John Juracek - fly fishing photography

It's not just the fishing.  It's the beauty of the places where you fish.  John Juracek, whose photography is described as "minimalist" captures the essence, as in this photo of Yellowstone, near his home in West Yellowstone Montana .

Glory Days - Bruce Springsteen in the early days

Now that is a fish

Chip Korahais, Esq. with a 42.5 lb Cobia caught outside Jupiter Inlet, Florida.
Very kind of him to let his niece Elizabeth hold it.
Chip is my kind of guy: eat what you catch.

Swimming with the crocodiles? Anderson Cooper - 60 Minutes

I've heard of swimming with the sharks but Anderson Cooper swims with the crocs.

Remembering Grace -- a boat bought for memories

It was always something with Grace.  I sold her today.  There was a lot of towing.  Occasionally she did the towing.  More often...

Friendship Town Wharf `do's and don'ts'

After years of shame, the sign has been corrected,

spelling Friendship`i before e', not as in neighbor and weigh!

Q. Why does the dolphin like the East River?

"As of noon, the dolphin would swim in one direction for a couple of minutes, then turn around and swim back, remaining in the area roughly bounded by the East 90s of Manhattan, Randalls Island and the end of Astoria Boulevard in Queens."  NY Times

A.  For the same reason the striped bass do!  Eels. - gwc

same spot

Aboard the Beijing-Shanghai Bullet Train - James Fallows - The Atlantic

Looking forward to my ride from Shanghai to Beijing.
Aboard the Beijing-Shanghai Bullet Train - James Fallows - The Atlantic:


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Dad's 93rd!

In Mom & Dad's backyard in Santa Barbara for his 93rd birthday

My Dad - Lt. George W. Conk, Jr..  Born March 5, 1920 and still going strong

Morning surf report - Ventura, California

As wind builds and snow swirls here in New York my sister Nancy sends me the morning surf report in Ventura, California where she suffers.

Lobster Limits Show Short-Term Thinking - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com

Catch limits down to 1 pound allow lobsters that have not had a chance to reproduce to be taken, a scientist warns. - gwc
Lobster Limits Show Short-Term Thinking - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com:
by Diane Cowan, Lobster Conservancy Senior Scientist

Large lobsters are becoming increasingly rare, and they are critical to long-term sustainability because they have proven survival skills, high reproductive output and a propensity for large-scale movements. Surviving to sizes exceeding 1.5 pounds means that the lobster has lived for more than a decade, escaped predation, shown resistance to disease and weathered various climatological conditions. Large lobsters have higher reproductive output because they carry larger embryos that grow into larger larvae, and they produce larger eggs and are able to protect them. Furthermore, movements of big lobsters make them more likely to be in the “right place” to avoid adverse conditions, including unfavorably warm waters; better able to reseed areas where stocks have been depleted; and better suited to maintaining a strong gene pool.

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Give Big Fish a Chance: Partition the Sea - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com

1939 New York Mayor LaGuardia with a 300 lb halibut

Give Big Fish a Chance: Partition the Sea - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com: 
by Callum Roberts, University of York

Almost 400 years ago, Captain John Smith, the founder of the Jamestown colony, wrote dramatically about the wonderful fishing off the coast of Virginia, in particular the "large-sized fish called Hallibut":
"Some are taken so big that two men have much a doe to hall them into the boate; but there is such plenty, that the fisher men onely eate the heads & fines, and throw away the bodies."
Such a catch would not happen today, because most giant fish are long gone.

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Two tragic deaths in Brooklyn

Raizy and Nathan Glauber on their wedding day
photos - NY Times

The reports of the tragic deaths of Raizy and Nathan Glauber a young "ultra orthodox" couple whose unborn boy survived the collision on Kent Avenue in Brooklyn reminded me of my school days there. We passed each other without acknowledgement every day on Nostrand Avenue - Satmar Jewish boys with long dangling curls and yarmulkes.  

We were from different tribes - the Catholic school boys at Brooklyn Prep on Carroll Street and the Jewish boys who went to the kosher butcher and baker and grocer.  It was a mixed neighborhood of the kind remembered by Pete Hamill in Snow in August.  Mike Devlin, an altar boy, becomes  a shabbos goy - helping a white bearded rabbi on the sabbath.  He befriends the boy for whom  a chance to make a little money becomes a chance to learn about a world he would otherwise never have glimpsed, passing anonymously on the streets as we did in Crown Heights, Catholic and Jewish boys.- gwc

the funeral

On the boardwalk with James - Pelham Bay Park - The Bronx

Hunter Island looking east to David Island
click pix to enlarge and for slideshow

James running on the boardwalk - Hunter Island meadow

glacial morain - the Bronx

Pelham Bay looking toward Throgs Neck Bridge