Why a Grumpy Parrot?
It all began with a trip to Venezuela,
… my wife’s six year old niece, Gabriela, and a healthy fear of Dr. Seuss.
As a 6 year old, Gabriela was a merciless tease who at the time of my first visit to Venezuela had just started her English lessons.
Commendably, she insisted on practicing English with me at every possible opportunity. At 6, her English vocabulary already far exceeded my command of Spanish. But, for some reason, her favourite phrase, and the one she liked to practice most with me, went something like: “you look like a grumpy parrot square face”.
This was, of course, a disturbing revelation. It had simply never occurred to me before. How so? Was it my hair—which at the time was still rather reddish (and something of a rarity in the leafy suburbs of Caracas). And it’s true that my nose was, and still is, a bit beaky. But beyond that, I had no idea.
Despite my best efforts to ignore this unjustified and incessant harassment (by hiding at the bottom of my mother-in-law’s garden whenever Gabriela was around, which was all the time), the “grumpy parrot” part of the phrase still managed to find me and stick. It has since become an acknowledged nickname and over time a cherished part of family lore.
On later visits to Venezuela, Gabriela tried less successfully to rebrand me with a new term of endearment through occasional (and by “occasional” I mean frequent) comparisons to the “Lorax”, a lesser known Dr. Seuss character who is covered in bright orange fur. In retrospect, I do see the resemblance—as this was still before the onset of premature greying.
Anyway, when looking for a website name, both of these monikers came to mind along with this charming little backstory. In the end, obviously, I decided on Grumpy Parrot. Of the contenders Grumpy Parrot is: i) unique, and most importantly, ii) it avoids an ugly copyright brawl with Dr. Seuss Enterprises over use of their intellectual property.
Gabriela is now a grown woman and, at the time of writing this story, is already in her penultimate term of a chemical engineering degree. She’ll be soon moving to Spain for a final work term before graduating.
She has also become an accomplished musician.
No surprises there.
The family couldn’t be more proud, including the Grumpy Parrot.
Bolivar Square, Baruta, Distrito Federal, Venezuela
There is, however, a real grumpy parrot in Venezuela and it belongs to my father-in-law, Manuel. It’s name is Do Re Doh, and its vocabulary would make the most hardened Tren de Aragua sicario break out in a cold sweat and cry for his mother and a priest. So don’t let the smiling eyes fool you.
