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Ford, John, American film director

(Encyclopedia)Ford, John, 1895–1973, American film director, b. Cape Elizabeth, Maine, as John Martin Feeney. Ford began directing in 1917 after an apprenticeship with his brother Francis. Over the next 50 years,...

arapaima

(Encyclopedia)arapaima ărˌəpīˈmə [key], tropical fish, genus Arapaima, of the Amazon basin. Arapaimas are perhaps the largest of the strictly freshwater fishes, reportedly reaching a length of 15 ft (4.5 m), ...

katydid

(Encyclopedia)katydid, common name of certain large, singing, winged insects belonging to the long-horned grasshopper family (Tettigoniidae) in the order Orthoptera. Katydids are green or, occasionally, pink and ra...

sweet pea

(Encyclopedia)sweet pea, annual climbing plant (Lathyrus odoratus) of the family Leguminosae (pulse family), a legume native to S Europe but, since its introduction to horticulture c.1700, widely cultivated for its...

Tandy, James Napper

(Encyclopedia)Tandy, James Napper, 1740–1803, Irish revolutionary. Originally a small tradesman in Dublin, he gained attention by his attacks on municipal corruption and his proposal to boycott English goods as a...

pika

(Encyclopedia)pika pīˈkə [key], short-haired mammal related to rabbits and hares, also called mouse hare and rock rabbit. Pikas live above the timber line in the mountains of N Asia and W North America. The pika...

Weir, Julian Alden

(Encyclopedia)Weir, Julian Alden wēr [key], 1852–1919, b. West Point, N.Y., American painter. He studied with his father Robert Walter Weir, a landscape painter of the Hudson River school, at the National Academ...

Betjeman, Sir John

(Encyclopedia)Betjeman, Sir John bĕtˈjəmən [key], 1906–84, English poet, b. London. Traditional in rhyme and meter, his verse combined a witty appraisal of the English present with nostalgia for England's pas...

blenny

(Encyclopedia)blenny, common name of various species of extremely numerous small fishes belonging to the suborders Blennioidei (blennies) and Notothenioidei (Antarctic blennies). They are characterized by elongated...

Bonneville, Benjamin Louis Eulalie de

(Encyclopedia)Bonneville, Benjamin Louis Eulalie de bŏnˈvĭl [key], 1796–1878, American army officer and trader who blazed portions of the Oregon Trail, b. France, grad. West Point, 1815. Acquainted with the fu...