Alumni

Far Away and Long Ago (in Craftsbury Common, Vermont to be exact) Annie Proulx started a writing workshop and talked me into being the first instructor, though I had never taught anything before. Two of my students published good books this year. Both are far wiser and older than I, and have written before, but …

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A Bodio Connection to the Whydah

Last month I posted on some new underwater archaeology discoveries at the wreck of the Whydah, a pirate ship that sank off of Wellfleet, Massachusetts in 1717. Steve’s sister, Karen Bodio-Graham, visits the Wellfleet area often, saw the post and sent us an e-mail and pictures about her and her family’s interest in the Whydah: …

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More Mule News

Today’s Denver Post has a follow-up on their story of a foal born to a female mule in western Colorado. I posted on this back in July and we added Dr. John Burchard’s comments on it a bit later. Further research on the foal has shown that he is a genetic lawbreaker: “Genetic tests have …

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Querencia- The- Book

Posting on Peter Bowen reminds me of something potentially important. With the help of Peter and his lawyer, Mark Hartwig, I have regained not only the rights to the book Querencia but also to the remaining physical books. I’ll doubtless start selling them here, and who knows what else? Suggestions encouraged…

Rat Hunting Men

Many years ago (1980) Peculiar’s late father, Harry Frishman, was a member of the first American climbing party in China since the Thirties, in an attempt to climb Minya Kanka in Szechuan. The trip turned into an epic of adventure and disaster– I’ll let Libby or Mr. P tell it somewhere. But before the climb …

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What a Man’s Gotta Do

Recently, Popular Mechanics published a distinctly odd list of Skills Every Man Should Know. Some are good ones, but.. Extend your wireless network? Retouch digital photos?? (I can, by the way). I don’t think there are many capsizing boats within 75 miles. Bolt action rifle? Why not, for instance, an auto pistol? Nothing about cooking? …

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Two Good Quotes

“A man of action rarely keeps a journal; it is always later on and in a period of prolonged inactivity, that he does his recollecting, makes his notations, and, very often, has cause to wonder at the course his life has taken.” Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian (HT Terry Teachout, About Last Night. “They know …

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Doggish Blogstuff

In a post forthrightly called “Nannying Idiots Continue to ignore real problems”, Patrick starts with the case of someone arrested for docking a terrier tail in England and then gets REALLY wound up. “Women are getting breast implants or breast reductions, and men are getting hair transplants and scalp reductions. “Noses are bobbed, fat is …

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I was just outside…

But I need to catch up a bit– hope I still have some readers. The stress of finding illustrations for Eagle (not to mention paying for them!)– has been acute, and I have needed large doses of dog- running and hunting to keep me sane. I think things are getting under control. Let’s see, bloggish …

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Constitution Day in the U.S.

A copy of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights, presented for your browsing pleasure on this day celebrating what it means, or might mean, or what some once might have meant for it to mean to be an American. Print it out; it’s yours to keep.