8 Comments

  1. Unknown's avatar

    Why is Polly male?

    I was trying to look up authorities for the answer I was preparing — that a parrot’s beak is called a “poll” and hence “Polly” has long been a nickname for parrots, of either sex — but that didn’t turn out correct. There is at least a note that “poll” seems to have first meant “head” (which led to the sense of voting). Entries for “Polly” relate it to human name “Molly” as nicknames for “Mary” , and say nothing about connecting it to “poll” ; except that “Poll” says fem. proper name, short for Polly. Noted from 1620s as a parrot’s name. So there you are.

  2. Unknown's avatar

    I dream of a world in which non-cis parrots are not name-shamed.

    Oh, right, it’s MOTHER GOOSE AND GRIMM. Well, I don’t really want to live in that world, so, carry on….

  3. Unknown's avatar

    As Kilby said – the electric cars have to make a noise when running – it was a problem for blind people, they could not tell if it was safe to cross the street.

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