One of the wisest naturalists I know, Dr John Burchard, on the subjects below and more: I firmly support the right to keep “exotics” in captivity and/or partial or complete liberty (our wolf lived free in the desert on weekends, and our coatis mostly lived free in our very normal residential neighborhood, for example). Much …
Tag: decline and Fall
Bad news for houndsmen…
.. and all hunters. David Zincavage reports, furiously, here. From an unremarkable story, earlier: “California Fish and Game commissioner Dan W. Richards travelled deep into the wicked terrain of Idaho’s Flying B Ranch to fulfill a long-held goal. “It was the most physically exhausting hunt of my lifetime. Eight hours of cold weather hiking in …
Code
Reader Bruce Douglas thinks this bumper sticker could effect better manners–?
Q o’ D
(On racing and boxing, grumpy): “Riding horses to exhaustion and punching each other in the face under agreed rules are worthwhile and manly pastimes, far better pedigreed and infinitely more exciting than hitting balls with sticks, tossing leather bags across a field, or chasing a puck around on ice.” John Derbyshire
More Doom
Birmingham, once one of the greatest gun centers in the world, has renamed its gun quarter. “One of Britain’s oldest industrial areas has been renamed after council leaders claimed local people no longer wanted to be associated with the weapons of war. “Opponents of the name change say the Gun Quarter has been sacrificed on …
Clinton Loses It?
It is late at night but I don’t THINK this is a hoax. “President Bill Clinton has been named PETA’s 2010 Person of the Year, the animal rights organization announced Monday. “Though he was famously a fan of Big Macs while in office, Clinton turned to a vegan diet this year for health reasons in …
Commonplace Book: Old School
A conversation between the late Jack Mavrogordato, old school English falconer (he knew T H White, who described him as “a charming man, approximately five inches tall…”), and the more ancient Major Allen, about the still more ancient E B Michell, past master of the merlin, ca. 1976, as recorded in the English Falconer: M: …
Vance Bourjaily RIP
Just got the news from Chad at Mallard of Discontent that novelist Vance Bourjaily is dead at 87. Bourjaily was considered one of the best of the postwar novelists and then just faded from popularity– I don’t know why, as I considered his best as good as any and better than most. He was unapologetically …
More Thoughts on Prof. McMahan’s Essay
Reading yesterday’s NYT (online) essay, The Meat Eaters, by Rutgers University professor of philosophy Jeff McMahan (forwarded by reader Daniela and shared below by Steve), I’m almost more puzzled by my own need to comment on the piece than I am amazed by it. It’s tempting to lump this man’s essay in with the tiresome mass of …
Modern Fears
From Schneier on Security: the winning entry in contest he suggested, a litany of modern fears, in the style of the late great Edward Gorey: The Gashlycrumb Terrors, by Laura A is for anthrax, so deadly and white. B is for burglars who break in at night. C is for cars that, with minds of …