Word: possum
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Unique Anatomies. Other animals in the N.I.H. menagerie are prized for their unique anatomies. The primitive mammalian ear of the possum is used for hearing experiments. The simple retina of the squid proves to be an aid in eye research. Chinchillas, described as "castoffs not suitable for fur coats," have middle-ear cavities larger and more accessible than those of other mammals. Physiologists are able to explore the neural pathways involved in hearing...
...Oxford's 17th century dean, Dr. John Fell, whose reputation survives in one lethal quotation. He once threatened Poet Thomas Brown with university expulsion, promised to rescind the order if Brown could deliver an impromptu translation of Martial's 32nd Epigram ("Non amo te, Sabidi, nee possum dicere quare; Hoc tantum possum dicere, non amo te"). Brown's translation...
...extraordinary insight that his marriage to Jocasta was evil because it drew him back to his childhood and thus prevented the free development of his personality." White forgoing these lapses of taste, T. S. Eliot merely domesticates the Greek myths till they are as tame as Old Possum's pet cals...
...cases, said Dr. Kandle, could be traced to seepage from septic tanks; probably a majority were spread from person to person within families. But when patients were asked what they had eaten 30 to 60 days earlier (because the virus plays possum for that length of time), a surprising number mentioned clams on the half-shell. The raw-clam fanciers, suggested Dr. Kandle, might account for as many as 250 cases...
...sequence. Other Southern editors chose to let Pogo have his say, carried his full symposium on "consegregated," "de-conseg-regated," and "non-un-de-consegregated" schools. Cracked Editor Harry Ashmore. whose Arkansas Gazette did not pencil Pogo: "I suppose some editors are worried about their daughters' marrying a possum...