A Sportsman's Life

My hunting and fishing pals are as maddening as I am

- Llib Heavey

MISERY LOVES COMPANY

MY OLDEST FRIENDS are self-centered whack jobs, shameless con artists, or six kinds of strange.

If we didn’t hunt and fish together, I sometimes wonder whether we’d be friends at all. Don’t get me wrong. I love these guys. It’s just that I can’t stand them much of the time. I was telling some guy at a party about how bent they all are when he said, “Well, they’re your friends. Don’t you have to wonder what that says about you?” Actually, I decided, I didn’t. I asked if he thought the Patriots would win the Super Bowl again this year.

The best thing about long-standing friendships is that you stop thinking about them. Neither of you need pretend to be other than what you are. You think aloud without worrying about hurting the other guy’s feelings because you’ve learned he has no feelings. He feels exactly the same about you. But you’ve each put up with the other for so long that the habit is hard to break.