Category: The Grab Bag

I was not comfortable around the tiger.  To say otherwise would be a lie, and it is evident in the photo.  I’m sitting a respectable distance back, with a strange, indecisive grin on my face.  Much like a Great White shark, a full grown Bengal tiger does not have eyes that are inviting of trust ...

I was able to find, this morning, and from of all places the Auckland Star, an interesting bit on the case.  The article was published on March 20, 1886. Referencing Holden Dick’s murder of Shaw–“In his confession he narrated all the sickening details of the crime and took the Sheriff of Modoc County, (C.C. Rachford) ...

My obsession with the Battle of the Little Bighorn is my father’s fault.  When I was ten years old he flew us from Van Nuys, California, to Cody, Wyoming, in his light airplane.  We made a stop for fuel and a burger in Provo, Utah, then carried on, grinding over the rockies in magnificent turbulence ...

Hey folks, hope you enjoyed my first treatment of the Dick-Olivas affair.  I will be diving headlong into additional research, which requires a lot of help from the Sisters library, and hope to bring additional details to the fore.  I’ve seen one mention of arrests in this case, but have been unable, so far, to ...

On January 28, 1886, a bright and brisk Sunday morning in Susanville, California, the bodies of Holden Dick, a Pit River Indian, and Vicente Olivas–known as Mexican Ben–were found hanging from a crossbeam in the woodshed outside of the Lassen County courthouse.  Both men were convicted murderers.  Dick had been sentenced to death by Judge ...

  I have a confession to make:  I can’t dance.  In fact, my aversion to this activity is so severe that it makes watching other people dance an uncomfortable experience.  I love music, but dancing?  Not so much.  At a concert, say a Lyle Lovett gig at the Les Schwab amphitheater down in Bend, I ...

I keep waking up to bad news. This morning it was a double-whammy, the market down another 400 points and worse, word that Grizzly Adams has died. His real name was Dan Haggerty, of course, but I didn’t know Dan Haggerty. I knew Grizzly Adams.  The show had a short run, only two seasons, but ...

I was inspired last night by the President’s annual address (yawn) to bring all of you, my fellow Americans, up to speed on the condition of our rancho in the pines.  I am happy to report that State of the Figure 8 is healthy, happy, and good, and I am delivering this address with an ...

  It’s 2016, folks, and we are staring down the barrel of an election year, though for some reason I am having a difficult time mustering up any vigor for that slog–in fact, I’m already quite exhausted by it–given the abysmal slate of candidates on either side, and my growing disdain for the election method ...

To be good at something, and I mean really good at it, requires feel.  There are people with tremendous amounts of talent who lack feel, which has something to do with understanding subtlety, and the power of subtlety, to inform a work.  It’s more than that, of course.  It might even be magic, who can ...