Decline, Fall– and a Little Rise?

I have done many “is there still an England?” posts, and this article: “Mince Pie Danger to be Assessed” is surely in the decline category. “Organisers of a village Christmas party have been told they must carry out a risk assessment of their mince pies – or their festivities will be cancelled. “Council bosses say …

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Links and Excuses

..in rather the reverse order. Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico has announced a 3.6 million dollar “Animal Welfare” plan that reeks of Animal Rights and the notorious Albuquerque “HEART” plan– see earlier posts here. The biggest single fear– and there are many– is that they will try to stealthily implement a statewide spay- neuter …

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Bigfoot: Exposed

In the “What I Read Over Christmas Holiday” column, I give you Bigfoot Exposed (subtitled, An Anthropologist Examines America’s Enduring Legend). My copy of this 2004 publication by University of Florida professor David J. Daegling* was a gift from the author, who happens to be married to my wife’s first cousin. Thanks again, Dave! With …

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The Family Sighthounds

Happy New Year, y’all! I’m home in Georgia this week, firming up family ties and rediscovering my accent (pronounce it: ax-sant). Eight days under one roof with my parents and own children offer plenty opportunities to ponder genetic determinism. There have been few surprises along those lines this week, but one of them was Mom’s …

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“Australian” Funeral hoax

I usually stay out of the journalistic mainstream in favor of things that interest me. But given all the noise about blogs vs Mainstream media lately, this is utterly irresistible. This morning, Libby, wandering around the web in search of news, came upon this story in the Australian. It begins: “WASHINGTON: George W. Bush sent …

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New Year’s Bleg

(That is, a Blogger’s beg).. Do any of my readers have or know of a “Baby Bretton” French over- and- under shotgun that I could borrow, shoot, and photograph for a series of articles on French shotgun design? They are rare in the States and I have never even seen one. Like many French inventions …

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Christmas Ornaments

Here’s a picture of the Christmas tree that we have up this year. Connie despairs of me sometimes because I don’t get as excited about Christmas as she does. She does such a superb job decorating the tree and inside the house. But I didn’t really want to write about the tree so much as …

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Programming Note

Due to delays in getting photos loaded to Blogger, three new posts by Steve – Pupdate, One Purely Silly One, and Working Wolf Dogs – came up today “under” his post ‘The Goshawk’ Redux – that appeared Saturday. Just want to make sure you don’t miss anything!

‘The Goshawk’ Redux

Poet and all- round brilliant writer Pluvialis has been given a Finnish Goshawk. She is thinking of retreating somewhere and writing a book on its training, a meditation, a look at T. H. White, who wrote the original book of that title during another dark and chaotic time. As White said: “These efforts might have …

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