...whether that fact fills you with delight or despair probably depends upon whether the shopping is done, and how much you're looking forward to spending time with your family.
But, in either case, why not stop the headlong rush for a moment to enjoy the vision of calm and freedom provided by a lean and creamy shape slicing its way through the sky.
photo by Arnold Paul
Why are gulls so loftily calm? Well, possibly because they don't bother with presents, or cooking their Christmas dinner:
photo by Gary Miller, Environmental Protection Agency. Hackensack dump, New Jersey.
If you're too busy even to enjoy the effortless grace of a sky-sliding gull, then a gull is also someone easily fooled or cheated.
This time of year, you're going to be pushing your way through crowds of them.
It might be worth checking before you lay out too much cash that one of them isn't you.
It might be worth checking before you lay out too much cash that one of them isn't you.
Spot the Frippet: gull. The bird word is Celtic (the Welsh for gull is gwylan). The easily-fooled word is, curiously, probably also to do with birds: there's a dialect word gull which means an unfledged bird. This word probably comes from the Old Norse gulr, yellow.
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