Word: vernal
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...skeleton of Diplodocus Carnegii, the 85-foot saurian which waded through the swamps of Utah approximately 10,000,000 years ago, has been hewed out in 25 tons of sandstone, near Vernal, Utah, by Dr. C. W. Gilmore, of the U. S. National Museum. It was hauled 152 miles over mountains to a railroad. It will take five years to clean and mount. The original specimen of the species is in the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh. Diplodocus stood 16 feet high at the hips, weighed 18 tons in the flesh, had a tiny snake-like head and an elongated neck...
...same time it may have reminded people of what an arbitrary and imperfect thing the Gregorian calendar is. Although Caesa, and Pope Gregery put it inot fair harmony with the solar year, it is full of odd quirks. For instance it begirs on January first instead of with the vernal equinox because the Renaissance advanced the entrance of the consuls into office, their official opening of the new year, to get some respectable generals for a war. Then Easter depends upon the full moon, not because the Jewish Passover did, but because at the time of the Council of Nicea...
...commendable customs hereabouts, which will be observed this spring, as it has been since the vernal season first came into existence, is the appearance in the Yard of fresh, green grass. Yet there are people who would trample out these verdant manifestations; who take out their wanderlust by straying from the numerous paths upon the tender shoots. Of course the grass suffers; frequently it succumbs entirely and the Yard becomes an unsightly jigsaw puzzle. There are paths enough. Why not stay on them and give the grass a chance? And besides, he who wanders from the gravel walks...
Schumann's symphony in Bb major is most appropriate to this season of the year, for it is always known as his "Spring" symphony. To quote the composer's own words: "I wrote the symphony in the vernal passion that sways men until they are very old, and surprises them again with each new year. The first entrance of trumpets is to be sounded as though from on high, like unto an awakening call; it begins to grow green everywhere, butterflies take wing, birds pour forth their melodies, and little by little all things come that pertain...
...come it behooves us to think of some of the sports which such a season naturally brings, in connection with the college. The college as a college may be said to have no winter sports at all; nothing to take the place of the autumnal foot-ball and the vernal base ball, nor yet the eternal tennis. A few years ago this fact was deplored, and a Hockey Club was founded to supply in a measure this lack. What has become of this club of late? We have a magnificent sheet of ice at a distance of but twenty minutes...