Quick: what’s the most poisonous fish in the sea? “Stonefish!” you venture, you Clever Observer, you! For why else would there be an accompanying picture of a stonefish to the question? I applaud your astuteness; perhaps you have a hidden propensity...
A troupe of performers, just after Shakespeare’s time in 1614 London, built a new arena, called the Hope Theatre, to house their plays. Eager to get onto the boards, they conceded to the Crown’s insistence that they build their arena as a dual-purpose venue, also...
An anthropological term referring to different sects of people, oftentimes unrelated by blood, cohabiting and copopulating the same society. That is to say, clans banding together and actually getting along. Say it isn’t so, Pellinore. Oh, but it is. Or was. ...
A coral atoll, part of the Chagos Archipelago. Do you have the vaguest idea where that is? If I say “The Indian Ocean” — does that narrow it down? Near Mauritius? Ring a bell? Anyone? Oh, dear. It’s, you know, over there, on the other side of the world...
Also called the dipping duck. Part of the tribe Anatini. They don’t often dive, as many a duck does, but rather…dip instead, tipping rather bottomside up. Undignified, I suppose, but it gets the job done. And oh, their flapping sound…quite noisy. Also...
