Word: brushwood
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Youth told only what all but the most naive schoolmasters already knew-that homosexuality was not uncommon in a system that "herded together monastically children of thirteen and men of eighteen for two-thirds of the year." Nevertheless, it shocked the sensibilities of a nation brought up on The Brushwood Boy and Tom Brown's School Days...
With the help of the sea nymph Calypso, far-wandering Odysseus prepared to sail for home across the wine-dark sea. But when he had finished his boat, why did he cover the bilge with a layer of brushwood? Generations of scholars have sweated over the passage without producing a satisfactory answer. One theory holds that brush is only a mistranslation of ballast; some classicists argue that Odysseus was merely making a bed. A few despairing translators have ignored the brush entirely. Not until recently, when archaeologists learned to skindive. was the puzzling passage explained...