If I were a gull, I would probably puzzle over this sign too.
[Photograph taken in Limerick, Ireland.]
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An Irishman's blog about the English language.
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I think it’s a female and she’s thinking: why do I have to wear a tie to enter this bit of the sea? I thought only boys wore ties, not gulls.
Ha! You could be right, Fran.
Penguins never have these dress code predicaments.
Wow. Fantastic shot, Stan. Did you have to wait for a seagull? Or was he already there frozen in bemusement?
PK: When I looked, the gull was already there but not quite frozen in bemusement: its position was the same but its gaze was 10-15º counterclockwise to what’s shown above. Still an interesting shot, so I dug out the camera and clicked. Then it very kindly swivelled its head to face the sign directly. So it seems the seagull waited for me!
Cool. It’s great when you stumble on to something like that. Every now and then you can see the vectors that need to come into play in yr head but no matter how much you will it the shot doesn’t materialise. Really think the photos are adding a lot to yr blog by the way. Keep it going.
Thanks PK. Yes, I think anyone into photography ends up with a room in their head full of great photos that nearly but never were! The blog was definitely too text-intensive to begin with; now it’s in danger of becoming too picture-heavy: I keep having to restrain myself from posting more photos. In fact I’m just back from a walk on which I took many punctuation-related photos. Some of them are destined to appear here soon.
what a wonderful pic Stan! Are you familiar with the quote from Eric Cantona: “When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea”. Such profundity….maybe this is a Cantona gull and he thinks this is a sardine sign…….
Herself: I had never heard that quote! Cantona was an unusually thoughtful footballer (I know, I know), and the photo depicts what appears to be an unusually thoughtful gull, so who knows what hidden connection they might have. Cantona, meanwhile, is back in the news today.