In Ferro Veritas – Chapter the Fourth

| August 17, 2013

Welcome back dear reader, and may I introduce you to this fourth chapter of In Ferro Veritas! This summer in Nova Scotia has seen an extreme escalation in highway accidents and fatalities therefrom. Along with this has come a constantly fizzling, crackling background noise of daily close calls, and it is a rarity these days for […]

In Ferro Veritas – Chapter the Third

| July 21, 2013

Greetings gentle reader! If you’ve made it here to these latest musings without reading Chapter the First and Chapter the Second of this series, I respectfully suggest that you do that before proceeding. To the left is a photograph that I personally took last week, in the bedroom of an 82 year old woman who […]

In Ferro Veritas – Chapter the Second

| July 18, 2013

There is a component of the population that, due to professional obligations, may be called upon to step in harm’s way at any moment, but most of us go about our lives with no intention or desire to ever do so. Yet the risk exists now, as it always has, of finding yourself in a […]

In Ferro Veritas – Chapter the First

| July 13, 2013

“The more I’ve studied the application of fighting arts and delivering lethality, the more I came to eschew the posturings of “toughness” and implied violence. I always laugh at the old saying that you should never fight with an old man because if he’s too old to fight, he’ll just kill you. It carries a […]

The Thorn Defends the Rose

| July 2, 2013

Amid my growing assemblage of favourite quotations is this gem penned by an unknown source, and that found me decades ago: The thorn defends the rose, yet it is peaceful and does not seek conflict. Whoever can take the credit, be they alive or dead as I write this, they can rest assured that as […]

Jerry Fisk Seeks, “… a piece of metal, steel or iron, from something Southern and iconic ….”

| June 29, 2013

If you’re a regular reader here, you’ll know that two knives made for me by consummate Southern Gentleman, Master Bladesmith, and National living Treasure Jerry Fisk way back in the last century have been my trusty travelling companions for nearly twenty years. Well used but well cared for, in keeping with my philosophy that we […]

Worldly Wisdom Wednesday – Teachers

| June 26, 2013

When one sets forth to learn an Art, whatever that Art may be, one begins with an interest in it as well as some degree of presupposition about its nature. This presupposition will often differ to some degree from the Truth that reveals itself as training in the chosen Art progresses. A student who prefers […]

Wordly Wisdom Wednesday – It’s Not This Knows, It’s THIS Nose!

| June 12, 2013

As far as a Dog is concerned, every foray into the world outside the household door is a hunt to be engaged in as the nature of its breed dictates, and in this it will operate in the certainty that the handler is at one with the objectives of the mission. To fight this instead […]

The Deep Unknown

| May 26, 2013

Near the end of August back in 2010, I published a piece here titled Being in the Wild: The Original Control/Alt/Delete. While I make no pretense that my meagre efforts are on a par with those of the worthy Albert Bigelow Paine (10 July 1861 – 9 April 1937); friend, companion, and biographer of none […]

LFM on Teaching the Child to Swear Well

| May 17, 2013

Profanity is not a true language, in and of itself. Rather, like a seasoning, it must be infused into language to enhance the message. Wielded well, and with proper timing, it approaches the potency of punctuation in clarifying intention and exorcising ambiguity. I believe most current Parenting doctrine wrongly eschews the Communicative Art inherent in […]