What is the difference between a Jungle, a Forest and some Woods?

 

What a tremendous question, Raymond, and one that desperately needs clarification, for sure!

My first thought is that a jungle is any patch, swath or endless vista of trees and such that is capable of supporting, monkeys, apes, colorful birds and big cats. And their prey. And Tarzan. Also, the availability of edible jungle fruit would be key in identifying a jungle. That and the huge tree-snake wrapping itself around your torso - another clear identifier.

How Tarzan survived in the jungle is a mystery all its own. He lived with apes, yet did not have the ability as a youngster to scurry up a tree or swing from tree to tree to escape tigers, jaguars, pumas, hyenas and the like, which would have made him easy pickings for the big cats. Obviously, once he was big enough to climb and swing and yodel, he was considerably safer, even though he could not grasp a banana with his foot. I'm certain he took a certain amount of ribbing from his ape-brethren for his lack of usable feet, as well as his mostly-hairless body. It didn't seem to affect his self-esteem, because in a matter of just a few years, he was running the show.

A yodeling Tarzan, running the show.

A forest, I assume, would be a smaller grouping of trees, incapable of supporting apes and big cats. Mostly deer, squirrels, rabbits and smaller predatory canines, such as wolves or foxes. Tarzan would also be unlikely to survive in the forest. A young Tarzan, while not needing to the ability to grasp a banana with his feet, would still be easy fodder for the forest-dogs without the aid of his wily monkey friends. Forests would be found abutting farms, castles and other populated communities and could be used to hunt (or poach, if it were owned by gentry) the aforementioned deer, squirrels and rabbits.

Some woods would also be found next to communities, farms and ranches. Sodbusters would hunt for the same game here as in forests and use their lumber to build their rough cabins and later carpentried homes. I would consider the woods to be the younger, red-haired brother of the forest. Much smaller and not much missed if completely destroyed by progress. Just like the younger red-haired brother.

Let's to to the research. This from Sciencing.com: "Woods and forests have no clear delineation in scientific terms, although they are widely considered to be slightly different. Both are expanses of land covered in trees and inhabited by animals, but woods are smaller and their canopy cover significantly less dense than those of forests. Jungles are a colloquially-termed subtype of tropical rainforest that is particularly dense with undergrowth. Woods and deciduous forests are populated by animals such as deer, bears, mice and owls, while jungles are populated by animals such as snakes, monkeys, macaws and crocodiles."

 I forgot about bears. Not to mention crocodiles. Both of which would eagerly devour a young Tarzan. Otherwise, I was pretty much on-point. Good job, Jer-Bear. Take that, research staff.

And as the apes often say, while slinging their feces, "Good day, Sir!"

What are Salad Days?

 

That is a very good question, George. My first thought is that they are the worst days of the month on the grade-school cafeteria schedule. After all, who in their right mind would look forward to a plate of greens after a week of canned spaghetti, limp frozen cheese pizza, stale-bun hot dogs and fish sticks (or "fish dicks", as we called them with a sixth-grade snicker)?

On a side note, in grade school in the early 1970's, "lunch tickets" were purchased for the week or month and we were issued little punch cards that were diligently punched by hair-netted lunch-ladies as we were processed through the lunch line. Or a kid could pay with cash, had he not had the foresight to pester his parents for a check or cash for the ticket. As hooligans, we would crumple the ticket over and over again until it had the consistency of a dishrag and was probably half its original size. When presented with these abominations, lunch ladies would invariably scowl or scold, depending on their mood. Even if they had gone through the same ritual the day before. We got a great kick out of seeing who could brandish the most distressed lunch card. You can do the same thing with a dollar bill and get the same reaction from your local grocer. Er, I've heard... But I digress.

With the able assistance of the "Just Ask Jerry Research Laboratory, Memorial Library and Family Hayride" staff, I was able to come up with a more appetizing answer to the question "what are salad days?".  According to Wikipedia, the Repository of All Knowledge, and supported by Miriam Webster and Company, the Arbiters of All Things Defined as Words, "Salad Days" are defined as "a youthful time, a period of carefree innocence, idealism and pleasure associated with youth, a heyday, a period when somebody was at the peak of their abilities, not necessarily in their youth."  Such as my life, mid-twenties: pre-AIDS, mid-cocaine, playing music in bars where the women were usually drunk, and if lucky, possessing a  questionable moral compass. Also known as "The Good Old Days".

But why "salad", you may ask. We can thank Bill Shakespeare for the "salad days" turn of phrase, he having apparently grabbed it out of thin air to back the quote in Antony and Cleopatra, where Cleo laments her youthful dalliances with Julius Caesar at the end of Act I "...My salad days, / When I was green in judgment, cold in blood/To say as I said then!  Get it? Green, cold - salad? Leave it to WS, who came up with other phrases we still use to this day, such as "mum's the word", "too much of a good thing" and "dead as a doornail".

One phrase not attributed to Shakespeare: "Good day, sir."