Bird superstitions are nothing new. The one I remember the most is the one about the crows. At least that’s what it was for us. The rhyme has been linked to magpies as well. I think that’s probably the most common link. However, for us it was always crows. I remember my mom being so happy and yelling, “Two crows, two crows.” when we were driving in Nova Scotia. When I was really young I had no idea what she was talking about. As I got older I knew one crow meant sorrow but two meant joy. Interestingly enough, I never knew what came after that.

There’s always more to the story of course. I asked her one day what the rest of the rhyme was. I knew there had to be more but she always stopped at two even when we saw more than two crows at the side of the road. From what I remember, the rest of the rhyme went like this:

Three crow letter
Four crow boy
Five crow silver
Six crow gold
Seven crows a secret never to be told.

I’ve seen the rhyme with three crows (or magpies) being a girl. Which actually makes more sense since four crows is a boy.

This recent obsession with the rhyme came about this morning because when I was seeing the boyfriend off to work I heard a crow’s call to my right. I looked up and saw one crow perched on top of the street light. Then I was angry at myself for looking up. I never look in the direction of a crow’s call just in case there’s only one. It’s a silly superstition I know, but I grew up with it. I remember my mom covering her eyes or looking away from a single crow from the time I was five. Maybe younger. It’s a hard superstition to break.

I hope the one crow for sorrow this morning wasn’t an indication of what to expect from the submission I just sent yesterday.

Well, off to work.

Until next time…

Cindy

The superstition of the day is the notion that fish is brain food. I know it’s not one of the ten from last week’s list. I’ll get to those in later posts. This one got me thinking, especially because I’m in the middle of revisions on one book and trying to figure out what’s going on with another. So many more scenes needed and I have no idea what they are.

Is fish really brain food? I remember hearing that it was at a very early age. Parents like to tell their children that to get them to eat healthier. But it is true? The notion that fish is brain food came about because fish contains phosphorus and so does the brain. Science, philosophy and natural history got together and agreed that fish feeds the brain. In reality, the brain doesn’t care what kind of nutrients it gets as long as it gets nutrients. Any wholesome food will do. It has no preference.

What I would like to be true…Smartfood. It’s too bad the cheese flavoured popcorn doesn’t give your brain a boost. I could eat that stuff all day. I discovered it in university. Went through bags and bags of the popcorn. Still love it today. Hmmm. Now I’m thinking about stopping on the way to work to get some. It’s definitely calling my name a lot louder than fish.

Off to work.

Until next time…

Cindy