Strike That Phrase, Media

By Baxter

This will probably surprise you, but today we cats feel we have to speak up for the birds.

Don't get us wrong. We're very happy that everyone survived when USAirways flight 1549 hydroplaned into the Hudson River on Thursday. But we're so tired of this term "bird strike." Everyone's using it, which makes us suspect that it's aviation lingo that the lazy folks in the media are just parroting (ha, ha, pun intended) because they can't think of a better phrase. But we sure wish they would.

To us, "bird strike" implies that 1549's close call was the fault of those poor Canada geese that the plane hit. That's right, that the plane hit — and then chopped into pieces in its engines. Definitely, the geese did some major damage — but it was the plane that struck the birds, not the other way around. (We'd like to also point out that birds have been flying eons longer than humans, by the way).

Oh, well, we'll let it go. We cats just hope that folks realize how rare an event like 1549 is. But if you're still feeling a little nervous about flying, why not take the train?

UPDATE: See? The folks at 23/6 agree... "bird strike" connotes "bird attack." Move over, Tippi!