A lot of people think of New Mexico, especially southern New Mexico, as all arid. But our landscape is vertical; ecologically and biologically, we can go from the Mexican border to Canada, from Hepatic tanagers through Red faced warblers to Steller’s jays and Hermit thrushes to Clark’s nutcrackers, in a four- mile stretch. I need …
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Scotch
I love single malts. Not everybody does.
“Washington and Moscow”
In 1983, artist and evolutionary biologist John Mcloughlin was so sure of feathered Dinos that, in his novel The Helix and the Sword, he gave the role of the pets and executioners of his post -Apocalyptic Asteroid Belt civilization’s cruel “Regent” to a pair of eagle- like, genetically re- created Deinonychids, with feathers like Golden …
Snaphance Locks
The first, made by a Mongolian blacksmith, is younger than I am. No date on the ornate Italian one, from a Twitter photo recycled by David Zincavage. But remember, the invention of the flintlock , in this form, dates back to almost 1600, and Cherkassov who published the drawing, called them “Primitive” in 1865…
Visual Free Association
David Zincavage sent me this striking image of a Kazakh girl and eagle. The rather formal gold- braided pattern on her coat is common among all the Turkic peoples of Central Asia, from Uzbekistan through Kyrgizstan to the (Kazakh) western “Aimag” of Mongolia. Jack and Niki wore Uzbek versions for their wedding in Santa Fe. …
Quotes and a thought
Bear with me… Henry James appears, in this quote from this article , to be on the “Art”, not the “Theory” side: “We must grant the artist his subject, his idea, what the French call his donnée; our criticism is applied only to what he makes of it. Naturally I do not mean that we …
Excavations at the Lost City of DeMille
Long ago, I put up a couple of posts about a unique archaeological site on the California Central Coast: the movie set for Cecil B. DeMille’s 1923 The Ten Commandments buried in the Guadalupe Dunes (has it really been eight years?). I just ran across this article in the LA Times that tells how archaeologists have …
The wilderness next door
Back in the 1970’s Thomas McGuane was giving an interview and was asked why he lived where he lived, in Montana and (then) Key West. One of his reasons was proximity to wilderness and big predators– “megafauna” to use today’s popular term. He cited grizzlies in Montana and a less obvious choice– great sharks in …
Unlikely?
From Lauren McGough: a rather sweet photo of the late Christopher Hitchens that doesn’t fit any stereotypes, just because:
Malcolm
I ma hoping you are all reading Malcolm Brooks’s Painted Horses, at least as much for your pleasure as because he is a friend who deserves it– for why would I be saying such good things about a bad writer? (There is a Russ Chatham story about beautiful women who are not quite as bright …