View from the North 40: Ugly creature is as ugly does

Having spent last week’s column bemoaning man’s inhumanity to the ugly creatures of the world, I must confess that my husband, John, and I are no less guilty of our own prejudices in favor of beautiful creatures.

Of course, we have justification. Humans always do for their blatant acts of inhumanity. In our world, ugly is as ugly does.

The common pigeon, for example, is quite lovely in all its variations of color and markings, but the droppings, well, I imagine some level of hell is just a constant rainfall of pigeon poo.

They befoul everything, but one of their favorite nesting perc...