Spanish is a forgiving language in which it is possible to deflect blame for many transgressions by using the ‘accidental reflective construction’ which allows you to say – instead of pin-pointing the guilty finger with “I forgot the book“- the ambiguous and lightly sheepish shrug of “the book was forgotten“. You can see how useful this phrasing is for getting your teenagers to confess, and indeed essential to entire presidential administrations. Here are some responsibility-evading words that use this construction in Spanish. Think about their english equivalents.
Which brings us to the newest headline in Massachusetts.
Boxford history: Wildlife thins or thrives over time
When Sidney Perley wrote his History of Boxford in 1880, the first chapter included a description of Boxford’s flora and fauna. Viewed from the perspective of a 19th century rural agricultural community,
Perley stated, “The wolf and bear, which were so dangerous to our early settlers, have long since been forgotten. The wildcat, also a formidable enemy, has not been met with for a century. The moose, red deer, and beaver were numerous; but they, too have passed away. The red fox is still shot by the sportsman.
‘Been forgotten‘, ‘passed away‘, and ‘not been met for a century‘. Boxford has had an elegant supply of euphemisms for the past 200 years. Notice at no point do they actually use the words ‘eradicated, exterminated’, or even the less understood ‘extirpated’. It’s all very mysterious. For ‘SOME REASON’ (no one knows why) we know longer have bear or moose in Boxford, and for ‘SOME REASON’ (no one knows why) we have a lot more raccoons and crows than we used to.
Success has many parents, but failure and species depletion is apparently an orphan.
This trend continued into the 20th century. In the past few decades many animal species, including some of those specifically mentioned by Sidney Perley, have acclimated and even prospered in Boxford’s suburban environment.
Let’s not mention our trash cans are often unprotected buffet tables, or our cozy crawl spaces entire dens where a fox can happily keep her kits dry all winter. Let’s forget our increase in pests when all the predators are removed and the mysterious need for more rat poisons when all the raptors are killed. Don’t remind us that we killed hundreds of thousands of beavers in Massachusetts alone and made room for lots more beavers to move in.
For SOME REASON this just happens. No one knows why. Certainly not the author of this article.
