“When you set foot on an island without rats, the skies are full of seabirds. It’s noisy because of the cacophony that those birds are making. And it smells of guano and ammonia, particularly if it has recently rained. It’s a really rich, pungent, loud environment. But when you set foot on an island with rats present,” Graham said,
“there’s next to no seabirds. The skies are empty.” There is no smell, and
the only sound comes from the small waves lapping on the beach.

Eat, Poop, Die: How Animals Make Our World, Joe Roman

“Occasionally, the [airport] code chosen bears no relation to the name of the city. Who would know that MCO, as Orlando is known, was once McCoy Air Force Base? Or that TYS represents Knoxville, Tennessee, because the Tyson family donated the land for the airport?”

The Way to Go: Moving by Sea, Land, and Air. Kate Ascher

During the mid–1880s, when the late-night exploits of the Chicago players resulted in
listless and disinterested performance on the field, Spalding hired a private detective to tail Kelly and his teammates. The detective compiled a report, which Spalding then read aloud to his men. Players such as Anson, Burns, and Sunday got off easy, but Kelly, Flint, and the rest listened quietly as Spalding recounted what he later described as “stories of drunkenness and debauchery” and “scenes of revelry and carousing that were altogether reprehensible and disgusting.”Seven team members were implicated by name in the report, and when Spalding finished, a hush filled the room. Kelly, after a few tense moments, broke the silence. “I have to offer only one amendment,” he told Spalding. “In that place where the detective reports me as taking lemonade at 3 A.M., he’s off. It was straight whiskey. I never drank a lemonade at that hour in my life.”

The Irish in Baseball