Wednesday, June 07, 2006

There should be a new word for dumb besides bird-brained.

I nominate Daily News-brained.

This is from yesterday's paper. The story was also on TV news all day. Guess we should be glad there's nothing better [i.e. more horrible] to write about.


New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
What is deal with these hawks?
BY BRITTANY KARFORD and BILL HUTCHINSON
DAILY NEWS WRITERS
Tuesday, June 6th, 2006

Jerry Seinfeld has a new bird-brained neighbor - and it ain't Kramer.

The city's most famous red-tail hawks, Pale Male and his main chick, Lola, have apparently left their upper East Side roost for a fancy new perch atop the Beresford on the upper West Side.

"I love the hawks!" Seinfeld told the Daily News yesterday as he left his Beresford co-op and got into his silver Mercedes-Benz M350. "I can't get enough of the hawks."

Pale Male and Lola could be seen yesterday flying to and from their new address overlooking Central Park in the 22-story building's rococo southeast tower. One of the birds appeared to have twigs in its beak, leading observers to believe they are building a nest.

Actress Glenn Close, who lives in the tony building on Central Park West, was surprised to learn of her new neighbors upstairs.

"What hawks?" Close asked The News. "I love hawks."

Photographer Lincoln Karim, who has been following the lovebirds' saga for six years, first noticed they were on the move about three months ago.

He said that when he started snapping pictures of them with his 800-mm. lens some Beresford residents mistook him for a paparazzo looking for Seinfeld.

Karim said he doesn't have a clue why the high-style hawks decided to move, but noted they've failed to produce any offspring in their upper East Side digs over the past two mating seasons.

"What I find admirable is that after two failures they're still courting, still dancing together," Karim said.

But the hawks have ruffled a few feathers in the home of the original Cosmo girl, Helen Gurley Brown, 84.

The famed magazine editor said she's "honored and flattered" to have the birds nesting just above her apartment, but her husband, film and Broadway producer David Brown, is not happy about it.

"They do nothing for me," David Brown said. "I'll tell you, my wife is insane about birds."

At the hawks' old haven at 927 Fifth Ave., where their neighbors included Mary Tyler Moore and CNN newscaster Paula Zahn, local residents were sorry to hear they had left their 12th floor ledge.

"I'm disappointed," said fashion designer Michael Latschison, 40, who lives in the neighborhood. "But who says a hawk is loyal."

It was actually a landlord-tenant dispute at the Fifth Ave. building in December 2004 that made the hawks famous. Some residents briefly got Pale Male and Lola evicted after complaining about having to step over the birds' leftover meals.