I wrote the first part to my old cowboy friend Wade’s relatives, so he would know : “Christine Leister, Omar Qureshi’s ’s first wife and very close to both Wade and me, died as peacefully as one can at dawn yesterday, in Cloudcroft I believe, of recurrent malignant melanoma, with her son, her parents, and …
Month: November 2015
Classic Childrens’ books
… and their lack of modern political corectitude. From Jack, on Honk The Moose, which he was raised on too: “The joys of classic children’s books! “When a Finn gets mad he doesn’t do a halfway job. First he gets madder than a Chinaman; then he works up through the Italians and the French and …
More pigeons
Must be in the air. Anne Pearse Hocker just sent this piece from the Guardian about how they may be better at detecting tumors (visually, from X rays) than humans. Their rate of detection is something like 99%. Actually I am not surprised– much “Dinosaurian” visual acuity exceeds that of us mammals. And Tesla, everyone’s …
Domestic evo
Nobody cares about the biology of domestic animals– something I hear about on campuses all the time, from traditionalists who are told that they’re irrelevant AND frustrated innovators who KNOW they are seeing something new. Johnson and Janiga’s wonderful Feral Pigeons was all but dismissed as trivial for years. “Domestic” pigeons are damn near as …
Undue Influence
E Donnall Thomas is an old friend who has written many good books, and had many adventures. In our neck of the woods he is best known as the guy who convinced David Quammen that at least some hunting of mountain lions was OK after David editorialized against the practice, by taking him out with …
Eli
Eli overlooks his world… Eureka Valley Mining equipment Eli says: “We’re Scots, so we can toss big trees like the Scots do!” “[Optimistically] We could have centipedes for dinner!” “Special Padda [ ie Father] juice means beer!”
The LC 16: what it IS
The “weird gun” is finished. A 16 bore wildfowl gun that weighs close to 8 pounds, with 30″ Damascus barrels and full chokes, it appears distinctly pre – modern. Which it literally is- an early grade 2 LC Smith from about 1904. But it was not unique in its day. So many of us use …
Past blasts
In honor of her move from her almost- natal Newton MA to North Carolina, I thought I would post these photos of Bron Fullington. I may also post later on some linguistic weirdness Jackson sent on her old neighborhood, and her thoughts. TOMORRROW! Last spring… Yes, that is Betsy Huntington about to shoot a Retrieve- …
Old & very old guns
Latest restorations. More text later. But the 12 “featherweight” handles like a Best Brit gun, while the “Askins- Keith special” 16 is almost 8 pounds and has 30″ barrels and tight chokes. The prairies were not bucolic England… To see the details like Damascus, click to enlarge…