Alligators in B-Flat

Alligators in B-Flat PDF Author: Jeff Klinkenberg
Publisher: University Press of Florida
ISBN: 081304748X
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 538

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Book Description
With a keen eye for detail and a lyrical style, Jeff Klinkenberg sets his sights on the contradictions that make up the Sunshine State. No one else would think to engage a professional symphony orchestra tuba player to find out whether bull gators will thunderously bellow back at a low B-flat during mating season (they do, but only to that pitch). From fishing camps and country stores to museums and libraries, Klinkenberg is forever unearthing the magic that makes Florida a place worth celebrating.

Alligators in B-Flat

Alligators in B-Flat PDF Author: Jeff Klinkenberg
Publisher: University Press of Florida
ISBN: 081304748X
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 538

Get Book

Book Description
With a keen eye for detail and a lyrical style, Jeff Klinkenberg sets his sights on the contradictions that make up the Sunshine State. No one else would think to engage a professional symphony orchestra tuba player to find out whether bull gators will thunderously bellow back at a low B-flat during mating season (they do, but only to that pitch). From fishing camps and country stores to museums and libraries, Klinkenberg is forever unearthing the magic that makes Florida a place worth celebrating.

America's Alligator

America's Alligator PDF Author: Doug Alderson
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1493048279
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 153

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Book Description
People have long been fascinated by the American alligator. Ever since humans arrived on the continent more than 15,000 years ago, the American alligator has been both feared and revered, celebrated and scorned, and often hunted for food and hide. Once tourism began to take hold in the South as a real industry, especially in Florida, the alligator took on iconic and even mythical status. “One of the most picturesque features of Florida has always been that uncouth and fierce-looking reptile called the alligator,” wrote Nevin O. Winter in 1918. “Everybody who comes down here to the peninsula has an ambition to see one in the wild.” Seminole Indians wrestled alligators for show. Alligator souvenirs and mascots often took what people feared—a sharp-toothed predator—and made it into something cute and cuddly. Alligator-themed songs were recorded and released, including “See You Later Alligator” by Bill Haley and His Comets. Hollywood into created alligator-themed movies such as Alligator People. Alligators were also reportedly kept in the White House under two presidencies. And perhaps the most unusual alligator story was one that helped to nab Ma Barker and her son Fred when they were hiding out along Florida’s Lake Weir. America’s Alligator examines the colorful and sometimes conflicted relationship our species has had with Alligator mississippiensis. Doug Alderson explores the country’s rich alligator mythology and how it inspired various forms of art, stories, photography, tourism and even humor.

The Attention of a Traveller

The Attention of a Traveller PDF Author: Kathryn H. Braund
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
ISBN: 0817321292
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
"Brings together and highlights some of the latest and most engaging work on William Bartram and efforts to commemorate his journey through the disparate region that would become the Southeastern US"--

Seasons of Real Florida

Seasons of Real Florida PDF Author: Jeff Klinkenberg
Publisher: University Press of Florida
ISBN: 081304202X
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 405

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Book Description
No wonder Jeff Klinkenberg loves Florida. At any time of year he can find a place in the state that's ripe to enjoy or a person whose story has aged to perfection. Arranged by season, the book opens in the fall, which Klinkenberg says is like spring in the north--a time of celebration: "Having survived our harshest season, we feel renewed." Fair weather, good food, and the joys of nature lie ahead, described here in essays that are like time capsules of "old Florida values." Preserving the past, they reveal Klinkenberg's waggish appreciation of the state's history, folkways, and landscape, not to mention its barbequed ribs, smoked mullet, stone crab claws, and fresh lemonade. Many pieces focus off the beaten path and on modern rogues who seem to turn their backsides to the subdivisions and shopping malls that pave the state: Miss Ruby, whose fruit stand features rutabagas, boiled peanuts, and her own brightly colored plywood paintings; an 85-year-old resident of the remote island of Cayo Costa who hums Beethoven while she hunts for shells; the scientists who test mosquito repellent in Everglades National Park; and the unofficial caretaker of Lilly Spring on the Santa Fe River, who greets canoeists wearing glasses, a necklace, and on occasion a synthetic fur loincloth. Other pieces pay homage to Klinkenberg's literary heroes who've written in and about Florida, such as Pulitzer Prize-winner Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Rawlings's companion and memoirist Idella Parker, Everglades crusader Marjory Stoneman Douglas, and novelist Ernest Hemingway. Klinkenberg also revisits an old St. Johns River campsite of 19th-century botanist William Bartram, whose encounters with alligators there were as alarming as Klinkenberg's with beer cans and soda bottles. For anyone who has a stake in the real Florida--resident, tourist, naturalist, or newcomer--this tour of the seasons will linger in memory like the aroma of orange blossoms on a clear winter night.

An Alchemy of Mind

An Alchemy of Mind PDF Author: Diane Ackerman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439125082
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 341

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Book Description
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Zookeeper's Wife, an ambitious and enlightening work that combines an artist's eye with a scientist's erudition to illuminate, as never before, the magic and mysteries of the human mind. Long treasured by literary readers for her uncommon ability to bridge the gap between art and science, celebrated scholar-artist Diane Ackerman returns with the book she was born to write. Her dazzling new work, An Alchemy of Mind, offers an unprecedented exploration and celebration of the mental fantasia in which we spend our days—and does for the human mind what the bestselling A Natural History of the Senses did for the physical senses. Bringing a valuable female perspective to the topic, Diane Ackerman discusses the science of the brain as only she can: with gorgeous, immediate language and imagery that paint an unusually lucid and vibrant picture for the reader. And in addition to explaining memory, thought, emotion, dreams, and language acquisition, she reports on the latest discoveries in neuroscience and addresses controversial subjects like the effects of trauma and male versus female brains. In prose that is not simply accessible but also beautiful and electric, Ackerman distills the hard, objective truths of science in order to yield vivid, heavily anecdotal explanations about a range of existential questions regarding consciousness, human thought, memory, and the nature of identity.

Moon By Whale Light

Moon By Whale Light PDF Author: Diane Ackerman
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 030776334X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
In a rare blend of scientific fact and poetic truth, the acclaimed author of A Natural History of the Senses explores the activities of whales, penguins, bats, and crocodilians, plunging headlong into nature and coming up with highly entertaining treasures.

Gator

Gator PDF Author: Randy Cecil
Publisher: Candlewick Press
ISBN: 0763629529
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 30

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Book Description
A carousel alligator goes on a courageous journey to find a place with real alligators--and a wonderful, familiar sound--in this moving and modest story. Full color.

Boca Chita

Boca Chita PDF Author: Lance Long
Publisher: BENU Books
ISBN: 0988265605
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
Mark, a retired boomer with a powerful survivalist streak, manages to avoid contamination from the deadly NOEL virus, released worldwide by terrorists on Christmas Eve. Within 3 days, 99.9% of the world's population succumbs. He decides to bug-out in his survival-prepared, live-aboard trawler to Boca Chita Key, an uninhabited island seventeen miles from Miami, where he uses his wits, resilience and mechanical know-how to homestead as a self-sufficient hermit. Access to unlimited fuel will guarantee his freedom to travel, and power the air-conditioning, laundry, hot water heater and freezer. He quickly learns the essential secret of harvesting diesel from marina pumps using his portable Honda generator. In a vastly changed world, Mark faces his first challenging year with only the companionship of a shipwrecked survivor, his dog Shadow. In his Journal, he reflects on preparing for life aboard, watching the weather, harvesting the gifts of the sea, and nurturing the miracle of a kitchen garden. His encounters with a variety of animals and a handful of survivors succeed with the help of a salvaged Coast Guard Defender Class quick-response boat, a sawed-off 12-gauge pump Decksweeper shotgun, a stun-gun disguised as a camera, and some creative chemistry. He records a prepper's perspective on hot-wiring boats & cars, breaking & entering, false imprisonment and misdemeanor manslaughter. But Mark's Journal also celebrates the mundane: bicycling, baking bread, doing laundry, and fitting-out, running, and maintaining his boats, island repairs and improvements. In the months following NOEL, South Florida and the Keys suffer a series of natural catastrophes including a deep freeze, drought, uncontrolled wildfires in the Everglades, two hurricanes, and Lake Okeechobee breaching its dike, inundating South Florida. The first anniversary of the terrorist attack closes with a gathering of a small band of immune survivors, setting the stage for the creation of the community of New Islandia. Boca Chita tracks a careful and thoughtful man achieving equipoise as custodian of his "green" island hideaway, overcoming isolation, and taking the next steps. It is the first book of the NOEL trilogy, which includes Calusa Coast and The First Coast.

How to Hold a Crocodile

How to Hold a Crocodile PDF Author: Diagram Group
Publisher: Firefly Books
ISBN: 9781552978054
Category : Amusements
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
Explains how to do practical and improbable things, such as how to roast an ox, handle a hamster, photography a fish, play the bagpipes, and vanquish a vampire.].

It Just Isn't Cricket

It Just Isn't Cricket PDF Author: Cecil Johnson
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
ISBN: 1466917644
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 165

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Book Description
This little book continues the story of the Lizzie, a tiny community around the site of the old coal mine of the same name in a corner of North West Durham. Its original stalwarts have long since gone, but, as a native of this village, I like to think that their spirit and resilience live on. Perhaps the indulgent reader would care to take this small volume in conjunction with one of my earlier offerings, "The Sum of Two Squares", thereby acquiring a fuller picture of this little mining community of years gone by. Cecil Johnson, March 2012