Dear Tim:
Thank you for the comment of last week! I promise to do my utmost to make progress on my English writing skills!
I heard that Doris got super thrilled when last week in your newsletter, foxes were mentioned. Well this week is MY turn! My heart bloomed with happiness as the mention of owls.
Owl has been my favorite animal since middle school. I have had no idea why, but one day, something just clicked in me and there I was, deciding that owls are my favorite animal from then on. A lot of people ask me what I see in owls. I can never figure out which of the features are the most charming, since there are so many. (Oh, and them being carnivorous is more like a charm rather than a threat to me. Vicious cute owls… hmmm…)
First, is the fact that they are capable of turning their heads 270 degrees, which is so unique (I wouldn’t use “peculiar” to describe because it was way too fascinating to be described such ways).
Second, some of them have incredibly big eyes, looking at you through a pair of sincere eyes, how can other people resist this? Looking into them, you see how and when the different shades of their eyes morph into one another… Tranquility, tantalization, I can’t take my focus off them!
Another thing is that some of the owl species have “head tufts”, which looks like ears of the top of their heads. Here is a picture of head tufts. However, they are not served as hearing organs; in fact, ear tufts are nothing more than what we call “adornments”, possibilities of the functions vary from finding mates to a more-developed set of camouflage. (Wikipedia, Ear Tufts) Judging by the look of their “ears”, I have pegged them as “soft, fluffy, and reassuring”.
with ear tufts (AWWW)
without 
so thir ears are actually here
I googled a bit, and found out that the owls you refer to might be the great horned owls. They are also a kind of species of owls that have tufts (my favorite sort~), and can live up to 29 years! (Wikipedia, Great horned Owls) I have wished for an owl for companionship, but it seemed difficult in Taiwan… Or else I would adore the idea of having an owl (or owls?) resting on my shoulder, or watching as they tore through the meat I feed them… How lovely would it be? (Sorry if that sounded a little bit weird, it was my obsession of owls doing the trick)
Seeing Melvyn talking about aircraft and history, seeing Buzz talking about cheese (from their blogs last week), I feel like I should as well talk about something I am interested in.
Therefore, I was thinking about adding a paragraph of Greek mythology story or an introduction of a novel.
Here it is :D
The Fuse of the Trojan War
This legendary war between the Greeks and the Trojans is the only war I have been looking into. Though it was just a fictional story (about how the war started and the Gods inside) written by the blind, old, bard Homer, the details are as complicated as a tangled bundle of yarn, hence made it so attention-drawing.
Thetis was a minor goddess of the sea, but an oracle was presented to her, which told Thetis that her son would overpower his father. Hearing this omen, Zeus, the king of all Gods, was afraid that he would be overthrown by her son if she bore her with another god, and hence married her to the king of Phetia, Peleus (which was the father of Achilles, which was indeed a valiant warrior later on)
To celebrate the wedding of the two, the gods threw a banquet and invited all the gods.
Except a goddess they forgot.
Eris, being the goddess of discord, was inexplicably infuriated and decided that a revenge is to be made. Therefore, she crafted a beautiful golden apple that even the gods won’t be able to resist. With the words “to the fairest” carved on the apple, she presented it to the goddesses on the banquet. All of them were tempted to fight for it, but after seeing three of the main goddesses – Athena, Hera and Aphrodite- at one another’s throat already, they decided to back off and leave the three goddesses to their business.
They went to the throne of the Zeus, demanding him to pick out the rightful owner of the golden apple. However, picking either of them would mean the ire from the other two. Being unwilling to face the wrath of the goddesses, he gave the task to Paris, one of the sons of Priam, a prince in Troy.
Paris was bribed by Aphrodite with the most beautiful woman on the world in exchange of the golden apple. Paris obliged and she led her to Sparta, where Helen, the wife of Menelaus lived. He kidnapped Helen, so Menelaus and his brother, Agamemnon, The king of Atreus led an army consisted of warriors from different kingdoms of Greece (some of them are so famous that even people who seldom reads Greek mythology know. For example, there was Achilles as mentioned above, Odysseus, the king of Thessaly, Nestor from Pylos and Diomedes from Argos etc.) And just because of this “beauty contest”, the war between humans that lasted over ten years began. At the same time, high in the mountains of Olympus, the Gods have picked sides as well. Athena and Hera chose to favor the Greeks as Aphrodite took the Trojan side (obviously because of the result). Other gods chose their sides as well, though for different reasons.
~
puns…
p.s. If there are anymore problems about my writing that I can improve, please tell me, thank you.
Best regards,
Hugo, 03/17/2017
Hugo,
ReplyDeleteYour writing is getting better all of the time!
Are there owls that are native to Taiwan. Here in the US, we have a large variety of owls. In Arizona, we have at least 3 or 4, including the great horned owl, the barn owl, and the tiny burrowing owl. Every once in a while, were'll see a barn owl in our neighborhood. I hope that it's hunting rats or pidgeons.
Good job on your Greek mythology story. Did you know that the owl was the symbol of wisdom to the Greeks? As such, it was a symbol for Athena, and for the city of Athens.
Tim