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Re: A Hawk from a Handsaw
- To: Helmut Mueller <hmuelle@earthlink.net>,mjwestphal <mjwestphal@unca.edu>, <carolinabirds@duke.edu>
- Subject: Re: A Hawk from a Handsaw
- From: Helmut Mueller <hmuelle@earthlink.net>
- Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2003 23:26:02 -0500
- Delivered-to: pardo@metalab.unc.edu
- In-reply-to: <BA995807.2BD3%hmuelle@earthlink.net>
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
- User-agent: Microsoft Outlook Express Macintosh Edition - 5.01 (1630)
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
>>