A Brace of Birds
I do a little radio show called "What's the Good Word" for Dordt College Radio (KDCR). Here's The one I wrote for today, January 20, the inauguration day of Barack Obama. The menu for the inaugural dinner, held shortly after the inauguration of President Obama, had as its main course a “brace of birds.” The word brace immediately caught my eye. I thought I knew what it meant, “a pair of birds,” but I wanted to explore it a bit, since to my mind immediately came a number of other, quite different meanings of brace , both verbs and nouns. Other noun meanings include a pair of suspenders (braces), a kind of drill (a brace and bit), devices attached to the teeth to shape and strengthen them; and a related word, bracelet, the decorative jewelry worn on the wrist. Some verb meanings are as follows: “to strengthen or support; to make ready for impact; to stimulate or invigorate; to tighten by stretching”; and the variation, embrace, “to hug.” The...