Greg McNamee sent this with the caption: “It was only a matter of time”, to which he added “Newly scraped from the north Phoenix desert…
Month: July 2017
Asian Hounds
Our friend Lane Bellman has just produced the first litter of Taigans, the high- altitude Kirgyz version of the Eastern sighthound, just north of here. Stay tuned…
“The blood of the Eastern Dragon”: Vladimir Sghakula,, Kazakh Russian,
dog breeder, refuge administrator’ biologist. and alleged war criminsal,
who still prefers Mazar el Sharif , where there is a price on his
head, to the dubious charms of Tajikistan. on the taigan.
My pick of the litter
Hemingway’s Guns– new edition
Silvio Calabi and Co. hav come out with a new ed of the already- good Hemingways’s Guns that adds the Cuban guns from the Finca Vigia (a uniformly ruined unshootable lot BTW) to the already good scholarship of the first volume. Two things are particularly notable. First, most American rich folks back then shot good versions of the same guns as their less well- off contemporaries, not aristocrats’ or Best guns. Hem shot a Model 12, some 21’s, a Springfield, many Winchesters, and a humpback Browning; so did my father, and I have owned them all. The only real “Best” he ever owned was the Westley .577, and he disliked shooting it.
And though Patrick H debunked it long ago as a myth propagated by “Miss Mary” (I believe): Hemingway not only didn’t shoot himself with a Boss; he never owned a London Best shotgun! Calabi has done real detective work here, finding the remnants of the W & C Scott lock from the fatal gun.
For all fans of Hem and guns, (except perhaps those put off by the NYRB article that called the book “sick fetishism”– !)
And on another gun matter, congratulations to reader Phil Yearout, who just got published in Shooting Sportsman!
PS : Pauline shot a Darne 28!
New Tom
Tom Russell’s new album is about leaving his home in El Paso and moving to Santa Fe. Among other things, they were about to surround his rural home in the Valley with a subdivision…
Just for Fun
Larissa (“Lulu”) has a great new image up…
Good news coming!
Despite continuing difficulties with my health, a visit to Santa Fe and a small bequest turned a lot of things around. I may soon have working dictation software (if such a thing is possible!} and a working laptop. I have sold several articles. There is even a glimmer of hope on health, as I strive to get into a Denver clinic to learn how to use my so-called gizmo. Wish me luck. Much more to come when I an less exhausted.
I added more pics to to “Old Days” below.