Word: whaled
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Herman Melville's white whale was a metaphor for something cosmically elusive. But even in 1850, the whale was almost as easy to catch and slaughter as the buffalo or the Indian. Today, by a process of relentless elimination that is anything but allegorical, whales are becoming an embattled species. Ahab's great-grandchildren fire their harpoons from cannons...
...ones substituted. Last week, Britain's House of Lords debated "The Wild Creatures and Forests Bill." which will deprive Queen Elizabeth II of a slew of prerogatives, some dating to the 13th century reign of Edward I. Most notable was her right to claim the tail of any whale washed up on the shores of England or Wales, or of any whale washed up in Scotland that proved too large to be dragged off on a "wain with six oxen...
Lord Hailsham, the Lord Chancellor, hastened to assure Her Majesty that the ancient right was of no real benefit to her. "There is an agreeable tradition," said Hailsham, "that the head [of a beached whale] was for the king, the body for the fisherman and the tail for the queen. This was based upon an anatomical fallacy, because it was supposed that the whalebone, which was used for the royal corsets, was in the tail. In fact it is in the head of a whale...
Although all this sounds exceptionally unexciting, the noises grow on you very quickly. Side two, entitled "There Whale Trip" (get it?), was recorded too close to the ocean's surface so there is a constant rush of water in the background. "After a few moments of listening." the blurb on the jacket says, "you will learn to hear much as a whale probably does, ignoring the background noises and focusing on the whale songs." And once again, the blurb is right. There you are, thinking as a whale does, splashing along just under the surface. You may soon drive your...
...after you're thoroughly hooked on this music, you'll start hearing it everywhere. Take me, for instance. When I hear the screech of a narrowly-averted three-car collision. no longer do I flinch. I just think that someone. somewhere, is playing Songs of the Humpback whale...