Merlin is amazing. I heard birds outside my new apartment and thought of them as nice background noise. Within days of installing Merlin, I could tell sparrows, cardinals and robins apart without seeing them. Whenever I heard a new bird, I’d grab my phone and open Merlin.

One day it sounded like a robin and a cardinal were having and argument while both simultaneously having a stroke. Merlin figured out it was a catbird, a relative of the mockingbird that learns the songs of other birds then strings pieces of them together in a disorganized song to impress the ladies. Basically, the male catbird who can sing the weirdest songs using the most species signals that he has “been around” for enough seasons to learn all those songs and therefore must have good genes the females want to pass on. It’s mind blowing to learn all this about things that are going on outside your window.

I somehow read this comment in the voice of the cleric performing the “mawwiage” ceremony in Princess Bride.

Cleric: “Sunwise…” long, uncomfortable pause. “And for the exact same weason.” Pause. “Clocks go clockwise because their pwedecessors did… and what were their pwedecessors?”

Humperdink: “Look, can we hurry this up?”

Cleric: “Sundials.”

Humperdink: “Just skip to the end!”

Cleric: “Countewclockwise… as said in another comment… would be… widdershins.”

The screaming could also mean:

“I have been up all night watching these babies and I am exhausted! Not one of them was hungry! I need some me time with my face in the catnip plant. Someone watch them while I’m passed out… and no more catnip for the babies! They all still smell like catnip from the last time you looked after them.”

I think the Turkish Van version is “when you realize you’re the only cat who likes swimming.”

They do look very similar.😀