Its intention, apparently, was to discourage the regular avian patrons, whose currency was less desirable than that of their human counterparts. It's outcome has, predictably, been the exact reverse. Even Carnivorous Cow and her band of hardened caffeine addict accomplices have struggled to talk sufficient drivel sufficiently loudly to drown out the sounds of raptorial indulgence, as their own chocolate croissants cool with neglect and their coffee sticks in their teary throats. Sensitive souls, these - this is Leslie *Social Science*, after all.
In Leslie Commerce they'd probably have hawked (forgive the pun) it as a marketing opportunity - enjoy your morning coffee among the authentic sounds of the Cape Inner City Wilds! Feel the warmth suffuse your system as one fewer avian pollutant threatens to spoil the new wax job on your Toyota Camry (or whatever it is Commerce Clones drive these days)! Feel the rush as Natural Selection ensures, once again, that only the fittest survive. Revel in your shared status as a winner. Celebrate with another cappuccino - low fat option available for all the portly, over-stressed beancounter types!
But having assumed all along that this was a commercial venture, instituted by the profit-seeking capitalist who enslaves us all to caffeine, Carnivorous Cow was gobsmacked to discover earlier that this was not a correct assumption. Having suggested discreetly to Linda that the fine power cable find its way into the toaster until it fried, she was startled to hear that it was not, in fact, Wayne's innovation. The device had been installed by UCT!
What??!! Somewhere, someone employed by this institution whose noble sensibilities are listed in a fine statement of Values on its website, has decided that it's OK to traumatise staff every morning, afternoon and anyother time they venture over for coffee, with the murderous sounds of avicide? (And, what's more, had the budget to act on this... at this stage of the year? And managed to jump it through all the bureaucratic hoops and hurdles to get it installed, functioning and still operational...? Seems unlikely, but clearly these things *are* possible. And all this time, we thought stochastic ooze was a myth...!)
It reminds one rather of the aversion therapy the old SADF used on boys of a homosexual orientation - Carnivorous Cow can only imagine that someone, somewhere within Toad Hall strayed across the article about Coffee and Sexand decided to take action. Come to think of it, the coffee this morning did taste strangely reminiscent of blousteen...