Author Archives: kihm
Accidental Self Destruction
War is a dangerous pastime, and the enemy is not the only hazard. This was brought home to me recently when I was researching four young men from my village who died in the war in Vietnam. One was just 19 years old, and the news reports said he was killed in action while on […]
The Origin of Dirk Wagstaff
As a writer I’ve only used two pseudonyms: “Evan Nescent” back in the ‘70s and more recently, “Dirk Wagstaff,” which came into being after the collision of two movie memories. Fans of the Marx Brothers will recall that Professor Wagstaff was Groucho’s character in Horse Feathers. Groucho had many wonderful names: Wolf J. Flywheel in […]
On a Painting that Might Be R.G. Shaw II
The following story is repeated, with the photo above, many times on the Internet: “Artist R.G. Harper Pennington in one of his paintings depicted a nude Robert Gould Shaw II as the character ‘Little Billee’ from the bohemian novel Trilby by George du Maurier. This painting hung in the bedroom of Henry Symes Lehr, the […]
Black Heart Stout
There are people who will tell you that a Liberal Arts degree, in the possession of an English major, is one of the most worthless pieces of paper in general circulation. But as I possess one such scrap of parchment, I am not one of those who will speak disparagingly of it. And this is […]
Pig Sticking
I was reading about polo in India and the role played by the British military in bringing polo from India to England, and thence to the United States, when I came across another British sport in India that involved a spear rather than a mallet, and an enraged boar rather than a ball. Pig sticking […]
Tea Island
Tea Island photographed by Seneca Ray Stoddard, circa 1880 I love Lake George, islands and tea, so it was inevitable that I write something about Tea Island. The southernmost island in the lake, it has agreeably posed for many photographers. One of the best known is Seneca Ray Stoddard, who in his Lake George; A […]
Cheese: From Sandy Creek to the White House
On occasion, one experiences a confluence of comments on the same subject that amounts to a sign, a call to action. And so it was last week when Shannon and Marcia both mentioned cheese. Shannon turned my attention to a list of legendary parties that included President Andrew Jackson’s Cheese Party at the White House. […]
Watching Golf
My wife thinks I have gone around the bend because I have begun watching golf on television. I have never played golf, unless you count courses with a windmill hole. But I enjoy watching, and I have a regimen that I find very fulfilling. First, I place a pint of excellent beer within my reach. […]
My Aunt Mary Meets Big Bertha
Big Bertha I didn’t know my Aunt Mary. She was my grandfather’s sister, and he never said a word about her. But I do know that in May of 1916 she helped out at a 10-day bazaar raising money for the widows and orphans of German soldiers who had fallen in battle in the Great […]
The Bears’ Den
One of my favorite parts of the Pittsburgh Zoo is a shadowy doorway between the bear pits, with an inscription showing the dates for their start and completion, 1936-1937, and crediting the Works Progress Administration. I’ve read that this exhibit was the first effort at the zoo to do more than cage the animals, to […]
Faithful Readers 