For Whom The Bell Tolls…
…in this case, not for anyone from our side! That’s right, friends, Industry Figures world-wide were pleased (yes: pleased) to learn that Industry Figure Leah Newell does not, in fact, have lung cancer, but instead is afflicted with histoplasmosis, a bird-borne fungus. That’ll teach her to consort with fowl, no matter how bell-loving.
Leah Newell and Sunny the Bell-Crazed Parakeet, 1980.
It’s worth noting that Industry Figures Leah and Stephen Newell were the first couple whose wedding I personally ever attended that featured close personal friends of the bride and groom playing the guitar and singing ‘The Wedding Song (There Is Love).’ Actually, I still get a little misty thinking of it, so that was probably an Excellent Choice.
Once again, congratulations, Leah — no cancer, only Bird Fungus!
Tom Chappell wrote:
Industry Figure Stephen Newell posted a reply, telling the inspiring story of Sunny the Bell-Loving Parakeet:
Sunny was beyond obsessed with the bell. You’d go to the pet store and buy this glom of seeds and gorp that was shaped like a bell. Hang it in his cage and he’d peck at it. When all the seeds were gone, he was left with this small ball of a bell on a plastic stick which was attached to the cage.
He’d just attack it. Who knows why? Something in his brain either thought it was a dire enemy or a Pavlovian trigger for food or he just liked the tinny ring more than life itself. He’d knock at if relentlessly until you took it away. Put it back a week later and he’d slave over it. We thought it hilarious.
I remember [Industry Figure] Ruppo was entranced. Ed would move the bell around the cage and watch Sunny hop around in hot pursuit. Fungus from that bird would probably grow anytime a bell was rung nearby.
Posted 11 Jun 2005 at 1:55 am ¶