Word: wildness
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...whole stretch of days in Jerusalem had gone badly wrong--the ass that went lame while bearing him toward the "triumphal entry," the vicious eyes and mouths around him through the Temple debates he sought so hungrily, and then his wild-eyed one-man assault on the money changers and lamb-and-dove merchants. Physically speaking, he'd done enough damage to last five minutes; but in terms of challenging the Temple mob, he'd laid the last straw on a big camel's back...
Even without news leaks, wild conspiracy theories flourished in Cairo. Many Egyptians are certain Washington is engaged in a vast cover-up to protect itself and libel their nation. More likely, they say, an American missile mistakenly blew up the plane or maybe there were lethal laser emissions--and the pilot was roller-coastering to dodge them. Or an insane hijacker masterminded the crash to damage Egypt's reputation. Or it was a Mossad plot to kill the 33 military officers aboard...
That he only partly succeeded is one of the many charms of Wild Fruits (Norton; 409 pages; $29.95), which finally sees print thanks to the heroic editing efforts of Thoreau scholar Bradley Dean. Thoreau left the Wild Fruits manuscript neatly stacked and wrapped at the time of his death, but much jumbling and shuffling occurred as the papers passed from owner to owner. That confusion, plus Thoreau's notoriously hen-scratched handwriting, kept Wild Fruits a closed book until now. Readers will find that its preserved contents have aged...
Thoreau orders Wild Fruits as a botanist might, collecting his notes on each plant in the order in which it blooms. He records the dates of his sightings and the measurements he has made: "September 24, 1859. The common shrub oak is apparently the most fertile of our oaks. I count two hundred sixty-six acorns on a branch just two feet long." But he has trouble keeping poetry out of his descriptions: "August 23, 1858. Abundantly shedding its downy seeds, wands of white and pink." And sometimes the objective mask slips completely: "July 30, 1860. Beautiful...
...tension between Thoreau the naturalist and Thoreau the missionary for nature's wonders invigorates nearly every page of Wild Fruits. He portrays his subjects with keen clarity, but he also wants his Concord neighbors to wake up to the error of their ways: "We cultivate imported shrubs in our front yards for the beauty of their berries, while at least equally beautiful berries grow unregarded by us in the surrounding fields." He argues passionately against the careless destruction of the wilderness around him. Hearing that huckleberry pickers in his area have been ordered off privately owned fields, he fumes, "What...