[IP] Churchill's parrot still swearing.
Delivered-To: dfarber+@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2004 11:24:17 -0500
From: "Trei, Peter" <ptrei@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Churchill's parrot still swearing.
To: "'dave@xxxxxxxxxx'" <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Something light for IP, if you like.
The cited page (if you can cram that
bloated URL into a browser) has a picture of the bird,
looking very good for her age.
Peter Trei
--------------------------------
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/
content_objectid=13832640_method=full_siteid=50143_
headline=-F----THE-NAZIS--SAYS-CHURCHILL-S-PARROT
-name_page.html
F*** THE NAZIS, SAYS CHURCHILL'S PARROT
Jan 19 2004
EXCLUSIVE
By Bill Borrows
SHE WAS at Winston Churchill's side during Britain's darkest
hour. And now Charlie the parrot is 104 years old...and still cursing
the Nazis.
Her favourite sayings were "F*** Hitler" and "F*** the
Nazis". And even today, 39 years after the great man's death, she can
still be coaxed into repeating them with that unmistakable
Churchillian inflection.
Many an admiral or peer of the realm was shocked by the tirade
from the bird's cage during crisis meetings with the PM.
But it always brought a smile to the war leader's face.
Churchill bought Charlie - giving him a boy's name despite the
fact she was female - in 1937.
She took pride of place in a bizarre menagerie of pets including
lambs, pigs, cattle, swans and, at one point, a leopard.
He immediately began to teach her to swear - particularly in
company - and she is keeping up the tradition today.
The blue and gold macaw is believed to be Britain's oldest bird.
The title was previously thought to belong to 80-year-old Cokky
the cockatoo.
But it can be proved Charlie is at least 104 and was born in the
19th century.
Peter Oram bought her for his pet shop after Churchill died in 1965.
But he was forced to move her into his home after she kept swearing at
children.
For the last 12 years, she has lived at Mr Oram's garden centre
in Reigate, Surrey.
Centre worker Sylvia Martin said: "If truth be told, Charlie is
looking a little scruffy but she is very popular with the public. We
are all very attached to her."
James Humes, an expert on the late PM, said: "Churchill may no
longer be with us but that spirit and those words of defiance and
resolve continue."
Charlie's story is in this month's Jack Magazine, on sale
Thursday.
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