Chas got to thinking about the comments below on Matt’s second “For the children” post, (including mine on supermarket cashiers who could not recognize squash or cabbage)and responded with some thoughts of his own. “When I was teaching, I used to hear the same lament from some students: “We can’t afford good-quality food.” “Yes, you …
Month: October 2008
A Vadim Gorbatov original
Lobo and Blanca from the recent Korean edition of Ernest Thompson Seton’s turn- of- the- last- century “Lobo”, about a cattle- killing wolf in New Mexico. At that time Vadim had not yet visited us, and in gratitude for our supplying background photos of our terrain, plants etc. he gave us this wonderful pen and …
Cat in Mongolia
Cat Urbigkit has just returned from Mongolia. I hope she will be writing here in detail soon, but meanwhile here are a few teasers. Here is the parade at the Eagle festival: in front, my old friend and drinking companion Aralbai, a major character in Eagle Dreams: His son Armanbek, who was about twelve when …
Rio
Rio was kindly lent me by Brian Millsap after my losing Shunkar aka Birdbrain. He is a three year old passage Harris’s hawk from Texas, and an experienced rabbit hunter. I am still figuring him out. After my many years of emotional falcons and Accipiters he seems a solemn, stolid little owl. Speaking of Birdbrain– …
Harvest Time
From a couple of weeks ago, before the frost: Libby with Maximilian daisies in the garden in front of the homer loft With a fat female mantis, ready to lay eggs that will winter over. Our New Mexico Home Gym (crossed- out New Hampshire at the Nerds’ is a reference to Marko’s New England version) …
Links
Stingray and LabRat at Atomic Nerds have been putting me to shame, blogging up a storm. Go to Stingray for blistering commentary on political and other idiocies, while LabRat has been writing on science at a level that good magazines should be paying generous amounts for (like that’s going to happen these days.) She also …
Return
As Pluvi says, “Sorry I’ve been away so long. No particular reason. Back I am.” I needed time away, badly, and now feel a bit refreshed. I have been in book- writing limbo for months, or years, or at least a year and a half. I hope to write something about that here. Also book …
Sake of The Children, part deux
A local writer (New Orleans’ Times Picayune columnist Robert Marshall) suspects that hunters ourselves—not primarily outside forces—are to blame for the free fall in recruitment of young people into our community. His premise rings uncomfortably true: “A succession of reports has provided hunters with convenient culprits for our demise, things such as ‘lack of access’ …
For The Sake of The Children
Before I left the office yesterday to give a little talk about hawks to my kids’ 2nd grade class, I saw this story on the Yahoo ticker. Here’s the lead: CHICAGO – Warning: young children should not keep hedgehogs as pets — or hamsters, baby chicks, lizards and turtles, for that matter — because of …
Animal cruelty case: a plea and my reply
I received the following letter this morning, forwarded to me by the breeder of my whippet. It concerns the local case of an unscrupulous and (by any commonsense definition) cruel and insensitive person whose many animals have suffered from her neglect and evident greed. The letter calls for a grassroots campaign and for an aggressive …