when prince changed his name to that symbol and was asked how it should be said, he said it was the sound of a dying seagull. last year, i was in a drugstore parking lot and i was backing out of my parking space when i heard the loudest, most desperate squawk/screech i can remember. i looked in my rearview mirror, and there lay a seagull, lifeless, his seagull friend lightly pecking underneath him to see if he was all right. it was horrible; i cried . i killed something! but what were seagulls doing in a drugstore parking lot, miles from the ocean, anyway? well, i don't think prince ever heard the sound of a dying seagull, 'cause no one would want to hear that sound twice .