Category: Other Things

An Open Letter to the American Field

February 12, 2021 | Other Things | Comments
As a long time lover of bird dogs and the field trial sport, I wish the American Field Publishing Company only success. And with that success in mind, I urge it to make available to subscribers (perhaps as a premium subscription to give it additional revenue) online access to one of its treasures: the annual records of all field trial results sanctioned by it printed in the back of Field Trial Stud Books from 1901 through 1948. Read more

1961 to 2021: Reflections on Sixty Years as a T & E Lawyer

February 9, 2021 | Other Things | Comments
On May 1, 2021, I will celebrate sixty years as a practicing T & E (Trusts & Estates) lawyer. Here are some thoughts at this milestone. First: my good luck, so much of it. I grew up on a small sheep and beef farm in Virginia’s mountains. My father died when I was fifteen, leaving my mother and me to carry on with the farm. (His federal estate tax return revealed an adjusted gross estate (net worth) of $29, 946.28). Read more

Hope for Quail in Virginia

September 22, 2020 | Bobwhite Quail, Other Things | Comments
As a dedicated quail hunter in Virginia from the 1960s through the 1990s, I have since been in mourning for the bird. Wild quail seem to have virtually disappeared from the Old Dominion. But there may be hope for the noble species, at least in the coastal plain, thanks to joint efforts of the Nature Conservancy, the Virginia Department of Forestry and the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. Read more

An Open Letter to the American Field Publishing Company

June 29, 2020 | Other Things | Comments
Dear American Field management and ownership: I have been a loyal subscriber and contributor for six decades. I understand and appreciate the economic reasons for your leavIng behind the world of print media. I write to urge you to pursue excellence in the world of internet publishing. I will gladly pay for on-line access to your priceless records of the pointing dog world going back to 1874, and I believe others will also. Please do not let your (and our) heritage slip away. Read more

How I Came to Write About Bird Dogs

May 18, 2020 | Donald McCaig, Other Things | Comments
I came by a love of stories, written and oral, by inheritance. My father and his father loved them too, and from an early age turned me to reading stories. They were both fans of O. Henry, Jack London and James Thurber, among others. My father liked particularly light verse, especially that of Ogden Nash, which appeared regularly in The New Yorker Magazine Read more

Gunny

September 4, 2019 | Bird Dogs, Remembrances | Comments
Ask a professional trainer-handler of pointing dogs to name his best dog ever and you will likely get an ambiguous or evasive answer. Not so from Jim Heckert, who broke into the pro ranks long ago and has been at it ever since while also managing quail shooting plantations, including Wire Grass at Albany, Georgia for Thomas Vail of Cleveland Plain Dealer fame and currently Cedar Grove Plantation at Clarksville, Virginia for my friend Will Pannill. Read more