Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 12, 1993 TAG: 9309120327
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From wire reports
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A. "The simple answer is nothing," says Chris Leahy of the Massachusetts Audubon Society. "Birds are very well adapted to withstand extreme weather conditions." Songbirds "simply find a sheltered branch and hang on."
Leahy said that perching birds have locking mechanisms in their legs, so they are able to attach themselves to branches. Unless they get hurt in an accident, such as a falling tree, they generally make it through a hurricane with no trouble at all. "They do not get blown out of the trees," he said.
Sea birds such as sooty terns, which spend much of their lives in flight, are extraordinarily well adapted to winds, but in hurricanes they can be blown off course or become exhausted from having to fly for extraordinary lengths of time. For this reason, tropical species frequently end up in New England after tropical storms, to the delight of bird-watchers who head for the coast to find out what has blown in.
Water fowl such as ducks and loons, which don't perch on branches, generally find a sheltered cove where they can ride out the storm.
Q. Could you explain Boutros Boutros-Ghali's name? I don't understand the reason for the Boutros Boutros. Is Boutros a family name?
A. Boutros is his first name, Ghali is the family name. In Egypt, where the U.N. secretary-general is from, it's common for an eldest son to be named after his father or grandfather, and for that name to be hyphenated with the surname, producing a repeated name. His grandfather, the Egyptian prime minister from 1908 to 1910, was named Boutros Pasha Ghali. The Ghali family, one of Egypt's most distinguished Christian Coptic families, has made it a tradition to name all its eldest sons Boutros, Peter in English. Israeli negotiators used to call him Peter Peter.
Q. How much vacation time does the president get?
A. The constitution is his contract and vacation time isn't mentioned, but most of our modern-day presidents have taken both a summer and winter break. George Washington, who we know by all those signs slept all over the place, thought it was his mission to unify the infant nation and, according to Gordon Hoxie, president of the Center for the Study of the Presidency, would leave a detailed agenda for his Cabinet and ride out across the country. He also spent his entire summers at Mount Vernon, there not yet being any precedent to break.
The workaholic President Clinton threatens to be the least vacation-prone of any president since Abraham Lincoln, who, in his fight to hold the Union together, took no vacation at all. Lincoln's recreation was greeting guests at the White House and regaling them with tall tales (which also served as his clever way of getting them outside before they remembered they'd been meaning to ask him a question).
Q: What's the difference between an indictment and arraignment?
A: An indictment is a formal written accusation originating with a prosecutor and issued by a grand jury against a person or persons charged with a crime. An arraignment is when the accused is brought before the court to plead to the criminal charge(s) in the indictment.
Q: What does "Israel's self-styled security zone in southern Lebanon" mean? Why does Israel have a security zone in south Lebanon and not in its own territory, and how big is it?
A: Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 to wipe out the Palestine Liberation Organization and its splinter groups, which were attacking Israel regularly. Israel withdrew its troops in 1985, but maintained an area extending nine miles into Lebanon, from the Mediterranean Sea to its border with Syria.
Q: How tall is the arch in St. Louis, and was any of it ever underwater? What about the zoo and where the Cardinals play baseball?
A: The Gateway Arch is 630 feet tall and didn't even get its feet wet. The animals in the zoo were never in danger. The Cardinals have been dry in Busch Stadium downtown.
Q: Whatever happened to the car John F. Kennedy was riding in when he was assassinated in Dallas?
A: The limousine is in the Ford Motor Co. Museum in Detroit. A museum spokeswoman said it was sent back to Ford Motor Co. to be gutted and repaired, and a bubble top was added. President Lyndon B. Johnson used it and donated it to the museum when he left office.
by CNB