Birdley Nostalgia

One of my students from last year came to my class and asked for a Dr. Birdley comic, just for old times sake. This was a student of mine who had been pretty enthusiastic about reading the Birdley comics and playing the characters last year. I gave him one on the role of cyanobacteria in the oxygen revolution (viewable at www.birdleymedia.com/samplechoice.html. ) Within 30 minutes he completed it and got it back to me. I didn't even have this guy as a student this year, but it seems he was gripped by little Birdley nostalgia. I also had an incident last week where a few students of mine from last year came and asked for some of the Birdley coupons. In an effort to stay in touch with youth culture I based them on some of the online games that are out now (ex. World of Byrdcraft / Gears of Byrd) which gave them a good level of popularity. It's always nice to see students coming back.
Questions about the Birdley strip sometimes come up in class. In my classes the students are starting to play the characters and then asking a few questions about them such as "what species of bird is Dr. Birdley?" which I honestly have to think about. (I've always said he's a type of duck.) Others have found it a surprise that the Birdley characters interact with human scientists. In the comic they discuss or interact with human scientists such as Sir Isaac Newton, Dimitri Mendeleev, Robert Hooke, and Carl Woese. But the school Birdley teaches at (Flockhart Academy) mainly has bird characters attending. (Don't ask why - I'm not familiar with their admissions policy.) Last year, one of my students gave me a note with a theory from one of the comics that Dr. Birdley was evil. Not the case! But he made a good argument based on the events of a comic. To my knowledge Birdley has always been of strong moral fiber.
Now on the issue of people being "beaked:" Some students in period 6 this year have asked to become bird characters in the comics. With the exception of my family, "real life" people don't get made into birds except for special holiday / get well cards that I make for people. In that case, people get to see themselves "beaked."