Bits & Pieces

A collection of 137 short essays based on newspaper columns by Robert Flanagan. (Book I of IV)

Soft Cover with illustrations $10.00

Preview

Sometimes there were hiccups in the process. Some of his dogs were no-count, recidivists from other hunting venues, and capable of error. On the trail of a fox, Bess was known to tree a ’coon at times; and though that led to a busy few minutes when the ’coon was de-treed, it wasn’t the point of the exercise.

—from “Cam,” pg. 155

His (Kissinger’s) was not a unique blunder. Elected and appointed officials are commonly given carte blanche access to classified government information after the most cursory, abbreviated background investigation ... whether that official has any training in, or awareness of, protecting and handling classified material. Consequently, as a politician, and in ignorance, he too often shoots off his mouth in the wrong environment, compromising sensitive information.

—from “(In)sensitive Information,” pg. 56

My most surreal golfing experience, however, had occurred in the countryside just outside Saigon where, in 1964, I played a round with my First Sergeant, an avid golfer: considering his personality, I might say “rabid.” I only went once. Talk about hazards! Sniper fire on the back nine, and a frightening mix of booby traps across the course, lethal in traps and approaches.

—from “Shootin’ Golf,” pg. 102

I hunted turkeys only once in the Mississippi Delta, and it was a spooky experience. But it wasn’t from their flight dynamics. In that part of the world, I only knew turkeys as ground birds. You still could not find them, but they were on your level. And I never knew they could fly with distinction until I watched one here in the mountains climb for the top of a tall pine with all the grace of a sling-launched footlocker.

—from “Not Totally Ambivalent,” pg. 3