Curmudgeonly writer Dave Petzal, in his “Gun Nut” identity, reminisces about the old days. I might start filing him under “Decline and Fall”: “In the early 1970s, when I began flying to hunt, you could take a rifle on board a plane in a soft case and ask the stewardess (which is what they were …
Author: Steve Bodio
All Hunters Love to Hunt..
… whether animal or human. Carel gets philosophical with a young animal rights activist over predatory biophilia: “In essence, Tim and his hunter target audience are both motivated by the same animal drive: an innate love and fascination with other animals, that thing that Edward O. Wilson called biophilia, a trait that’s strongest in the …
Wimp World
Chas sent me this article from MacLeans that documents once more what a culture of fearful wimps we are becoming. “Ute Navidi, who heads a British children’s charity called London Play, was walking along a Berlin street, on a break from an international conference, when she stopped to watch a group of primary schoolchildren in …
.. and a “New” Bird
Also from Walter: a beautiful little new bird species from northeastern India, a hard place to get to. (I’d love to). Its name is Liocichla bugunorum, and it looks VERY different from the only other Liocichla in southern Asia (anywhere, I believe), which is found further east and is mostly dark brown.
“New” Wolf
Walter Hingley sent me a story by Philip Lee from the Ottawa Citizen (no link) with fascinating implications: it seems that the big, deer- eating canid of eastern Canada and New England is not a hybrid, as has been routinely claimed, but a third species of “wolf”, counting the coyote (or fourth– it may or …
Dog- Blogging
Everyone has been asking for a “Pupdate”. You will have to wait for Reid for Querencia home dog (and people) pics. But here are a few of the siblings. Paul Domski’s Zoltar (allegedly known as “Zolturd” when he has done something wrong): Nate’s Maty levitating in the steps of her lurcher “big sister” Pearl, also …
A Poet on Birds
Pluvialis has been blogging up a storm since her return from the ‘Stans. See in particular the one on stars here and this one on migration. Who but a poet could describe thrushes thus? “Two species of thrushes visit Britain in winter. The smaller of the two is the redwing, a jaguar-like, shy, and slightly …
ARists and Wahaabis– separated at birth?
From Chas, this delightful tidbit: “Saudi Arabia’s religious police, normally tasked with chiding women to cover themselves and ensuring men attend mosque prayers, are turning to a new target: cats and dogs. “The police have issued a decree banning the sale of the pets, seen as a sign of Western influence. “The prohibition on dogs …
Sensible Man
From James Lileks’ post 9-11 column: “If I really ran a political site I would end up disappointing everyone, since I am a mess of superficially contradictory opinions (hands off regulating cable because of adult content; stop marking slut dolls to my little girl) and old-style liberal notions, like the primacy of individuality over race. …
Flying Primates!
No, neither bats nor Oz- ean Winged Monkeys. In a fascinating post, Darren examines Madagascar’s sifakas and their– aparently known, but not well known, (despite the fact, pointed out to me by Darren for the first time, that it is noted in standards like my ’83 edition of Walker’s Mammals of the World) ability to …