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Re: A Hawk from a Handsaw
- To: mjwestphal <mjwestphal@unca.edu>, <carolinabirds@duke.edu>
- Subject: Re: A Hawk from a Handsaw
- From: Helmut Mueller <hmuelle@earthlink.net>
- Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2003 22:21:59 -0500
- Delivered-to: pardo@metalab.unc.edu
- In-reply-to: <3E71F125@webmail.unca.edu>
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
- User-agent: Microsoft Outlook Express Macintosh Edition - 5.01 (1630)
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
>