In his journal entry of 13 May 1838 Ralph Waldo Emerson defines a unit of time:

A Bird-while. In a natural chronometer, a Bird-while may be admitted as one of the metres, since the space most of the wild birds will allow you to make your observations on them when they alight near you in the woods, is a pretty equal and familiar measure.

(cf. RalphWaldoEmerson (5 Aug 2003), ...)

TopicLiterature - TopicHumor - 2007-04-26

(correlates: NecessityAndSufficiency, OneWrongStep, Angus Phillips, ...)