Perhaps you are out there somewhere, but among my acquaintances, I can count on one hand the people who are simultaneously journal-keepers and male. Every now and then when The Wags stand around the barbecue pit on Father’s day, I like to imagine everybody sitting down with a tablet, pen, and cup of Earl Grey…
All posts by Pete Kauffman
What a Wonderful World
According to the digital thermometer it is six below, Fahrenheit. The horizons are crystallized in a band of orange and contrasted with the deep blue of the sub-arctic sky. The sun is out of sight now, but while the land is in shadow, the clouds over the mountains refract the last rays of the sun…
Book Review: Backcast by Lou Ureneck
Without bothering to read the blurb or scan the book, I checked out from the public library Backcast: Fatherhood, Fly-fishing, and a River Journey Through the Heart of Alaska by Lou Ureneck. I expected something easy; some quasi-philosophical reflections on fly-fishing, perhaps a handful of insights about parenting. The Alaskan wilderness is always ripe for such comments.…
Delinquent Tax Bills Make Superb Bookmarks
I had a piece of toast in one hand and a book in the other when I realized that, as a bookmark, I was using a delinquent vehicle tax notice. Illuminating realization: So this is who I have become. In a former life I paid all bills early. What shifted so that I not only fail to pay…
To Build a Canoe Paddle
There is something to be said for form, and it would be out of form to paddle a Cedar canoe with a plastic paddle. Does not even nature teach you this? It would be like wearing rubber boots to a cathedral. I call my brother who has access to cabinet-grade lumber, and he sends me…
Of Rivers and Men
Here are two options to go about becoming native to your place, using my hometown as an example: You might read some objective traveler’s account, such as John Muir when he walked through on his way to the Gulf in 1867, commenting on the lack of industry and the beautiful scenery. Or William Least-Heat Moon,…
Be a Talker, only not as Much
Sketch: Summer evening, open windows, waiting for the printer to print some sign-your-life-away-papers. Realtor: Bespectacled, swept-back gray hair, incessant talker but good at it. We ought to talk more, you know? He says. Talking is an art. As a kid, I’d sit of an evening on the porch and listen to the old people talk. The neighbors…
Sketch: A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
Not only did Aldo Leopold know what he was talking about, but he also knew how to say it. There are several books that have significantly shaped the way I see the natural world, and this skinny book has done some heavy lifting. Not once but several times. While on a road trip in the…
The Last Adult in the Woods
A lone raven, surfing a wind that is skimming the far side of the mountain, croaks and appears over the ridgetop. He pivots until he is facing the wind, but carried backward by it, like an Olympic skater skating backward while retaining forward momentum. He pivots again, pins his wings close, razors off around the…
Why Teach Grammar?
Are verbals fierce? Watch for dangling participles, they’ll get you unawares. Gerunds, nominatives, predicates, they can sneak up on you and make you look foolish. And whatever you do, never split an infinitive in public. And if you think that sounds treacherous, just wait for the student protest. We understand. It can be frustrating. About…