The Purple Essay

مع السلامة (ma’a salama) melting pot. さよなら (sayonara), salad bowl. America is an omnibus of purple prose bound in balding eagle skin.We’re talking primo leather from a batty bird who steals hot dogs from kids at ballparks. True story. ((Not a BORN FREEagle mugging on a ride-or-die Clutch album. (Book of Bad Decisions, 2018. Photo by Dan Winters, danwintersphoto.com. Gallery recs: “Works on Paper: Cold War” and “Constructions.”) And not some early bird crunching half-frozen fish bait for gonzo wildlife photographers. (See *“Photographic Memories,”* by Dale O’Dell, daleodell.photoshelter.com. Gallery recs: “The Secret Martian Expedition of 1950” and “Tales of Loneliness.”))) Look, the Cascade Raptor Center in Eugene, Oregon, does great work. It’s not their fault sombunall bald eagles are jerks.^[The turkey vulture: now there’s a noble bird. Properly glabrous, too.]💡The author has omitted a Rube Goldberg Domino Rally of bald eagles bullying golden eagles for jackrabbit scraps into a…