The LA Times had this piece on the “big-box” stores that hunting/fishing outfitters Cabelas and Bass Pro Shops are opening around the country. I have ordered mail-order from Cabelas for decades (well, on-line now) but had never been to one of their retail centers until I saw their Kansas City store while visiting my daughter …
Sad News from Mongolia
On the eve of his departure for Turkey, Steve forwarded this sad story published in the NY Times about plummeting wildlife populations in Mongolia due to hunting pressure. This is due to a covergence of a population with a strong hunting tradition (the piece estimates that 10% of the population are active hunters), a weak …
Russian Girls and Kalashnikovs
Steve likes most things Russian and admired this photo of girls cleaning their rifles that Roseann passed on to us. Also Roseann’s comments: “I love their little hair pom-poms, and just their expressions, you can just hear the ones on the right, ‘So, did you see Yuri last night at the dance? Wasn’t he just …
Re: Read The Whole Thing
I wanted to give my take on Matt’s post Wednesday about students replacing the reading of complete books in “analog” by taking snippets of data from the Web. I have been reading pieces bemoaning the decline of reading for just about as long as I have been reading. We kicked this topic around a little …
Now That Looks Like an Eruption
Re: my post yesterday on the “quiet” eruption of Mount St. Helens. I borrowed this shot of Popocatepetl (I love those Nahuatl names – the glottal stops give me chills!) in Mexico from the front page of today’s LA Times.
Principles
(Can’t stop blogging yet). It occurs to me that my “Blogfamily” shares a vague yet real constellation of values. In no particular order or hierarchy: Conservation/ “Green” values, but not the PC kind– we tend to be hunters or at least carnivores. Love for traditions, old things, learning– meritocracy? “Social libertarianism”– small “l”. Respect for …
One More
Russians do the best animal and fieldsport art in the world. Here is an old one of “classic” (Psovoya) borzois, courtesy of Ingrid Lasimer.
A parting shot…
I want to leave you with an image or two. Luckily, although all my stuff is still tied up in the EMac, more comes in all the time. Here is a photo that Andrey Kovalenko, breeder of one of my tazis and owner of the father of another, took while on an extended ornithological trip …
“Story”
Michael Blowhard shares his ideas about narrative in this long andwonderful post. I am inclined to agree with him, especially as I start work on two (!) for- lack- of- a – better- word- thrillers. “Narrative” has always been hard for me, at least beyond the level of anecdote, while “writing”– images, wordplay– has been …
“Conservatives”–??
Hereis a conservative if quirky blogger who shares some of my doubts expessed below about conservatives who want to remake the world. Money quote: “The designs of the neocons are so appallingly far fetched because they are infected with the same Rousseauvian fantasy of the worst leftist excess. Strip away the layers of socialization they …