Thank You, Baby!
- Posted by greybird on May 8th, 2003 filed in Blogger Import
The parrot has learned to whistle this much of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. (Yes, that much of it!) It all started with my whistling the first four notes… da da da dum. Woodstock picked that up and Mel continued to teach him the rest of the famous intro, repeating it back to him many times. He was at it for weeks and weeks, practicing, it seems, almost non-stop. He’s pretty much been driving us nuts, to the point we’ve regretted encouraging it.
Eventually, Woodstock got close but he could never get the last note right. He would end up too high, screeching on the finish. We’d hear him start and each time we’d stop and listen to see if he was finally going to get it right. He never did. We figured he might not ever get it right.
A few days ago, Mel was sitting in the living room watching TV and I was in the office on the computer. The parrot was making a ruckus and then started to whistle Beethoven’s Fifth. This time he did it perfectly! I called out “Wow!” and Mel said to him “That was really good, Wood!” Woodstock replied to her “Thank you, baby.”
We were blown away. We never taught him to say ‘thank you’.
May 8th, 2003 at 7:52 pm
Wow! That is a smart and talented bird!
May 9th, 2003 at 4:04 am
Now if you can teach him to bite your nose when you start spilling plot details about Six Feet Under, he will be ~a truly useful bird~. :)<br><br>Are you making an mp3?
May 9th, 2003 at 8:49 am
I love a bird who knows how to sing for his supper.
May 9th, 2003 at 2:48 pm
HA! I was expecting to hear the parrot when I played the clip… unless he’s mastered sounding like an entire orchestra.<br><br>Do you and Mel say "Thank you, Baby" to each other? He probably picked it up from the both of you.
May 9th, 2003 at 3:45 pm
Sorry to disappoint you, Chari. We don’t really have a way to tape him… he won’t do it in the office where the computer microphone is. The clip was to demonstrate how much of it he does know.<br><br>We don’t really say "Thank you, baby" to each other. At least, I don’t think so.<br><br>Joel! I can’t not talk about my favorite TV show, but next time I post about it I’ll be sure to warn you.
May 10th, 2003 at 12:15 am
too cool! both Eli and i are cracking up over this.
May 11th, 2003 at 8:28 pm
Ok, enough parrot-speak. I was just reading through your Amazon wish list (I’m bored, ok?!) and couldn’t help but laugh. You have the 8-minute workout book AND a book on ice-cream…..???? Hmmmmm……….
May 13th, 2003 at 4:48 am
greybird, maybe you can appease me by teaching him to sing Beethoven’s Third, "Eroica".
May 14th, 2003 at 3:56 pm
Maybe next time he’ll crack an Elvis-y "thankyaverrymuch". <br><br>That would be so awesome.
May 28th, 2003 at 3:09 pm
Aren’t parrots great! We used to have a aFRICAN gREY-HE DIED OF AN ILLNESS :-(((((((<br>
May 28th, 2003 at 5:33 pm
INTERESTING!!!!