I was listening to the Juice Media podcast on 21 March 2020 featuring Dr Norman Swan. The host, Giordano, introduced Dr Swan thus:
As always here in the Juice Media Podcast, we have a policy of giving the microphone to experts, and Dr Norman Swan is the kind of expert that we really need, because yes, he’s a doctor —
And at that point I wanted him to continue “— and he’s a Norman, and he’s a swan.”
He did not, however.
But I mentioned this whimsy on my Facebook wall, and my friend Oighrig (Olly) NcLean took up my suggestion of commissioning the awesome artist Dr Tallulah Cunningham to draw a picture of a Doctor who is also a Norman and a swan. To complete the image, she incorporated a tailor bird for Dr Swan’s co-host, Tegan Taylor.
This is the result: a magnificent artwork capturing the solemn majesty of Australia’s favourite waterfowl/warbler broadcasting combo, with a proper Norman shield embossed with the enemy’s visage. Click, tap or peck with your beak to see the larger version.
I pity the virus who comes up against these two!
This artwork was commissioned by Oighrig NcLean, who presents it herewith to Dr Swan and Ms Taylor to do with as they wish. Copyright transfers to the recipients. A high-resolution PNG format suitable for proper quality printing can be downloaded from here. For attribution, the artist is Dr Tallulah Cunningham PhD (Natural History Illustration), whose website is at melanippos.com.
About the Author
Eric TF Bat is a geek, chorister, medievalist and collector of extremely high-quality friends who all share at least some of those qualities. He occasionally writes filk songs (parody songs in the style of Weird Al Yankovic), which can be perused on the BatPage. The subset of songs relevant to the Coronavirus pandemic have their own special index, and they include one that even mentions Dr Norman Swan.