I picked this subject for today’s whimsy for no other reason than I enjoyed the Victorian trade cards I found when I  went searching in my collection for Wednesday inspiration. The Victorians seemed to utilize the colorful bird in their advertising for all sorts of products.

Here’s a great quote from American humorist Will Rogers:

“Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.”

I’ve never owned a parrot but I once knew a guy who had inherited a parrot from his greatgrandmother, as I recall. The parrot was really old at the time I “met” it at a party, and had lived through the San Francisco Quake of 1906. Whichever maternal relative my acquaintance had inherited the parrot from, had been engaged as a young woman to a seafaring man, who brought her the parrot and – you guessed it! – the parrot swore like a sailor. I heard that for myself. Apparently the lady was quite genteel and this fiancee thought it was hilarious to have the parrot uttering obscenities in her living room. (No idea if she actually married the guy but she sure kept the parrot LOL.)

My only other up close experience with parrots would be the animatronic ones in the Disneyland Tiki Room.

Here’s what Mark Twain thought on the topic: “She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined. She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot.”

Not specifically about parrots, but I like this quote:

“When you have seen one ant, one bird, one tree, you have not seen them all.” E. O. Wilson

Here’s author Eric Jerome Dickey: “It’s impossible to explain creativity. It’s like asking a bird, ‘How do you fly?’ You just do.”

I like this one too: “The soul has illusions as the bird has wings: it is supported by them.” Victor Hugo

I think the trade card below was my favorite of all the ones I found…