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Re: A Hawk from a Handsaw



It is my recollection that the translation from 'hearnshaw" to handsaw was
something like a printer's error...but this again may be the result of a
faulty memory of something that I thought I knew 50 years ago.


-- Helmut C Mueller

409 Moonridge Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27516
Phone: 919-942-4937

Permanent email address: hmueller@email.unc.edu


> From: mjwestphal <mjwestphal@unca.edu>
> Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2003 18:27:08 -0500
> To: carolinabirds@duke.edu
> Subject: A Hawk from a Handsaw
> 
> Rob and Helmut are correct.  The quote is from Hamlet, Act II, Scene II,
> Hamlet speaking to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern about his "uncle-father and
> aunt-mother" when he said "I am but mad north-northwest when the wind is
> southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw."
> 
> I didn't know about the "handsaw" being an old term for a heron.  That makes
> sense.  I first heard this expression in a birding sense on the videotape "The
> Birding Game."  I bought this tape for my birding brother about ten years ago
> and have never seen it since until recently when I found someone else who had
> it who also purchased it about ten years ago.  Has anyone seen it sold
> anywhere more recently?  It's quite a lot of fun.
> Marilyn
> 
> Marilyn Westphal
> Environmental Quality Institute
> University of North Carolina-Asheville
> One University Heights
> Asheville, NC  28804
> 828/251-6823
> mjwestphal@unca.edu
>