Sarasota News Leader

04/12/2013

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Sarasota News Leader April 12, 2013 Page 78 and grace Siesta Key's south bridge with their When used by Chaucer or Shakespeare it is marvelous and multitudinous presence." downright bawdy fun. Of course, that is not what he said! But I do A true master of the double entendre and its not want to scare off the tourists by repeating tongue-in-cheek ribaldry was James Bond's what he actually said. creator, Ian Fleming. He could turn any character's name into a sexual innuendo. And he As any hungry owl might reasonably do, I misdid! However, while imprisoned behind a car's heard "Crowley's Nursery" as "Crawlies' Nursgrille, I recalled more subtle examples of his ery," and with visions of plump centipedes and wordplay from Live and Let Die, in which Giant Water Bugs dancing in my head, I made Fleming set a more sinister tone for James a quick swoop through his car grille and setBond's mission to save the U.S. from internatled in to enjoy the long but free ride to breaktional narcotics traffickers. fast. "Go ahead," said Bond, who was riding safely Just a few days earlier, a Great Horned Owl in the passenger seat. He was glad to keep made national news by hitching a ride in a silent and gaze out at his first sight of AmeriFlorida woman's SUV. When he was finally ca since the war, with the exotic pungency of discovered, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conserthe road signs: "SOFT SHOULDERS"; "SHARP vation Commission officers removed him, unCURVES"; "SQUEEZE AHEAD"; "SLIPPERY hurt, and probably cited him for hitchhiking. WHEN WET." I was not about to make the same mistake. I was ensconced in a sleek Jaguar, invisible to However, none of the above fatalistic musall sheriff's deputies whose eyes might have ings had been necessary. As Mr. Bored drove been on the traffic rather than their 7-Eleven into Crowley's parking lot, I immediately saw donuts and hot dogs. butterflies, dragonflies and all sorts of flying insects enjoying the warmth of that earIt was one long, hot, noisy, dusty, miserable ly morning. A Gossamer-Winged Damselfly trip; I do not recommend this means of transeven greeted me personally inside my comportation to anyone. At first, I tried to distract partment. It was quite tasty, and the treat did myself by playing that favorite travel game much to restore my spirits. Name That Road Kill! but Mr. Bored was driving way too fast for that. So, I passed the time Crowley Nursery & Gardens uses only natural by contemplating the history of wordplay in pest controls, so its fruit plants are naturalEnglish literature. I began with the delightful ly pollinated, berries of the Miracle Fruit are homophonic pun, when two words that sound safe to eat and butterflies can flutter and necalike have different meanings. But considering tar. And they did! The staff actually ensures that is what got me into this dreadful situa- the nursery will have succeeding generations tion, I quickly moved on to the double enten- of Lepidoptera by hand-removing caterpillars dre. That is a word or phrase having a double from host plants available for sale to the ones meaning whose second meaning is risqué. on permanent display.

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