Letters to Get Lost Magazine

Get threaded for dough.

Hey, Get Lost:
Some people are making millions now for having sex with the President. I'd like to state write hear i too have had sex with Clinton. Think about it, haven't a lot of us been screwed by the govt? What about a class action suit?

via email
kEN, Los Angeles

A lawsuit takes too much time and money. How about writing a tell-all about your experience? Make sure to use the word "congress" a lot.

And I suppose you couldn't see his lips move, either...

Hey, Get Lost:
I have an avian observation to share with you. Starlings are mimics. Last night I was feeding the roses and this starling starts calling. I did not notice it at first but when I heard a "seagull" I started listening closer. This starling was a world-class imitator. It started doing its impersonations one right after another. I was able to identify the following in the course of about 10 minutes:

redtail hawk shriek,
frog croak,
male valley quail call,
red wing black bird call,
seagull cry,
rooster pheasant,
mourning dove, and, believe it or not,
a coyote howl.

The coyote sound was that distinctive bark/howl that they do. When the bird did the frog I was shocked because it sounded so real. I'm used to them doing perfect imitations of other birds, so I guess it should not have suprised me. They coyote sound was accurate but it wasn't "powerful" enough, so you could tell it was a fake. Although it sounded like a small dog trying to do a coyote. This bird did some other bird calls that I could not identify. What a performer!

via postcard
Tory Zaftig, Sunnyside, Washington

The only starlings I've heard made a graaak sound. I wonder if they have their own vocal stylings or just live a life of serial identity crises.

Dave McBee, our resident unnaturalist, tells me he read someplace that the European starling explosion we have now began with seven nesting pairs in New York City, imported and placed there by a literary fan who wanted Central Park to have one of every bird mentioned in the works of Shakespeare. According to the Birder's Handbook (Ehrlich, Dobkin and Wheye) the European starling population started here with a small flock of 60, and it was the third time someone had tried to introduce the starling to North America, which seems to have been the charm.

McBee was right on, however, about the Shrike, a bird who likes to impale small prey like grasshoppers and probably bees on barbed wire fences and probably cactus spines. He took the sheen off my Living Legend status for impaled-bee-spotting acquired in Las Vegas, but the Birder's handbook corroborates this.

Tasteful tie-dye only, please.

I read the great interview with Howie & your article about Toki in Get Lost - it's GREAT!! Thanks so much for helping us get the word out. I also enjoyed getting lost in the rest of Get Lost, & thoroughly enjoyed your book reviews - great stuff. And have you seen the new National Enquirer yet?!

via email
Susan Berta, Coupeville, Washington

Thanks for sending the pictures from the Miami Seaquarium demonstration (used in the article), and the Penn Cove Water Festival (at left). As Hannibal Lecter once said: LOVE the suit.

We're also looking forward to seeing pictures of the Free Corky / Lolita Freedom Bus as it goes on its tour of the west coast. June 1 at 6:30 pm Seattle's KING-5 news covered the Olympia stop of the Freedom bus tour and the huge banner the kids made, so the parade begins!

The National Enquirer with Lolita the cover whale is no longer on the newsstands but it certainly hit a demographic that the campaign normally wouldn't have!