Amor de Cosmos wrote:

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if she ever sees just one magpie she has to say - out loud - "Good Morning Mr Magpie". Is she barking or do others have to obey the magpie rule?

I thought the Magpie Rule meant you had to spit?

I thought you had to throw salt over your shoulder.

I say hello to dogs and cats. I've also been known to greet chipmunks, rabbits and squirrels.

Dogs: "Hey, Boo-Boo"
Cats: "Hello kitty"
Chipmunks: "Hello there, Chippy"
Rabbits: "Hello Flopsy"
Squirrels: "Hello Mr. Squirrel"

And I usually follow that with "How are you?"

That's madness, isn't it?

Femme Folle wrote:

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I say hello to dogs and cats. I've also been known to greet chipmunks, rabbits and squirrels.

Dogs: "Hey, Boo-Boo"
Cats: "Hello kitty"
Chipmunks: "Hello there, Chippy"
Rabbits: "Hello Flopsy"
Squirrels: "Hello Mr. Squirrel"

And I usually follow that with "How are you?"

That's madness, isn't it?

Ha! Brilliant! I do pretty much the same, except it's "Hello, Birdy", "Hello, Rabbitty", "Hello, Foxy", etc. and usually augmented with "How are you today?" too!

What nationality, are you, FF? I want to see how much this is a British thing or not.

What nationality is FF? You're kidding, right?

WornOldMotorbike wrote:

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What nationality is FF? You're kidding, right?

I can't remember!

Oh hang on - she's one of our Statesiders, isn't she? Or am I getting even more mixed up?

Oh, that's shabby. Or maybe I'm just nuts. But I can generally remember most of ' the regulars' ' real names and where they live. I even know FF's home state and her ex-husband's first name. I remember weired things for odd reasons, so that probably accounts for a lot of it. Mr H.

Are you one of those internet stalker dudes?

Look out your bedroom window. Now up...in the tree.

Kiwi40 wrote:

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Back to the present day and my friend's wife. She is vegetarian, likes witchy-poo shops etc etc and if she ever sees just one magpie she has to say - out loud - "Good Morning Mr Magpie". Is she barking or do others have to obey the magpie rule?

It's actually an old country folk thing, related to 'one for sorrow, two for joy'. The full version is "Morning Mr. Magpie, how's your wife?"
My mum does it, and now I do too, even though it got on my nerves when I was a kid.

WornOldMotorbike wrote:

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Look out your bedroom window. Now up...in the tree.

The guy next to him..that's WOM.

evilC wrote:

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I do that too. I say "Hello doggy" or "Hello Mr Dog" and smile broadly at them. Dogs recognise smiles, so they usually smile back.

When dogs bare their teeth, evilC, that's not a smile...

boris wrote:

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evilC wrote:

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I do that too. I say "Hello doggy" or "Hello Mr Dog" and smile broadly at them. Dogs recognise smiles, so they usually smile back.

When dogs bare their teeth, evilC, that's not a smile...

Ah! Well, most of the time you'd be right, but some dogs can and do bare their teeth in a smile. A friend's old dog, Hogus, used to do this in extremis. The first time he witnessed this happened to be when he was emerging from a tent and Hogus, already outside, ran towards him, grinning. My mate nearly shat himself, as he thought he was about to be attacked, of course! (He soon realised he wasn't, but at ground level the effect must have been quite dramatic.) My old dog, Mutley, used to try to do the same, but his mouth was too 'floppy' to do it properly. You could see the muscles working away, trying to pull his lips back far enough, and he would scrunch his eyes up, but you could never quite see his teeth like you could with Hogus. The interesting thing is, this behaviour seems to be 'learnt' behaviour in dogs and up until recently alot of scientists in the field denied it was possible at all. However, it does indeed seem that dogs can not only (possibly obviously) recognise human facial expressions as representing certain emotions, but also have a go at imitating them, even though they're not natural to their own species. I dunno - I wonder if this kind of thing belongs on the evolution/creationists thread.

Of course, when most dogs smile (rather than grin) it just looks like this:

Funny, isn't it? The magpie thing annoys me - I've been with people who do it, and it just winds me up.

Whereas having to touch someone with my left hand, to even up the accidental touching with my right, there's nothing annoying about that, of course. that's perfectly reasonable behaviour.

Yesterday, I saw a guy with his pet outside a store, but I sure wasn't going to smile at it and say, "Hi, Snake." I circled around as widely as possible to avoid it, so that's my neurosis, but I did suppress the desire to scream and run away.

The proper greeting for a snake is, "Hello Mr. Snakey Poo".

I have no such greeting for tarantulas, Madagascar hissing cockroaches or scorpions, unless screaming counts.