A topic perfectly–perhaps uniquely–suited to the particular mix of interests here: Who were the first falconers? In a flurry of emails between us, Steve pulling in the expert testimony of his friend John Burchard and adding his own considerable insight; Reid, the ever-sober archeologist, providing lines of evidence from peer-reviewed literature and I wildly speculating …
Month: November 2005
Note From The Web-Geek
Regular readers (if such people exist) might notice “surprise posts” sometimes popping up beneath bits they’ve already read. Let me explain: Steve’s machine won’t let him post images (I’m sure that’s not personal, but Steve seems skeptical). So I post them but usually after a day’s delay. When they move from edit mode to prime-time, …
Montana Bison Hunt
There is an article in today’s Wall Street Journal by Brendan Miniter about a plan by the State of Montana to allow limited hunting of bison who have wandered out of Yellowstone National Park. The bison carry brucellosis, a disease that kills domestic cattle, and they can’t be allowed to mingle with cattle herds in …
More on the Airman in the Glacier
A couple of weeks ago, I posted this about the body of a WW II era airman found in a glacier in the California Sierras. The LA Times this week had more about the shipment of the body to a DoD forensics lab in Hawaii for identification, and the known names of the crew of …
Father Ayala against “Intelligent” Design
This is a good link (via John Derbyshire and The Corner), to Dominican priest and biologist Francisco Ayala’s latest demolition of “Intelligent” Design. I particularly like this: “But American folk-Catholicism has absorbed an anti-evolution flavor from the surrounding evangelical Protestant culture. When he taught introductory biology at UCI, Ayala had Catholic students as well as …
Jeanne d’Arc
I am by no means a sensitive new- age male, so occasionally I get hit with “How come you are always surrounded by strong women?” To me, it’s obvious. But there may be a second reason, or one that precedes rational analysis. My very small, very odd, private Catholic grammar school had a copy of …
Pretty Guns– the Continuing Series
This one is a high- quality modern version of the classic Colt 1911 by Kimber . It has some useful modifications like Tritium night sights and a better magazine, but the reason I have photographed it is the wonderful custom scrimshaw handles by Eagle Grips. The design is a composite– my drawing– of several Tokugawa-era– …
Writing– the Continuing Series
I have been reading RobertKaplan’s good Mediterranean Winter and came upon this good advice given him by Patrick Leigh Fermor, the still- living greatest travel writer of the Twentieth Century (and if he completes the third volume of his trilogy before he dies, an early contender for the title in the Twenty- first). Fermor’s advice, …
“We were dreamers, dreaming greatly…
… in the man- stifled town;We yearned beyond the sky-line where the strange roads go down.” Kipling, of course. I become blue, even depressed, when unable to get away to somewhere strange, cold, and unhospitable but for people, who may stuff you with sheep or drown you in vodka. Or maybe to a hot place …
A Right and a Left!
Strictly speaking, shooting terminology. But two recent online esays from rather left and libertarian right perspectives– granted, on two different subjects– seemed to have a lot to say to me. In an article called “No people Allowed” in Orion, Mark Dowie argues that some westerners and conservation associations, however well- meaning, are decreeing new refuges …