Saturday, July 08, 2006

Looking for Nick Adams


I’m out of here tomorrow and will not be online much for the next ten days, heading into the UP (for non-Michiganders, that’s the Upper Peninsula). I’ll spend next week with a group of students helping them behave while building a house for a needy family all while swatting mosquitoes and black flies. Then, next Saturday, I’ll take off to see if I can locate Nick Adams as I join up with a few “older” friends and we float and fish the Fox and Two-hearted Rivers. Hemingway’s inspiration for his classic short-story, “The Big Two-Hearted River,” came from a fishing expedition he and some friends took to the Fox River shortly after the Great War. It’s supposed to be a great trout stream. Last summer, I paddled the lower portion of the “Two-hearted,” but didn’t do any fishing. This summer, we’ll spend two days on the river, paddling the entire stretch that can be navigated. Supposedly, Hemingway liked the name "Two-Hearted" better than "Fox," hence the name of the story. But some suggest that the reason was because he wanted to "hide" a favorite trout stream, but that's probably not the case since for all we know, Hemingway only fished the Fox once.

I’m not sure how often I’ll be able to get online. I may get a chance to post next week, but once I head to the river, the computer will stay packed up and I’ll be limited to my notebook and a pen. I'll check back in with everyone when I get back home. Stay cool!

Nevada Jack, reporting on the absurd: Of course, Sage could forego actual canoeing and fishing, avoiding sunburns, sore muscles and unpleasant encounters with bugs, by staying at home and going on a virtual canoe trip catching virtual fish with only a risk of encountering a not so virtual case of carpal tunnel syndrome. Did you catch this story on virtual hunting? Some people have just too much time on their hands or too large of wallets (or too much credit). Now, on an entrepreneurial level, maybe a good way to recycle old computer screens is to use them in the mounting of the head of these animals that have been tracked down and killed over the internet. Instead of having an antelope head mounted on a wall, you could have it coming out of a computer screen. Can you imagine that sitting on a living room table? Surely it would become a conversation piece. However, I'll forgo any profits that I might have made and hope other states join Louisiana in outlawing internet hunting.

15 comments:

  1. Have a GREAT time in the UP. I spent a couple of weeks in Gladstone, and it was great. Bizarre, but great. Everyone is so blond there. All those viking bloodlines or something. The accents alone were worth the price of admission. It was like being in Prarie Home Companion.

    Here from Michele

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  2. dayum! we are needy... come build us a house.. thats on my wish list too after the reference ;)

    have a great time. what a wonderful thing to do. and tell us all about it when you get back ok?
    here via micheles but i woulda come anyway!

    ooh my word veri. is byeme :)
    so bye me!

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  3. Enjoy your trip and tell us the stories when you come back. :)

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  4. more fun to do it in reality than the virtual...have fun and take pics!

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  5. safe travels! I will look forward to your tales of your "Days on the Fox"

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  6. As long as you take your journals and a pen, that is all that really matters. The stories will come with time. I like to let my journals mellow a little bit for the stories always seem a bit sweeter with time. Which reminds me, someday I need to dig out my England journals and see if the stories there are ripe for the telling. Have a good trip.

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  7. Nevada Jack - I can't believe how terribly exciting that article on virtual hunting sounded. Whoever wrote that article should be shot. Coincidently, I think virtual hunting will last until the first human gets shot by some armchair hunter thinking it was all some game and then it will be banned. George will probably want a constitutional amendment against virtual hunting.

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  8. have a great time in the UP! it's awesome up there!!

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  9. Yeah, have a wonderful time riding the rapids (are there rapids?) and fishing. Umm, how about some pictures? Hah, s'kay, just wanted to pull your chain.

    Seriously, have a great time Sage and we all can't wait for the posts.

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  10. Wow! You're a good guy huh? That is a nice thing to do. Hope you are enjoying your trip.

    I love Hemmingway...one of my favorites if not the favorite but I have never read that!

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  12. Well, depending on where you are going to be in the Upper Peninsula, the snow should have been gone for at least 3 or 4 weeks. Blessings, and peace, Kevin.

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  13. Okay, believe it or not, I had an easier time connecting to the internet in Honduras than up in the UP...

    A few comments: Yes, there are Finns here, along with a lot of other folks from Sweeden... must be a similar climate. There were also Cornish here (they moved as the mining played out), but left behind the Cornish pastries that Murf was speaking off.

    Keda, building a house in Turkey sounds wonderful--can you get an ocean front lot and put us all up?

    Ed, George is just afraid "Dead- eye Dick" might accidentally shoot another hunter while virtual stalking the big game.

    V, we won't be in any real rapids--just some fast water--it's mainly a fishing adventure.

    Deana, you'll have to read "The Big Two-hearted River" if you like trout fishing! It's a short story that you can find in any of Hemingway collections.

    Kevin, yeah the snow is gone--and the water has bred mosquitoes, but they're not bad this year as it's been dry.

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  14. ooh pasties... sigh.. i miss home.

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