James Egan
Latest Articles:
Dogs and Pedagogues
James Egan | May 20, 2022
In the skinning of a deer, there is no need to take the cape with the hide. The cape refers to the skin and fur of the head and neck. In fowl and poultry, it refers to the shoulder feathers. For big bucks, memorable bucks of remarkable heft or antler mass which are to be mounted and hung on the... READ MORE >
A Cast Back Into Fly Fishing History
James Egan | May 13, 2022
Histories evolve. Rather, the stories of histories evolve. Suppose I told you that Carlton Fisk’s home run in the bottom of the 11th in the ‘75 World Series came in Game 7, and the Sox were the champions, hallelujah. Next, you come back and say, “Hey, what the hell? It was Game 6, and the Reds went on to beat... READ MORE >
The Whispering Gets Confused at Night
James Egan | April 29, 2022
In the late evenings after happy hour and some solids in my gut I would walk through downtown back to the house where I rented a room. They were a very hard-working people and very family oriented, and the downtown – and the countryside too – got quiet quite early. The downtown was generally well-lighted, and everywhere, even in the... READ MORE >
The power of prediction
James Egan | April 22, 2022
Vin Scully once said, “Statistics are to baseball what lampposts are to a drunk: they provide support, but not always illumination.” I’m not a statistician. I’m not a scientist. G.H. Ruth was no scientist either. But for one legendary moment he wielded one of the greatest powers of science. Therefore, of humankind. Go back to 1932, and the World Series.... READ MORE >
A painter’s tale
James Egan | April 08, 2022
It was spring outside today and I wrote a story in memory of the Ukrainian and Russian masters of old. Once upon a time there lived a painter. There are different sorts of painter, and in different times in his life he was each. When he was a younger man, in the first half of his career, he was an... READ MORE >
What it is to walk. Now we walk
James Egan | April 01, 2022
Did you know that the red fox can hide his tracks and numbers – like the bantha of Tatooine – by stepping in his own prints? He “ambles” and his hind paws land inside the print of the fore paws. And when he comes around again in a couple days he places his paws in the exact same previous prints.... READ MORE >
Learning the language of the forest animals
James Egan | March 18, 2022
I was in the woods today and did a bit of philosophizing. I guess that’s a big word for thinking. But it’s bigger than thinking to me. Consider philosophizing to be formal thinking about concepts. We say that a sign – a stop sign or a peace sign or a “sign of the times” (greasers in the 50s v. hippies... READ MORE >
Alone and afraid in the big woods
James Egan | March 11, 2022
Have you ever, in any season, been deep in the woods in the gloaming? In the blurred time midway between sunset and the dark, and closer to the latter? In the early, cold, snowbound Springs in the gloaming, when everything is a shade of gray, a tone of blue, the snow freezing again? In the day with a south wind,... READ MORE >
A confession of things left undone
James Egan | February 25, 2022
Ol’ JD wrote it once. It must’ve been Teddy or Franny or Zooey or Seymour. I could never keep them straight. He wrote, “The thing to listen for, every time, with a public confessor, is what he’s not confessing to.» From my resting position here inside the shack, neither birdfeeder is visible. That’s a darn design flaw on somebody’s part.... READ MORE >
Lessons learned from the trap line
James Egan | February 18, 2022
As I said, up in the red pine plantation when I was very young and just beginning, I used snares made out of picture-hanging wire. That came quite easy to me, and the dying came quite easy to the cottontails, with no blood, and the harder they pulled the tighter the snare cinched. The hardest part for me was uncinching... READ MORE >