Okay, I've got my notes here, and I didn't have much time to prepare, so I'm just going to wing it

using my notes. I wrote these up late last night after some hastily performed Google searches.

Let's start with some fun facts about cranes. Everybody loves fun facts, right? Fun fact number one. Cranes were invented by the ancient Greeks.

They were originally powered by people or animals such as donkeys. Cranes began to be powered by steam engines in the

19th century. Hmm. Okay. Invented? I don't know if people can invent birds, but that's what it says here.

Well, here's fun fact number two. There are many different kinds of cranes. Okay, here we go. Now that sounds more like it.

There are mobile cranes, floating cranes, crawler cranes, rough terrain cranes, and many others.

Crawler cranes? Like it crawls on the ground? Can you picture a bird crawling?

Anyway, our third fun fact is that cranes are dangerous. Every year there are approximately

43 crane-related deaths in the United States and a similar number of deaths in the UK.

Really? Crane-related deaths? I had no idea. Do they use their beaks? Their claws?

Oh, wait. You know what? This is embarrassing. Forget all of that. That was about

cranes, the machines. I guess Google didn't know I was searching for facts about cranes,

the birds. Let's blame Google for this. Getting rid of my notes. But to be fair, cranes, the machines used in construction, are named after cranes the birds,

with their long necks stretching toward the sky.

It's true.

And it's probably safe to say that the number of humans killed every year by cranes, the birds, is

approximately zero. These birds are nothing to be afraid of, thankfully. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Humans around the world have celebrated cranes for thousands of years, for their graceful beauty

and their exuberant courtship dances.

Across many cultures, cranes have inspired paintings, songs, dances, legends,

martial arts, heavy construction machinery, apparently,

...