Counting Crows

[nq:1]I wonder whether the word combination "counting crows" is part of a proverb or some sort of English idiom.[/nq]
In a way. But it's not as widely known as the proverbial "counting chickens before they're hatched."
[nq:1]What is it used for (besides the fact that it is the name of a rock group)? I know how to translate, but since I'm German, I don't have the slightest idea what it coul

[nq:1]I wonder whether the word combination "counting crows" is part of a proverb or some sort of English idiom. What is it used for (besides the fact that it is the name of a rock group)?[/nq]
Might it be a reference to Hempel's paradox?

Alec McKenzie

Long applied to crows in North America. (There are magpies here in the West, but I haven't heard the rhyme applied to them.)
[nq:1]The version I know is: One for sorrow, two for joy, Three for a girl, and four for a boy. Five for silver, six for gold, Seven for a secret that's never been told..[/nq]
Note that the Counting Crows sang this rhyme on their breakthrough album.
Seems to me e

"never to be told" in my version
"Magpie", with the above song as a signature tune, was a UK children's TV programme during the 70s which tried to wrest viewers away from Blue Peter onto ITV by being less worthy and more trendy. They failed (although it did last about 12 years, so that's success of a sort). Blue Peter, of course, will never die.

There will now be a brief pause while a

[nq:1]Note that the Counting Crows sang this rhyme on their breakthrough album.[/nq]
Who are "the Counting Crows"? You don't mean Counting Crows, by any chance, do you?

Likewise, there is no "the" in "Smashing Pumpkins."

http://www.4reference.net/encyclopedias/wikipedi

[nq:2]Note that the Counting Crows sang this rhyme on their breakthrough album.[/nq]
[nq:1]Who are "the Counting Crows"? You don't mean Counting Crows, by any chance, do you?[/nq]
Oooh. I saw them at a Microsoft bash, in the Staples Stadium (?) in LA.

David
==

[nq:2]In a way. But it's not as widely known as ... are not crows (in Dutch, eksters) but not too different.[/nq]
[nq:1]Long applied to crows in North America. (There are magpies here in the West, but I haven't heard the rhyme applied to them.)[/nq]
And Roger Tory Peterson shows there are zero magpies in the US East, so I can see that the custom would have transferred.
Checking Iona Op

[nq:2]Note that the Counting Crows sang this rhyme on their breakthrough album.[/nq]
[nq:1]Who are "the Counting Crows"? You don't mean Counting Crows, by any chance, do you? http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:l5qrOtVgnv4J:www.countingcrows.com/bboard/forum/1382745 flat.html+%2

[nq:2]I wonder whether the word combination "counting crows" is part of a proverb or some sort of English idiom.[/nq]
[nq:1]In a way. But it's not as widely known as the proverbial "counting chickens before they're hatched."[/nq]
A man offered to give me a duck egg yesterday afternoon; he had a carton of them. Big things, they were. I declined, saying I wouldn't know what to do with it. Se