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 they were in a village while a great drive on rats was being held– they even paid bounties. This led to our favorite pic of Harry:

Yesterday, Odious, who with Mrs. O is also living the farming life (I assume you know Mr. & Mrs P. are) was taking care of business in his chicken coop. He has known us a long time and knows Harry’s portrait well, so I guess you could call this a tribute:

He writes: “If only there were a bounty, I’d have a fistful of yuan–you can’t see the (full) five gallon bucket in this picture.”

The title of the post is a tribute to this wonderful book — this is “my” edition, apparently the only affordable one.