Pigeon Ponderings ...

Right now at Caffe Nero, I'm getting the rap for the poor pigeons "pooing" everywhere outside on the sidewalk of Long Arce at London's Covent Garden. It is there that I have held my permanent pitch as a Big Issue vendor for the past two and half years. I like all the Caffe Nero folkz from customers to staffers. Many have been more than kind and generous to me personally ... That's really nice!!

Jasna Celic, the Croat-born, overseer of Caffe Nero is, however, pretty upset at me for all the mess the impolite pigeons oftentimes leave for us folkz to cleanup after them! She had today a couple of Nero employees scrub and wash down the piles of pigeon poo on the pavement that was an unsightly and unpretty picture to sat the least ...

I'm known for feeding them, so that's why I get the rap all too many times ... Caffe Nero staffers, from time to time, also plead with me to stop feeding the little buggers ... But they don't seem to understand that I have no control at where they have their habitat or when or how the decide to poo at a moment's notice ... I don't exactly run a 'pigeon zoo' or do I?

Their nature, I must confess, does not respect humankind's desire to control their somewwhst ill-bred toilet habits that even dedicated pigeon fancers sometimes become exasperated about. But they cannot help it. After all, pigeons are their own worst enemy. Thus as a breed, they rarely win any kind of popularity contest among their unfond British public. I'm afraid, too, that many such members would prefer outright to starve the poor pigeons to sure death or have them killed off by their predators like wild hawks, falcons and kestrels. Or use illegal poisons to get rid of them for good ... Poooooooooor things!!

So what "crime" have the pigeons committed? Their crime is simply being born as pigeons -- period!! All creatures in my sight have a right to live no matter how much they are either loved or hated. Pigeons are part of our lives, just like the birds and the bees that our gracious Father has put on this earth with us and whether we like it or not!! That's what I believe as an avid and avowed Anglican ... I am also strongly of an interfaith and ecumenical disposition. I, therefore, hold not religious prejudice whatsoever ... nor any prejudice against nature in all her extraordinary forms. And not even against her rudest of pigeons ...

Whatever, perhaps Jasna Celic (who hasn't spoken or smiled to me since she got herself all upset) could have the local maintenance men -- like my friends Bill Elliot and Paul O'Brien -- to hose and clean by high water pressure the ledges at where the pigeons have for years hung out above Caffe Nero. And have Bill and Paul clean and disinfect the gullies and roof slates, too. Spikes can also be put there, but such oftentimes cruelly injures and cripples the pigeons when their feet or legs or wings get caught in such anti-pigeons devices. I'm always perturbed at the number of pigeons I see and feed that are with deformed or missing feet and half-broken legs and badly damaged wings as a result of their defenceless entanglement with such wire spikes ... Many, of course, die a slow and sure death when they cannot free themselves.

While closing my "Pigeon Ponderings" for now, we must realise that the pigeons in question were probably living above Caffe Nero long before any of us ever came to Long Acre. And thus, they will still be there long after we have gone on our life's journey to wherever it takes us beyond our present work and life situation. Give then a kind thought for the pigeons for they may surely have the last laught on us!!! Truly and proundly, Monty.
Update: Helen Rust, another Caffe Nero honcho, is now treating me like somekind of philistine and pariah with her cold and bossy attitude as she walks on by demanding to know if I'm "still feeding the pigeons ..." All I can say to her is she needs "to get a life" and stop being so hoopoe!! Right?
Another update: The same Helen Rust has now contacted The Big Issue to report me for feeding the pigeons!! WHAT? And guess what? The Big Issue sent Sam, who is the 'hachet lady' for them ...
So please read: "THE LATEST NEWS FROM MY PITCH," which details the unwelcomed visit from Big Issue's Covent Garden distributor Sam. She never, of course, ever brings any good news long with her ten-year tenure with The Big Issue, does she? Hell, noooooooooooooooooo!!

++ To bring this year's travels to an end, I shall journey next, with Contessa Maria, to Islamic Persia for ten days at Advent. Next, year I shall also attend the 1st International Conference on Homelessness to be held at Melbourne, Australia. Maria is also kindly underwriting that for me, too). Thank you, as always, my dear!!
I want now to publicly thank some of my good friends for their kindness to me like Michele Zini, who is now at The World Bank in Pretoria, South Africa; Laurie Edmans, who this year was rightly made a CBE -- Commander (of the Order) of the British Empire. Very well done, Laurie!!!; Beverly Brittan of LSE library, who has shown much affection and support of me; Jean McCarthy, who has brought bags of pigeon seed for me and has, like all my fond others, given generously toward me; then there is dear Jeannine McQuillan whose prayers we send after, has we did before, her triple bypass heart surgery that took place so successfully last Friday. Jeannine was one of my first Big Issue customers and who is now one of my dearest friends; Professor Brian Dunnigan of The London Film School at where I lectured recently on the issues of homelessness. Brian has been a wonderful person to me and also Ian Hall, the step-son of Sir William Wood. Ian, I miss since he left Long Acre! Last but not least are two members of the legal profession who have been there for me -- Attorneys Grahan Simkin and Kevin Smith of the famed international law group of Fulbright and Jaworski. Thank you so much Graham and Kevin for more than two years of your friendship ... In my upcoming newsletters, I will add more worthy people to my public list of many thankz ...