Dodo Is As Dodo Does

I saw a man who had a T-shirt with the insignia, "Le paradis de dodo."  Then I saw a man who had no shirt at all.  But I did not weep for him, but rather for myself, because he was a fat hairy German tourist floating like a sunburned whale in the middle of the Nirvana pool.  But, returning to the point, I bought a Mauritius T-shirt.  I couldn't find one that said Dodo Paradise in any language, but I did find one that says, "The Dodo Legend."  It's a bold move for a country to market itself as the place where an animal went extinct, and then expect the tourists to come flocking in.  But as a teaser, here's some Dodo lore:

The Dutch called it "walghvogel," meaning "loathsome bird."  That was a reference to its taste, though, to be fair, as far as I know it refers to the inept manner in which the Dutch cooked it.  The Dodo was about a yard tall and weighed 40 pounds.  It had no wings.  Why is it called the dodo and not the walghvogel, you ask?  Some accounts say it comes from dodoor, which is Dutch for "sluggard" - obviously, the Dutch were not very kind toward the Dodo - but others say it comes from dodaars, "referring to the knot of feathers on its hind end," and which apparently literally means "knot-ass," which is now one of my favorite insults which I expect to have opportunity to use upon return to the embassy.  Anyway, Dodo paradise came to an end no later than 1700, probably some years before that.  The species lasted about a century from its discovery by man to its extinction.  But at least I got this T-shirt.