F&S

The July 2008 issue of Field & Stream mysteriously arrived in my mail box today. It has an address label with my name and address on it. The label also indicates that the subscription will run for another year. Odd, since I don't recall subscribing to it.

I'm not a very important person to most of the magazine's advertisers, since I do no hunting and can count the number of times I've been fishing on one hand and still have fingers left over for insulting gestures. I don't have anything against those activities, but I don't have any interest either. Still, I have to like a magazine whose cover promises: "Never Miss Again. How to hit your deer at any range."

It's a well-made magazine -- it's harder than it looks -- and I did find a review of various tents that might prove useful, since the "waterproof" tent we acquired three years ago now leaks every time it rains. Also, I enjoyed the last-page column, a story by one Bill Heavey about fishing on a couple of privately owned bass lakes in South Texas. He describes the wealth of one of his fellow fishermen, who in fact owns the lakes: "His line is unknown to me, but he apparently belongs to the small Dallas fraternity that God Himself calls upon when He is having cash-flow problems."