The recent post on the Bowie Knife neglected to mention that Jim and Rezin Bowie were gator hunters. They would have been proud to nail down this beast:
A group of Mississippi hunters have broken the state record for the longest alligator ever captured in the state with a 14-foot-3-inch reptile weighing just over 800 pounds.
Hunters Tanner White, Don Woods, Will Thomas and Joey Clark of Red Antler Processing, a game processing and hunting store, worked together to nab the huge gator, according to an August 26 Facebook post from the company.
The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks confirmed in a social media post the 14-footer had broken the state record for “longest alligator harvested.”
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Netflix is dropping a new doc on espionage on November 8. The footage alone looks spectacular, and I am particularly interested in the chapter on Tora Bora and the failed attempted to get Osama bin Laden at the outset of the GWOT.
Looks like they’re going to delve into the ride into battle on horseback… Cue the Corb Lund…
Today I ride with Special Forces
On those wily Afghan horses
Dostum’s Northern Alliance give their thanks
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I am currently engaged with Jonathan Maberry’s Pine Deep Trilogy, horror stories set in Pennsylvania. It struck me that Pennsylvania is a a great setting for horror, because it’s got an exceptionally dark history. The bloodiest battle of the American Civil War was fought on its bucolic farmland, and the forests of the backcountry saw decades of terror from the French and Indian War through the American Revolution.
Matthew says
The killing of that Alligator is kind of mythic. Like St. George killing a dragon. Or Conan killing the monster that is a relic from a past age. Which is what an alligator is. They were around in the same time period as the dinosaurs. And symbolically they could be considered dragons.
Greg Marshall says
In the spy genre: “Ghosts of Beirut” on Paramount*. Created by Lior Raz, Avi Issacharoff (Fauda, although Raz is not in the cast) and Greg Barker (Hunt for Bin Laden)
Fictional story based on deep research, it says, on the pursuit of the guy behind the Beirut bombings among other atrocities.
If the Syria/Lebanon border counts as a Frontier?
JimC says
Yes! Very well done. Muganiyeh fascinates me. Exceedingly deadly enemy.
Quixotic Mainer says
Love that bowie! That’s art and a secondary/tertiary weapon all at once. I had promised myself a live big blade when I hit a milestone in my FMA studies, and had a d guard bowie/bolo hybrid made up by some fine folks in Nepal. They market it as a “dragon tooth”, which is a good name for it.
I saw quite a few gators while fishing in South Carolina this spring. They were mostly large dog sized however, and more of a novelty than a threat like Midwestern Smaug up there.
JimC says
Now THAT is how a weapon should be named. A hint of the fantastical is in order.
Padre says
Having grown up there, I can verify your assertion that there’s a lot of weird and bloody history in Pennsylvania. And this is completely anecdotal evidence from a sample size of one clergyman, but when I ministered there it was not uncommon to be approached by people who would see me in my clerical collar and begin relating some encounter with the supernatural. These stories usually started with, “You’re probably going to think I’m crazy but…” or “I’ve never mentioned this to anyone but…”. Many of the stories were of strange goings on in their homes or sightings of people who were 100-300 years out of place. These conversations rarely happened in other places I’ve lived, and never here in Alaska. And they always came from folks who seemed very well grounded and not given to flights of fancy.
The seminary I attended is in a town on the site of the old Indian town of Logstown, just a short float down the Ohio from Fort Pitt. And my house I rented was across the street from the old Harmonite cemetery where members of that early 19th century apocalyptic sect were buried in unmarked graves. On a crisp autumn evening when the fog rose up from the Ohio it was…atmospheric.
I started watching some of Brady Crytzer’s stuff you shared, and it is fascinating. I’ll be picking up his Whiskey Rebellion book and maybe the one on Gayasuta. And it sounds like his Buffalo Plaid series will land in the X-ring of my interests and style as well.
JimC says
This is wonderful. Thank you.
Morgan says
In north western PA where I live, the Iroquois exterminated the Erie Indians leaving it a buffer zone with the Shawnee. Gen. “Mad” Anthony Wayne died in Erie. His body was boiled down and the soft parts interred here. His bones were put in a wagon to be buried at his birth place in the East. Some of the bones were lost in the trip and the story is his ghost searches the back roads for his bones.
JimC says
Oh, man — love that.
Ugly Hombre says
I was picked up by one of the China Town teachers at Manila international- he was a man with permission to teach three systems maybe more. A good man a kind man a fierce fighter. I noticed he had a inch and a half fang capped in gold on a bhat chain around his neck. Tea time talk on the way to Ongpin. Then-
“What’s that on your neck Sifu?”
“Crocodile tooth”
“Damn- must have been a helluva big one- why?”
https://www.purrfactanimals.com/2020/04/largest-crocodile-in-world-lolong-of.html
A strange look then- “Protect against sorcery”.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CwrTPxOFuLY/XqRkpcmrA2I/AAAAAAAAFQw/mkmbZFJu19kAR8LwCriG0xmeFXlm5hrbACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Saltwater%2Bcrocodile.jpg
Never pursued it to find out the details and never found a Alligator fang for my own neck. But I never forgot it- my mind is a storehouse of strange stuff. lol.
JimC says
True for us all. Great story. And it apparently worked, right?
Ugly Hombre says
Yes, I think it worked. But there is no talisman for time- that was almost a half century ago. He has left us now. He was a great guy and really missed by all who knew him. About two of the old batch are still active back there I think.
https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/14748811952.jpg
I was never was good at it. was only there a short time, but no matter, I got a lot of benefit from it. Fun, useful and interesting used it to rehab myself over and over damn glad to have it. Don’t practice hard now long in the tooth, I have been reduced to Fo Gu Tai Chi for health.
“Forrest Gump” Tai Chi Chuan
lol
There is a book- “Chinese Boxing Masters And Methods” By Robert W. Smith filled with short Bio’s of old Kung Fu masters. Fun read chock full of strange info it gives a idea of the feel of practicing in Asia in the old days.
Might enjoy it- Smith was CIA in Taiwan in the 50’s. Quite interesting book. !
lane batot says
Fourteen feet long is a big gator! The record for all time length-wise, that has stood for years, is nineteen feet–it was killed in Louisiana, if I’m remembering right. Since gators have made such a great comeback(the whipper-snappers out there may find it hard to believe they were once considered an endangered species, and gator poaching was a big deal–remember that fun song “Amos Moses”? Ha!), and as there are protected areas where no hunting is allowed, some big ones are surviving to ripe old ages, and making a comeback. I helped care for a 10-foot, 500 pounder for many years, and that was impressively big enough! Of course Nile crocodiles, and c Salt Water crocodiles, can get much bigger…….