This flock of owls are all on their way to their new homes!
Along with their Certificates of Authenticity (or “Awesome-ticity”).
Each certificate certifies with great certitude that the owl is “handmade in (often) sunny California, crafted with love and sly wisdom from quality fabrics and the finest faux owl innards. It is guaranteed to be authentic, cuddly, and to win all staring contests.“
And now a word about owls from our sponsor (me) — perhaps you’ve noticed that a lot of people like owls.
Look, they even baked a cake for owls, or "Hooters" as they call them!
Maybe you’re one of them, maybe you aren’t, there’s certainly enough owl t-shirts out there to fill Russia’s famous Sobolkho bottomless lake, and things like this might make you run screaming from the room…
… but you gotta give it up to the cold hard fact that owls are hecka cool. There are 130 different kinds of owls ranging the planet, living everywhere from steamy tropical forests to snowy wastelands. They can stand a majestic 2 feet tall like the Gray Owl or twitch and blink at only 5.5 inches high like the itty bitty Elf Owl. And they’ve fascinated people and appeared in art since the cave painting days. The Greeks, believing the owl to be a very enlightened, astute bird, made it sacred to the goddess of wisdom Athena.
This is actually a Roman owl mosaic but I like how he's hopping on his branch.
Detail of Lucas Cranach the Elder's portrait of Dr. Cuspinian. The owl is there to show you how smart the good doctor is.
Sometimes an owl is appreciated simply for being a badass predator. (A pair of barn owls can clear about 1,000 rodents a month.) The 18th century saw a big rise in exotic animal art and many royal families built aviaries and menageries. If you didn’t have the bankroll for a personal zoo, you could always commission a painting and Pancrace Bessa was considered to be one of the most talented painters of his day. This watercolor gives you some idea why.
Pancrace Bessa "An Owl With Its Prey"
Because it’s a nocturnal animal, the owl is also sometimes depicted as a funerary bird or attribute of The Night. As someone who can’t ever seem to go to bed before 1am, I don’t think there’s anything particularly wrong with being a night owl — in fact, several recent studies have discovered that people with high I.Q.s are more likely to be night owls. (Come to the dark side. We’re smarter.) You can read more about that right here (preferably at 2am): “Why Night Owls Are Cleverer & Richer.”
One of my favorite recent owl sightings was the Art Student Owl meme:
That does have a certain ring of familiarity to it...
Who spawned a thousand other Art Student Owls, including this guy:
Another sentiment I can relate to
Thus endeth today’s Let’s Chat About Owls segment. Be sure to stay up late so your brain can grow!
Whoa, too much caffeine?
“Night time is really the best time to work. All the ideas are there to be yours because everyone else is asleep.“
~Catherine O’Hara
