News for the Birds

I don't know what to make of the great majority of what passes for "news." Therefore I find it impossible to make any comments about it.

Shakespeare's words, "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing," cover too much of the "news."

Bad things inevitably lead to nothing, but then, so do many worthwhile things.

The natural world is much easier and healthier to contemplate.

For instance, around here at least, no matter how cold it gets -- and according to my bones and blood it's been really cold a lot of the time this winter -- whenever you go outside you will almost always hear some birds singing.

Of course, whether or not in their eyes they are singing at all is a big question. Most likely they are just talking and otherwise signaling to each other, back and forth or falling on ornithological deaf ears. But anyway, there they are, and it comes across as song to our ears.

But there's something that it would be really great to know, which is, exactly what are they singing or talking about, when they should be stopped cold, like us?