Brook trout streams are among the prettiest places I know. They’re wild, elusive, fragile, mysterious. This one, somewhere in North Central Pennsylvania, is hidden away in a deep valley, so deep in places the stream cannot be seen from the dirt track above. To approach… Read More
I’m in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania fly fishing with my friend East Texas Red. We experienced some nasty weather last night – Tornado warnings. Today on our way to a stream we saw many downed trees. The water around here was very high making… Read More
Agnes Ravatn’s 2013 novel, The Bird Tribunal, is driven by the psychological tension between the two protagonists. It isn’t so much about what happens in the novel as it is about what the narrator fears could happen. TV presenter Allis Hagtorn leaves her partner and… Read More
Jack Savitsky was born in 1910. He lived in Pennsylvania where he began working in the coal mines at a young age. Both his parents were immigrants, his father from Russia and his mother from Poland. He was a miner for 35 years, until 1959.… Read More
We love to be surrounded by images in our day to day life. The late Ron Bloore once told me, “painting is thinking,” so you might say we love to live in an environment brimming with ideas. One of the things I like about painting… Read More
Here in Long Branch we’re fortunate to have a really fantastic barber shop called The Nite Owl. Brian Hurson and the gang at Nite Owl have been cutting my hair since I was hobbling about on crutches after breaking my ankle a couple years ago.… Read More
Here are Joe Newberry and Brad Leftwich performing Backstep Cindy. I was at this concert. This performance was at one of the two faculty concerts at the 2016 Midwest Banjo Camp. MBC is quite an event. Banjo freaks abound, along with various fiddle players, guitar… Read More
We enjoy regular visits from downy woodpeckers here at 27th Street.
The Dying Detective was written in Swedish and published in 2010. It was translated into English in 2016. This page-turner is quality Nordic crime writing with some underlying character-driven humour. The protagonist is an out-of-shape retired ace-detective who suffers a stroke just before devouring a… Read More
27th Street 