Dear Fan of Tweety Bird,
He's a he!  The Little Golden Book TWEETY'S GLOBAL PATROL by Gene Lewis, uses male gender; for instance, when Tweety answers the phone: "'Global Patrol, Tweety here,' he trilled once more."

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Eager Niece,
As Elizabeth Cady Stanton said, "Truth is the only safe ground to stand upon"...or, in this case, the only safe way to be suspended in mid-air.  According to the folks at the Engineering Department at New York State Electric and Gas (347-4526), the spheres warn the pilots of low-flying aircraft -- like traffic helicopters and police speed-enforcement planes -- to watch out for the wires.  So yes, they make the lines visible from above, although no doubt they also make fallen lines easier to spot.  For more information, and to see that you're not the first to be mystified by the spheres, please see the 6/14/94 posting, Q2.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Just Curious,
Elmer Sperry (1860-1930) was a famous inventer best known for inventing the gyroscope, which was used in ships -- particularly during WWI -- to replace the magnetic compass.  According to the booklet A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF ELMER SPERRY (available in the university archives in Kroch library), Sperry also patented an arc-light which he sold to a company in Schnectady which became General Electric; he formed a mining apparatus company; he founded an electric railway company in Cleveland that made trolly cars; and, in 1888, he built an electric car.  A native of Cortland, New York, Sperry first established contact with Cornell when he helped professors Anthony and Moler build a dynamo which was exhibited at the huge Philadelphia Exposition in 1876.
        Sperry's son Edward Goodman Sperry graduated from Cornell in 1915 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.  A second brother, Lawrence Burst Sperry, didn't go to college.  Both sons became very involved in the family businesses.
        The BRIEF BIOGRAPHY booklet doesn't specify how much money (if any) the Sperry family donated but does point to intellectual contributions which earn the family a special place in Cornell's history.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Nephew,
A friend of a Cornellian is friend of mine, so you're welcome to call me "Uncle"!  Baxter Hathaway (1909 - 1984) was Professor of English at Cornell and editor of the CORNELL REVIEW...which, for the record, was at that point in time a literary magazine published by the English department with a substantially different tone from the current CORNELL REVIEW.  I asked English Professor Emeritus James McConkey (255-2325), who knew Baxter Hathaway, to elaborate on the brief sketch I had of him.  Professor McConkey says that Hathaway founded the Creative Writing Program and is responsible for its very eminent status now.  He also edited the literary magazine EPOCH.  For a time after his retirement, he and his wife Sherry (who is still alive) founded and ran Ithaca House, an art gallery and book publishing house.  So he was quite influential in the English Department, at Cornell, and across the country.
        Thanks, Professor McConkey!  If you'd like to look at Professor Hathaway's papers, they're stored in the Rare and Manuscripts Collection in 2B60 Kroch Library.  As you picked up from your love's reaction, you can be proud to live in what used to be his home!

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Just Curious,
After you bite into an apple, the white interior turns brown from exposure to the air.  The browning of apple juice works the same way; for the scientific details, please see the 9/6/94 "Dear Uncle Ezra"
posting, Q1.

Uncle Ezra