The Alfred Hitchcock Angle for “Creepiest Angle Involving Birds”
So you have the Cardinals beating the Seahawks in Week 17, then the Falcons in Round 1, and now, potentially, the Eagles in the NFC title game. Meanwhile, if the Ravens topple the Steelers, then the Cardinals could potentially beat every other NFL team with a bird nickname during their improbable five-game winning streak to capture the Super Bowl, and if that's not enough, birds took down Thursday's U.S. Airways flight heading from New York to Charlotte … the city that's home to the team Arizona beat five days ago in Round 2. All I can tell you is this: Something better not happen to Larry Bird. You hear me, Arizona? Leave the Basketball Jesus out of your weird bird vendetta! Got it? (Speaking of that flight, Kel from Pasadena, Calif., makes a great point: “My friend alerted me to CNN.com's report on the crash landing that includes the following excerpt: 'Since 1975, five large jetliners have had major accidents in which bird strikes played a role, according to the Web site of Bird Strike Committee USA, a volunteer group dedicated to reducing the frequency and severity of the strikes.' After browsing through the committee's Web site for a few minutes, we wondered something: What events have to happen in your life in order for you to start VOLUNTEERING for Bird Strike Committee USA? And when the CNN newsroom first heard the story, how long before somebody screamed out 'I WANT BIRD STRIKE COMMITTEE USA ON THE LINE NOWWWW!!!'??? But seriously, thank God everyone was OK.” Agreed. There will not be a cooler ending to a potentially tragic story this year. And since we know everyone's OK, we can absolutely ask this question now: In a “which airline will have a plane taken down by geese in 2009?” draft with some buddies, wouldn't U.S. Airways have unequivocally been the LeBron no-brainer first selection? And was anyone else on a “what will be the New York Post headline?” e-mail chain Thursday? My pick was “FLY-TANIC!!!” OK, back to the column.)
