Word: wickham
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Henry Wickham wasn't smart, he wasn't rich, and he definitely wasn't lucky. What he was, was determined. In 1866, when he was 20, he sailed for the Amazon in search of exotic feathers for his mother's hat business back in London. That was a failure, like everything else he tried, but he caught the Amazon bug, and 10 years later he pulled off the one spectacular success of his life. In defiance of malaria, anacondas, electric eels, freshwater stingrays, Confederate colonists, customs inspectors and Yanomamo tribesmen, he smuggled 70,000 priceless rubber-tree seeds...
This single act of biological piracy, richly recounted in Joe Jackson's astounding The THIEF AT THE END OF THE WORLD (Viking; 432 pages), "handed Britain the first worldwide monopoly of a strategic resource in human history." And Wickham? He got a pittance for his trouble and went off to farm sea slugs in the Conflict Islands, the quintessential Victorian sad sack: ignorant, incompetent, indomitable...
...tsunami; to six months in jail; in London. Pierson, who pleaded guilty to charges of sending malicious communication and causing a public nuisance, obtained the e-mail addresses from a news website and claimed to represent the U.K.'s Foreign & Commonwealth Office in Thailand. Presiding Judge Daphne Wickham said the hoax caused "indescribable" pain. Pierson's lawyer claimed the father of three was attempting to give families closure...
...learn all sorts of fun facts--for example, that there are more than 400 wineries in Britain and that China, known for plum and rice wines, is now producing grape-based ones. And, of course, you'll have a chance to sample some of them. The local Wickham Winery's white from Schonburger and Wurzer grapes was simple but pleasantly fruity. The Chinese Hudong winery made a very credible Riesling. These obscure varietals alone are worth the price of admission...
...wishes to get out of this century alive, its leaders would do well to heed the lessons of Benjamin Franklin." FRED WICKHAM San Francisco...