Word: tree
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Adenauer, a staunch democrat in politics, is an autocrat of the breakfast and the dinner table. His son says: "Father leaves democracy at the door. He rules our family with a strong hand. If a rose tree must be transplanted, he decides when and where. If my sister wants to bake a cake, he must say yes or no. This is not unusual in Germany, you know; this is how it should...
With 53 years of experience chasing bees, Edgell has no patience with dilettantes who merely think they know how to do it. Articles on bee hunting, says he, have one thing in common: "They are written by men who never possibly could have found a bee tree, at least by pursuing the methods they describe." Sample fallacies: a handkerchief soaked in anise will induce bees to point the way to their hive (actually they will shun the lure); a "beeline" home is straight (it is really erratic because "no two bees have exactly the same idea as to the best...
When the bees are released, they will (usually) take the sugar syrup home to the hive in the tree. If luck is with the hunter, they will bring comrades back to help carry the rest of the free lunch. When dozens or hundreds of bees are making the trip, the hunter can set his beeline in the right direction...
...Schiller's heroes, he considered himself a rebel; like Kierkegaard, a pessimystic; like Darwin, a scientist; like Goethe's Faust, he turned to black magic (which he practiced in his attic). When he was crossed, he would roam the woods lashing at branches and hacking down young trees; sometimes he would climb a tree and yell defiance at the universe...
...refuses to light three cigarettes on a match, is not permitted, however, to grin too widely. He should read on. Some authorities hold that "touching wood" signifies touching the Holy Cross for protection; others look still further back into the past and see it as an invocation of tree spirits. A ladder leaning against a wall forms a triangle, which is inviolable for the same reason that makes "three on a match" taboo: both represent the Trinity...