The Noon(an) Siren..

Overheard at the bait shop...

"Hey, Bob! You look like you seen a ghost!"

"May as well have, but I swear this is true!

I was goin' down the river Saturday lunchtime, right there where it's a half a mile wide. Thinking about that new spot where I almost caught that big old bass last week. All of a sudden, up under the bluff, I heard a bunch of barking dogs, right ahead of me. As I come around this point, I seen them- two of them, big old hounds, standing on a rock ledge right under the water.

And on the rocks right near them was a coyote! It was growling and snarling at the dogs, but they couldn't get to him. They was trying, though- one of them swum around the rocks trying to climb up from behind, I thought the coyote was going to jump on his head and drown him!

And then come the part you won't believe! Down the cliff, climbing hand over hand and sliding when she could, come the prettiest girl I've seen in a long time! She was dressed in tall riding boots and she had a pistol on her hip, and she was trying to get to those dogs and help them catch that coyote!

Well, that wasn't going to happen. Mr. Coyote saw that girl, and me, and glanced up like he figured there would be a helicopter after him next. So he give us all a dirty look and slipped up the rocks like a puff of smoke, there wasn't anything behind him but a trail of river water.

But that left the girl and the dogs stuck on the river. She might have been able to climb out, but the dogs wouldn't have and it was too cold for them to swim far enough to where they could get out on their own.

About then, that girl seen me. And she started waving for me to come in, just like one of them Si-reens form the old mythology times!

Well of course I had to try, and so I run the boat up close enough to Peisinoe that she could lift the dogs and herself in. She told me that a whole bunch of dogs and people were hunting the coyote, and she had a horse up on the top of the bluff.

One of them dogs must have rode in a boat before, he just stood up front with a big old smile on his face!

I carried them down a bit past the bluffs where they could scramble onto the bank, and up they went."


"Bob, you need to stick to them old stories of yours about six foot catfish. Because ain't nobody going to believe that one."

(N.B., I never actually spoke to the fisherman, but the events happened in my presence as described. These hounds are very willing to face water, caught one in a pond two weeks ago. Perhaps next season they will have to copy the French and carry a boat along.)

My Day Wife Is A Stitch...

We already know that my fellow prosecutor is cold as a glacier.

But funny, too. Today we learned that one of our defendants had been shot by persons "unknown" to him. The bullets threaded their way between all vital organs, major arteries, significant blood vessels, and all bones. Treated and released, despite three through and through torso and neck hits.

Upon learning of these events, her comment?

"You just can't kill these mopes".

It appears that as well as being very F. F. V., she is also from 1930.

"Healthcare Will Save Money" Lie...

As far as I know, every time, every where, under every circumstance, health care costs of any group have grossly exceeded all estimates or projections.

ALWAYS.

States, cities, companies, armies, nations, all of them. Throughout the whole history of human endeavor.

It's like night follows day.

I defy the sellers of this slavery to point to a single example of a group health care cost projection that has not been waaaaay too low.

But we will be different!

They are just lying to us now.

The Four Rules in the Hunting Field...

The horse says:

“What are you doing back there, hounds are coming this way!”




“Uh oh…”





“I don’t want to look. Tell me when it’s over…”





Bonus, someone practices her
Four Rules...

Good Defence Lawyering...

Sometimes it happens. Had a theft case the other day, a bag containing an iPod, camera, and telephone was stolen.

Defendant plead guilty.

It was a restitution hearing. The victim had receipts for each item.

Instead of calling the victim an extortionist, which is what they usually do, this lawyer went on line. He looked up each item (or their equivalent) and found the current retail prices, which were less than the prices a year ago.

Everyone was happy. Not for long, the defendant won't pay $300 any more than he would have paid $600.

But it was nice to see a defence lawyer act as if he was interested in a victim being recompensed fairly.

Day of the Lucky Coyotes…

(If you click on the pictures, you will get a full size version with much more detail.)

Day of the Lucky Coyotes…

Bifixtural again. First with the OFH, plenty of pylons.




Hounds were drawing, and we saw this fellow cross the road away:





Hard to see, aren’t they? In the top swathe of stubble in the the plough, half way between the cedar tree and the end of the little covert.



His horoscope was in, they decided to keep drawing in another direction.

Later in the day we saw and holloaed on the chicken bandit depicted below, and again he was rejected for a more likely prospect who failed to deliver.





In the "A" of the pylon-





I did manage to get in trouble. I was trying to get off the road and out of the way, but it looked like I was trying to get ON the road and IN the way. Earned a good stout Hold Hard, and rightly so.

And it was end of day at the OFH. They very generously invited me to their end of season do, and it was lovely.



Quite another time like the dinner after the Equipage de Ph., it is such a pleasure to see a happy family.


Then up to the Home Hunt, where we saw the following series of events. As you look at the first picture, hounds are drawing about a quarter mile in front of my position, far out of sight, on the way home and smelling nothing.




Then, hello, from behind those round bales...




Yes, a big old coyote, bold as brass, crossing the field right in front of us.



He wasn’t “hunted”, but I believe he had received our attentions at another time.



He was definitely clearing the area, stopping regularly to listen to what might be going on behind him.



Eight minutes later, hounds came along and got on board.



Four in front…




You can see how spread out they became, and how quickly.





Unfortunately it was toward the end of the day, so he was given best.




And end of day again.

Hero Rats! Yes, Rats Saving Lives By Detecting Mines...

For serious. "We watched as the rats ran along wires between two handlers. When they smell a landmine, they stop, sniff the ground and begin to dig. This signal lets the Apopo staff know they have found a mine or some other explosive, which can then be removed.

Rats, according to Apopo, are much faster than men using metal detectors and are not distracted by metal contaminants. They are much cheaper to maintain than dogs and are easily passed between different handlers.

And they can be trained for other sensing tasks, too! "Apopo is already running trials in Tanzania using the rats to detect tuberculosis in the saliva of sick patients.

The rats can process as many samples in a matter of minutes as a lab technician can in a day. The rats have even detected TB in samples that had been missed by conventional tests. "

Warning, video of genius search process using big honkin' rat will disrupt your productivity today:



Here's Apopo's web site.

Our Congress are Straight Up Black Liquor Thieves...

It's only six billion dollars or so in estimates, so we can look for about fifteen billion in fact. But you and I are about to buy some paper companies. We are going to do it the government way, though- we will pay the full value and then some, but we won't actually own the companies.

The thing I like about the article is that everyone pretends that they are surprised, that these are "unintended consequences".

Riiiiight.

Some very clever, highly educated, well trained, and well paid people imagined, designed, and sold this profoundly complex "loophole" for their own direct benefit. More than half the Senate just voted, very specifically and publicly, to keep it going.

There are no unintended consequences here, there is no such thing as "government waste".

And MANY THOUSANDS of programs identical in principle.

A tax "loophole" is made to exactly fit someone with its blueprint.

CUI PEDICARE BONO.

A Vocal Horn Couree...

This is sort of an update for another post, but I was just sent this lovely vocal interpretation of a St. Hubert horn blowing, with lovely pictures. Merci, Cecile!