Alex the talking parrot, to his trainer the night before he died: “You be good. See you tomorrow. I love you.”
Alex, the talking gray parrot, is dead, at age 31. Apparently there had been no hint that he was sick.
As Irene Pepperberg, the psychologist who taught him to talk (not just imitate the sound of words, but actually use words to communicate) put him in his cage for what turned out to be the last time, Alex said, “You be good. See you tomorrow. I love you.”
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman