Feb
5
Other Names for Birds III: Screech Owl
Filed Under General | Comments Off
Little Horned Owl
Gray Owl
Red Owl
Little Dukelet
Mottled Owl
Shivering Owl
One wonders how the man who named this bird the “Screech” Owl would feel about a real screech, and how he would describe it. For the bird’s characteristic cry is a singularly mournful and plaintive little wail, with never the suggestion of a screech about it. —T. Gilbert Pearson
Jan
30
Other Names for Birds II: Surf Scoter
Filed Under General | Comments Off
Surf Duck
Surf Coot
Surfer
Sea Coot
Bay Coot
Gray Coot
Brown Coot
Box Coot
Spectacle Coot
Butterboat-bill Coot
Hollow-billed Coot
Speckle-billed Coot
Blossom-billed Coot
Horsehead Coot
Patch-Head
Patch-head Coot
Patch-polled Coot
White-head
White Scop
Bald-pate
Skunk-head
Skunk-head Coot
Skunk-top
Pictured Bill
Plaster-bill
Morocco-jaw
Goggle-nose
Surf-taker
Jan
9
Pre-Order Gay Dwarves!
Filed Under General | Leave a Comment
In honour of the fact you can now pre-order Gay Dwarves of America on Amazon and Krisostomus (“Every Book in the World;” also a good source for Estonian e-books), I’m resurrecting my blog with
Other Names for Birds
from Birds of America, T. Gilbert Pearson, ed., Garden City Books, 1936.
1. White-winged Scoter.
Other names:
Velvet Scoter; Velvet Duck; Lake Huron Scoter; White-winged Surf Duck, or Sea Coot or Scoter; Black White-wing; Black Surf Duck; Pied-wing Coot; Uncle Sam Coot; Bell-tongue Coot; Bull Coot; Brant Coot; Sea Brant; May White-wing; Eastern White-wing; Assemblyman.
Apr
1
Hyperbolic Plane Crocheting
Filed Under General | Leave a Comment
Bookninja sent me to the Guardian, which gave me the headline,
Winner announced for world’s oddest book title award
Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes by Daina Taimina beats Collectible Spoons of the Third Reich
which is pretty good in itself, but frankly, even cooler is the fact that Taimina is a mathemetician who explains the constant negative curvature of hyperbolic planes by illustrating them via crochet. That’s freakin’ genius! Here is what it looks like.
Note: it’s April 1, but the post is no joke.
Sep
23
I wrote this post in July but somehow failed to post it.
Happened to mention at the last Vancouver Ukulele circle I was off to Toronto shortly and learned about the Corktown Ukulele Jam, every Wednesday at the Dominion Hotel on Queen Street East. Free for the ukulele-bearing, $3 for the uke-free. Very exciting.
Even better were the snaps from their Red Rocket Streetcar Jam. Is a streetcar full of people playing ukulele cool, or what?