don't use the word, but many call gulls "sh*tehawks" thanks to the mess they make.
As for giving animals human names, no I don't normally, but there are exceptions.
Once I shared my home for a few days with a very fine specimen of those big Tegenaria-species "house spiders", which appeared suddenly on a shelf right in my eye-line one night. I called him 'Boris', from a song by The Who; and sometimes still nick-name spiders, Boris. After a few days of spotting Boris in various places around the house, I caught him and released him under the shed, as I was worried I might tread on him by accident. It wasn't just squeamishness at the prospect of cleaning up the sad remains of a soft-bodied spider squished between carpet and bare foot. I didn't want to kill the bonny wee animal at all!
Snails in my garden occasionally receive the name "Brian" - I think the original Brian snail was a character in The Magic Roundabout.
I see the occasional seagull despite living about 38 miles from the coast. I call seagulls Nelson. Still, there are more pigeons around here than any other kind of birds, and every last one of them I call Eddie. I even give them surnames based on the colouring in their feathers (Eddie Grey, Eddie Green, Eddie Brown, Eddie White). Lol:)
I am familiar with the song "Boris The Spider" because I've had it in my collection in one format or another since I was about 15, and yes, I too call spiders Boris from that. I remember Brian Snail from "The Magic Roundabout" as a child. In fact, my sister and I each had a Magic Roundabout pencil sharpener when we were children. Mine was Brian the Snail, and my sister's was Dougal the Dog.
I like giving animals human names, in fact I like giving inanimate objects human names as well. Lol:)
Inanimate objects... I don't give them people's names, but I'd better not say what I've sometimes called them!
There is a pair of pigeons I see in and around my garden frequently. It's quite amusing seeing them frustrated by the neighbour's suspended bird-feeders. I haven't named them.
Our Dad tended to react to any animal alive appearing unexpectedly somewhere indoors by asking it, "Where do you think you're going / Where've you come from, 'Rastus'?", for some reason. It could be anything from a big spider or woodlouse, to our or our neighbour's cat, even though the cats did have their own names.
I'm trying to remember if we even had a television when The Magic Roundabout was produced, but I have seen only odd episodes or clips. Even so I'm fairly familiar with the characters. I once saw a float version of Dougal, perhaps 20 feet long at a guess, with painted board face and rope used to make the hair. I learnt it was built on some sort of industrial trolley, and manually pushed along the streets by a gang of men hidden inside - allegedly accompanied by a crate of beer, no doubt very necessary!
I'm not the only one who gives inanimate objects human names. When my sister was a teenager she had a handbag which she names George. She also named her wardrobe Eric. Some of the names I've used for various objects include the TV remote control which I call Dave, and (going back to 1974) a plastic paraffin container which I named Jonathan. Meanwhile, the hand dryer in public toilets I call Emma. My dad called his car Nellie, by the way.
We never used the name Rastus in our family, probably because we never knew anyone of that name. Even now I still don't personally know anyone called Rastus, it's an extremely rare name in the UK.
We had a TV in the late 1960s when the Magic Roundabout was on, but it was only a B&W with two channels, BBC1 and ITV. I think Magic Roundabout was on BBC.
Our Dad might have found the name "Rastus" in a children's story.
The Magic Roundabout was indeed on BBC. It originated in France and the BBC version was by collaboration. I take it you know the "Magic Roundabout" junction in Swindon? I think it was built when the children's series was running, so it didn't take long for the locals to christen the bizarre road layout after the TV programme. Seems to be a British thing, giving objects affectionately deprecatory names; perhaps "The Gateshead Flasher" being the most famous. Not entirely British though, for there is a building in Chicago(?) called "The Flatiron", from its shape.
Oh, yes, giving cars names was quite common at one time, when vehicles had individuality and character. I don't think we ever called our cars by people's names though.
WM BARR . =ABSOLUTE TRASH 