Word: sand
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...steely purple, stained; at others, under a close warm rain sky, the no-color of dirty wash; choppy rows hurried in from the horizon to be delivered and disposed of in the lick and slide at the shore. Piet stopped to pick up angel wings, razor clam shells, sand dollars with their infallibly etched star and their considerate airhole for an inhabiting creature Piet could not picture...
...several states, civic organizations now make it a custom to collect discarded Christmas trees, haul them to the beaches, where they trap flowing sand and shore up the dunes, and Boy Scouts plant marsh grass to anchor the dunes. One hardy variety of sea grass that has been developed by North Carolina State University grows 4 ft. high in twelve months. Ocean City, N.J., is experimenting with nylon bags that can be filled on the spot with sand and used as temporary groins. On Wallops Island, Va., NASA has proposed planting plastic seaweed just beyond the surf line to reduce...
...Corps of Engineers has found that the most effective way to repair erosion is simply to bring new sand to the beaches-either hauling it in by truck or pumping it up from the ocean floor. Such methods have successfully rebuilt California's Redondo Beach, for example, where 14 years ago the waves were breaking over the sea wall and across the road behind. But these measures are expensive. Atlantic City has invested $9,000,000 over the years on a combination of jetties and pumping devices to keep its tourist industry alive. California spends more than...
...brutal fact of nature is that the sea each year claims more than it gives. Ever since the end of the last ice age-when the grinding action of glaciers against rocks created much of the world's present sand-the oceans have been steadily rising. Fed by slowly melting ice, the level of the seas is now 300 ft. above what it was 18,000 years ago, and is still creeping up at something like 9 in. a century. If man is to keep his beloved beaches, he will have to continue the costly process of reclaiming sand...
...present in all its gradations, which is to say that it ranges from the exquisite to the embarrassing. At its best, Updike's writing flows with an unforgettable, lilting legato: "October's orange ebbed in the marshes; they stretched dud grey to the far rim of sand." The talk of a husband and wife in bed at night, speaking of their children or their friends, evokes in tone and languor the bedroom conversation familiar to all parents. In the Guerins' home, guests move through "a low varnished hallway where on a mock cobbler's bench their...