[Mishmash] Trivia Time: What Bird Is This?

[Fred Atkinson]

> At 07:21 AM 5/2/2008, you wrote:
>
> Hi, Fred.  How goes it?
>
> Thanks for the post card, BTW.  Very nice ones, and thanks for
thinking of me.

    Glad you got it.  I sent it to you while I was out of town on a job
interview.

> >     This one is typically twenty-two inches high and eats
rattlesnakes
> >and scorpions.
>
> The picture is familiar; I've seen it before but darned if I can
> remember the name of the critter.

    You'll be surprised when you find out.

> Well, looking forward to Dayton.  A number of the AMRAD crowd are
> planning to go, as usual, and I had to pass on last year's event
> because of a family event I couldn't miss.  There will be plenty of
> seminars and the problem is listening to all the ones you want to
> hear while still leaving time to visit the huge tailgating
> area.  It's a monster.

    The only time I went to Dayton, I discovered that it was entirely
too crowded to enjoy.  You had to stand in line at each vendor booth to
see their wares.  And consdering the number of vendors there, that made
it nearly impossible to see even the majority of them.

> What's happening at the university?  Any word yet on whether you've >
still got a position next school year, and what alternative plans
> have you made in case?

    Well, the answer is that they are not renewing my contract.  Our
enrollment has been low and the University has told our department that
they have to cut one instructor position.  Being the last hired and the
only one of the three without a Ph.D, that makes me low man on the totem
pole.  We are in final exams and I have to submit final grades by
Wednesday at 9:00 AM.

    My colleagues are planning to take me to lunch on Friday as a
farewell thing.

    I may have some really good news on the horizon.  Will tell you the
story as soon as it materializes.

> 73,

    You, too.



                                                        Fred, WB4AEJ