Newbie asks about static variables...

[Jeremy Hylton]

A slight variant, which uses a little less magic, is to make
killParrot a method on an object that keeps track of the state.

class Spam:
    def __init__(self):
        self.no_calls = 0
    def addEggs(self):
        self.no_calls = self.no_calls + 1

meal = Spam()
meal.addEggs()
meal.addEggs()
assert meal.no_calls == 2

I've got nothing against __call__.  I've been happy to use it on
several occasions, but methods do just fine for most things.

Jeremy