Re: Wheelin'

[Ken Ames <ameskg@xxxxxxxxx>]

Wasn't the cormorant the hood ornament on the Packard - or some other high-end car?

Ken


Quoting Sandwich Maker <adh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

> " From: farna@xxxxxxx
> " 
> " On March 5, 2006 andrew hay wrote:
> " 
> " 
> " > " The last car built by Studebaker --- whose carriages carried America's
> " > " Presidents --- in South Bend still is -in- South Bend, in a new museum
> " > " designed to seem old.  American Motors, the next "last independent" is
> " > " present in many ways in that place on Chapin Street.  Romney's compact
> " > " and Teague's cormorant and AMC and S-P --- alive in auto history's
> mix.
> " > 
> " > teague's cormorant?  i don't get it.
> " > 
> " > i read a nero wolfe mystery recently and noted rex stout named wolfe's
> " > car a cormorant.  connection?
> " 
> " 
> " Me either. In fact, I looked it up. Other than a sea bird, cormorant
> " means "greedy and rapacious", which further means "given to seizing
> " for plunder or the satisfaction of greed; inordinately greedy;
> " predatory; extortionate: a rapacious disposition." Maybe in the Wolfe
> " mystery it was meant as a gas guzzler (greedy for fuel). 
> 
> it's definitely the name of wolfe's own car, and the oblique bits of
> description suggest a very large and prewar chauffeured limousine.
> from context i assumed 'cormorant' was merely stout's way of
> suggesting a luxurious brand.
> 
> " Now how was AMC any of those? I think she mis-used the word and really
> " meant something else. Maybe you heard it wrong? Or did you see a
> " transcript and it got written wrong? Sounds like she meant to say
> " something positive, not negative. 
> 
> i don't know about that, though stout was extremely literate and
> probably knew exactly what cormorant meant, and that car appears
> periodically throughout the wolfe series on the rare occasions when
> he has to travel.
> 
> hmmm...  wolfe is sometimes greedy and rapacious, though never at the
> expense of the defenseless or just.
> 
> " > " The panel gaps along M-B's new decklid make AMC spaces appear narrow!
> " > 
> " > saab used to design wide gaps deliberately, so their doors etc.
> " > couldn't freeze shut.
> " 
> " Americans tend to judge other cars and cultures by our own conditions
> " and standards, not withstanding any real reason there may be for
> " others to think/do otherwise. Hmm... I have to say other cultures do
> " us the same way -- human nature, I guess. 
> 
> in spades.  all the social bits of our instincts are tuned for small
> groups, and it's a truism of psych that large groups spontaneously
> frag into smaller groups, each of which tend to see themselves as 'us'
> and all the others as 'them'...
> 
> this digression still leaves the mystery of teague's cormorant...
> ________________________________________________________________________
> Andrew Hay                                  the genius nature
> internet rambler                            is to see what all have seen
> adh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx                       and think what none thought
> 
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