definition of osmoregulatio

This is an annotated release of Homer Davenport's account of his 1906 trip to the Bedhouin tribes, and is a real delight for the armchair adventurer. In search of the horse of his childhood dreams, he was made "blood brother" to their leader. Davenport returned with a small herd that contained some of the finest Arabian horses in existance then or today. In addition to photos, maps and historical notes, it is a true adventure tale that so many of us dreamed of doing as a child. What more could you ask for?

Guy Davenport is a guy who writes really interesting and beautiful sentences. He writes these sentences as pictures, in my opinion. He also draws pictures (not my opinion, the pictures are in his books).

He likes to arrange these word-pictures and pen-pictures in pleasing groups.

He is a master of the literary art, and so (of course) no person in America speaks his name.

This is because "culture," as conceived by the present American yuppie generation (and their wannabes around the globe) is widely believed to consist of an appreciation of wine, opera, and painting. There is no room in there for someone who creates literature, because there is (realistically) no way to spend huge amounts of money on this aspect of culture. The key thing about culture-as-wine-opera-and-painting is that your wealthy wannabes can spend vast amounts of money demonstrating their "culture."

Well, the concept is kind of fascinating: how to become "cultured" without opening a book. I wonder how this will turn out.

This is a very well-done life of W. H. Auden, a man who may well turn out to be the finest English poet of the twentieth century. It is a fascinating work, which traces Auden's literary and poetical development in tandem with all the events in his real life in this real world. The most important of them (for Auden) was his life-long love of Chester Kallman, which became quite complex over time -- Auden reported feelings of paternal solicitude, jealousy, and erotic rivalry -- all occurring at the same time! Unusually, for a major biography of a major poet, there are scenes from the poet's cottage at Fire Island, which help to situate Auden in a very real New York social world.

But none of this is what set Auden apart -- not his romances nor his politics. Unlike some other poets, Auden worked at his craft unceasingly, probably becoming a leading world expert on poetic meter.

And he worked at his art. Anyone who has ever practiced any sort of craft or art -- ballet, writing, whatever -- knows well just how hard it is to make things seem effortless. And so Auden could produce such "effortless" things as the opening to his "Lullaby" ---

Lay your sleeping head, my love,
Human on my faithless arm;
Time and fevers burn away
Individual beauty from
Thoughtful children, and the grave
Proves the child ephemeral:
But in my arms till break of day
Let the living creature lie,
Mortal, guilty, but to me
The entirely beautiful.

If that looks easy to you, just have a go yourself! :-)

In summary: a very good biography of a major poet. Highest recommendation!

John Warner Davenport's 1981 book "Baseball's Pennant Races: A Graphic View" presents a series of graphs showing every American and National League pennant race from 1901-1980. When you think of the nature of pennant races, from wild season-long battles between two or more teams to runaways by one dominant team, chances are the way these graphs look is the way you'd see those races in your mind.

For all of the marquee races during this span -- the 1908 chases in both leagues; the 1920 American League battle between the Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees; the 1951 Brooklyn Dodgers-New York Giants tussle; the Philadelphia Phillies' 1964 collapse that created a heated four-team struggle; and others, Davenport gives us "close-up" graphs, that chronicle each day's scores over a period of one or more months. These closeups really give an insight into what was actually happening to these teams day by day, and in some cases, what effect teams outside the race were having on the final result.

In the regular, more broad-based graphs, we get a glimpse at interesting also-rans who were either on the rise -- like the Philadelphia Athletics of 1926-28, right before their domination of the American League over the following three seasons -- or on the way down. These are indicated by bolder lines in Davenport's graphs (as are the teams who won the race).

Perhaps the ideal combination would be this book's graphs and the pure numbers available in Neft and Cohen's "The Sports Encyclopedia: Baseball." Having both books separately is good enough, however.

While on one level it's unfortunate that this book hasn't been updated, either by Davenport or someone else, for some people an update would only be valuable through 1993, in any case. After '93, the Wild Card was introduced, devaluing the pennant race for many observers. Of course, the real purists might point to 1968 as the last year of true pennant races (though neither was particularly close), coming on the eve of divisional play in 1969.

"Baseball's Pennant Races: A Graphic View" is a fine addition to any baseball fan's collection, its lack of updating notwithstanding.

Anywhere you kiss is a good place to be, but this book has everything you need to know about finding the best places to be kissin'. This guide has turned us on to some great places to kiss, hug, etc...

Whether theatrically inclined, a home-sew hobbyist or a living historian, Davenport's efforts are an invaluable tool for those interested in period clothing. As well as a history of the fashions of the time, we are given insight into the lives behind the clothing. Interspersed are period lithographs and photographs, along with detailed descriptions of the garments, that are first rate. A pity that this book is unavalable! (Although it has been my experience that the local library's copies of it do not stay on the shelves for long!)

I am glad O Henry escaped from his Texas prison, because his period of exile in Honduras provided him with beautiful fodder for this book. Actually, it is a series of linking vignettes about a mythical town (Coralio) in the mythical Central American "Banana Republic" of Anchuria. The protagonists are American and other foreign misfits who have formed a colony along the disease ridden coast of Anchuria. Achingly funny stories populate Cabbages and Kings, especially the one about an Irish Soldier of Fortune who gets swindled by a Guatemalan general and seeks revenge. Although extremely humourous, Cabbages and Kings is historically valuable as well. It provides an accurate representation of turn-of-the-century life in Caribbean Honduras.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first of the Carroll Davenport series, "Island Murders" - and the second is just as fun, with mayhem in the town of Wilmington, North Carolina, and even more depth as we go further into discovering the unlikely heroine. The setting this time is the beautiful local arboretum - won't give away the plot but it's a very, very entertaining read and hopefully it won't be the last we see of Ms Davenport!

How is it that the finest, wittiest, most humane writer in the United States was recently called "prurient" by a major book review? It would seem that the greatest threat to American letters remains the American literary establishment. Our greatest writers have always worked on the fringes of this establishment. One could list, for starters, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, and Ezra Pound. And Guy Davenport. The Cardiff Team shows this remarkable writer at his finest. As always, his fluent erudition and breadth of knowledge astounds. He moves with ease from Kafka in a nudist colony to the philosopher George Santyana eating dinner to Edgar Allan Poe reading about Chinese poetry (all excellent pieces) within the first twenty pages. The critic George Steiner wrote a number of years ago: "Davenport is among the very few truly original, truly autonomous voices now audible in American letters." This assesment hold true, more than ever. Davenport has developed a style and subject matter all of his own. But the gem of the collection is the moving title piece. We start in a vibrant metaphorical meadow created by an act of language, and brought to the story by an act of quotation (from Francis Ponge). We end in a geographical meadow, overhearing a delightful conversation about all sorts of learned things. That is to say, we overhear two people recognizing each other's humanity, like the people they speak of. In between these meadows, the most intelligent, sexy, and delightfully charming characters you can imagine (rakish children, single mothers, a lonely young boy, and a tutor finding himself ignorant even in his great knowledge) teach and learn about that central human mystery, desire, in all of its many open-ended forms. They grow to be comfortable in their own skin. The Cardiff Team continues a remarkable body of work unlike anything else in literature. Everything Davenport writes is essentially, wonderfully sane. His charcthers, like Davenport himself, wage war against what he has called the "meaness and smallness" that threatens to atrophy the world. As they learn from eachother, they teach US to recognize each other's humanity-- carnal, graceful, and most importantly, fundamental. That the accusation of prurience has been hurled at such work only shows how desperately we are in need of the lesson. -Jeremy Melius