A friend sent a link to a podcast about a Japanese boy in an internment camp who befriended a magpie - or the magpie befriended him:
Another friend snapped a picture of a painting in a museum in Philadelphia, of a magpie eating cake:
And the New York Times had an article about very very clever magpies in Australia, helping other magpies:
I do like magpies. They are smart and charismatic and nicely graphic.