It's early May, not quite tourist season yet. The airport will be crowded at 1am by the end of the month. It seems that the airlines send their planes up here in the middle of the night so they can get them back to the lower 48 for the day flights. But for now it was pretty empty. Only one security line was open and there was no line.
In the past I've noticed that the bears in boxes at the airport were all shot by dentists like this one. What is it about dentists? They have the money to go out on expensive hunts? They have the ego to want everyone to see they killed the biggest bear around? Torturing people in their offices isn't enough, they have to go out and kill animals too? They have to prove they're as good as 'real' doctors? Do they get a tax write-off if they put it in the airport? I have a great dentist who I'm sure doesn't kill animals for fun. Actually the last time I went I got the new dentist and he plays rock guitar on the side. So, it's probably only a few who have this need to display their trophy kills at the airport.
And not all the bears at the airport (outside security) were killed by dentists. And notice the euphemisms. The dentist's bear 'was taken." This bear was 'harvested.' Why not just say "killed?"
The Merriam-Webster online dictionary does not include hunting in the definitions of harvest as a noun.
1. har·vest
Pronunciation: \ˈhär-vəst\
Function: noun
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English hervest, from Old English hærfest; akin to Latin carpere to pluck, gather, Greek karpos fruit
Date: before 12th century
1: the season for gathering in agricultural crops2: the act or process of gathering in a crop3 a: a mature crop (as of grain or fruit) : yield b: the quantity of a natural product gathered in a single season4: an accumulated store or productive result
But it does include it in the definition of harvest as a verb.
2. harvest
Function: verb
Date: 15th century
transitive verb
1 a: to gather in (a crop) : reap b: to gather, catch, hunt, or kill (as salmon, oysters, or deer) for human use, sport, or population control c: to remove or extract (as living cells, tissues, or organs) from culture or from a living or recently deceased body especially for transplanting2 a: to accumulate a store ofb: to win by achievement intransitive verb.
The etymology shows the word originally comes from old English and German for 'autumn':
O.E. hærfest "autumn," from P.Gmc. *kharbitas (cf. O.S. hervist, Du. herfst, Ger. Herbst "autumn," O.N. haust "harvest"), from PIE *kerp- "to gather, pluck, harvest" (cf. Skt. krpana- "sword," krpani "shears;" Gk. karpos "fruit," karpizomai "make harvest of;" L. carpere "to cut, divide, pluck;" Lith. kerpu "cut;" M.Ir. cerbaim "cut"). The borrowing of autumn and fall gradually focused its meaning after 14c. from "the time of gathering crops" to the action itself and the product of the action. Harvester "machine for reaping and binding" is from 1875; harvest home (1596) is the occasion of bringing home the last of the harvest; harvest moon (1706) is that which is full within a fortnight of the autumnal equinox.
The airport also seems to have copied the Singapore (and many other) airports by adding a transit hotel. With blankets even. 
Kona I want you to know that unlike the Singapore airport, dogs are allowed to come greet the arriving passengers. And this dog was VERY happy to see his owner when she came out!
That dog is a Weimarner! They were on Sesame Street! They are the coolest dogs that have ever existed.
ReplyDeleteSo right on the term "to harvest." I was asked about signing an organ donation harvesting card and I was like, "What? You plan on growing an extra set that I come in to have removed every fall?"
Actually, it's a Weimaraner! You left out a letter and I wouldn't want people to get it wrong. People I know who belong to Weimaraners are fanatic about them. I think it's a little like Stockholm syndrome.
ReplyDelete