This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

So the other day my 6-year-old granddaughter noticed large birds circling slowly overhead.

She pointed at them and said, "It means trouble when you see birds doing that."

Not long ago this granddaughter told me she likes her books at school to have "facts." You know. Stuff like how sloths only go to the bathroom once a week. Or how giraffes eat over 75 pounds of leaves a day. Or how sea turtles can hold their breath for 30 minutes like it's no big deal. Or how more people are killed in a single year in Asia by falling coconuts than by sharks. Who knew?

So I thought I'd share a few interesting bird facts with her now that I'm practically a bird expert because I just went to the Great Salt Lake Bird Festival last week. Which, btw, was awesome.

"Birds can soar in circles like that because of thermal heat rising from the ground. Isn't that amazing? It's like all those birds overhead are hitching a ride at Disneyland, and they don't even have to flap their wings! Or pay an entrance fee!"

I was proud of myself for rolling out some demystifying hard science along with an appropriate theme-park metaphor. Score! Also, I wanted to reassure her — just in case she really WAS afraid of those birds.

My granddaughter looked at me. Then she looked at the birds and squinted her eyes into wary slits. Then she looked at me again.

"Yes. But it also means trouble when you see birds doing that," she said with dark satisfaction.

Her reaction reminded me of a column I wrote a few years ago about mutilated cats turning up in the Salt Lake Cemetery, not far from our house. It was unnerving, to say the least, and people started blaming Satanists for the problem, because you know how Satanists are always mutilating whatever they can get their hands on.

In the end, however, Satanists everywhere (or at least in Salt Lake) were exonerated when it was determined that foxes, not people, were responsible. While this wasn't exactly good news for cats, Avenues residents were relieved.

Sort of.

Actually, some people were vaguely disappointed. You gotta admit that a story starring Satanists is way sexier than a story featuring foxes. Scarier, too. And, as my granddaughter's reaction to those birds circling overhead demonstrates, human beings are oddly attracted to the things that make them feel afraid.

How else do you explain the enduring popularity of novels by Stephen King or movies about killers wearing hockey masks? How else do you account for the scary stories people tell each other in the dark about vampires and monsters and aliens and other things that go bump in the night? Or the way kids dare each other to visit a graveyard after midnight and run around a designated tombstone three times? Also, what about roller coasters and other rides that dangle you in midair?

What about all those stories coming out of Washington, D.C., right now?

And what happens after you engage with everything that makes you feel afraid? You close the book or leave the movie theater or turn off the computer or fold up the newspaper and go to that place where you feel safe again.

Safe feels sooooooooo good … at least until you need to feel your heart race and your pulse pump again. That's when you need another fear fix.

So you start watching out for big birds flying in slow, lazy circles overheard, because you know.

Trouble.

Ann Cannon can be reached at acannon@sltrib.com or facebook.com/anncannontrib.