Word: birde
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...soon, perhaps late in April, the U.S. Air Force plans to test-fire its first intercontinental ballistic missile, the Atlas. Known to its keepers as "the Bird," Atlas presses evenly, inevitably, inexorably, upon the visible pattern of U.S. defense, industry and life, including Southern motels (see cut). For the story of the man, Air Force Major General Ben A. Schriever, who has the responsibility of developing the ICBM as an operational weapon, see NATIONAL AFFAIRS, The Bird & the Watcher...
...Force Missile Test Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla., behind high security fences, the ICBM was stripped of its shroud, its garish yellow, black and red skin exposed to the light of day. Soon more than 300 Air Force and Convair scientists, engineers and technicians were primping and pampering "the Bird," grooming its round and bulbous nose, its disproportionately thick waist, its flared skirt, its unbelievably complex and exotic mechanism. One day soon, perhaps late in April, perhaps early in May, the Bird will make its first flight. From a sickle-shaped launching pad near a sunny vacation shore the Bird...
Locally, opinion seemed to favor the move. James C. Greenway, Harvard Curator of Birds, commented, "People here like to feed birds," and the purple finch is a "pretty bird," an "intimate thing for people to see at their feeding stations...
...echoed Monahan's sentiment that the finch is a "favorite with bird feeders because it is extremely friendly, easy to tame and is not greedy at feed trays...
Only two of the statements made so far expressed any doubt concerning the choice. Dr. Ernst Mayr, Professor of Zoology, thought the purple finch a fine bird, but added, "Actually it's nothing very important, if you ask me." Whole-heartdly in favor of his nominee, Rep. Monahan had to concede that the purple finch is not really purple, but "like a sparrow dipped in rasberry juice." Outside of these two minor points, the purple finch is generally regarded as one of America's finest sweet-throated songsters...