The Price an Emcee Pays...

When I agreed to be the emcee of the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival, I did not know that I would be subject to the artistic talents of my fellow bird watchers. My friend Marci Fuller, chairperson of the festival, put up posters with my photo and bio to help people cope with the fact that the ever-popular Father Tom Pincelli would not be this year's emcee.

She also thought it would be fun to let people decorate my face with erasable pens.

Let me tell you, this was the least offensive version.

Maybe we need to put out crayons and paper at future festivals, because there seems to be a lot of pent-up artistic frustration among today's avid bird watchers...