Word: sand
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Through an accident of onomatopoeia, the Rann of Kutch* looks just like it sounds. A reeking reach of black tidal mudflats bounded with sand dunes and etched by dead streams of salt and scum, it was until recently of interest only to hardy naturalists in search of the lesser flamingo and herds of wild asses. But the Rann separates India and Pakistan, and that fact alone was sufficient last week to make it another of the world's dangerous little flash points...
...mirage? There in the sand-blown, baking desert near Colton, Calif., it looked as though people were splashing and slaloming around on water skis without a motorboat to tow them. But when some 8,000 people drove up to stop and stare one day last week, they saw that it was really happening...
Near the Colton airport, which he operates, Maxwell and two contractor partners dug a 17-acre lake in the shape of a hollow rectangle and lined it with plastic to keep the water from draining away into the sand (TIME, Oct. 12, 1962). In the center is a 4½-acre park with a swimming pool, paddle-tennis courts, refreshment stands and palm trees. The 250-ft.-wide ski course runs beneath four towers that support an overhead steel cable, powered by a 74-h.p. diesel engine. At ten-second intervals it carries 77-ft. tow ropes past a carpeted...
Trudging a quarter of a mile back to the starting dock, barefoot on the hot pebbly sand, can be a bit painful. But Slim Maxwell is about to install a rescue operation by using a golf cart...
...seldom get subjective about a cause," Bernays recalls, "but this was like throwing sand into the face of the public. I resolved right then, and there to try to make this a national issue...