Crows Get a Bad Rap

            I dreamed several times on Sunday morning that I got up to find my computer connected to the internet. But when dreams come true it’s only a coincidence and when I got up I was still not connected.

            I memorized four more lines of “Le bras mécanique” (The Mechanical Arm) by Serge Gainsbourg and now there are only eight more to go.

            The wifi came back on while I was practicing memorization but it was very weak and sporadic. It took me almost until noon to post all of the things I wasn’t able to post the day before.

            I had a tomato, seaweed and peanut salad with soy sauce and olive oil for lunch.

            I took a ninety minute siesta as usual but felt so tired when I got up that I went back to bed for almost another hour.

            I fried ginger and onions and then added cubes of tofu, which I sautéed for a while. Then I added two cups of miso, some lima beans and cayenne and it turned into quite a nice stew.

            I worked a bit on studying for my exam but I spent too much time looking for a picture for my blog and it ate up at least an hour.

            I had a bowl of my ginger tofu and lima bean stew with plantain chips while watching two episodes of Noggin the Nog. The first was the finale of Noggin and the Omruds. In this story Nogbad the Bad has gotten hold of the growth formula invented accidentally by Olaf and Groot. He has used it to turn his crow servants into giant birds. First they take over Noggin’s castle and shut him out and then they fly Nogbad in to declare himself king. Thor Nogson challenges Nogbad to a duel and Nogbad accepts but only after turning himself into a giant. Thor backs away from the unfair challenge but one of the little Omruds comes out from a hole in the ground and accepts the challenge. He outmanoeuvres Nogbad for a while and then he sprays a shrinking potion on him, which cuts him down to Omrud size. Graculas brings his cousins to help to fight the giant crows. Each cousin carries an Omrud equipped with shrinking spray and the crows are reduced to the size of sparrows. Nogbad is shrunken so small that he can fit in a birdcage but he and his little crows escape.

            For such intelligent birds Crows sure get a bad rap in Britain and a nasty portrayal in literature. .

            The next story was the first of the tale entitled “Noggin and the Fire Cake”. Olaf has invented a dangerous explosive called fire cake and inadvertently blows a hole in the castle wall. Noggin forbids him to experiment with the fire cake in the castle and so Olaf organizes a picnic on Round Head Mountain. On a plateau on the mountain are several large rounded stones sticking up from the ground and looking like the top of someone’s bald head. Noggin’s son Knut says that he can hear the stones singing. Olaf demonstrates his fire cake and splits one of the round stones in two. Noggin forbids Olaf to ever use the fire cake again. The next morning Noggin’s bedroom window is blocked and when he goes outside he sees that a giant, human shaped stone is sitting with its back to the castle wall. Noggin wants to have it hauled and dumped into the harbour but Knut has made friends with it and begs his father to let it stay. One night Knut goes to sleep in the giant statue’s lap but the next morning both the statue and Knut are gone.