themes

"But since it was birders he was dealing with, there wasn’t any harm just letting us in on the honor system. There was no question in his mind (or ours) that we would ante up when departing. That’s just the way birders are."

"Birding and ornithology; sport and science; amateur and professional. The gulf seems pretty wide today, but in fact it's a fairly recent phenomenon. For most of the history of bird study, there was no such division; the ornithologist were all gifted amateurs, and the science of studying birds was enmeshed with the joy of watching them. ... And it's hard to find an academically trained ornithologist with a string of initials after his or her name who isn't also an avid birder."

"Anyone who is interested in birds eventually reaches the point when he or she joins the , or loses enthusiasm. The Trust has after its first 50 years involved itself in every aspect of ornithology, simply because as the supreme shepherd of this pervasive occupation it has enabled the birdwatcher to expand his or her enjoyment. It has done this by supplying him or her with the motivation and methodology to keep records, and by applying those records in enlightened ways to reveal trends and changes in the status of birds in Britain."

"If you enjoy watching birds, you stand in good company. There are, in the estimate of the National Survey on Recreation and the Environment (), 70 million bird watchers in the United States (and an equally representative number in Canada) — people who in the course of their lives make time to see and enjoy birds."

"s have been a constant presence in my life, from to field guides via fiction and non-fiction with one thing in common. I can sit down with the Handbook of British Birds by Peter Holden and Tim Cleeves and soon find myself as engrossed as I would be by, say, Elizabeth Stott’s uncanny avian tale The Rhododendron Canopy. Many elements cross over between fiction and guide book: character and identification, habitat/setting, voice, movement/migration, even narrative arc in the form of a quest. I might be reminded of the time I went looking for s and got lucky, watching them for 20 minutes while lying on my stomach by a cliff edge, or I might wonder how many times I will have to go looking for s before I actually see one rather than just hear their ghostly clicking."

"It is a fun exercise among s to try to pinpoint a childhood moment when they deviated from the path of “ordinary” people and set out on their tangent towards the other parts of life. American birders use a nice shorthand expression for such an epiphany: “the spark bird” – the encounter that switched on the nature-loving light."

"Birds become more and more fascinating, not less, the more you watch them."

"... Remember, if you happen to find a during the , leave the nest as undisturbed as possible. Back away, and do not touch the nest, eggs, or young birds. Often squirrels, s, several other mammals, s, s, s, and s are more than happy to have you "point out" a nest and will raid it if you disrupt the site or call attention to it. Many people find juvenile birds that have just left the nest and may appear to be alone. Usually they are not lost but are under the watchful eye of a parent bird and are best left in place rather than scooped up and taken to a foreign environment. In the winter, nest hunting can be great fun and has little impact, as most nests will never be used again. They are easy to see once the foliage is gone, and it can be a challenge to attempt to identify the maker."

"We ardent birders share not only a skill and craft but also a state of mind—more, a state of heart, one akin to love. All the usual explanations of why such an improbable pastime as birdwatching should be so profoundly rewarding—the thrill of the chase, days of companionship outdoors, enigmatic identifications solved, competition and even scorekeeping, witnessing nature in action, times and places of great beauty—all these sorts of reason fall short unless they acknowledge those extraordinary moments when, as once put it, "Life touches life." Honoring these moments, I think, is the largely unspoken bond among ardent birds. When we do talk about why we go birding, time and again these private experiences are what we birders recall as "when lightning struck.""

"Ain't no TV, radio, telephone, gas, or electricity"

"This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit, Which gives men stomach to digest his words With better appetite."

"The devil played booty, sure, with thee To bring a blot on infamy."

"Here Beauty falls betray’d, despis’d, distress’d, And hissing Infamy proclaims the rest."

"I know repentant tears ensue the deed, Reproach, disdain, and deadly enmity; Yet strike I to embrace mine infamy."

"He hath taken her by the left shoulder, Says, ‘Dame, where lies thy dowry?’— ‘O it’s east and west yon wan water side, And it’s down by the banks of the Airlie.’"

"What say you to the lady? Love’s not love When it is mingled with regards that stands Aloof from th’ entire point. Will you have her? She is herself a dowry."

"Formosa virgo est; dotis dimidium vocant Isti, qui dotes neglegunt uxorias."

"At Sestos, Hero dwelt; Hero the faire, Whom young Apollo courted for her haire, And offred as a dower his burning throne, Where she should sit for men to gaze upon."

"There is more credit in being abused by fools than praised by rogues."

"It seldom pays to be rude. It never pays to be only half-rude."

"Abuse is as great a mistake in controversy as panegyric in biography."

"If you look at Burke closely, you'll see the prototypical abused child: hypervigilant, distrustful. He's so committed to his family of choice—not his DNA-biological family, which tortured him, or the state which raised him, but the family that he chose—that homicide is a natural consequence of injuring any of that family."

"Facile aerumnam ferre possum, si inde abest iniuria: Etiam iniuriam, nisi contra constat contumelia."

"There's a very specific formula for creating a monster. It starts with chronic, unrelenting abuse. There's got to be societal notification and then passing on. The child eventually believes that what's being done is societally sanctioned. And after a while, empathy – which we have to learn, we're not born with it – cracks and dies. He feels only his own pain. There's your predatory sociopath.""

"Touchstone: I will name you the degrees. The first, the Retort Courteous; the second, the Quip Modest; the third, the Reply Churlish; the fourth, the Reproof Valiant; the fifth, the Countercheck Quarrelsome; the sixth, the Lie with Circumstance; the seventh, the Lie Direct."

"Man once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullibility, which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason, and the mind becomes a wreck."

"I don't believe this country will ever come to grips with child abuse until they make the obvious, simple connection between today's victim and tomorrow's predator. As long as they believe a Ted Bundy or a John Wayne Gacy is a biogenetic mistake as opposed to a beast that was built and a monster that was made, they'll continue to blithely walk around, saying, 'I'm against child abuse.'""

"We don't distinguish between the various forms of child abuse. Emotional abuse ... is pretty much ignored. When someone spends their life being told, 'You're stupid, you're a disgrace, I should have aborted you, you ruined my life,' it scars them in ways that are almost impossible to describe with words. And yet, such a person describing their life would be told, 'Oh, you weren't an incest victim? Oh, you weren't burned with cigarettes? So, how abused were you really?"

"Some guy hit my fender the other day, and I said unto him, 'Be fruitful, and multiply'. But not in those words."

"A man has no more right to say an uncivil thing to another man than he has to knock him down."

"As to abuse, I thrive on it. Abuse, hearty abuse, is a tonic to all save men of indifferent health."

"[W]here men are heated by zeal and enthusiasm, there is no degree of human testimony so strong as may not be procured for the greatest absurdity."

"I believe that many people who were abused as children do themselves—and the entire struggle—a disservice when they refer to themselves as "survivors." A long time ago, I found myself in the middle of a war zone. I was not killed. Hence, I "survived." That was happenstance ... just plain luck, not due to any greatness of character or heroism on my part. But what about those raised in a POW camp called "childhood?" Some of those children not only lived through it, not only refused to imitate the oppressor (evil is a decision, not a destiny), but actually maintained sufficient empathy to care about the protection of other children once they themselves became adults and were "out of danger." To me, such people are our greatest heroes. They represent the hope of our species, living proof that there is nothing bio–genetic about child abuse. I call them transcenders, because "surviving" (i.e., not dying from) child abuse is not the significant thing. It is when chance becomes choice that people distinguish themselves. Two little children are abused. Neither dies. One grows up and becomes a child abuser. The other becomes a child protector. One "passes it on." One "breaks the cycle." Should we call them both by the same name? Not in my book. (And not in my books, either.)"

"A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still."

"The human race tends to remember the abuses to which it has been subjected rather than the endearments. What's left of kisses? Wounds, however, leave scars."

"When lovely woman stoops to folly, And finds too late that men betray, What charm can soothe her melancholy, What art can wash her guilt away? The only art her guilt to cover, To hide her shame from every eye, To give repentance to her lover, And wring his bosom—is to die."

"There'a a phrase, the elephant in the living room, which purports to describe what it's like to live with a drug addict, an alcoholic, an abuser. People outside such relationships will sometimes ask, "How could you let such a business go on for so many years? Didn't you see the elephant in the living room?" And it's so hard for anyone living in a more normal situation to understand the answer that comes closest to the truth: "I'm sorry, but it was there when I moved in. I didn't know it was an elephant; I thought it was part of the furniture." There comes an aha-moment for some folks—the lucky ones—when they suddenly recognize the difference."

"Typography can be expressed in numerous styles and forms with many techniques. Still, this craft always remains charged with the multilayered meaning of words and the typographical symbols through which it is conveyed."

"People would swallow anything, just anything at all. Apparently some people found this dismaying. He thought it was a gift, the most wonderful opportunity to take advantage of the weak-minded."

"Indeed it was a tradition of Ibn Abbas (Allah accept of him!) that the Apostle said, 'Whoso cutteth his hair on a Friday, the Lord shall avert from him threescore and ten calamities'"

"Why dost thou pluck each hair from thy aged cunt Ligia? Why rouse the embers of thy deadened lust? Such delicacy befits girls; for now thou canst not appear even an old woman. This, believe me, Ligia, Hector's mother, does not with grace, but Hector's wife. Thou art wrong if thou thinkest it a cunt, at which no prick can stand. Wherefore if thou hast a particle of shame, Ligia, beard not the dead lion."

"BEARD, n. The hair that is commonly cut off by those who justly execrate the absurd Chinese custom of shaving the head."

"A happy vicar I might have been Two hundred years ago, To preach upon eternal doom And watch my walnuts growBut born, alas, in an evil time, I missed that pleasant haven, For the hair has grown on my upper lip And the clergy are all clean-shaven."

"In that you pluck each hair from your breast, from your legs, from your arms; in that your prick is shaven, and covered with short hairs; we all know of course, Labienus, that you do this for your mistress. But to whom do you offer your arse, which you shave, Labienus?"

"From good to bad, and from bad to worse, From worse unto that is worst of all, And then return to his former fall."

"In the cause of silence, each of us draws the face of her own fear — fear of contempt, of censure, or some judgment, or recognition, of challenge, of annihilation. But most of all, I think, we fear the visibility without which we cannot truly live. Within this country where racial difference creates a constant, if unspoken, distortion of vision, have on one hand always been highly visible, and so, on the other hand, have been rendered invisible through the depersonalization of racism. Even within the women’s movement, we have had to fight, and still do, for that very visibility which also renders us most vulnerable, our Blackness. For to survive in the mouth of this dragon we call america, we have had to learn this first and most vital lesson — that we were never meant to survive. Not as human beings. And neither were most of you here today, Black or not. And that visibility which makes us most vulnerable is that which also is the source of our greatest strength. Because the machine will try to grind you into dust anyway, whether or not we speak. We can sit in our corners mute forever while our sisters and our selves are wasted, while our children are distorted and destroyed, while our earth is poisoned; we can sit in our safe corners mute as bottles, and we will still be no less afraid."

"He who is subjected to a field of visibility, and who knows it, assumes responsibility for the constraints of power; he makes them play spontaneously upon himself; he inscribes in himself the power relation in which he simultaneously plays both roles; he becomes the principle of his own subjection."

"Your visibility is up to you. Do not count on others to be honourable, you may be spectacularly disappointed. Insist on your rights."

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

"I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best."