I have big hands. Though, as hands go, they are not particularly long. Not of the kind that reach beyond the wrist and threaten the forearm. Nor are they so wide that they swallow other hands, offered in friendly greetings or goodbyes, whole. What they are is thick. Heavy. Fleshy. My palms crease deep and black along their head and […]
Oh, Caledonia
Hc Svnt Tarpon
They were intended to be warnings. Rendered out of myth, legend, and tales of peril faced by those lucky enough to return from doomed voyages, illustrations of great monsters of the sea and beasts of the land were lent to maps and atlases to instill a sense of foreboding in those who looked upon the portraits of those places charted […]
Fear and Loathing in Flamingo
Their time had grown short. One hour. Two at most. Shadows had beset them. He craned his neck and peered up at the sky. Limpid blue and full of astringent afternoon light. He shielded his eyes against it. Hung near the meridian of its descent the sun was bleached with starry white and free of the burnt orange tarnish wrought […]
Pandalus Borealis
In those deep wells of time that exist between the seasons, anglers dream and pine and design with every breath as they await the return of things. Tarpon in the spring. Giant redfish in the winter. Snook in the summer. Whatever the quarry, the desire is the same. An all-consuming feeling that seems as though it will kill you if […]
The Psychopomp and the Angler
Ferrying deceased fish, glistening effigies to a former prowess, onto to their final resting places is my profession. I do not dispense the deathblows, as I am but a humble butcher. I lay no judgement upon the fish beyond that which dictates the preparation of their flesh. I move them quickly and freshly onward through the afterlife, and no second […]
7 Girls, 1 Cook
Recently I was informed by my better half that we would be hosting six of her childhood girlfriends at our apartment in a slightly belated celebration of her friend Amanda’s 30th birthday. No small occasion to say the least, I was excited to have them as guests as it afforded me two excellent opportunities. The first being a chance to […]
Games of Chance. Games of Sport.
Some time ago, and with varying degrees of reluctance, I gave up the luxury of “let’s go fishing”. Capitalizing on bluebird days, nonexistent wind, perfect tides, a hot bite, or even being within 800 miles of a redfish with little or no notice is a thing of my past and currently an impossibility. Now my fishing days are few and […]
Fire!
Six years ago I left south Florida, where my angling heart will forever lie, for New York City. I took a job with one of the preeminent seafood wholesalers in NYC, to run their twenty-five seat oyster bar and grill in Murray Hill, feeling at the time that if I was no longer able to launch odd and colorfully adorned, […]