> > Y'know (another overused phrase, which I figure may as well be a contraction because that's how everyone pronounces it anyway), I wonder how many people who said they didn't live in the U.S. and didn't have an official bird actually have one, but it was just so insignificant a fact of their lives that they didn't know it.

When I was in Samoa a couple of years ago, there was a rather droopy and pathetic banner hanging over the main (well, only) street of Apia. It looked like there was a campaign on, to raise awareness of the country's national bird (I forget what it was). The banner showed a picture of the national bird and pleaded, "LOVE the birds! Don't eat them!"

Brunnen-"sounds like a losing battle"G