11

saturday

Attention, crazy people who feed the pigeons: Please do not feed the pigeons. Walking throughout the city is hazardous enough—what, with all the aggro SUV drivers and similarly pissed-off, U-lock-swinging bike couriers on the road—without having to dodge an oncoming flock of 100 flying rats dive-bombing their way from a nearby ledge to the pile of stale bread chunks you’ve scattered all over any given concrete park. Author Andrew Blechman puts forth a good argument for the glorification of these winged beasts in his book, Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World’s Most Revered and Reviled Bird—citing their deification as fertility goddesses and their service to mankind as an early form of mobile communication—but I say, if you’re lonely, buy a parakeet. That way, at least, I won’t have to punch a wide-eyed kamikazi pigeon out of mid-air milliseconds before it plunges its beak into my right eye. Wipe that “good luck” off your jacket before Blechman discusses and signs copies of his work at 6 p.m. at Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Free. (202) 364-1919. (Matthew Borlik)