The Heroic Gent

It was about eleven o’clock in the morning, mid-October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie, and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark little clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved, and sober, and I didn’t care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars.”  –Raymon

This is an adventure that began at the Big Game Dinner last year. My guest was Frank Zitz. He is a taxidermist ( taxidermymuseum.com ). If you’ve been to any Cabela’s store or to Johnny Morris’ Wonders of Wildlife in Springfield, Mo., you’ve seen his work. As he knows more about the world’s big game than anyone I know, I casually asked him about all the game in new building. He went around the room and when he got to the Cape buffalo on the west wall, he said, “I’ve never had

Where would we be without pals? Could Trey Parker have created the comedy “South Park” if he didn’t meet Matt Stone in college? Would quarterback Steve Young have won three Super Bowl rings with the San Francisco 49ers without the receiver Jerry Rice? Had Bill Hewlett and David Packard not teamed up in a one-car garage in the late 1930s to complete a fellowship would we have had Hewlett-Packard’s innovations? Where would the world be if Paul Allen and Bill Gates didn’t happen

“I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.”  –Gilbert K. Chesterton The Japanese sword-fighting art iaido  focuses on the strength a warrior conveys in his posture, movement, and bearing. The word “ iaido ” has been translated as “the way of mental presence and immediate action.” Iaido  is also sometimes called “moving Zen,” as it does not emphasize fighting so much as it concentrates on the