Tag Archives: birds

a murder of ravens?

Collectives of the animal variety: http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/collectives.htm “People often write in about the conventional terms for groups of animals and people, especially birds, such as parliament of rooks or murder of crows. Many of these, including tiding of magpies, murmuration of … Continue reading

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a canary in the coal mine redux

expression o’ the day: “a trout in the milk” “Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.” — Henry David Thoreau, November 11, 1854 I could not fathom what this might mean — … Continue reading

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San Francisco, 2/09

I recently spent a day in San Francisco in an attempt to (a) hang out with my friends up there [check] and (b) learn that S.F. is not as bad as I previously suspected [check]. What I saw: random items … Continue reading

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Grand Canyon, Henry Miller

“When you come to the Grand Canyon it’s as though Nature were breaking out into supplication. On an average it’s only ten to eighteen miles from rim to rim of the Canyon, but it takes two days to traverse it … Continue reading

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sentinels

expressions o’ the day: I recently heard the expression “canary in a coal mine” for the first time. Initially I thought it had something to do with the color–the bright yellow canary against the dark of the coal mine. That … Continue reading

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