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Scarecrow
A scarecrow is a decoy or mannequin, often in the shape of a human. Humanoid scarecrows are usually dressed in old clothes and placed in open fields to discourage birds from disturbing and feeding on recently cast seed and growing crops.Lesley Brown (ed.). (2007). "Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles". 6th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. . Scarecrows are used around the world by farmers, and are a notable symbol of farms and the countryside in popular culture. Design The common form of a scarecrow is a humanoid figure dressed in old clothes and placed in open fields to discourage birds such as crows or sparrows from disturbing and feeding on recently cast seed and growing crops. Machinery such as windmills have been employed as scarecrows, but the effectiveness lessens as animals become familiar with the structures. Since the invention of the humanoid scarecrow, more effective methods have been developed. On California farmland, highly-reflectiv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scarecrow (Oz)
The Scarecrow is a character in the fictional Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum and illustrator W.W. Denslow. In his first appearance, the Scarecrow reveals that he lacks a brain and desires above all else to have one. In reality, he is only two days old and merely naïve. Throughout the course of the novel, he proves to have the brains he seeks and is later recognized as "the wisest man in all of Oz," although he continues to credit the Wizard for them. He is, however, wise enough to know his own limitations and all too happy to hand the rulership of Oz, passed to him by the Wizard, to Princess Ozma, and become one of her trusted advisors, though he typically spends more time having fun than advising. Character biography In ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' In Baum's classic 1900 novel ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'', the living scarecrow encounters Dorothy Gale in a field in the Munchkin Country while she is on her way to the Emerald City. He tells her about hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
His Majesty, The Scarecrow Of Oz
''His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz'' is a 1914 American silent fantasy adventure film directed by J. Farrell MacDonald, and written and produced by L. Frank Baum. It stars Violet MacMillan, Frank Moore, Vivian Reed, Todd Wright, Pierre Couderc, Raymond Russell, and Fred Woodward. The film had a troubled distribution history; it opened on September 28, 1914, to little success, though it was received as well above average fare by critics of the time.See reviews collected from various trade papers in ''The Baum Bugle'' Winter 2005 Early in 1915, it was reissued under the title ''The New Wizard of Oz'' and was slightly more successful. The film is loosely based on Baum's 1900 book ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'', but in the screenplay, Baum introduced many new characters and a large new story that later became the basis for the 1915 book ''The Scarecrow of Oz''. Similar to ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'', the Scarecrow's origin is revealed, although his life is now attributed t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz
''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' is a children's novel written by author L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. It is the first novel in the Oz series of books. A Kansas farm girl named Dorothy ends up in the magical Land of Oz after she and her pet dog Toto are swept away from their home by a tornado. Upon her arrival in Oz, she learns she cannot return home until she has destroyed the Wicked Witch of the West. The book was first published in the United States in May 1900 by the George M. Hill Company. In January 1901, the publishing company completed printing the first edition, a total of 10,000 copies, which quickly sold out. It had sold three million copies by the time it entered the public domain in 1956. It was often reprinted under the title ''The Wizard of Oz'', which is the title of the successful 1902 Broadway musical adaptation as well as the classic 1939 live-action film. The ground-breaking success of both the original 1900 novel and the 1902 Broadw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ray Bolger
Raymond Wallace Bolger (January 10, 1904 – January 15, 1987) was an American actor, dancer, singer, vaudevillian and stage performer (particularly musical theatre) who started in the silent-film era. Bolger was a major Broadway performer in the 1930s and beyond. He is best known for his roles in '' The Wizard of Oz'' (1939) as the Scarecrow and in Walt Disney's holiday musical fantasy '' Babes in Toyland'' as the villainous Barnaby. Bolger was the host of '' The Ray Bolger Show'' on TV from 1953 to 1955, originally titled ''Where's Raymond?'' Early life Bolger was born at 598 Second St., South Boston, Massachusetts, into a Catholic family of Irish descent, the son of James Edward Bolger and Anne C. née Wallace. His father James was first-generation Irish, and was born in Fall River, Massachusetts; his mother "Annie" who had a large Irish family, was born in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. He grew up and attended school in the Codman Square section of Dorchester neighborhoo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Scarecrow (play)
''The Scarecrow'' is a play written by Percy MacKaye in 1908, and first presented on Broadway in 1911. It is based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, " Feathertop", but greatly expands upon the tale. Mackaye himself stated that he hoped that the play would not be taken as a dramatization of "Feathertop", since the intentions of the two works are so different: "The scarecrow Feathertop is ridiculous, as the emblem of a superficial fop; the scarecrow Ravensbane is pitiful, as the emblem of human bathos." Productions Frank Reicher, known to modern audiences for playing the ship's captain in the original ''King Kong'' and its sequel ''Son of Kong'', starred in the title role in the original 1911 Broadway production. The play had what would now be considered an extremely short run in New York (23 performances). In 1923 it was filmed as a silent movie, ''Puritan Passions'', starring Mary Astor. The play was revived twice in New York (most recently in 2005), has been made into an opera, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Feathertop
"Feathertop" is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, first published in 1852. The moral tale uses a metaphoric scarecrow named Feathertop and its adventure to offer the reader a conclusive lesson about human character. It has since been used and adapted in several other media forms, such as opera and theatre. Plot In seventeenth century New England, the witch Mother Rigby builds a scarecrow to protect her garden. She is so taken with her own handiwork that she whimsically decides to bring the scarecrow to life and send it into town to woo Polly Gookin, the daughter of Judge Gookin, with whom Mother Rigby had unspecified prior dealings. Once the stuffed man does come alive, Mother Rigby gives him the appearance of a normal human being and provides a pipe, on which the scarecrow must puff to keep himself alive. Judge Gookin meets the scarecrow, whom Mother Rigby has named Feathertop. Feathertop is introduced to Polly, and the two begin to fall in love. But when Polly and Feather ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Percy MacKaye
Percy MacKaye (1875–1956) was an American dramatist and poet. Biography MacKaye was born in New York City into a theatrical family. His father, Steele MacKaye, was a popular actor, playwright, and producer, while his mother, Mary, wrote a dramatization of Pride and Prejudice, first produced in 1910. His brother James MacKaye was a philosopher, while brother Benton MacKaye was a forester and conservationist. His sister, Hazel MacKaye, became a women's suffrage leader and pageant director. After graduating from Harvard in 1897, he traveled in Europe for three years, residing in Rome, Switzerland and London, studying at the University of Leipzig in 1899–1900. He returned to New York City to teach at a private school until 1904, when he joined a colony of artists and writers in Cornish, New Hampshire, and devoted himself entirely to dramatic work. He wrote the plays ''The Canterbury Pilgrims'' in 1903, '' Sappho and Phaon'' in 1907, '' Jeanne D'Arc'' in 1907, '' The Scarecr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kakashi2
, is a 2001 horror film based on the Junji Ito manga of the same name. The film follows Kaoru Yoshikawa, whose search for her missing brother Tsuyoshi leads her to Kozukata, an isolated village that seems to harbor dark secrets. Plot The opening text narrates the tradition of "Kakashi", where humans would burn animal and human hairs to prevent evil spirits from entering Earth. They eventually began to burn human effigies made of straws as it also attracted the spirits of the dead so they can interact with them. Little did they know that it may bring consequences far greater than they thought. Opening in medias res, lead protagonist, Kaoru Yoshikawa (Maho Nonami) is shown screaming in front of flames, asking why it had to be done to her. In the beginning, Kaoru is a young woman who has a close relationship with her brother, Tsuyoshi; their parents had been dead since a long time ago. Unable to contact him for a week, she goes to his apartment and finds an envelope near his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corvus
''Corvus'' is a widely distributed genus of medium-sized to large birds in the family Corvidae. It includes species commonly known as crows, ravens and rooks. The species commonly encountered in Europe are the carrion crow, the hooded crow, the common raven and the rook; those discovered later were named "crow" or "raven" chiefly on the basis of their size, crows generally being smaller. The genus name is Latin for "crow". The 45 or so members of this genus occur on all temperate continents except South America, and several islands. The ''Corvus'' genus makes up a third of the species in the family Corvidae. The members appear to have evolved in Asia from the corvid stock, which had evolved in Australia. The collective name for a group of crows is a "flock" or a "murder". Recent research has found some crow species capable of not only tool use, but also tool construction. Crows are now considered to be among the world's most intelligent animals with an encephalization ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bird Scarer
Bird scarers is a blanket term used to describe devices designed for deterring birds by startling, confusing or otherwise repeling them, typically employed in commercial settings by farmers to dissuade birds from consuming and defecating on recently planted arable crops. Numerous bird scarers are also readily available to the public direct to consumer, or by means of purchase from independent retailers. Bird scarers are also often present on airfields to prevent birds from accumulating in proximity to runways and causing a potential hazard to the bird and/or aircraft as well as potentially increasing the frequency an airstrip requires maintenance, and wind turbines. Visual scarers Scarecrow One of the oldest designs of bird scarer is the scarecrow which is in the shape of a human figure. The scarecrow idea has been built upon numerous times, and not all visual scare devices are shaped like humans. The "Flashman Birdscarer," Iridescent tape, "TerrorEyes" balloons, and other visu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kuebiko
is the Shinto ''kami'' ("god; deity") of folk wisdom, knowledge and agriculture, and is represented in Japanese mythology as a scarecrow who cannot walk but has comprehensive awareness. Names ''Kuebiko'' (久延毘古, literally "long stretch help old", "old long extending border", "long-reaching old helping hand"), had an alternate name of ''Yamada-no-sohodo'' (山田之曾富騰, literally, "mountain paddy-field's once wealth rise"), with ''sohodo'' transcribing '' sōdo'' ( 案山子 "scarecrow", also pronounced ''sōzu'' or ''kakashi''). The traditional etymological explanations are ''Kuebiko'' from ''kuzue-biko'' (崩え彦 "crumbling prince") and ''Yamada no Sohodo'' meaning "someone left soaking wet from standing guard over mountain rice fields", a euphemism for ''scarecrow". Mythology The (c. 712) '' Kojiki'' ("Record of Ancient Matters") has the earliest reference to Kuebiko in the myth of Ōkuninushi ("Great Land Master"). When Ōkuninushi was at Cape Miho in Izumo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Countryside
In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are described as rural. Different countries have varying definitions of ''rural'' for statistical and administrative purposes. In rural areas, because of their unique economic and social dynamics, and relationship to land-based industry such as agriculture, forestry and resource extraction, the economics are very different from cities and can be subject to boom and bust cycles and vulnerability to extreme weather or natural disasters, such as droughts. These dynamics alongside larger economic forces encouraging to urbanization have led to significant demographic declines, called rural flight, where economic incentives encourage younger populations to go to cities for education and access to jobs, leaving older, less educated and less wealthy popu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
