Well, we’re not surprised, and we couldn’t be more pleased: Sunday night at the 80th Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, Corvallis’ favorite (OK ... one of them) son won himself a second Oscar for best animated film,” this time for “Ratatouille.” We loved it. It was a charming and well-told film about a country rat’s efforts to become the top chef at a five-star Paris restaurant.

In his acceptance speech, Bird follows in the footsteps of Tom Hanks, who thanked his high school drama teacher for helping to inspire him in the performance that led to his 1993 Oscar for “Philadelphia.” Bird credited his “junior high school” guidance counselor’s influence.

Born in Kalispell, Mont., Bird grew up in Corvallis. He attended Adams Elementary School, Western View Middle School and graduated from Corvallis High School in 1975. In fact, in what may have been an earlier homage to this same guidance counselor and his hometown, Bird put Western View and CHS’ Spartan Stadium in “The Incredibles,” for which he won a best animated film Oscar in 2004.

Sunday, Bird told nearly a billion TV viewers that his guidance counselor had once asked him what he’d like to do for a living. Make movies, the adolescent Bird answered. Hmmm ... OK. What if there were no movies; What then? He’d invent them, Bird replied. But what if he wasn’t able to get them made? He’d try until he did ...

“It went on like this until we were sick of each other,” Bird said, clutching his Oscar. “I only realized just recently that he gave me the perfect training for the movie business.”

So, Brad ... in the midst of congratulating you again and offering our best wishes for your continued and long-lived success, we have to ask: Would it have killed ya to mention the hometown where all of this happened? You had to know that there would be a certain pretty little city on the river in the heart of the verdant Willamette Valley where the residents were just glued to their screens, hoping to hear you mention Corvallis.

In fact, why not also thanke the guidance counselor by name? His advice proved to be exactly right: Pursue your dream — but

always bear in mind that the odds may not always favor you. Be practical about it. Bird didn’t just scribble drawings in a notebook and expect to turn up onstage at the Kodak Theater a few years later to pick up an Oscar. There was a lot of hard work involved; and no doubt a lot of setbacks.

If Bird ever wanted to thank that counselor in print — and if that person still is available for an interview, give us a shout. And to all those teachers and guidance counselors out there who sometimes have a bad day and wonder if their efforts and influence matter: Take it from our A-list film maker; it really does.