Having occasionally been known to post “Have Your Say” comments on news websites, often with tongue planted firmly in cheek, I guffawed heartily at the reader responses to this story from the Surrey Comet…
Marksman called in to kill Kingston’s pigeons
What tickled me in particular was the genuine response from (presumably) an old lady, standing like a flimsy barrier of normality against the oncoming surreal flood. We’re a witty bunch down here in SW London, y’know.
Pigeons are very much airborne vermin, carrying all sorts of infectious diseases. I used to work at a firm in Birmingham, which was discovered to have been infested by pigeon fleas after we started complaining of infected bites.
The whole place had to be closed for a day whilst they killed off the fleas and disinfected the place. One of the managers, who got a dust-cloud full of the little critters full in the face, had to shower with a special soap and burn the suit that he was wearing at the time. Which, if you’d seen the suit, you’d probably think wasn’t such a bad idea.
The majority of those comments seem to have come from the Pistonheads forums (performance car chaps) – they seem to be seizing on pretty much every story posted on the site.