By Philip Bourjaily

My dad started out as a poet, then put those skills to work during a stint in the ad business (as I understand it, he is either wholly or in part responsible for the alliterative Brylcream slogan: “A little dab’ll do ya.”) before he ultimately wound up a novelist.

I inherited exactly none of Dad’s poetic ability, but my older son Gordon got the full dose. He wrote the following poem, “Flight of the Pellets,” while he was in high school:

Flight of the Pellets
Tiny, like little eggs
In a slide of the bolt
Thrown into waking
In the metal womb, flying
Down the steel birth canal.
No nourishment for them, just the shove and flame and stench
Of burning gases.
Packed
Tightly
They
Fly
First flight, last flight, headed to their death
In another’s death.
Enter the berth of a heart, smash through, and destroy.
Down below, in the field of dead shriveled stalks
A tiny drop of steel rain falls to the ground.
It hits, digging its own grave
A di       in the earth.
      vot

Since “Flight of the Pellets” is one of the very few poems about shotgunning in existence, it seems only natural that we should hold... [ Read Full Post ]

By Dave Hurteau

From the Chattanooga Times Free Press:

Gov. Phil Bredesen vetoed legislation on Thursday allowing Tennessee’s 220,000 handgun-carry permit holders to go armed in establishments selling alcohol.

Flanked by law enforcement officials from across the state, including Chattanooga Police Chief Freeman Cooper, Gov. Bredesen declared in a news conference at the Capitol that “guns and alcohol don’t mix.”

A few select quotes:

Governor Bredeson: [Permitting someone] to carry a concealed weapon into a crowded bar at midnight on a Saturday night defies common sense. . . .”

Metro Nashville Police Chief Ronal Serpas: “I’ve witnessed shootings in bars before,” Chief Serpas said. “The presence of somebody else with a gun would not have saved anybody. These things happen in the blink of an eye. It’s not like it is on TV.”

And the NRA response:

In his veto message, Governor Bredesen talked about his concerns with mixing firearms and alcohol. But he conveniently failed to mention the absolute prohibition, with grim consequences, for any permit holder who has one sip of alcohol while carrying a firearm. He also ignored the provision which allows restaurants to prohibit carrying firearms in their establishments by simply posting a sign. . . .

House Bill... [ Read Full Post ]

By Chad Love

There's already been a  boatload of bloviation expressed on the recent reversal of the ban on loaded firearms in our national parks, some of it sensible but most of it (predictably) bordering on  hysterics.

This column from the Huffington Post is a perfect example:
 
"In fact,  the new rule is likely to make national park visitors less safe around  wildlife. Packing heat could give some people a false sense of security and  make them more likely to approach bison, elk, moose, and grizzly bears,  rather than keep a safe distance which is better for both people and  animals."

But the most certain outcome of this congressional action is  that it will promote poaching. The National Park Service warned in its fiscal 2006 budget submission each year for the past several years ... The data  suggests that there is a significant domestic as well as international trade  for illegally taken plant and animal parts." Poaching, the agency said, "is suspected to be a factor in the decline of at least 29 species of wildlife  and could cause the extirpation of 19 species from the parks." 

[ Read Full Post ]

By David E. Petzal

My guide in New Zealand, David Blainey, had served ten years as a soldier in that country’s “forces,” as the army is called, and would have stayed another ten had not an ankle betrayed him. He loved the service, and one afternoon he asked me what was the most important thing I had gotten out of my time in the U.S. Army.

That took some thought. I had a very easy time and spent most of it in front of a chalkboard, teaching. I learned public speaking, and the Army system of education, which is the most effective in the world, and I learned how to spit shine, and I learned that there were men who had never gone to college who were better soldiers than I would ever be. And all of that was important.

But the most important thing, I told David, was meeting men whom you would die for. There are very few of them, but they are unmistakable. In my case it was a Lieutenant Colonel who later made full Colonel, and in David’s case it was a Brigadier for whom David was a driver.

I don’t know exactly what confers this quality on an officer or an NCO. The... [ Read Full Post ]

By Chad Love

When I first thought up the idea for the six-word story contest I expected the usual response my blogs generate: a dozen or so comments, the obligatory question about which picture at the top is me (yes, sir, I am indeed the "slack-jawed hillbilly" on the left...) and that one guy who always chides me about my alleged bashing of the Dubya/Darth Cheney administration (Do you maybe have me confused with Bill Maher?).
 
David Petzal I'm not. So imagine my surprise when the contest not only generated 465-odd entries, but apparently broke the website in the process (it’s now fixed). Thanks, guys. Truly. The overtime for that one's coming out of my already-meager check.
 
In all seriousness, I'm thrilled. The response was overwhelming. I had no idea there were so many budding Hemingways out there. Either you all share a common love of the simply-written word or the temptation of winning a genuine piece of printer paper (and a F&S ball cap) was too great to resist.
 
Some of the entries were hilarious, many of them were poignant, a few were a bit...different. (Cliff Shelby of "Your wife called. I covered up" I'm talking to you. Dude, I'm... [ Read Full Post ]

By David E. Petzal

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