At 1:38 p.m. outside the Norris University
Center, Wednesday, January 21, 2009, a
flock of 33 Canada Geese picks at frozen mud
through ice. In Planet Earth speak they
are in search of a grass grain or crumb
to get them through the bitter cold winter,
and it is Obama’s first full day on the job as
44th president.

AVIAN DISEASES
vol. 18 no. 1
Case Report —
Starvation in a Group of Canada Geese

Summary: geese are captured and moved to an enclosure containing abundant food and water, where they began to weaken and die, especially the juveniles. Necropsy of birds showed only emaciation and empty digestive tracts, suggesting starvation. The remaining geese, force-fed fresh lawn clippings and corn, responded well, with no further complications noted.

Just inside, Norris buzzes with its usual
activity: meetings, snacks, open books and
dismembered laptops, etherized across the
N.U.I.T. laptop E.R. table. The mood is
content, generally, although every now and
then, there’s someone reading a newspaper
with puffy, wet eyes. And elsehwere
someone breaks into a smile without
apparent precedent.

Minutes earlier and 17.2 miles west, a faint sense of terror simmers behind the eyes, open too wide and remembering a splash in the Hudson (”Just the emotional impact of seeing the plane hit the water draws out a lot of emotion”) the eyes of the air-traffic controllers at O’Hare International Airport. The controllers, as we call them, bear quiet witness to eleven airborne threats — gliding across the runway, then off over the nearby skyscrapers — the controllers watch the BASH (Bird Aircraft Strike Hazard) radars. The threats, honking, are determined to get back north and multiply. They fly overhead in a characteristic V.

As the shadows dart past overhead, the 33
bend their necks up towards the sky, searching
for the passing threat. The eleven arc back
like civilians who’ve been in flight for days
across a hostile landscape, without food.
The eleven descend to join the group of fat
looking friends.

My theory, Karamazov, is plain and clear. I have faith in the common people and am always prepared to render them justice…But I was talking about that goose. Well, then I turn to that idiot and tell him, ‘I’m looking at the geese because I’m trying to figure out what they’re thinking about.’ So he gives me one of those dumb looks and says: ‘And what does a goose think about?’