Word: birdness
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Rick Labunski, a young and creative South Padre architect, and Mary Lou Campbell, leader of what Cunningham calls the island's "shell and bird" environmentalists, disagree over how much should be built on the barrier reef. Says Labunski: "Believe it or not, there are some people who do not want any development." Says Campbell: "In Texas, we have always thought there was plenty of everything, that nothing needed to be conserved. But is it really progress to destroy those natural things people have come to enjoy?" But they agree on one thing: in light of the erosion and devel...
...hush fell over this assemblage and all that could be heard was the chirping of a bewildered bird--"How well the silvery voice of the warbler with its joyous and innocent twitter blends with the fragrance of the lily of the valley...
...Marx Brothers?"one character asks early on). The book dances quickly through a field as woolly as the history of philosophy prior to Marx. For example, France's René Descartes "introduces us to a mechanistic concept of the world," observes a whimsical bird in one cartoon panel, adding: "Later, we'll see what this is and whether it's edible." In a playful hand-lettered preface, del Rio says that a "reason for trying to take on Charlie was my wish to understand him-an ambition which I haven't satisfied." He repeats that note...
...islands are as delightful to the philologist as they are to the bird watcher or plant stalker. All Hawaiian place names have meanings, poetic or factual. Maui's Waianapanapa, site of a 120-acre, stream-laced state park, is "glistening water." There are lao (valley of dawning inspiration), Kapilau (sprinkle of rain on leaves), Lanilili (rippling surface) and Waiakoa (waters used by warrior). Kaanapali is "rolling cliffs." It is comforting when boating off Wailea to know that the "waters [are] governed by Lea," goddess of canoe making. Lahaina is "land of prophecies...
...memorable songs are English or American ballads rendered in Hawaiian to a Hawaiian beat; The Battle Hymn of the Republic sounds terrific that way. Many other chants have their island-English versions, to wit: The Twelve Days of Christmas, in which "my tutu [grannie] give to me one mynah bird in one papaya tree, two coconut, three dried squid, four flower lei, five fat pig, six hula lesson, seven shrimp as wimming, eight ukulele, nine pound of poi, ten can of beer, eleven missionary and twelve television...