Category: Commentary and Reflections
Reflections on a Ferry Ride
I drove to a fly shop in West Seattle to test a fly rod a few days ago – more on that in a future post. After leaving the shop, I turned on the navigation system in my Outback to give me the route home – hopefully to avoid the…
Remembering Vasili Arkhipov – One Person Can Save the World
We live in an age of cynicism and desperation, beset by crises that appear insurmountable. Whether it is political strife, economic upheaval, climate change or tensions with other nuclear-armed states, the problems appear to be so large that no single person can make a difference. And yet, there are times…
Etiquette and Fly Fishing Maniacs
Fly fishing. at least in the United States, has evolved in both perception and practice from many decades past when it was considered by most a small sport of rich elitist white males wearing tweed and fishing with custom bamboo fly rods and creels. While the reality was more complex,…
Government Shutdown, And Other Empty Language
I’ve made reference to George Carlin in a number of my posts. I consider him to be one of the top two standup comedians of all time (the other is Richard Pryor). But more than a simply a comedian, George was a profound critic of American society, culture, and the…
Sturm und Drang 2018
Is it any wonder nearly everyone is exhausted by the first year of the Trump presidency? The ongoing tweets from the Orange Man combined with incoherent foreign and domestic policies; a Republican party that looks more all the time like a death cult with little agreement on anything; the echo…
Misplaced Outrage
I had been having an internal debate on my road trip as to whether I should write something on the protests of NFL players when the shooting occurred in Las Vegas. As it is, I think I want to now say something about both issues. First on the protests. It…
A River Runs Through It – 25 Years Later
It’s been 25 years since A River Runs Through It was released. Based on Norman Maclean’s novella of the same name, the movie resulted in, by many accounts, a major growth in Montana immigration and tourism as well as interest and participation in fly fishing. I think it’s safe to…
A Pox on Both Their Houses
Hurricane Maria tore through Puerto Rico in the last few days destroying the territory’s fragile electrical grid. Just so you know, Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States of America and its citizens are natural-born citizens of the United States; at the same time they have no…
Tom Morgan: A Tribute
Tom Morgan died on Monday, June 12th 2017, at the age of 76. As a life-long fly fisherman and later a rod designer, he had owned both the R. L. Winston fly rod company from 1973 to 1991, and Tom Morgan Rodsmiths from 1996 to early 2017. Tom was widely…
Commencement Speech 2017
In 2015 I wrote a commencement speech for the faceless graduates of that year. This year I decided to update the speech based on some personal experiences and meeting some of the people discussed in this speech. Graduates, congratulations and welcome to the adult world. You’ve already heard – no…