Drunk on Life

Drunk on Life

Be drunk,” the poet said. It might have been Ben Jonson; I don’t remember. Whomever, though, he was right. I suspect I’ve been drunk on just about everything that can be brewed, fermented or distilled. The aftermath hasn’t always been pretty, but getting there was fun...
The Art of Frogging

The Art of Frogging

Frogs don’t carry swords or pistols, but they look as though they wish they could. Frogs are physically incapable of smiling, but they can look insufferably smug, as if they know something the rest of us don’t. Maybe they do. What I know is that frogs are biologically...
Old Values In New Times

Old Values In New Times

In 1985 Holland & Holland bought W&C Scott of Birmingham, a purchase that brought together two of the oldest and most influential gunmakers in England — two firms that helped create the modern gun and thus helped shape tradition. And then Holland & Holland...
A Woman in White

A Woman in White

By all the laws of nature, George Blackwell should have quietly died of hypothermia in that very spot. But nature doesn’t always apply her laws with an even hand… At about the midpoint of his 67th season, George Blackwell looked at the world around him and...
The Good Life

The Good Life

Crisp, clear air and cold water are the sources of life. It is a life implemented with guns and flyrods, populated by beautiful birds and dogs and fish stippled with rose-moles bright as neon. It is a life of vast grassy space where dogs can run to their heart’s...
Tales to Tell in Winter

Tales to Tell in Winter

When I was seventeen, it was a very good year. It was a very good year for small- town girls and soft summer nights. We’d hide from the lights on the village green When I was seventeen. – Ervin Drake I was not yet 17 when I first heard The Kingston Trio...