I have never been one to follow the crowd but what the heck, there's always the exception.

I am going to write about Dick Cheney because everyone else is.

Yes, everyone's taking potshots at the Vice President of the Most Powerful Country In The World because he thought his best friend was a quail and peppered him with birdseed.

To late night comedy TV hosts, events like these are like manna from heaven.

Jon Stewart of The Daily Show said he should almost send back his cheque.

Jay Leno said, "The guy he shot … had a mild heart attack. To which Cheney said: ‘Oh you big baby, I get those all the time. Come on, walk it off!"

Curious to find out what everybody else was saying, I googled "Dick Cheney birdseed" and the top entry was a website called Brooklynparrots.com.

I kid you not. I kid you not.

This website, which is dedicated to the wild parrots of Brookyln (how many are there?), had an article talking about an event called the Audubon's annual Christmas Bird Count.

According to the article, this event owes its origin to another tradition enjoyed by many Americans 100 or so years ago – "on Christmas Day, the fun thing to do after an early dinner was to go out and massacre birds".

Due to awareness of conservation in later years, the Christmas "Side Hunt" became the "Christmas Bird Count" where instead of shooting birds, members would set forth to count birds.

Said the author, "Each time I go out to shoot birds, alone or in a friendly group, the tactical terrain is different: sometimes the shooting conditions are perfect, but the birds aren't there. Sometimes the conditions are terrible, but the quarry is perfectly positioned. Sometimes everything is perfect, but my equipment malfunctions. Once in a while -- and it's truly an adrenaline-laced peak experience that's like no other -- everything comes together and Whammo: I get my perfect shot.

"The only real difference between what I do and what people like Dick Cheney do for fun is my choice of weaponry: I use a camera, not a gun."

Anyway, you're probably wondering what all this has to do with the hospitality industry.

Well, if I were you, I'd take quail off the menu right away. Don't give your guests any reason to take potshots at poor Dick Cheney or make bad jokes at his expense.

Dinner guest: "Here's one that got away from Cheney."

Companion: "Yeah, but Harry didn't."

I'd also go for eye tests – to ensure you do not ever mistake a 78-year-old man wearing a cowboy heart for a quail.

I mean, what would happen if you ever mistook your boss for a pigeon?


The SHY Report
A regular column on news, trends and issues in the hospitality industry by one of Asia's most respected travel editors and commentators, Yeoh Siew Hoon.

Siew Hoon, who has covered the tourism industry in Asia/Pacific for the past 20 years, runs SHY Ventures Pte Ltd. Her company's mission is "Content, Communication, Connection".

She is a writer, speaker, facilitator, trainer and events producer. She is also an author, having published "Around Asia In 1 Hr: Tales of Condoms, Chillies & Curries". Her motto is ‘free to do, and be'.

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