Writings. DJones.

University Art Show

2012-02-08T10:58:00.037-05:00

The "Wood, Paper, Fiber" exhibit is currently being shown in the gallery in the Art and Sociology Building. I really like the interior of the building which is pictured above.

Drew Goerlitz: "Propositum III" He's a Maryland graduate, and all his works shown in this exhibit are made from steel and paper.

"Vessel" by Millicent Young who lives in rural Virginia. That's horse hair hanging down.
"Globe" by Englishman Chris Gilmour using cardboard:Drew Goerlitz: "Vascellum"

"Monstrare II" by Drew Goerlitz

"Julius Ceasar" by Chris Gilmour

Close-up of the cardboard materials:

Curator Prof. Foon Sham says the artists "Skillfully transform these materials into art of great beauty and deep resonance."

I feel that way about this untitled work by Aeneas Wilder of Scotland:

Wading the Magothy

2012-02-02T10:47:00.003-05:00

The Magothy and the Severn are tidal rivers that empty into the Chesapeake between Annapolis and Baltimore, and their upper tidal sections are only about five miles apart in Anne Arundel County.

Winter fishing for pickerel can be good in these areas, so yesterday I decided to take advantage of a 70 degree day to drive to a place on the Magothy where there is public access. Before leaving on a fishing trip, I write my destination on a white board in our hallway, and there I wrote "Severn River near Severna Park." It had been six or seven years since I fished the area, and it wasn't until I reached Severna Park that I realized my targeted fishing site was on the Magothy rather than the Severn. Fortunately, it didn't take long to make the correction and soon I was wading and casting.

Everything was perfect: I had the appropriate fly tackle, my casting was fine, and the weather was beautiful with the warm sun light only occasionally blocked by passing clouds and the breezes not over-powering. The fish, unfortunately, did not co-operate. Brought out by the mild weather, there were some bait fishermen there as well, and they didn't seem to do well either but those that I talked to on walks back to the car agreed with me that being able to be out fishing on the first day of February was prize enough.

As we anglers say: the fishing's always good even when the catching is not.

Snow and freezing rain

2012-01-24T14:37:00.008-05:00

Yesterday. It's in the mid 50's today.

Birds currently around us

2012-01-20T16:34:00.006-05:00

The Ring-necked ducks at the pond have grown to five. They're fun to watch dive under-water.

We frequently see hawks but not usually this close to the house. We believe they are Red- shouldered hawks.

More thoughts on cars and rock and roll...

2012-01-18T11:38:00.004-05:00

I'd been consciously aware of the pleasures of cruising while listening to rock long before writing the previous post, but putting those musings into words brought about some new thoughts about the subject.

For example, I realized that my association with rock music and cars was so strong that for much of my life I seldom listened to that type of music in any other context. As a teenager, I bought jazz and folk records and sometimes heard those artists live but didn't buy rock records or go to rock concerts until my 20's. Now in my 60's, I still sometimes buy the music and go to concerts.

Having heard much of the great 1960's rock initially through tinny- sounding car radios, it was a revelation when I started listening to quality sound systems. High fidelity brought a different dimension to rock and, in some ways, I am still discovering the beauty of some of the old music. In recent years, I have bought Beach Boys CD's although it wouldn't have occurred to me to buy the records when they were new. Nah, the Beach Boys were to for driving with your friends to the hamburger stand or for on the way to pick up a date. Those melodies and harmonies, however, contained nuances and subtleties that are missed unless played through quality speakers or headphones.

But although the sound quality may have been lacking, the power of the music was there. "Sugar-pie, honey-bunch..." sang the Four Tops in the spring and summer of 1965, the year I graduated from high school, and that song seemed to be in the air every time I was in a car. It made me feel good then and it still does.

"Cruising and playing the radio..."

2012-01-07T15:23:00.009-05:00

... no particular place to go."

In a lot of ways I really haven't changed much in behavior since my late teens, nearly a half century ago. For instance, I still like driving around listening to the car radio, and my choice of music is still usually rock and roll. Like one radio station described their rock playlist and target demographic: "It's the soundtrack of your lives."

Performers such as Chuck Berry and Bruce Springsteen have reflected in their lyrics this association of rock and roll with cars. I guess a driver's license often represents freedom to the teenager, freedom from parents, schools, and other adult authority. There's a freedom about rock and roll too. In the 50's communist Russia tried unsuccessfully to suppress the music, probably because they recognized this, but the USSR is no more and rock and roll remains.

So is it that I've never grown up, or am I still seeking freedom? I prefer to think that as an American I like to revel in my freedom, and the music makes me feel good about it.

Anyway, I first listened on the AM dial, but in the late 60's it was mostly on FM. AM radio still had decent classical and country music, but as I said previously I mostly listen to rock and roll when driving. Eventually I felt a similar deterioration of rock music on FM that I had experienced on AM. There was a drought in suitable cruising music until satellite radio, XM and then Sirius XM, came along for me in the 2000's. When a great song comes on just as I've arrived at my driving destination, I'll either drive around the block or sit in my car until it's finished, just as I did as a teenager.

First fishing of the year

2012-01-06T18:56:00.003-05:00

Temperatures over 60 degrees gave me hope of catching something at the pond, so I put in about an hour this afternoon. Crappie will sometimes bite in cold water, and I hoped there may even be a few holdover trout from last spring's stocking. Didn't catch anything though.

Just a few nights ago it went down to 16 degrees and didn't rise above freezing all day which accounts for the ice off the deep end up to twenty feet in some places. Also, there were about 150 geese which limited the areas suitable for fly casting.

Brookside Gardens again

2012-01-05T16:58:00.019-05:00

Fewer people around after Christmas.

The House and Yard

2012-01-04T12:52:00.009-05:00

Blogs are useful to document things. I've used this one to document fishing trips, vacations, and the look of the surrounding outdoors areas at various times of the year and have enjoyed looking back at the pictures later. While I don't expect the pictures to be particularly meaningful to anyone else, they are to me. I decided that pictures of the house and yard would be of similar future interest, so these are my baseline.

New Year's Day 2012

2012-01-01T17:21:00.002-05:00

It's been mild so far this winter, but that will change.

Diving ducks in the park

2011-12-30T15:52:00.006-05:00

As far as waterfowl, the pond has Canada Geese pretty much year round and Mallards often. It always gets our interest when we have a lone visitor of another species. Over the past month, one such visitor we have tentatively identified as a Lesser Scaup. We have watched her many times but have been disappointed with our photo attempts. This is the best of the group:

Today, I spotted another diving duck, and this appears to be a Ring-necked Duck, a type which has visited the pond before in late winter and spring.

Outdoors Art in Middleburg, Virginia

2011-12-23T10:46:00.046-05:00

The image above is from a painting that is part of an exhibit titled "Afield in America: 400 Years of Animal and Sporting Art" at the National Sporting Library and Museum which we visited yesterday. Hunters, fishermen, horses, and dogs are the dominant subjects.

Pam views one of the paintings:

Being old, I needed reading glasses for much of the text:

Of course, I spent most of the time with the fishing paintings.

This Winslow Homer, "A Boy Fishing", is one of my favorites.

A close-up of a fly fisherman from one of the other paintings:

This is the angling section of the library. I have many of these books.

Pam settles down with a British magazine on fox hunting.

This year's Christmas Tree

2011-12-21T15:31:00.010-05:00

It may be my favorite thing about the holiday.

I like the whole process- picking it out, setting it up, putting the lights on first, then the ribbons, then everything else.

"The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer."

2011-12-19T14:59:00.009-05:00

Continuing to ponder about the course I recently finished, I realized that of the three components of the title I had been concentrating most on power and ritual and decided to review my lecture notes with a concentration on the third element, society.

The baseline for the course had been established by Aristotle who said that man is a political animal and that only a beast or a god would live outside the polis or political society. Hundreds of years later the Roman thinker Seneca disagreed, but most important writers on this subject such as St. Thomas Aquinas followed Aristotle for the next millennium. In the late middle ages and early modern period, the political society was seen as an organism likened to the human body with the king as head, the military the arms, and the peasants the feet. Finally, Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the 18th century wrote that humans were born both solitary and free, and the theory of individualism appeared for the first time in Western political thought.

Shortly after Rousseau's theories were written, the United States was created, and I wondered if Americans embraced the concept of individualism more than other peoples. The phrase "rugged American individualism" may have been first uttered by Herbert Hoover, but the concept had been around for a long time. This wondering brought to mind the quote that serves as the title for this entry, a quote which I have read many times but have forgot its origins. When I looked it up I felt I had come full circle back to the college course because the sentence comes from D.H. Lawrence although not from the novel that was one of the course requirements.

I'll now have to think whether we Americans are as individuals unusually isolated and if so what effect this alienation from each other has on our politics.

Power, Ritual, and Society

2011-12-16T13:47:00.013-05:00

That was the name of the course I just finished at the University of Maryland. The course followed the topic of political power and ritual through both theory and historical events in a generally chronological sequence beginning with Aristotle. Although classified both as a history and a religious studies course, none of the six required books were written by historians or theologians, and two were fiction, a play by Spanish author Lope de Vega, and a novel by D.H. Lawrence. In addition, there were about a dozen articles and book excerpts, some from historians and one from a theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas.

Lectures and discussion groups examined such topics as whether human nature was essentially good and rational (Aristotle, St. Thomas, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau thought yes while St. Augustine and Machiavelli thought no), whether humans are social and political by nature (Aristotle said yes, and Rousseau said no), whether economics was the driving force of history (as Karl Marx believed), and whether public ritual and ceremony, which had been so crucial to political power in the middle ages and early modern period in Europe, were still important in a modern industrial society with its emphasis on science and rationality.

The final readings were from the 20th century's Michel Foucault, and the lectures elaborated on his studies of the history of punishment, the change from public physical brutality as "a spectacular and discontinuous intervention of power" to the modern state's invisible, discrete surveillance as "an automatic functioning of power." An original and controversial thinker, Foucault presented Jeremy Bentham's 19th century design for a modern prison, the panopticon, which Foucault came to regard as a metaphor for modern society.

I'll have to think some more about these subjects.

Late season bream

2011-11-28T17:09:00.003-05:00

The days following Thanksgiving have been mild, so I thought I'd walk over to the pond to see what I could catch. Got about a half dozen bream on both wets and drys.

Brookside Gardens

2011-11-27T16:17:00.010-05:00

Nice place for a walk on a nice day.

Most of the leaves have fallen...

2011-11-14T16:46:00.014-05:00

But I'm a sucker for autumn foliage, and the path down to Paint Branch Creek still has some maples showing their stuff.

Odd patriotic display well off the beaten path in the woods.

Blue Heron visits the pond

2011-11-12T15:38:00.005-05:00

I see them often when fishing the Potomac, the Patuxent, the Patapsco and any sizable stream around here but not so often at the pond.

Visit from Margo and other pictures

2011-11-08T21:18:00.009-05:00

Yesterday Pam and I met old friend Margo who came in to DC with her boyfriend, Carroll who had work related meetings. While we waited for him, I took this picture of Pam and Margo in front of the Capitol. The four of us then had a nice dinner in DC's Chinatown.

Today, I took a few shots just outside the backdoor. (doo doo doo, looking out my backdoor, as John Fogerty sang)

The Moo Cup

2011-11-05T15:54:00.017-04:00

L to R: Me, Lou, Pat, Capt. Mike, Ski, Tom, Tip. Thanks to Tip and his self-timer.

Our annual Potomac fishing tournament. Acclaimed winner was Tom.

I shared Pat's boat.

We got some good ones too.

Connie Chung hugged me tonight

2011-11-02T22:31:00.003-04:00

...at the Symposium on Sports Journalism at the University of Maryland.

I've attended these before but this was the best. Connie was there because husband Maury Povich was the panel moderator, and the annual event is named for his father who was a sports writer for The Washington Post for many years. Tonight's topic was race and sports, and the panel featured Michael Wilbon, Bobby Mitchell, Darryl Hill (first Maryland African American football player), Scott Van Pelt of ESPN, and former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue.

Afterward, I walked over to Connie and told her she could still be our Homecoming Queen. She looked at me and asked if I was there then (1969 she was the Homecoming Queen at Maryland). I said yes and she gave me the big hug. Maury came over and I told him I was flirting with his wife. He answered "Of course" which was a pretty good response I thought.

Oh, yeah. She also said that if she didn't color her hair it would look about like mine. I told her she would still be lovely.

Every day you're alive is a good day...

2011-10-31T22:06:00.001-04:00

I try to keep that in mind and especially right now after attending my cousin's memorial service Saturday in New York City. Like his father, who was my favorite uncle, cousin Stuart died at 58.

I always knew Stuart was very smart and a very nice guy, but even knowing that it really impressed me hearing the steady stream of New York City attorneys who spoke not just of his brilliance as a lawyer but how he was admired for his kindness, warmth, and honesty.

The crowd was huge and the service long although quite moving, and afterward there was a gathering at the Park Avenue apartment of one of Stuart's brothers in law. That apartment (for sale at 16 million) was a peek into the world of the 1% we've been hearing so much about lately. In the dining room, the owner showed me where my cousin would place the pies he baked for Thanksgiving Dinner every year. Stuart excelled at everything that grabbed his interest: as a musician, historian, gardener, and a baker and probably other things as well.

Later my daughter Becca led my wife and I through the wind, the cold, and the snow to her Brooklyn apartment to spend the night. With many of the subway trains not running because of power failures, the trip was complicated and difficult after a long day. At the apartment she and her fiancee, Sean, had Indian food for us, and it was a huge relief to be warm and dry. The next morning the sky was blue and sunny when my daughter showed us her neighborhood as we went out for bagels.

After leaving my daughter, my wife Pam and I traveled back to Maryland under the sunny October sky, and I thought of cousin Stuart's widow and two children and of how lucky I was.

Paint Branch Autumn

2011-10-24T15:57:00.002-04:00

Views from atop the campus garage

2011-10-20T15:12:00.001-04:00

Patapsco below the bridge

2011-10-17T16:54:00.000-04:00

Trout fishing continues to be good, and weather is excellent. On a short trip today went downstream and caught another lively rainbow trout and two bream, all on a black marabou bead head streamer. Water lever 1.9 at Hollofield.

Rainy week fishing and a walk

2011-10-14T12:24:00.000-04:00

October is a good month for fishing and appreciating the changes that autumn brings.

In between rains, I made two trips to the Patapsco this week and totaled three nice rainbow trout, two smallmouth bass, and a couple of dozen bream. Water levels were 1.74 Monday at Hollofield and 2.24 today which I thought was a little high to go out, so I stayed near home and walked in the park.

Short, fat, bald politicians

2011-10-03T11:20:00.001-04:00

Not many of them are there? At least, at the national level.

I've been thinking about this because there's been a lot of discussion about New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's weight and whether America would elect a fat guy as president. We generally don't, but we also don't elect bald guys and short guys either.

During my lifetime, only Bill Clinton leaned towards being hefty among presidents, but I don't think many considered him fat. Eisenhower was the only elected bald president, and he twice defeated another bald guy, Adlai Stevenson. Yeah, Jerry Ford was bald, but was never elected to the office. Short guys don't get much of a chance either as the shortest one in my memory was Jimmy Carter who actually was about the US average in height. He looked short and slight next to Reagan, however.

None of these characteristics have anything to do with intelligence and judgment, and I'm sure there are short, fat, bald men (and short, fat women) who would make fine presidents, but they may never get a chance to prove it.

The Patuxent between the reservoirs

2011-09-28T17:30:00.000-04:00

Quick trip. Caught just fallfish.

September colors are underrated

2011-09-27T16:33:00.001-04:00

Yes, as fall progresses and the leaves change, the colors are flashier. But I've come to appreciate the early autumn with the wildflowers still in bloom.

Mr. and Mrs. Mallard seem to enjoy the season too.

Late summer days at Bethany Beach

2011-09-20T17:18:00.006-04:00

While Pam read, I just laid down and looked up at the sky.

And took pictures of gulls who would stop and pose.

Carl Oglesby

2011-09-16T09:40:00.001-04:00

There was an excellent obituary in The Washington Post of Oglesby who died Tuesday at 76.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/carl-oglesby-antiwar-group-leader-and-outspoken-critic-of-vietnam-dies-at-76/2011/09/14/gIQAwDbvSK_story.html

In the 1960's there were two political activists who I admired most and, co-incidentally, they shared the same first name: Carl Oglesby and Karl Hess. I was fortunate to have heard both speak at separate occasions 1969 or 1970.

When Oglesby became leader of Students for a Democratic Society in the early 60's, the group's focus was on civil rights, the elimination of poverty, and a re-direction of American foreign policy. My first reading of Oglesby was a rousing speech he gave to a Vietnam War demonstration in 1965. Although I lived only a few miles from the demonstration in Washington, DC, I was only vaguely aware of it and would have had no interest in attending. It would have probably have been about three years later when I would I read that speech in a collection The New Left Reader. I later bought his book on foreign policy, Containment and Change.

The picture is still clear in my memory of Oglesby making a speech at the University of Maryland to a crowd of students in front of the Student Union Building. He wore glasses and was tall and lanky, and as he spoke he would sweep back his longish hair as it fell over his forehead. His voice was crisp and his tone passionate as he urged the crowd to activism against the Vietnam War. It was not just rhetoric, however, and whether speaking or writing he would build his arguments systematically with facts that invariably later proved accurate when I checked them.

When the violent Weatherman faction of the SDS took over the organization, they ousted Oglesby and dismissed him as "a hopelessly bourgeois liberal." To radical leftists the word "liberal" was just as much of in insult as it was to later become to TV and radio conservative commentators. Oglesby responded that the Weathermen's politics were all "road rage and comic book Marxism."

Unlike the most of the student radicals, Oglesby came not from wealth and privilege but from a working class background in Akron, Ohio, from southern parents who migrated north to work in factories. I unaware of his background until the obituary, but it made me wonder if his background made it easier for me to relate to as opposed to other radical leaders of the time who came from a different world than I did.

Karl Hess died in the 1990's. He was a speech writer for conservative Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater and wrote the infamous words "Extremism in the pursuit of liberty is no vice...", words that helped opponents label Goldwater as too much a radical conservative to be president. I saw nothing wrong with those words then and still don't. A few years later Hess gravitated to the New Left and shared their opposition to the Vietnam War. He maintained that his political principles never changed as he moved from what was conventionally perceived as the political right to the left. Those principles helped form the basis of the Libertarian Party who look to Hess as an early inspiration. I saw him speak also at the University, at the mall in front of McKeldin Library. I remember his speaking manner as subdued, but he made his points firmly and eloquently.

After the 60's Hess moved from DC to West Virginia and made a living as a welder, bartering his services rather than being paid in cash because he refused to pay taxes that would primarily go to defense spending. Stories sometimes appeared about him in newspapers and magazines, so I was able to keep track of him generally until his death. Oglesby, by contrast, dropped from my sight but apparently earned a living from writing, teaching, and music.

These two men contributed to our world which is lessened by their absences. Their deaths make me feel closer to my own death.

Activities fair on campus

2011-09-15T16:23:00.001-04:00

On the mall today at the University of Maryland where I'm back for another semester.

The theme is "First Look" because the purpose is to introduce

new students to the variety of campus organizations.

Catoctin mountain stream

2011-09-15T16:17:00.000-04:00

Big Hunting Creek is such beautiful waters I was sorry I forgot my camera yesterday. I'm out of practice on trout fishing on moving waters and didn't do well. Also, I should start setting aside more time for these trips because I was just starting to get good drifts with my dry flies when it was time to start heading home.

Pond and reservoir notes

2011-09-12T19:22:00.000-04:00

Made good use of nice late summer day. Fished the pond this morning and picked up a couple of bream quickly on our side. Walked over to the other and caught probably the biggest largemouth I've taken from the pond this year, 14 to 15 inches. He took the balsa wood surface slider deep, so it took a while to unhook him to put him back.

In the afternoon, Pam and I paddled around the reservoir. Seeing some rising fish, I rigged up the fly rod and cast a few times but no strikes. Saturday when I drove up the check on the canoe after the storms, I watched many rises in Scott's Cove. I think there's some hatch going on but don't know what. Both pictures taken at the reservoir.

Rain over?

2011-09-09T14:58:00.001-04:00

Hope so.

It's been days.

At least the rain makes the garden look good

2011-09-07T15:36:00.001-04:00

It's been a few days of almost constant rain which interferes with fishing and other outdoor activity. The weather is blamed is being blamed on the remnants of Hurricane Lee which hit the Gulf states and continued north inland. Hurricane Irene caused us to lose power for about 24 hours, but we were lucky in comparison with many. Although Katia appears to be heading too far east to be a problem, we're keeping an eye on tropical storm Maria.

Mountain streams, a reservoir, and a pond

2011-08-26T13:19:00.000-04:00

Last week I fished Owens Creek in the Catoctins and not very succesfully. In April my friend Andy introduced me to an "unknown" stream in those mountains, but we didn't do well there either probably because it wasn't completely unknown, and another fisherman was there ahead of us. For a tiny brook trout stream that's too much pressure.

Also one day last week I drifted around in the canoe in Rocky Gorge trolling a fly on a sinking line and caught one perch.

This week have twice been to the pond in the park and each day caught small bass and bluegills on dry flies.

Had a 5.8 earthquake three days ago. This one was about twice as powerful as the quake a year ago. Two earthquakes in my 64 years, and they came a year apart. A hurricane is moving up the coast and will hit us this weekend.

The County Fair was nice...

2011-08-23T20:07:00.001-04:00

At least I'm assuming it was. I don't know for certain because when we set out to attend it this afternoon we neglected to verify that the Fair was still going on. It wasn't. We learned later that it closed two days ago. Oh, well, we had a nice time listening to music during our drive up to the fairgrounds

So we had a laugh at our own expense, took a few pictures of the abandoned fairgrounds and drove home.

The fish aren't where they usually are

2011-08-15T20:36:00.000-04:00

At Nolands Ferry on the Potomac. The locations which are generally reliable for me this time of the year aren't producing. Saturday I tried everything at the near-side of the island, and nothing worked. Finally caught a few bream when I moved into slow water on the Maryland side. Hooked one bass but he jumped and threw the hook. The only effective fly was a damsel nymph. Water level .99 at Point of Rocks. No grasses at all.

Note to self: Next year more Vinca...

2011-08-14T15:55:00.001-04:00

They seem to do well in our yard, and I prefer them over Impatiens for color.

Also, get the purple flowers again, whatever they are.

Michele Bachmann performs a solo Full Ginsburg

2011-08-14T11:30:00.001-04:00

Rarer than a no-hitter in baseball, the Full Ginsburg was named for Monica Lewinsky's attorney who appeared on all the major Sunday political shows in one day back in 1998. Since then, the feat has been equaled by only six other people.

Yes, I know there are some out there whose statistics credit 14 Full Ginsburgs, but some of these were part of a group consisting of two or more other people. To me, as a Full Ginsburg purist, this is like giving credit for a no-hitter when relief pitchers were involved. No, the only authentic Full Ginsburg is the solo performance.

Although it is a political act, no American president has achieved a solo Full Ginsburg, but former VP Dick Cheney did. People speak in hush tones when they cite the only double winner of the solo Full Ginsburg, Hillary Clinton, a record that some feel will stand forever. Among political media hounds, Clinton certainly stands out, but Bachmann is relatively young in her career and I feel is up to equaling or surpassing Clinton's mark, as impressive as it is.

Patapsco Graffiti

2011-08-12T17:35:00.000-04:00

Too many of my pictures taken when fishing look the same; upstream or downstream a Maryland river. After a few hours fishing on the far upper Patapsco, I decided to look for something different to photograph while scouting out new locations.

Bridge underpasses are common places for teenagers to hang out and do the things they want to do away from adult eyes. Some talented music lovers among them must have been responsible for the artwork.

The fishing got better the further away from the road crossing I traveled. The catching was bream (I'm not sure whether they were bluegills or red breasted sun fish, so I going to used the general southern term) and a couple of small bass. As usual on that river, the most effective fly was a beaded marabou streamer; this time olive. Some of the bream were pretty hefty.

Reviewing Outdoor Basics: Wildlife Identification and First Aid

2011-08-06T16:28:00.000-04:00

Two fishing trips this week indicated reviewing these subjects might be in order. After fishing a small tributary of the Potomac in midweek. I realized many of the fish I've been carelessly identifying as bluegills (Lepomis macrochirus) are actually red breasted sunfish (Lepomis auritus). I caught at least a dozen on the brief outing but no bass. The stream is pictured below.

Friday I fished the Patuxent above Rocky Gorge and was surprised but not shocked to catch a couple of yellow perch on a crystal bugger. I was not shocked because I've caught them in the two reservoirs and in the river where it empties into them, but it was unexpected where I was fishing yesterday. I also caught a fallfish which are common in the trout section of the river that I was just below.

Just before leaving I cut my leg while wading near the bridge crossing where I was parked. The cut was not deep, but I was anxious to treat it to ward off possible infections, and since I was only 20 minutes away I decided to wait until I got home. Although the incident was minor, it did make me consider how it would have gone if it had happened in one of my remote fishing spots. Later I examined my first aid kit for the first time in years and decided that, while I give myself credit for always having it in the car on my fishing trips, I have to improve on checking everything regularly because many items in the kit should be replaced.

The Stringer

2011-08-02T11:14:00.002-04:00

It must have been about 25 years ago that I took the teenage boy fishing. David was the second son of a couple that I have known since junior high school. The couple had married and had children young, but even in the late 60's and 70's when my life was very different from theirs we remained friends. Having gotten into the baby business much later than they, my own children were too small to fish at the time the mother suggested a fishing trip with their son.

We went to nearby Rocky Gorge Reservoir, the same lake where I now keep my canoe. At that time I was car-topping that canoe whenever I used it, so I guess David and I loaded it on whatever car I was driving 25 years ago. We had a good day fishing and kept the bass, catfish, and crappie on David's metal stringer. When I drove him home, neither he or his mother wanted to keep and clean the fish, so it was agreed I would take them. David insisted I keep the stringer as well as the fish. I did and my young family ate fresh fish that evening.

David and I never fished again. He grew into a man, and his family moved from Maryland to the mid-west. I stayed in loose touch with his parents and saw them periodically over the years, the last time at a high school reunion just over a year ago. Although most of my fishing since that trip with David has been catch and release, when I keep fish to eat I use that same stringer that he gave me years before. At those times I sometimes remember how I got it and the fishing that day. Since I last used it a few months ago, the metal stringer has been lying on the downstairs floor where I often sort my fishing tackle while watching TV.

Last night I received an e-mail from the couple informing me that their son David just died. The funeral will be back here in Maryland very near the lake we fished that day. I've thought about taking the fish stringer in the pocket of my suit when I attend the services. It might seem a strange thing to do, but somehow I think it's appropriate.

The Potomac, the Monocacy, and Thomas Wolfe

2011-07-27T16:00:00.000-04:00

I read Look Homeward Angel and the other novels of Thomas Wolfe about half a century ago. An English professor in college said to read Wolfe while you're young because otherwise you won't, and I think that's true. It was in Of Time and the River, I believe, that Wolfe wrote a lyrical passage about how pleasant the native names of American rivers sound when spoken. I thought about that passage today when I fished these two rivers.

Fishing results were mixed because although I only caught two, one of them was the best bass I've caught this year, a fat 16 inch smallmouth. The fly was a B Damsel created by Joe Bruce of Baltimore. No sign of grasses. Water levels were 1. 09 at Point of Rocks, 2.77 at Little Falls, and 2.21 at Bridgeport on the Monocacy.

The Monocacy, looking downstream near the confluence with the Potomac.

Ellicott City

2011-07-26T14:19:00.000-04:00

The old section of town is frequently described as picturesque with its quaint old buildings, and I remember taking both black and white and color photographs there when I was into photography in the 1960's and 70's. Ironically, on my first visit to the town in years yesterday I forgot to bring a camera. Even if I had remembered, I might not have taken any pictures because I came there primarily to scout fishing locations along the Patapsco River.

In addition to finding new places for future trips. I got in an hour or so of actual fishing and caught a nice little smallmouth bass as well as numerous bluegills, all on a B & B fly. The trip back was highlighted by a violent thunderstorm which decreased in severity as I drove south to home.

Car show

2011-07-17T17:16:00.001-04:00

Although I'm not a car hobbyist I attended a show in Edgewater, Maryland yesterday because my friend, Pat, was displaying some of his cars, one of which is pictured with him above. The show specialized in Nash Ramblers and other cars made by American Motors Corporation so I learned a lot about this collecting niche. Basically for me it was a good opportunity to sit outside on a nice day, drink beer, and talk cars, fishing, and any other subject that might arise.

Under the hood:

This one belongs to Pat's father and is one of only about 12 1957 Rebels in existance:

Caught in the rain on the Patapsco

2011-07-13T17:15:00.000-04:00

I seldom take rain gear when I fish in hot weather because feeling the rain on my body is cooling and refreshing. I don't want to be caught outside during a thunderstorm, however, so I began the 40 minute paddle back to the car soon after the rain started. I didn't mind ending the trip because I had been out for 5-6 hours and caught many panfish and a few bass. Thunder sounded distant while I was on the water but both it and the rain picked up strength on the drive home.

Most effective fly was a red and pink bead head marabou streamer. I have no idea what made me tie that color combination. Water level was 1.44 at Hollofield.

Before the rain:

The Book of Job and Recent Movies

2011-07-09T21:59:00.001-04:00

Two days ago I saw The Tree of Life, and it's still in my head. The movie's quote from the Book of Job in the Old Testament made me think of another movie from just a few years ago, A Serious Man, that I also associate with that biblical book. I did some prowling around the internet to refresh my memory of A Serious Man and noted that, although critics often referred to the central character as a modern day Job, the Coen Brothers deny they were consciously referencing that story.

The story of Job is of a righteous man who is subjected to great suffering. This mystery of why bad things happening to good people is a question that has perplexed religious thinkers for hundreds of years, and that theme is an important element of The Tree of Life but not the only one. The movie examines the harshness of nature in contrast to spiritual grace and also the inter-relationship of all living things. In its own way, it may be the most religious movie I've ever seen.

Last night I napped in front of the TV which at the time happened to be showing The Da Vinci Code, a much inferior movie than the other two, and at one point I awoke to see a biblical verse shown on screen. The verse was Job 38:11. Apparently, movie makers of recent years are obsessed with that book over all the others in the Bible.

Patapsco Afternoon

2011-07-05T20:47:00.000-04:00

Didn't get out until mid-day to the Daniels area. Many, many bluegill but no bass. Grasses coming in throughout the slack water above the dam which makes it look less barren. Lots of minnows too. Water level 1.45 at Holofield.

Hometown Tourists

2011-07-02T09:58:00.001-04:00

About a month ago, Pam was introduced to the gardens at the Franciscan Monastery In Washington, DC by Susan, a friend who is well known in area gardening circles. Yesterday, we glanced briefly at an internet map, and Pam and I set out to visit there.

Now, Pam and I are lifelong DC area residents, and Pam was actually born in the District. Nevertheless, we had trouble finding the Monastery although it covers considerable ground in Northeast. From our general notion of the location, we blundered into an area of sufficient proximity that the view started to look familiar to her and we finally found it.

The gardens and buildings are beautiful. I'm only posting the one picture because my photos don't do it justice. There are bee hives on a section of the grounds not open to the public, and Pam has contacted them about volunteering there although we are not Roman Catholics.

Like any tourists, upon leaving we made a wrong turn and got turned around again. When we corrected our course, we drove back into Maryland on Michigan Avenue which took us through the Queens Chapel area of Prince Georges County. It wasn't an efficient route to our home in Silver Spring, but the drive did revive memories of that neighborhood for both of us.

Baseball road trip

2011-07-01T12:07:00.001-04:00

Friends Bill and Stan picked me up yesterday morning, and we drove to Philadelphia to watch the Phillies play the Red Sox. Bill is a Red Sox fan and Stan a Phillies fan, and I'm just a baseball fan.

David Ortiz (Big Papi) at bat for the Sox.

On the way home, we stopped in Baltimore for the Orioles/Cardinals evening game.

Red Winged Black Bird

2011-06-29T12:11:00.002-04:00

Last two days fishing

2011-06-28T17:05:00.000-04:00

Caught a few bluegills on a foam spider during yesterday's brief trip which took a little of the sting out of today. Normally Nolands Ferry on the upper Potomac fishes very well for me this time of year but not today. Only managed one undersized smallmouth for the day. Hooked another one but lost it. Tried many flies, but Joe Bruce's B Damsel was the only one that produced at all. Water level was 2.01 at Point of Rocks and 3.32 at Little Falls which is high for this time of year. We haven't had much rain lately, but they must be getting some in the upper part of the watershed. Water clarity was slightly muddy, and grasses not yet in evidence.

Bethany Beach 2011

2011-06-26T12:20:00.005-04:00

Bottom floor apartment. Three bedrooms.

Bethany night life-

Father's Day dinner at Bethany Blues-

She may not look 64...

...but he does.

Reservoir and pond notes

2011-06-15T12:05:00.000-04:00

Taking advantage of the beautiful weather, Pam and I went canoeing again yesterday at Rocky Gorge. While she read, I paddled around with one eye on my portable depth finder in hopes of learning something that will be helpful the next time I fish there. That section of the lake drops off quickly so that many spots close to shore are 20-30 feet deep. Marked a lot of fish suspended 4-5 feet down.

Just returned from an hour fishing the pond and hooked two bass and a good sized bluegill, all very close to shore. The second bass jumped and threw the hook. Like always, I laughed with joy when the fish jumped. I was using a black spun deer hair surface fly.

First Upper Potomac Trip of 2011

2011-06-11T16:55:00.000-04:00

Since there was no access to the Potomac from the ramp on the Monocacy last year, today was my first trip to the Mouth of the Monocacy in two years.

The debris which had piled up on the near 200 year old Monocacy Aqueduct had been cleared sometime, somehow during the past year.

Fishing was good, about eight smallmouth bass, two rock bass, and a half dozen or so fat bluegills, all on subsurface flies.

Water level was 2.37 at Point of Rocks and 3.54 at Little Falls which is higher than I'm used to in the area generally because my first trip was sooner than most years.

Early afternoon at the pond

2011-06-10T12:45:00.001-04:00

Hot weather fishing

2011-06-08T12:47:00.000-04:00

Got out three times last week when the temperatures well into the 90's, but none of the trips were very productive. One trip was to the nearby pond and caught a few bluegills on a B & B fly. Then I tried Morgan Run for trout but caught nothing, maybe because a large number of young people were there swimming and sun bathing. Then I went out in the canoe to Rocky Gorge hoping for bass but only managed a couple of bluegills. I think that was the first time I was out in the canoe by myself.

I didn't fish on the short trip to the mountains but tried the pond when we returned home. The weather cooled off and I got a couple of bass and and some bluegills also on the B & B. Now it's very hot again.

A couple of more days in the mountains...

2011-06-04T20:14:00.005-04:00

...of Maryland and West Virginia.

In Gormania, West Virginia, sister-in-law's husband supervises their grandchildren on the trampoline.

The women share their wisdom...

Waterfall on Laurel Run in Maryland. The pool is also a local swimming hole, and native brook trout can be found in the more secluded sections of the stream.

Pam relaxes along the stream.

The Scientific Revolution

2011-05-28T14:54:00.001-04:00

The book I recently finished, The Clockwork Universe-Isaac Newton, the Royal Society and the Birth of the Modern World by Edward Dolnick, I may not have read were it not for the college course on the history of science and technology that I just took. Most history courses focus on political history, but I think to understand today's world knowing the contributions of some great natural philosophy thinkers of the 17th century is more important than knowing the kings of the Stuart Dynasty or the major battles of the 30 Years War, all of the same century.

Of these great thinkers, Isaac Newton was probably the most important. He is the link between the Medieval and the Modern world. During his "miracle years", 1664-1666, he invents calculus and calculates gravity's pull on the moon. His Principia in 1687 explained his law of universal gravitation, "a single force and a single law that extended to the farthest reaches of the universe. Everything pulled on everything else, instantly and across billions of miles of empty space, the entire universe bound together in one vast, abstract web."Although much of his work was fully understood by few of his contemporaries, his genius was immediately recognized. Alexander Pope wrote, "Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night, and God said 'Let Newton be' and all was light."

And this genius of math and logic was as obsessed with God as any Medieval monk. Newton's motivation was to understand God and the universe that He created and probably believed that God created him for this purpose. He never traveled outside a small part of England, not even to see the sea although he was the first to explain the tides. He never married and died possibly a virgin at 84. He had a difficult and prickly personality and feuded with many people, most importantly Gottfried Liebniz, a German who was perhaps the second greatest thinker of that century. Liebniz independently discovered calculus at about the same time as Newton.

The feud between Newton and Leibniz was snide and petty and sometimes vicious. I find it somewhat comforting that these towering intellects behaved no better than the rest of us. The Clockwork Universe is an entertaining read as well as educational one.

"Cave of Forgotten Dreams"

2011-05-23T13:52:00.001-04:00

Saw this documentary Saturday night at the AFI in Silver Spring. Directed by Werner Herzog, it tells the story of the 30,000 year old art work that was discovered on the walls of Chauvet Cave in France. The cave went undiscovered until the 1990's because of a massive rock which blocked the entrance, and now detailed steps have been taken to restrict access to preserve the artifact within.

The images are quite haunting. They transport the viewer into the expressions of prehistoric artists and provide a linkage with humans of an ancient time. It has been speculated that the site had religious significance to these people, and modern humans often feel a spiritual bounding as well.

Daughter Rebecca, who is studying for a masters in art history, saw the movie in 3-D in New York. I'd see it again if I had the chance to see it in 3-D.

High water on the Patapsco

2011-05-20T20:28:00.000-04:00

But fishable. Reading was 2.4 at Hollofield, and I don't think I'd care to fish it when it's any higher. No trout, no bass, but a few bluegills saved me from being skunked. Stumbled and got some water in my waders but didn't get hurt and was able to continue fishing.

It's been a wet spring and very wet in the Potomac watershed. Water level at Little Falls was over 10 feet yesterday.

My Back Yard

2011-05-18T13:40:00.001-04:00

When wife Pam retired a few years ago, our roles regarding landscaping reversed. For most of years we've been in this house I've had primary responsibility, but since then it's been mostly her. Whichever has been the case, we've talked over any major changes and disagreements have been rare. Also, the person with the secondary responsibility has always had a garden section which was largely theirs to do with as they wished.

For me, this section has been the bedding area which runs along the property line of our shallow back yard. Last summer, the whole back yard took a beating when storms knocked down some very large tree limbs and the deer fence. Between the immediate storm damage and the resulting deer marauding, it wasn't much to look at and the bamboo project was an effort to make our back view pleasing to us again.

I'm happy with the results of that bamboo work, and nature has its own powers of restoration, fortunately. Now I have to decide about supplementing the perennials, trees, and shrubs with annuals. Although I like the way the garden looks now without them, experience has taught me that by late summer I'd miss the additional color annuals bring.

Recent fishing

2011-05-14T11:44:00.000-04:00

Twice this week at the pond. Monday I caught a mess of bluegill in the shallows, and yesterday bluegills and a largemouth about a foot long. Monday's fish came on a SHWAPF, and yesterday's on a yellow foam spider. Both days I started with a marabou streamer looking for trout, but didn't get any because I suspect they're in the deepest coolest water they can find. Lily pads are out and have been for a couple of weeks.

Last week at the Patapsco I caught bluegills, a bass, and a nice rainbow trout. Right after I got the trout, the hatchery truck went by to stock the upper part nearer to the Daniels dam.

Reservoir canoeing

2011-05-13T13:19:00.002-04:00

The weather has been beautiful this week and school's out, so Pam and I got out in the canoe yesterday. Enjoyed the day and saw some wildlife.

I was more cooperative than she about posing for a picture.

Good-bye, Gary

2011-05-06T20:31:00.001-04:00

Thank you, Gary Williams, for 22 years of Maryland basketball. I forgot my camera for today's farewell press conference, so I pulled this image off the internet.
There were a lot of misty eyes among the thousands at Comcast Center today, and according to the University president, the building will bear your name soon. I think that's appropriate.

Contemplating the relationship of mass and time

2011-05-05T22:10:00.001-04:00

The other day I was at the mall of the University of Maryland between classes. It was a little chilly but warm enough to sit comfortably in the sun, and I did so on a bench while I did some reading for my class in History of Science and Technology.

As time for class approached I moved about 50 yards across the mall nearer to the lecture hall where my class would begin in a few minutes. There I stopped momentarily and looked over at the empty bench where I had previously sat. Based on the pictures of myself a few days ago I have a pretty good idea of what I look like, so it was easy for me to visualize myself sitting there on the now empty bench.

I don't remember ever have done something like this before, and I think it had something to do with reading about physics and relativity for the class. A recent news story may also provide some insight:

"A NASA probe orbiting Earth has confirmed two key predictions of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, which describes how gravity causes masses to warp space-time around them. The Gravity Probe B (GP-B) mission was launched in 2004 to study two aspects of Einstein's theory about gravity: the geodetic effect, or the warping of space and time around a gravitational body..."

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/05/05/52-years-nasa-gravity-probe-confirms-einstein-theories/#ixzz1LdIltJm5

I actually don't know shit about this stuff.

Anyway, today I took this picture of the general area from a favorite vantage point on campus. The position is on the hill northwest of the McKeldin Library, overlooking the mall with the steeple of the Chapel visible in the center background.

Saturday at Fells Point in Baltimore

2011-05-03T17:21:00.001-04:00

Pam and I met a few of the guys I've gotten to know from the internet. The group originated from a fishing message board which some of us broke with to talk about other subjects other than fishing. We periodically get together for lunch, and previous lunches have taken place in Arlington, Virginia, Washington, DC, and Annapolis and Deale Maryland.

Pam was a very good sport about coming along because much of the lunch activity was drinking beer and talking fishing neither of which she does. Nevertheless, she charmed all the guys, and one of them later posted that "she obviously lost a bet with God" which is their way of complimenting the wife and good naturedly insulting the husband.

We met at a old tavern named The Wharf Rat which is apparently known for the variety and quality of its draft beer. After a few rounds we proceeded, perhaps a little unsteadily, to Bertha's for lunch. Bertha's is well known for its mussels, and it lived up to its reputation, spread chiefly by bumper stickers which it has freely distributed for years.

As fishermen we are drawn to water, so we walked out to look at the harbor and to take a few pictures before heading back to The Wharf Rat for one last round. Pam took the above shot of the group, and Andy, the youngest member of the group took the picture of Pam and myself.

For shad fishing, it's location, location, location

2011-04-21T00:07:00.000-04:00

Yes, the location is beautiful. The picture above is looking downstream at Deer Creek from Stafford Bridge. But what I really mean is that specific location on a stream can make a huge difference in shad fishing success, even when the difference is just a few feet.

Today I caught a few fish shortly after arriving in the afternoon but not any after that. This seemed to be true for the other fishermen except for those at the positions shown upstream from the bridge who continued to catch hickory shad at a steady pace all afternoon.

Catch and Cook Trout Fishing

2011-04-18T15:05:00.000-04:00

Since I don't believe the stocked trout at the pond survive over the summer, I always keep and eat any trout I catch there. These all came on an olive marabou bead head. Today, I also caught and released a few bluegill and lost a couple more trout.

I like the look of the combination of red buds and white blossoms that appear this time of year.

Catch and Release Shad Fishing

2011-04-14T16:29:00.000-04:00

Catching fish and releasing rather than keeping them for food has been described as needlessly cruel. I don't have a good counter argument for this point of view even though most of the fishing I do is catch and release. In many cases, not releasing your catch is breaking the law so to reject the practice is to reject fishing, and this I will not do.

For a number of years, fishing for both the American and the Hickory shad must be catch and release in Maryland. The regulation was passed because the numbers of both species became dangerously low. Recreational fishing was a factor is reducing the numbers of these fish, but the greater problems were commercial over-fishing and the building of dams which often stopped the upstream spawning migration. Sport fishing for shad is probably about one hundred years old, but commercial fishing goes back to colonial times as we know from entries in George Washington's diary in 1760 about netting large quantities. Before the coming of the Europeans, Native Americans along the eastern seaboard caught them for centuries.

Yesterday, I drove to Deer Creek which flows into the Susquehanna River right at the headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay. I've fished the April shad run in the Rappahannock River, the Patuxent, and, especially in recent years, in the Potomac at Fletchers Boathouse, but this was my first time at Deer Creek. At Stafford Bridge, I met my friend Ken, and we joined other fly fishermen in the stream. I would describe the fishing as steady/slow because every 20 to 30 minutes someone would hook a fish but the action never got as hot as I've seen shad fishing get.

I enjoyed fishing for these strong ocean fish in a relatively small freshwater stream. Water was high and cloudy and the level was 2.71 at Darlington.

I'll Remember April...

2011-04-09T13:46:00.001-04:00

And I'll smile.

Warm weather home for our canoe

2011-04-07T17:23:00.001-04:00

We've had this canoe for about 30 years, and it's been tied atop various vehicles for trips ranging as far as the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York as well as closer tidal rivers, lakes, and campsites.

It hasn't been used much in recent years, however. At over 70 pounds and 16 foot length, it's a chore to load on top of a car and even more so as I've aged. For fishing, I choose the smaller, lighter kayak. My last kayak trip last fall was to Triadelphia Reservoir and made me remember the day trips Pam and I enjoyed there or at its sister lake Rocky Gorge. I then remembered that those two WSSC reservoirs allowed people to seasonally keep a boat locked in mooring for a fee.

So a few weeks ago, I registered the canoe and paid the fee. A few days later, my son Greg who's young and strong helped me transport it to its new temporary home at Scott's Cove at Rocky Gorge.

I think the canoe enjoys being outside beneath the pines.

I'm looking forward to a number of outings this spring, summer, and fall where all we have to do is throw life jackets, paddles, and refreshments in a car and drive 20 minutes in order to lazily drift and paddle while enjoying the scenery.

Only in America

2011-04-06T16:51:00.001-04:00

A girls softball game was being played in the park this afternoon, two local high schools. Playing third base for one of the schools was a girl wearing a Muslim scarf.

There was something heartening about seeing that.

More trout

2011-04-01T16:46:00.000-04:00

Although I don't plan to take pictures of every fish I catch this season, since I'm going to eat these anyway it's easy enough to do. These were caught from the pond on black bead head marabou streamers.

Trout for dinner

2011-03-29T18:02:00.000-04:00

About a foot long on a bead head marabou streamer from the pond.

Hey Jack Kerouac

2011-03-28T10:00:00.001-04:00

I think of your mother

And all the tears she cried

She would cry for none other

Than her little boy lost in a little world that hated

And that dared to drag him down

Her little boy courageous...

Natalie Merchant and Robert Buck of the rock group "10,000 Maniacs" wrote those lyrics in the 1980's, at least 20 years after I read On the Road for the first time. Kerouac is on my mind because I just finished reading his novel Desolation Angels which was written just prior to the publication of On the Road which made him famous.

Desolation Angels never achieved the popularity of On the Road and represents the flip side of the earlier novel as Angels is as dark and downbeat as Road is life-affirming. In it Kerouac has already begun to dislike the Beat Generation which he more than anyone was responsible for creating. I think he detected a faddish insincerity about those who saw themselves as following the Bohemian footprints of Kerouac, Ginsberg, Corso and his other friends, and the movement declined into a "postured, actually secretly rigid coolness soon to become a fad up to the mass of middle class youth." The depression of Desolation Angels is probably fueled by Kerouac's growing alcoholism which contributed to his death before he reached 50.

He live most of his later years with his mother who he pictures with love in this book and is why Merchant and Buck's lyrics above came into my mind. Kerouac was a courageous man of almost saintly sensitivity, an athlete good enough to be offered a college football scholarship, a heterosexual whose two closest friends were gay. Most importantly to me, he was a great writer. I'm not surprised his books are still read half a century later, and I believe they will still be read a half century from now.

And the fishermen came...

2011-03-26T11:57:00.001-04:00

To the pond for the first day of trout fishing.

The residents had to be tolerant of the
newcomers.

Late winter is a desolate time...

2011-03-23T15:59:00.001-04:00

Even when we're two days into spring by the calendar. There certainly have been spring-like days with temperatures in the 60's and even a few days in the 70's, but today is winter-like. Right now, the temperature is 47 degrees which isn't so cold, but the dampness in the air makes you uncomfortable.

Although the weather hasn't been as severe as last year, every winter gives the land a beating and it shows.

However, the budding of the trees gives you hope of better things to come.

Another sign of spring:

The sign indicates that the pond has been stocked by the state, and is closed to fishing while the fish acclimate themselves to their new surroundings. Saturday, the fishing will reopen and the fishermen will come.

Lately I've been thinking about my wife's looks

2011-03-14T09:37:00.001-04:00

She is quite beautiful, you see. A few nights ago we had dinner at another couple's house, so I was sitting across the table from her for a few hours. At 64 she is still amazing to look at. A year ago, we went to a high school reunion, and she was easily the best looking woman there. She was very pretty in high school, but there were many other pretty girls in our class. Now, she really stands out.

Now, some will read and think, "How nice. This man really loves his wife, and even though she's aged she is still beautiful to him." That's true, but she is also quite striking to people who are just seeing her for the first time. A couple of years ago she visited me at work, and I introduced her to two men I'm close to there. Later that day after she left, each separately said essentially the same thing to me: "Hey, you're kind of robbing the cradle there, aren't you?" No, she's actually 23 days older than me. About a year ago a guy I've known for a few years became somewhat tongue-tied upon meeting her for the first time.

On top of all this, she has many other outstanding qualities beyond her appearance. She is smart and has an inquisitive mind and a good sense of humor, all of which makes her an interesting conversationalist. She is an excellent cook and a loving and attentive mother to our children. I've been told I'm a lucky man by people who don't even know all this. They just say I'm lucky because they've seen her. They don't know how lucky I really am.

A Fishing Legend

2011-02-12T16:19:00.001-05:00

Bernard "Lefty" Kreh is, at 85, possibly the best known fly fisherman in the world. He was born in Frederick County, Maryland and has spent virtually his whole life in this state except for serving in the army during WWII when he fought in The Battle of the Bulge.

Because Lefty is local, I've been lucky to have met and talked with him a number of times usually at events like today at the fly fishing gathering that has come to be known as Tiefest on Kent Island. The event's name is a reference to fly tying which takes center stage, but there are also fly casting demonstrations and lessons such as Lefty is shown giving above. He's probably done this thousands of times, and he's probably given the same answer thousands of times to the question I asked him about knots, the subject of a couple of the many books he's authored. Still, he managed to answer with patience and humor, as he always does.

Back to College

2011-02-11T14:28:00.001-05:00

Every Tuesday and Thursday I find myself in the same lecture hall that I was in 45 years ago. Back then, it was a Botany course, and now it is "History of Science and Technology in Western Civilization." On those days I also have an earlier class in "Film in American Culture."

The deal at The University of Maryland is that a retired person over 60 may taken up to 9 credits with minimum tuition plus books and parking. I have chosen to audit rather than taking the courses for credit, so I won't be writing papers or taking exams.

Without the pressures I had as an undergrad, it's pure learning and it's great.

Last Night's Dream

2011-01-19T10:42:00.001-05:00

Generally my dreams concern routine, boring actions like buying tires or doing taxes, but last night was an exception.

The phone rang, and I instantly recognized the voice as Marv, my friend who died last May. He said something like, "I was thinking about our discussion about yadayada..." It was common for us to continue previous conversations like that, so the only thing out of the ordinary was that he had been dead for eight months. When he stopped talking I said, "Well, if you can use the phone in the Afterlife, you can probably just come on over, " and he agreed to stop by the house.

As is common in dreams, my house didn't look anything like any house I ever lived in. It was multiple stories with an open stairway, so you could see people traveling between floors. It was from that vantage point that I saw Marv coming up to the floor I was on, but he wasn't moving with a walking motion. He was gliding up not so much like a ghost but more like a person on an escalator. In fact, the scene looked like a department store even though it was my home.

Marv didn't resume our phone conversation. He just settled down on the floor in a corner and watched the other people who had also come by the house. There was music playing as there usually is when we have visitors, and the song had a traditional country feel like bluegrass. I started dancing by myself in an old fashioned style like a hoe-down, and the dream pretty much ended. When I awoke I reviewed in my mind some details, especially Marv's appearance, because I knew Pam would be interested. He was younger looking than I had ever seen him alive, like he may have looked in his early 30's. His hair was dark without any gray and he was slimmer.

Pam has said that she envisions Marv's continued presence as sitting on a couch with her father and the two deceased men look down on we-the-still-living and criticize and laugh at our actions. George is drinking beer, and Marv is smoking marijuana. Maybe Marv settling down silently in a corner of my house in my dream is a similar vision that he is still with us.

Noisy Walk

2011-01-18T15:27:00.002-05:00

Nice noisy though, the clinking of ice melting off trees.We had an ice storm last night, and today the temperature hovered just above freezing which made for a gradual emerging.

Tracking Snow

2011-01-12T15:04:00.001-05:00

Had a couple of inches fall last night which is a good amount for following animal tracks. The possible presence of a coyote which I mentioned recently got me interested in learning to identify animals by their tracks, and it's a good learning activity to go along with walking in the woods.

The close similarities among the canine tracks makes it unlikely I'll learn to distinguish coyote from foxes or either from domestic dogs. It's rare around here to see a dog without his owner nearby so when I spot a canine track with no human tracks around I can be fairly certain it's something other than a domestic dog. I followed such tracks for a while today, and there were enough tracks where the claws were clearly visible to rule out it was any sort of feline. It could be a coyote, but I'm leaning more towards a large fox.

Although a large fox makes a larger track than a smaller fox, when you are comparing size tracks among different species things are different. A rabbit's tracks, for example, can be larger than a deer's.

Winter is for Walking

2011-01-08T13:17:00.001-05:00

It's better now than in warm weather when it makes you hot and sweaty. Last night we had another light snow, and I went out again along Paint Branch Creek.

The green of holly trees stands out among the browns and grays of the winter woods.

...as does the white trunks of the sycamores.

Along Paint Branch Creek

2011-01-07T13:24:00.001-05:00

The tiny stream that forms the pond in the park empties into a larger stream, Paint Branch Creek, which meanders through the suburbs and joins the Anacostia River near the Maryland/DC border. The Anacostia bisects the Nation's Capital for a short distance before it empties into the Potomac.

Paint Branch contains brown trout in some of the upper reaches, so I stay on the lookout as I hike along it. No trout sightings, but many animal tracks to keep me occupied despite the quick melting of the snow dusting we received this morning.

New Year's Day Thaw

2011-01-01T16:50:00.001-05:00

Temperatures got up into the 50's today. Good day for the geese to swim and for people to go for a walk.

Rocky Gorge Winter

2010-12-19T19:23:00.001-05:00

Rocky Gorge is a twin reservoir to Triadelphia where I went kayaking a month ago. Today I walked along its upper reaches in the Brown Bridge area, and there it seems less a lake and more of a lazy river which it essentially is because like Triadelphia it's created by dam which impounds the upper Patuxent River.

Since the surrounding land is owned by the WSSC, the water utility, it is free of development and its forests constitutes one of the nearest wild areas.

Coyote

2010-12-17T16:06:00.001-05:00

There might be one in my suburban neighborhood. My next door neighbor believes she saw one. She's an intelligent, level-headed woman, and I take very seriously anything she says. Still, she's not at all an experienced outdoors person, so I reserve judgment.

Twice in the past week on separate occasions my wife Pam and I got a glimpse of what was either a coyote or an unusually large fox. Foxes have been common around here, so we're used to seeing them. What I saw seemed bigger than the foxes we see, but I really didn't get a good enough look for a positive identification. Pam feels the same about what she saw.

A couple of years ago in the parkland across the street I got into a conversation with a woman who said she saw a coyote in the park. Based on other things said, she seemed to be fairly knowledgeable about the outdoors and the the critters that live there. The park is partly developed with ball fields and tennis courts but is also partly wild. Also, it adjoins another park which extends quite a ways along Paint Branch Creek and joins other parks cumulatively creating a wildlife highway through the suburbs.

There have been sightings of coyotes, I believe, in all Maryland counties, so it is more than possible I have them nearby. I'd like to know for sure. While I'm not much of a tracker, I've been studying up in hopes I can learn to differentiate among dog, coyote, and fox tracks. This snow might help but it's melting today. I think I'd better go out now and take a walk to look around.

Books, Movies, Families

2010-12-15T11:19:00.001-05:00

A few years ago I read an interesting piece that argued that seeing a movie based on a book that you love is a mistake. The visual experience of cinema is so strong that it will forever replace the images lodged in your head from the book. While I basically agree, putting this into practice is difficult for me because I love both books and movies and generally succumb to the temptation to see a beloved novel on screen.

The novel A River Runs Through It is a good example. It's one of my favorite books not just because of the fly fishing but because at its core it's about family and the pain of an older brother to a troubled sibling and the impotent feeling of being unable to help. I too have known that pain. Author Norman MacLean wrote, "... I knew there were others like me who had brothers they did not understand but wanted to help. We are probably those referred to as our brothers' keepers, possessed of one of the oldest and possibly one of the most futile and certainly one of the most haunting of instincts. It will not let us go." Reading those words gave me some comfort and understanding of one of the major events of my life- the early death of my younger brother Tom.

I enjoyed watching the movie made from A River Runs Through It when it first appeared nearly 20 years ago and watch it repeatedly when it shows up on TV, but a price I have paid is that the actors and scenes from the movie force their way into my thoughts when I try to recollect the pleasures of the original written words.

The subject of books and the power of movies came to mind because I recently read the sequel to Scott Turow's bestseller from 1987, Presumed Innocent. I found both novels entertaining but neither will be significant books in my life. When reading Innocent, the more recent, I came to the reintroduction of the character Sandy Stern from the first book, and my first reaction was, "How can this be? Sandy Stern died." Then I realized: No, the fictional Sandy Stern didn't die. The actor, Raul Julia who played the character in the movie based on the first book died.

Those powerful movie images can be overwhelming. They get into your soul. Maybe that's why the Amish don't like their pictures to be taken.

The Pond's Frozen

2010-12-11T14:08:00.002-05:00

Well over a hundred Canada Geese are visiting. These are definitely wilder birds than the semi-permanent ones we're used to seeing. They keep their distance from humans. There are a few gulls on the ice as well.

Prince Edward, a novel by Dennis McFarland

2010-12-07T12:25:00.001-05:00

The novel is named for a county in southside Virginia that is best known for closing its public schools from 1959 to 1964 in opposition to racial integration. Most of author Dennis McFarland’s book takes place in August, 1959 just prior to the public school closing and the establishment of a private school for the white students. Although the main characters are fictional, some of the minor characters were real and the place names, such as the town of Farmville, are also real.

The main character, Ben, is a 10 year old boy, and most of the action is told in the first person by him. At times, however, the point of view switches to Ben’s adult voice that fills in the history of what is transpiring round the boy and what is the outcome. The pace of the action is slow, very much in tune of the pace of a hot southern summer at that time.

The closing of the Prince Edward County schools was well covered in the news, and I was 12 at the time and remember it well. In addition, I have visited the county a few times, the first visit taking place in 1966 just two years after the schools reopened. I was there with a friend who had decided to follow his family tradition of attending Hampden Sidney College which is located in the county near where the main character’s family, the Romes, had their fictional farm. My second trip was during his freshman year when I drove down from Maryland for a party. During these trips I met a young couple who were known to my friend because the husband had been a friend of my friend’s older brother while they were students at Hampden Sidney. The young husband was a lawyer in Farmville and killed himself a few years later, I believe. It’s possible that he played a role in the legal matters surrounding the school closing, but I don’t know.

The novel’s main character’s family has little resemblance to the TV stereotype of the 1950’s such as Father Knows Best or on Ricky Nelson’s show. The Romes are chicken farmers, and the mother and father show little affection for each other or display any ability to communicate with their three children. The grandfather is a cruel self-centered man who lives in the big house nearby on the family property. Ben’s attachments are to his older brother and especially to his older sister and to his best friend, a black boy of Ben’s age whose family live as tenant farmers on the Rome family land.

The characters and the action of Prince Edward seem very real to me. Some of the events are unpleasant and may be classified by literary types as Southern Gothic or in the Faulkner mode. I wasn’t able to find out much about the author, Dennis McFarland except that he was born in the Deep South and, based on when he graduated from college, he would appear to be a few years younger than me. That would make him close to the age of his main character in 1959, and since I tend to believe that authors put some of themselves into their characters the vivid descriptions of rural and small town southern life are as he would have seen them at the time. I think I felt a foreshadowing of a future in literature for Ben when he responds to an older woman showing him an Emily Dickinson poem, one my favorites.

I'm going to look around for more of McFarland's books.

Season's Ending

2010-12-06T12:44:00.001-05:00

That's probably it for 2010 as I rarely get out fishing in December. It's possible if we have a warm spell, but I've already started to look ahead to the 2011 season and called Angler's in Annapolis about next year's licenses. I want to be legally ready to fish on January 1 because I remember about 10 years ago when New Year's Day was a mild day perfect for winter fishing, and no place was open to get a new license. Angler's doesn't have the new ones yet, so I'll check on line.

Along with looking ahead to 2011, I look back at 2010 with satisfaction. This past season began as they often do with late winter/early spring trout fishing. With April came the shad run up into the rivers like the Potomac, and although I got out and caught a few I'll plan to do it more often this coming year. As the weather warmed in later spring, I began concentrating on largemouth bass and bluegill which is fine, but I really should have taken more trout trips then as well. Summer for me means smallmouth bass, and there was good fishing on favorite waters and new waters as well.

One difference this year over past was the number of trips I took with other people. Two of the best were in late summer and early autumn on the Chesapeake for striped bass, or rockfish as we Marylanders call them. Two of these Bay trips were with professional guides as was the fall catfish tournament. The season ended as it began in pursuit of freshwater trout. Over the winter I'll remember about this year both the good company as well as the good fish.

Steve Martin

2010-11-30T14:03:00.001-05:00

I just finished reading his memoir, Born Standing Up- A Comic's Life, and I liked it a lot. It's only funny in few places because he's basically a serious man who's lived a not very happy life. That Steve Martin is not the wild and crazy guy we first encountered in the 1970's is generally well known, so if the book is not very funny nor does it contain many surprises, what, you may ask, is the appeal?

It's an honest book, for one thing. Martin came from what is now called a dis-functional family with a cold and distant father, but there is no "poor, poor, pitiful me" in his writing. Martin believes the lack of paternal approval probably contributed to his drive to succeed in show business despite many unsuccessful early years.

He also doesn't bemoan the sacrifice of privacy that fame brings and quotes an observation that celebrities want fame when it's useful and don't when it's not. He feels he's reached a happy medium on this subject: "At first I was not famous enough, then I was too famous, now I am famous just right." He devotes more space to his early girl friends than his later relationships and marriages. As well as being basically a private person, he may legitimately feel the earlier romantic couplings are easier to understand and put in perspective.

His devotes attention to his first film, The Jerk, and says he immediately loved the social aspect of movie making in contrast to the lonely process of being a stand-up comedian. He praises the director, Carl Reiner, who he says taught him more about being a social person than any other person in his life. He doesn't say much about his subsequent movies. Personally, I like the earlier ones like Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid and Pennies from Heaven and L.A. Story but have found his more recent movies to be mediocre. I suspect he had a lot of creative input to the earlier ones but since then has been a hired actor. He also doesn't discuss his growing career as a writer except to note that it was his play Picasso at the Lapin Agile that finally won him praise from his father. I went back and reread the introduction, and he does make it clear that the book's focus is on his career as a comedian. That accounts for the omissions about his later life, I guess.

One reason I like memoirs is that they are generally written by someone who has achieved some success who looks back on his life and presents what he feels is significant. With Steve Martin's, it may be notable what he chooses to leave out. I have heard that performers should leave the audience wishing for more, and with his economy of words and understated style, Martin achieves this with his memoir, at least for me.

What's the symbolism in boner pill ads?

2010-11-23T10:13:00.001-05:00

I keep seeing a commercial, for Cialis I think, where a couple seems to bump into each other while doing yard work. They lock eyes and get immediately hot.

Ok so far, but then it get surreal. Their house goes through a metamorphosis into a tent and the picket fence into a boardwalk leading to the woods. A campfire appears. The final shot is the same in all these commercials: The man and woman are outdoors in separate bathtubs.

I don't get it. Outdoor sex is great, but what's with the separate bathtubs? Yeah, the purpose of the product is to put lead in your pencil, but how does a house turning into a tent symbolize getting it on? And those outdoor bathtubs-who the hell sits in a tub outside?

Dry flies on Morgan Run

2010-11-22T17:48:00.000-05:00

Have felt the need to catch trout and three recent trips to the Middle Patuxent yielded none. Oh, I caught fish alright, bass, bluegill, fallfish, chubs, but no trout.

So today I headed north on Route 97 across the main branch of the Patuxent up through Howard County and across the Patapsco into Carroll County. When I got to the stream crossing on Klee Mill Road I noticed a surprisingly large number of cars in the parking lot, but my only concern was that my special pool, which I've christened "old reliable", would be occupied by another fisherman. No problem. It's too long a walk for most, and I after the first hundred yards walking along the stream I didn't see anyone.

As I threaded the four weight line into the rod I noticed two important things. The first was an annoying number of bugs crawling up my body onto the back of my neck. The second was rising fish. The two thing together added up to good news: There was a hatch of little black stone flies.

I sometimes think that given how long I've been doing it I should be a better trout fisherman, but I have learned a few things over the years. I know how to recognize this hatch and how to catch fish during it, so I tied on the appropriate floating fly and started casting. The action wasn't frantic but it was steady and included a handsome brown trout about sixteen inches. If we have another bad winter that fish will stay in my memory and help me through it.

Kayaking on Triadelphia Reservoir

2010-11-17T18:01:00.001-05:00

Since there probably won't be many more opportunities before winter settles in, I decided to spend this afternoon on this lake which is on the border between Montgomery and Howard counties in Maryland. Although the temperature was mild, about 60 degrees, it was very windy with gusts up to 30 mph. Since fly fishing from a kayak in that much wind is frustrating, I decided to leave the fishing tackle home.

I found a peaceful cove where I could eat lunch out of the wind and take some pictures.

The reservoir was created in 1943 by the construction of Brighton Dam on the Patuxent River. There had been a village of Triadelphia, Maryland which went back to the early 1800's. The town was abandoned following a flood in 1889, and the remaining buildings lie beneath the waters of the lake. Flooding towns commonly occurs when a reservoir is made, and the movie Deliverance contains actual scenes of this process and incorporates it into the plot.