Word: emblems
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Being the national emblem didn't keep the bald eagle from facing extinction. Devastated by hunters and pollution, the birds were down to a few hundred breeding pairs in the lower 48 states when they became an endangered species in 1978. Now they are back (4,000-plus pairs) and only "threatened" -- out of grave danger but still off-limits to hunters...
...turkeys had graced the emblem of our great seals instead of eagles, we might not enjoy their succulent flesh every year in November. We don't exactly feast on bald eagles, who weren't always an endangered species, on any special day. But maybe bald eagles taste really good, and we just don't know. Here at Dartboard, we're pretty darn sure they taste like chicken...
...neat trick about Forrest is he can symbolize so many people. New York Times columnist Frank Rich has compared him to Bill Clinton. But Forrest's simple optimism and his success as an entrepreneur and a reviver of American confidence could make him an emblem of '80s conservatism: not only Reaganomics but what Republicans might call Reaganethics. He's E.T. with a little Gandhi thrown in. He's Candide making the best of the worst of all possible worlds. And in his influence on events, from the capture of the Watergate burglars to John Lennon's composition of the song...
...national symbol, the bald eagle is supposed to be the embodiment of American strength, grace and pride. But for much of this century, the majestic bird has been an emblem of the country's careless and sometimes callous treatment of wildlife. Pinched by human population growth, poisoned by pollutants and slaughtered by hunters, the eagle went into such a decline that by 1940 Congress felt compelled to pass a law protecting the highflyer. It didn't work: in 1963 there were only 417 breeding pairs of bald eagles left in the lower 48 states, and by 1978, when the eagle...
...result is both eccentric and oddly endearing. Kirstein portrays himself as a child with "an inborn greed for artificed splendor," mesmerized by patterns and designs. One of the longest episodes in the book recounts his intense quest for just the right emblem to paint on his canoe paddle at summer camp. Citing an occasion when his father gave him a $20 bill, Kirstein remembers "the papery cash, its tough fibrous thinness inlaid with bits of red and green silk." The dreamy young man did not take much interest in academics, but he passed Harvard's entrance exam anyway. Once enrolled...