Tom Russell emailed to say that George Kimball, our greatest boxing writer and a damn brave fighter himself, died the night before last after a seven year battle with cancer, during which time he wrote or edited five books. I most recently linked to his website and books in this post here (scroll down). Like …
Author: Steve Bodio
Tidbit
Hawk is learning fast. He actually JUMPED to me after this pic– with his weight completely un- reduced! Has anyone any name ideas? Somehow it has always been difficult for me to name birds…
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Bizarro.
The provincialism of sophisticates
I was reading an article in Slightly Foxed, an excellent English quarterly devoted to neglected writing, and I came upon this quote from Marghanita Laski’s 1949 Little Boy Lost that both amused and chilled me because it is still so true: “To him it was inconceivable that an intelligent man should be happy to live …
New Bird
My first Harris, from Matt Mitchell. Something of a revelation as despite the fact he never saw a dog or a human other than Matt until he arrived here 40 minutes from his natal chamber, he is calm and considered. Intelligent bird! And I hope my “shotgun hawk”, like my light 20 enabling my continuing …
Money, Writing For…
What is it Dr Johnson said? Tom McIntyre wrote this week, in a note: “Money, money, money, yes. It may not be able to buy you happiness but poverty sure as hell can’t either. I would just like to have the time (which means the money) to write only what I want, not what I …
Q o’ D
“The plural of anecdote is not data.” (Patrick Sweeney in G & A, attributing it to an engineering prof, though it is everywhere applicable…)
“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 …
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. …
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 …