DUTCH TROUBLES

Two news items from the Dutch press are, somehow, tied together. Or perhaps thematically linked. It's probably just a personal mental blip, but taken together they seem to perfectly evoke the gentler pace of life in the old country, and the charm of small towns in the provinces.

The first one reports that an elderly gentleman was arrested for urinating on a number of e-readers for sale in a shop in Enschede for no apparent reason. He did not explain his actions when taken into custody.
My guess is that it was performance art.

The second mentions that a neighborhood in Leerdam is inconvenienced by a large colony of rooks (Corvus frugilegus).


"A sharp dark sound"


The birds are nesting in great colonies up in the trees, and have marked passing pedestrians underneath with large white splotches. Cars parked along the side of the roads are "redecorated" too. As the birds are protected in the Netherlands, the municipality advises human residents to just grin and bear it, or if possible, walk in wide arcs without breaking traffic laws applicable to pedestrians, please stay on the sidewalk.
Perhaps you need an umbrella?
Park carefully.

The fowl also keep people awake long past bedtime by vocalizing. What one of the residents describes as a "sharp dark sound".


Not at all mentioned, unfortunately, is what your best course of action might be if approached by an elderly gentleman who wishes to pee on your e-reader in Enschede. You are probably on your own there. Sorry.
Just let him do his thing, and report it to the police.



Here, as a lagniappe, is a video of a rook playing with a kindly Englishman who gave it a home and comfy pillows.


OH WHAT A CLEVER BIRD!


[SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x99gJsVhBaE.]


That rook seems much more flexible in some ways than the old gentleman who wets upon the electronic devices. More old school, too.


Note the 'kaa' sound that the bird produces.

Rooks are very social.




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