"Watchable wildlife"

[George Thompson]

One never knows what a legislature intends.  But among wildlife-
voyeurs, of which I am one, I think the phrase is taken to mean that
whereas most wildlife, other than birds, is elusive and seldom seen,
there are some spots where the chances of seeing an interesting critter
is better than usual.  I recall being referred to the town dump in
Kokajo, Maine, to see black bears -- it's where the family spent my
daughter's 16th birthday evening, in fact -- and a road in the
Greenville area impregnated with salt that attracted moose.  I don't
actually own any of the "watchable wildlife" guides, but I have I think
glanced over them in wildlife refuge shops and believe that this is
their purpose.  It seems that the Tennessee legislature is trying to
lure tourists with a doubtful claim that the entire state swarms with
critters?

GAT (the elusive librarian who has made himself temporarily accessible;
back to my den)


George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African
Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bethany K. Dumas" <dumasb at UTKUX.UTCC.UTK.EDU>
Date: Friday, June 21, 2002 4:55 pm
Subject: Re: "Watchable wildlife"

> On Fri, 21 Jun 2002, George Thompson wrote:
>
> >"Watchable wildlife" means "wildlife available for watching"
> >or "accesible to wildlife watchers".  One guidebook company
> (Falcon, of
>
> Means that to whom? The license plates have photos of birds on
> them. It
> would never have occurred to me that the legislature meant
> "accessible to
> wildlife watchers."
>
> Bethany
>