Dream a little dream of me

The oddest dream I ever had  

Most dreams are boring in the retelling or recollecting, but this dream is still vivid, even after many, many years. It's probably the only dream I've ever had that had a punch line! 

It starts with me on my way to meet a friend at a fancy new restaurant -- in fact, it's both a restaurant and a movie theatre. Inside, as I look around for my friend, the first movie of the evening is starting, though people are still filling the seats. Oddly, the movie is an old silent film, Nanook of the North. 

I don't see my friend, so I go to the curtained-off booths which ring the main seating area to see if he's in one of them. He isn't, so I decide to take the last available booth. 

The waiter soon arrives, bearing a large, colourful, multi-page menu. Looking through it, I notice that all of the dishes are songbirds: wrens, nightingales, titmouses, cardinals and more. All of them are shown in beautiful colour in their native habitats -- as well as trussed up and elegantly garnished. 

Under each picture of a finished dish, in small type, is a weight, followed by an asterisk, like this: 7.4 oz.* And at the bottom of the menu is this footnote: * Perch weight, including brains. 

What's up with that!