For a bird one doesn't see during daytime, the owl gets a lot of play, doesn't it? From Winnie-the-Pooh's friend to that Tootsie Pop commercial to Hedwig to literally every children's library poster. Owls. What gives?

Well, they are considered wise. (We had to find out why, so we consulted the FAQ of the International Owl Center. It explains that "owls are often seen as wise due to their large eyes, resolute posture and relative silence". Kinda like great uncle Feivel, right?)

There are other owl myths as well, as their nocturnal behavior leads to association with bad luck and witches. (The FAQ reassures us that's not true. Not so sure about uncle Feivel.) But some think that owls are good luck, serving as guardians of the night, for their hooting wards off evil... (Uncle Feivel???)

The guardian theme is taken further by a popular owl-based children's literature series, the Guardians of Ga'Hoole, written by Kathryn Lasky. It was adapted into a movie, the awfully-titled "Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole", which bombed. (You know they were going for sequels with that colon-ed title. There were no sequels.)

In the series, the good owls are pitted against... (you'll never guess!) evil owls. Oh, not just evil... they call themselves the Pure Ones and are all about the superiority of one owl species over another. So, Nazi owls. We're not sure if the good owls would then be Jewish. But Lasky is, so she gets this profile. (Apologies to Pooh's friend and uncle Feivel.)