Cat and Matt in the Big Easy

Another check-mark on my Blogger Meet-up Bucket List!  Cheers from New Orleans! An unexpected and very welcome note from fellow blogger Cat Urbigkit, who was on her way to Louisiana: “I’m about to head to New Orleans for a long weekend (attending the American Library Association convention) – I can’t believe how hot it is …

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“I smell a bird somewhere…”

My friend Daniel’s new pup Bailey:Daniel is blessed or cursed with pointers, falcons, double guns, good books, and even Spanish pouters, lives in wine country, hunts in Montana. “This would be a man who has ruined his life for sport…”– Tom McGuane of Russ Chatham, on his announcing he was going duck hunting AND trout …

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Photo Blogging: Central Asian Textiles

Soviet war -era Afghan battle rug, supposedly of a real battle, obtained from an (American) artist who spent a good part of his youth there. Notice almost NMexican architecture and lack of un- Islamic humans despite tanks and helicopters; as always, click to embiggen: Uzbek gun slip– for, of all things, a Jungle carbine SMLE. …

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On taking Kipling seriously

Kipling, perhaps because of his (perceived) politics, still “can’t get no respect” from middlebrow critics and the kind of hacks who enjoy making up dismissive one- liners. He has fewer problems with actual readers– he is never out of print– or serious critics; in addition to the ones mentioned below, good recent essays on him …

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Whoops– Lost and Found

My old friend Steve Grooms, author of two fine books on pheasants (here and here), as well as ones on wolves and cranes, called today. We probably haven’t talked in over twenty years. After much catching up, he gave me an email for more– but it keeps bouncing! He has a good- gun- and book …

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Good News!

If given my many hints and more it IS news. I have just signed a contract for, not one, but two books with Globe Pequot Press! The first, The Eagle’s Shadow, is virtually done: a natural and cultural history of All Things Eagle, with over 100 already- acquired illos from petroglyphs and shamanistic religious objects …

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Radio

An interview with Guy de la Valdene, on The Fragrance of Grass, in which among many other things he says good things about writing by me, Joe Hutto, and Joel Vance, as well as his better- known hunting friends McGuane and Harrison. A cheerful reminder of why his book is so good…

PLF and John Huston

Leigh Fermor’s one venture into movie writing was with my favorite (and most literary) director, John Huston, but apparently it was not a success (although there were still some good times enjoyed by the pre- PC group. As the only available version of the movie is in Spanish, in Euro format, and subtitled in English, …

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Hal Herring on Colonel Cooper

As mentioned below. In his excellent Amazon review of To Ride, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth, Hal Herring writes: “…Cooper is an authentic American voice, and the rare man who has read and written as much as he has studied weaponry, ethics, and war. He is opinionated- I never agreed with him about the …

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Linkfest plus…

Good news announcement imminent (no, not the pending grandchild or as Mr P calls it “the Forthcoming Offspring”)– but I think I will wait until it is “on paper” so to speak. Somehow pixels are not quite as real… Also other news: going to Wyoming in August, where Libby will cook for an old friend’s …

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