Figures of speech that employ characteristics associated with a
horse's head are not always terms of endearment. To say that a
person has a horse face, horse teeth, or a horse laugh or to
suggest that he lacks horse sense or that he eats like a horse
is to risk riding roughshod over his psyche. Yet these third-
person-derisive applications are thumpingly ironic, for the
equine head is the crown jewel of a crowning achievement: a
peerless and complex creation that mimics and abets the various
systems of the body that supports it. We can appreciate the
significance of the head among the world's fauna when we
consider the multitude of non-living things that are said to
possess one. Heads are standard equipment on pins, nails, tennis
rackets, and plants, on rocks, rivers, tools, coins, beers,
drums, and fiddles, too. Nor has human action been spared the
head's metaphorical embrace. Athletes sometimes play over their
heads; movie stars are known as headliners; and when we are
overly impressed, our heads get turned-