Storytelling and the intersection of “Myth” and “History” have been much on my mind of late. I place those loaded words in quotation marks because they are not as straightforward and easy to pin down as we might tend to think. Considering History, as Napoleon had it, “a set of lies that people have agreed upon” is too harsh, but it remains that … [Read more...]
Working The Trapline — April 2018
• How you know you married the right woman: Marilyn propositioned me with a suggestion for a romantic interlude for a predicted rainy weekend. Fire in the woodstove; Celtic music; “peasant food”; a Saturday night re-watch of Last of the Mohicans (which was a date movie when we got started in 1992). Yep. • Pascual Orozco is one of the … [Read more...]
A Relic Of The 18th Century
…Demonstrators should seek more effective and more lasting reform. They should demand a repeal of the Second Amendment. — Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens I have been naïve. My temperament has always bent toward seeking common ground — the Willie Nelson ethic of bringing the cowboys and the hippies together. … [Read more...]
The Dog’s Life Of A Frontier Partisan
By Lane Batot, Scout, Frontier Partisans, North Carolina Sector I It’s hard for me to know just where to begin on this subject — SO MANY potential discussions, including actual historical Frontier Dogs, beloved fictional Frontier Dogs (in both books and movies), what makes for an ideal Frontier Dog (and lots of various angles there!), and … [Read more...]
‘Trophy’
A lot of people love animals. A lot of people hate trophy hunting. I get it. I really do. For many people, the idea of paying thousands of dollars to kill a magnificent African animal, then pose beside it, is grotesque, immoral — sick even. It’s a completely understandable emotional response. It’s also wrong. Hunting is vital to the survival … [Read more...]
Lend A Pard A Hand…
We’ve all been there a time or two: The Blackfeet steal your horses and leave you afoot out on the starveling prairie; a hippo overturns your dugout and dumps your whole outfit to the bottom of the Zambezi River… Our pard Eccentric Cowboy has fallen upon some hard times and needs a hand. He ain’t asking for a handout though: He’s got trade goods … [Read more...]
Cowboys Of Kazakhstan
Mamas don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys Don’t let ’em pick guitars or drive them old trucks Make ’em be doctors and lawyers and such… It’s an international lament. From the outback of Nevada to the Argentine Pampas to Kazakhstan. I know at least one man who faced the freedom-vs.-having-a-pot-to-piss-in dilemma. It’s real. From … [Read more...]
Christmas On The Wild Frontier
Here’s wishing all of my Frontier Partisan comrades a Merry Christmas and a joyful Yuletide season. May you spend your holiday time richly with those you love; may you feast well; may you commune with the spirits of field and forest. Our mutual explorations of frontier lore and the right and manly life of the 21st Century Frontier Partisan bring … [Read more...]
Stuff That Works — Benchmade Outbounder
As far as I’m concerned, a man isn’t properly dressed if he’s not carrying a knife. For me, on most days, that means my old Benchmade 180 Outbounder on my belt. While I have a number of folding knives, which I am perfectly happy to carry, I prefer to carry a fixed blade knife in a sheath on a belt, the old-fashioned way. I am fortunate to live … [Read more...]
Stuff That Works — Bring Yer Vellies
Every Frontier Partisan’s closet should be home to at least one pair of desert boots. They’re classic masculine footwear — comfortable, practical and … somehow… timelessly stylish. “Desert Boot” is kind of a misnomer — the famous Clarks Desert Boot is really a Veldskoen. A what you say? A veldskoen. A “field shoe.” It’s Afrikaans. The veldskoen … [Read more...]
