![Tailfeathers](https://cdn.magzter.com/1409082599/1663951110/articles/Jb83micc01665042602411/TAILFEATHERS.jpg)
One night after Christmas break many years ago, heading for New York City where I’d catch the connecting flight returning me to college in Rhode Island, my plane got stuck in a holding pattern. For the better part of an hour, it traced wide circles around JFK Airport. Nothing much to do except plug in the stethoscope-like earphones the airline had provided and click the dial in the armrest in hopes of finding some decent music.
For some reason, my finger paused on the music channel playing Peggy Lee’s Is That All There Is?” a song so depressing yet mesmerizing that I just sat there listening and expecting the plane to crash.
Well, it didn’t, but that song had seared itself into my mental playlist, an earworm before that term existed. In time, it faded, only to be replaced and trumped 10 times over by Alone Again Naturally)” by Gilbert O’ Sullivan.
Well, that was unpleasant. I would normally write, That sucked,” but seeing as how my wonderful wife Maureen double-checks my writing and how she frowns on my use of indelicate language, I took the high road there.)
And occasional glimpses of sunlight and hope aside, that’s how I spent my 20s, clenched in the grips of sad songs, saddled with the personality of Eeyore and hounded by the Irish fatalism surging through my veins.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der Winter 2022-Ausgabe von The Upland Almanac.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der Winter 2022-Ausgabe von The Upland Almanac.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
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Luigi Franchi Imperial Monte Carlo Extra: One of Italy's "Best" SxS Doubles
As on London’s gun-maker’s row, Italians had skilled craftsmen who made “Best” guns of superb quality
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An Upland Bird Hunter's Equipment in Need and Equipment Indeed...
From the first year I discovered upland bird hunting in my early teens, my search for the right clothing and equipment began in earnest. All you need to see to support this reality is to look at all the upland clothing and equipment I have stored from ceiling to floor in my garage and sportsman’s closet downstairs
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Day's End - Making memories
Has there ever been a bird dog man or woman with a soul so dead that he or she has not been re-energized by the first cool days of September, by the first forecast of frost, by noting the opening days marked on the calendar so many months before?
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A SIMPLE PLEASURE: THE HUNT LUNCH
In William Harnden Foster’s classic book, New England Grouse Shooting (1942), for which he wrote the text and provided numerous black-and-white sketches, he includes a wide-ranging catch-all chapter called “Grouse Shooting Outfits
![PACKING for Success](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/7434/1351870/l4XBowtsD1690520861758/PACKING-FOR-SUCCESS.jpg)
PACKING for Success
I spend a lot of time these days chasing game birds. But it hasn’t always been this way
![Shooting FAST and SLOW](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/7434/1351870/gjwqXIrYF1690520647592/SHOOTING-FAST-AND-SLOW.jpg)
Shooting FAST and SLOW
Scientists have recently discovered that human brains operate in two settings – a fast, reactionary “fight or flight” mode (System 1) and a slow, considered, contemplative mode (System 2)
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Private Lands, Public Access
“Just what lies behind that fence?”
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Early Season - GREATER PRAIRIE CHICKEN HUNTING
Greater prairie chickens are tailor-made for early fall gunning. Young birds hatch early enough to be nearly full-grown by September, offering lots of potential targets in good habitat
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QUAIL Struggle to Survive a Multitude of KILLERS
By some estimates, the wild bobwhite population in the U.S. has declined 70 to 80% since the 1960s
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Journeys Shared: A Worcester Letter
Hi Bob, Just finished the sensational roller coaster “memoir-style” essays of man and bird dog(s) that you and Dave Smith assembled and put into print