Date: Fri, 14 Jun 1996 11:19:46 PDT

From: Duane Campbell dcamp[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]EPIX.NET

Subject: Re: firecat



--- On Thu, 13 Jun 1996 14:10:44 -0600 Joan Houston Hall

jdhall[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]FACSTAFF.WISC.EDU wrote:



John Serio, editor of The Wallace Stevens Journal, has asked for help in

identifying the "firecat" in the following poem



I hate it when people on a maillist who don't know what they're talking about

take up valuable bandwidth and time to write nearly worthless speculation. But

as the philosopher said, we become what we hate.



Firecat rings a faint bell somewhere in the recesses of my mind, perhaps from

eighth grade biology or some forgotten children's book. I have the vague idea,

on which I would bet not a penny, regardless of the odds offered, that it is a

kind of lizards in the Southwest, so named because of its ability to survive

range fires. I have checked several references and can find not a hint of

confirmation.



I checked Alta Vista and got several hundred hits on "firecat", read many,

found nothing useful. A number of people use "firecat" as a login name, and I

even emailed a query to one of them, but the computer has been timed out.



I am giving up on the quest, as my mind is already littered with all the petty

obsessions I can handle at the moment.





Duane Campbell

dcamp[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]epix.net



In the beginning the Earth was without form and void.

Why didn't they leave well enough alone?