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Re: A Hawk from a Handsaw



If any of you are curious why I remember this bit of Shakespeare from my
undergraduate days here it is: I have trapped hawks at Cedar Grove WI  for
more than 50 years. The hawks migrate on W & NW winds there..when the wind
is southerly, few hawks migrate & there are fewer to identify & also when
there are lots of hawks to trap, it can drive one into a frenzy.


-- Helmut C Mueller

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

Permanent email address: hmueller@email.unc.edu


> From: Helmut Mueller <hmuelle@earthlink.net>
> Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2003 22:21:59 -0500
> To: mjwestphal <mjwestphal@unca.edu>, <carolinabirds@duke.edu>
> Subject: 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
>>