Benchley, Robert (Charles) (sh) and pelican (iou)

Benchley, Robert (Charles) (sh)

born Sept. 15, 1889, Worcester, Mass., U.S.
died Nov. 21, 1945, New York, N.Y., U.S.

U.S. drama critic, actor, and humorist.

Benchley graduated from Harvard University and joined the staff of Life magazine in 1920. A regular member of the Algonquin Round Table, he was drama critic for The New Yorker 1929-40, for which he also wrote "The Wayward Press" column under the pseudonym Guy Fawkes. He had bit parts in many feature films, but he is best known for more than 40 short subjects, including How to Sleep (1934, Academy Award). His Writing was warmly humorous, his satire sharp but not cruel.

pelican (iou)

pelican noun. LOE.
[Late Latin pelicanus from Greek pelekan, prob. from pelekus axe, pelekan hew with an axe, with ref. to the appearance or action of the bird's bill.]
Any of various large gregarious fish-eating waterbirds, constituting the family Pelecanidae and genus Pelecanus, having a long hooked bill with a greatly distensible pouch hanging below it, used to store fish when caught. In early and biblical use [after late Latin (Vulgate) pelicano solitudinis pelican of the wilderness], a bird of uncertain identity. LOE.
white pelican: see WHITE adjective.
b. The pelican as fabled to revive or feed its young with its own blood. LME.
W. Congreve Would'st thou have me turn Pelican, and feed thee out of my own Vitals?
c. fig. Christ as reviver of the dead in spirit by his blood. E16-E19.
A representation of a pelican in Art, heraldry, etc. LME.
B. Chatwin White porcelain sculpturesa pelican, a turkeycock.
Hist. An alembic having two curved tubes which pass down from the head and re-enter at the body of the vessel. M16.
Hist. A pronged instrument formerly used for extracting teeth. M17.
Hist. A type of cannon carrying a six-pound shot. M17.
(Pelican.) (Proprietary name for) any of a range of books published under the name 'Pelican'. M20.
Clive James He wrote a Pelican about Buddha.
[from Pedestrian Light Controlled, with alt.] More fully pelican crossing. In Britain, a pedestrian crossing with traffic lights operated by pedestrians. M20.
Comb.: pelican crossing: see sense 7 above; Pelican flag US the State flag of Louisiana; pelican-flower a W. Indian birthwort, Aristolochia grandiflora, with a very long floral tube; pelican's foot a European marine gastropod mollusc, Aporrhais pespelecani, with long digitate processes on the lip of the full-grown shell; the shell of this mollusc; Pelican State US the State of Louisiana.

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