• lime!
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        2 days ago

        not much call for protection from vampires around swallows, i’d think

        • Remember_the_tooth@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Vampire bats.

          Also, I was referencing the coconut scene from Monty Python:

          SOLDIER: Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?

          ARTHUR: Not at all. They could be carried.

          SOLDIER: What? A swallow carrying a coconut?

          ARTHUR: It could grip it by the husk…

          SOLDIER: It’s not a question of where he grips it it’s a simple question of weight ratios. A five-ounce bird could not carry a one-pound coconut.

          ARTHUR: Well, it doesn’t matter. Will you go and tell your master that Arthur from the Court of Camelot is here.

          A slight pause. Swirling mist. Silence.

          SOLDIER: Listen, in order to maintain air speed velocity, a swallow needs to beat its wings forty-three times every second. Right?

          ARTHUR: (irritated) Please!

          SOLDIER: Am I right?

          ARTHUR: I’m not interested.

          SECOND SOLDIER: (who has loomed up on the battlements) It could be carried by an African swallow!

          FIRST SOLDIER: Oh, yes! An African swallow maybe…but not an European swallow. That’s my point.

          SECOND SOLDIER: Oh, yes, I agree with that…

          ARTHUR: (losing patience) Will you ask your master if he wants to join my court in Camelot?!

          FIRST SOLDIER: But then of course African swallows are non-migratory.

          SECOND SOLIDER: Oh, yes.

          ARTHUR raises his eyes heavenward’s and nods to PATSY. They turn and go off into the mist.

          FIRST SOLDIER: So they couldn’t bring a coconut back anyway.

          SECOND SOLIDER: Wait a minute! Supposing two swallows carried it together?

          FIRST SOLDIER: No, they’d have to have it on a line.

          SECOND SOLDIER: Well simple - they just use a strand of creeper…

          FIRST SOLDIER: What, held under the dorsal guiding feathers?

          SECOND SOLDIER: Why not?

          • lime!
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            2 days ago

            i’m aware, but we’ve already established that it wasn’t swallows.

            • Remember_the_tooth@lemmy.world
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              2 days ago

              Fair enough. I still feel like vampire bats might be a threat. Also, we don’t know what reservoirs harbor vampirism. Perhaps sparrows are carriers.

              • lime!
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                1 day ago

                how would sparrows transfer vampirism without teeth?

                • Remember_the_tooth@lemmy.world
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                  1 day ago

                  They wouldn’t directly. They’d have to be bitten by something else that acquires vampirism from them and transfers it to another host, like malaria.