Merry Christmas from Alex Taylor's Outdoors

A couple years after the final Alex Taylor's Crime Stories ran, he found himself still a frequent contributor to the Gainesville Times, although writing about a topic he holds a bit more deer.. er.. dear than crime. Dad has always been an avid outdoorsman, particularly known for hosting countless hunting expeditions to lesser-known and remote ranches out west. Montana to South Texas, waist-deep in frigid powder or blistering on a hilltop boulder with rattlers underfoot. Camping via horseback trails and days-long hikes. He became so well-known for it, Ed Dodd or comic strip Mark Trail fame regularly consulted for source material. More to that story, but I simply need to relay that Dad hunted... a lot. Let's just say, we were one of those households with the extra deep freezer always packed with venison, which was Dad's favorite currency. If you ever did him a favor, chances are you received a couple frozen white wax paper bundles 'o meat whether you wanted them or not. Anyway, one anecdote of many. I have a few of Dad's outdoor articles and I will publish them from time to time. Today's is sort of a repeat that first appeared in December 1987's Crime Stories.

Last appearing in the Gainesville Times December 24, 1992 (with updated photo!), we revisit the Christmas story of Old Joe and the homesick bloodhound that almost sent him to prison.

Alex Taylor Says Goodbye with a Movie

And now his last…

Many of us go about our lives in east coast Martrix fashion—heads down, tapping away at keyboards, biding our time until hopefully some ritual fun interludes. Rarer still comes the time of high adventure—a big trip somewhere exotic or an activity that lands way outside one’s comfort zone. I suppose that’s why so many of us gravitate to action and adventure movies as a temporary escape. They take us places we would never see and provide the only proven method of time travel. For my father, his preferred setting is the Old West. The bottoms of his soles have touched the dirt of so many western novel and movie locations, I cannot possibly begin to list them all. Perhaps this wanderlust of his germinated from the traits of his favorite author Louis L’Amour, who insisted on visiting and took detailed notes for each potential setting. This was long before the days of Google Earth, Wikipedia, and YouTube, so this was indeed important. Still is. Could you imagine Robert Ludlum never dining at a Zürich lakeside café? Point being, Dad never wasted a travel opportunity; it kept father time away similar perhaps to Baron Munchausen’s fable. And, being as learned as Dad is with the west of olde, it is a pleasant surprise when he heaps praise on a Hollywood western as “mostly accurate”. I tend to think he was particularly fond of Robert Duvall's card cuttin'.

Last published in the Gainesville Times, February 14, 1990, Prof. Alex Taylor provides his take on what has become a much-loved and awarded classic. 

More follows the column.
  

 

How good is Lonesome Dove? Oh my... see for yourself!
Never saw it? Lordy, Lordy... The miniseries is currently available for streaming on Starz.

On a sad note, Alex's long-time huntin' buddy and family friend Fred Shope passed away this past July, aged 90. He sold his automotive service business and indeed retired just a few years after the column published. Much huntin', fishin' and 'advisin' ensued.

Okay, confession time. I lied. Sort of...
Alex Taylor's Crime Stories actually makes one more appearance in the Gainesville Times shortly before Christmas 1992. I thought it might make a fitting resolution to end his republication in similar fashion.

About Alex's referenced books? Funny thing—life and its distractions. I can talk about this because of all the delays with Dust's sequel WHICH I AM WORKING ON! Sorry... had to vent. News Flash—I'm near the end. R e g a r d l e s s, Dad's books were never completed. No real excuses, just a function of life and time. I can attest that they were in fact being drafted. Crime, of course. If or when I get time, it's my plan to coax the old man into completing at least one of them, or at least nailing a sketch. We'll see...

Catch y'all next week!

The Big Men

Welcome Back!
And now the last couple Alex Taylor Crime Stories...

That's John Jacob Astor on the left. You'll read about him and other derided magnates shortly. Will it feel as jealousy when a wildly successful person comes to greater power and influence? Haves vs the Have-Nots? I never once took that position, preferring to view many of them as persecuted and immensely burdened with cradling the livelihoods of thousands. Their responsibilities are, in fact, enormous. Problem is, further exposure to the power elite (to use the C. Wright Mills label) yields inevitable narratives of corruption, greed, power trips and personal drama with little regard for their workers. Okay, some of these people; certainly not all.

Sounds like an Industrial Age fairy tale until you see it for yourself. We took a trip a few years ago to Central and South America. The banana plantations were striking in this sense -- that of the robber barons. Huge swaths of carefully-cultivated product, farmed with the best, most modern techniques and machinery, all operated by impoverished hoards who live (exist) in bordering shanties. Oceangoing cargo liners dock, are filled to the decks, and off they go to the First World -- to your local grocery store -- pennies for a pound. I think of those people every time I see cheap bananas. The socialists would say it's capitalism run amok, and their detractors would certainly cite mere opportunity and free economics. More on this below...

Originally published to the Gainesville Times, February 7, 1990.

Regarding the capitalist vs socialist debate, I see it as a personal responsibility of the wealthy powerful to improve and enrich the lives of their underlings, not so much a government's. Problem is, too many biz emperors don't see it that way, forcing politicians and their disgruntled, fomented constituents into regulatory action. Oops! That riotous conversation's a tad large for this column. I'll not risk the TLDR and leave it there.