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F*** the Nazis, says Churchill's Parrott

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La_Serpiente Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-20-04 04:15 AM
Original message
F*** the Nazis, says Churchill's Parrott
Edited on Tue Jan-20-04 04:52 AM by La_Serpiente
F*** the Nazis, says Churchill's Parrott



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


http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?id=13832640&method=full&siteid=50143

On Edit: Is anyone having a problem with the link? I am.
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TastyArmageddon Donating Member (19 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-20-04 04:22 AM
Response to Original message
1. .
I can't say I disagree with the parrot.
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JohnKleeb Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-20-04 04:25 AM
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2. I want a parrot that says fuck bush :)
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La_Serpiente Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-20-04 04:27 AM
Response to Reply #2
3. She could be in the next MoveOn commercial
:evilgrin:
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Piperay Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-20-04 05:01 AM
Response to Original message
4. Cheers to Charlie...
I hope she lives many more years. :-)
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La_Serpiente Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-20-04 06:34 AM
Response to Original message
5. kick
:kick:
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La_Serpiente Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-20-04 04:13 PM
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6. kick
:kick:
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Beetwasher Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-20-04 04:17 PM
Response to Original message
7. Being a Bird Lover
This story warms my heart!

She is an old bird though...104 is pretty old, even for a parrot...
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Aidoneus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-20-04 04:44 PM
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8. that's my kind of bird
shame her former owner was a shithead (all things considered), but at least he taught the bird well.
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Moderator DU Moderator Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-20-04 06:11 PM
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9. Locking.
1. If you start a thread in the General Discussion forum, you must present your opinion in a manner that is not inflammatory, which respects differences in opinion, and which is likely to lead to respectful discussion rather than flaming. Some examples of things which should generally be avoided are: unnecessarily hot rhetoric, nicknames for prominent Democrats or their supporters, broad-brush statements about groups of people, single-sentence "drive-by" thread topics, etc.

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