I heard a funny — and sad — story today. My sister-in-law just moved back to San Jose from the small Costa Rican town of Orotina. She relayed a story about a famous parakeet who lived in one of the town bars. The bird would be let out of the cage, walk up and down the bar counter and sip off of the clients beer. The bird would often get drunk, then sing and talk like crazy. This went on for years.

Well one day last week the bird had a bit too much to drink and woke up with a hangover (goma in Spanish). Someone had the bright idea of giving the poor bird some aspirin — and the little birdie croaked.

A sad end to a short life.