Alex the Parrot before he died: "You be good, see you tomorrow. I love you.”

By Jonathan Ginsburg. Printed May 19, 2012, SeventyFaces.com


1. Alex the parrot
Calm down," Alex, an African Gray parrot, told Dr. Irene Pepperberg, the scientist at the University of Arizona who owns him. "Don't tell me to calm down," Dr. Pepperberg snapped. Sometimes Dr. Pepperberg and Alex squabble like an old married couple. He even says, "I love you."
For the last 22 years, Dr. Pepperberg has been teaching Alex, who is 23, to do complex tasks of the sort that only a few nonhuman species -- chimpanzees, for instance -- have been able to perform. But unlike those other creatures, Alex can talk, or at least, he can vocalize. And, Dr. Pepperberg says, Alex doesn't just imitate human speech, as other parrots do -- Alex can think. His actions are not just an instinctive response, she says, but rather a result of reasoning and choice.

Jeff Topping for The New York Times
Alex the parrot is urged to count objects by Dr. Irene Pepperberg of the University of Arizona.
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So, just how smart is Alex?

Alexs dies this week. last words to the doctor?
As she put him into his cage for the night last Thursday, she recalled, Alex looked at her and said: “You be good, see you tomorrow. I love you.”
He was found dead in his cage the next morning, Dr. Pepperberg said.

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Jonathan Ginsburg

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Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg and hs wife Rabbi Avigail Ginsburg, have developed amny online jewih eductional programs including conversio to Judaism, hebrew scool, bnai mitzvah training, para rabbis, Introduction to Judaism, and Judaism explained to Christians. He has developed over 550 videos of jewish educational content. He is a native of Chicago. Rabbi Ginsburg received his B.A. in religion from the University of Chicago where he was the valedictory orator and received his Masters and Rabbinic Ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary where he received the Krasne Award for outstanding student. He was a National Merit scholar and 1974 National High School Debate Champion. Rabbi Ginsburg, before returning to Chicago, he was the senior Rabbi at the Temple of Aaron, a 1400-family Conservative synagogue for 17 years, and adjunct faculty of St. Catherine College and Metropolitan University. Prior to that, he served as senior Rabbi at the Kane street Synagogue in Brooklyn for 5 years. He is now President of the Niles Township Clergy Association. His websites and blogs www.jonathanginsburg.net www.jewishconversionchicago.co m www.rabbireflects.blogspot.com www.ehnt.org www.jewishconversionchicago.co m/blog.html