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TexasTowelie

(111,317 posts)
Wed Oct 16, 2019, 10:50 PM Oct 2019

Texas A&M System employees were asked to teach office pet birds to say "howdy." It didn't go well.

By Shannon Najmabadi, Texas Tribune


COLLEGE STATION — Last fall, employees in a Texas A&M University System office space were alerted that three parakeets had been placed in the building’s light-filled atrium, and that more were on the way.

They were to be greeted warmly: “The first word we would like to teach them is 'HOWDY!'" an employee for Chancellor John Sharp wrote in an October 2018 email. “Please help them learn by addressing them this way when you see them.”

But — for at least a few days — the birds prompted a different reaction from some employees, who said in emails that their winged guests took to “flying around like crazy” and “don’t understand why we are chasing them.”

“Four birds landed on Cliff’s computer last night. Lona chased them out with a baby gate, while Wanda waved her hands like a crazy person so the bird would not fly down towards our area,” an employee wrote in an October 2018 email. “I hear 2 more birds will be arriving soon. Trying to hold it together over here… are we really spending time on birds?”

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2019/10/14/texas-m-system-chancellor-john-sharp-got-parakeets-his-office/
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Texas A&M System employees were asked to teach office pet birds to say "howdy." It didn't go well. (Original Post) TexasTowelie Oct 2019 OP
The coyote would be proud Midnightwalk Oct 2019 #1
John Sharp used to be state comptroller TexasTowelie Oct 2019 #2

Midnightwalk

(3,131 posts)
1. The coyote would be proud
Wed Oct 16, 2019, 11:00 PM
Oct 2019
Magnetic netting was also installed in the building, which houses the system’s administrative offices


I hope no one was injured or ran off a cliff.

TexasTowelie

(111,317 posts)
2. John Sharp used to be state comptroller
Wed Oct 16, 2019, 11:07 PM
Oct 2019

and while he was a Democrat, I also thought some of his ideas all of those decades ago weren't the greatest. Sadly, this idea is a reminder of those times.

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