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Musin’s and Thinkin’s – October 2013

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – September 2013

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – June 2013

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – May 2013

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – March/April 2013

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – February 2013

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – January 2013

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – Nov/Dec 2012

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – October 2012

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – September 2012

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – July/August 2012

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – June 2012

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – May 2012

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – March/April 2012

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – February 2012

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – January 2012

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – November/December 2011

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – July/August 2011

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – June 2011

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – May 2011

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – March/April 2011

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – February 2011

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – January 2011

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – November/December 2010

Jack Pendarvis

A Microinterview with John Currence

Jack Pendarvis

This issue features a micro-interview with John Currence conducted by Jack Pendarvis. Currence, an award-winning chef, first cooked professionally as a deckhand on a tugboat. ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – September 2010

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – July/August 2010

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – June 2010

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – May 2010

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – March/April 2010

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – February 2010

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – January 2010

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – November/December 2009

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – October 2009

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – September 2009

Jack Pendarvis

The Fifty Greatest Things That Just Popped Into MY Head

Jack Pendarvis

50. Ice cream 49. Blue—Don’t try to get creative with your favorite color. We all know it’s blue. 48. Sneeze—It feels great to sneeze. What a relief. 47. Jesus—Love him or ...

An Interview with Joey Lauren Adams

Jack Pendarvis

If Sammy Davis Jr Had Written Moby Dick

Jack Pendarvis

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

Jack Pendarvis

I Review Books Based on One Random Sentence

Jack Pendarvis

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – October 2013

Jack Pendarvis

Oct 1 2013

Ebenezer Pendarvis, my grandfather, started his farm in 1908 with just a handful of prunes and a dream. Today, his once-majestic prune farm lies in disrepair. Dust settles ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – September 2013

Jack Pendarvis

Sep 1 2013

Thanks to this little job of my mine, I am honored to receive cards and letters from all over this great nation of ours—even some from around the world. They all bear the same ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – June 2013

Jack Pendarvis

Jun 1 2013

I was sittin’ and tootin’ on my old ceramic jug one day not too very long ago and contemplatin’ and a-fixatin’ on how jug-tootin’ is hardly ever taught in our schools anymore. ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – May 2013

Jack Pendarvis

May 1 2013

The year was 2004. Welcome to Mooseport tickled the funny bone of a grateful nation. A saucy Meg Ryan had us Against the Ropes while Owen Wilson tried to give us The Big ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – March/April 2013

Jack Pendarvis

Mar 1 2013

Every columnist needs a sideline to fall back on, and it is no secret that I make a little extra pocket money in lumberjack contests. I’ll never forget one particular ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – February 2013

Jack Pendarvis

Feb 1 2013

Tinkle, tinkle, tinkle. What is that delicate yet eerie sound of ice bobbing gently against glass? Why, it can be none other than our mysterious hero, tiptoeing down the dark ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – January 2013

Jack Pendarvis

Jan 1 2013

It’s hard to believe another year has passed. On second thought, it is easy to believe another year has passed. By some estimates, a year passes every year. But one thing is ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – Nov/Dec 2012

Jack Pendarvis

Nov 1 2012

With my son Rodney’s thirty-sixth birthday fast approaching, his thoughts have turned to his first date. He has his eye on a certain young coquette of the village, and quite ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – October 2012

Jack Pendarvis

Oct 1 2012

Proud mamas and papas have seen to it, and rightfully so, that the “social networks” of today are abuzz with the peanut-butter-smeared antics of our nation’s greatest natural ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – September 2012

Jack Pendarvis

Sep 1 2012

My needs are simple. I don’t want to be a fancy fellow with his head on Mount Rushmore. I don’t even want to be the guy who goes around bragging that he carved the heads of ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – July/August 2012

Jack Pendarvis

Jul 1 2012

Sometimes as I sit on the porch swing and puff away on my trusty corncob pipe as eventide comes rolling in, I start to wonder whether eventide is a word and, if so, what it ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – June 2012

Jack Pendarvis

Jun 1 2012

I was at a party with noted essayist Sven Birkerts when someone hunkered down in front of us at an especially low coffee table to grab a cracker and a bite of cheese. “You ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – May 2012

Jack Pendarvis

May 1 2012

I was pretty upset about the foot cramp I had recently—until I recalled my uncle Fig’s surefire old cure, that is! First I soaked my foot in buttermilk overnight. The next ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – March/April 2012

Jack Pendarvis

Mar 1 2012

I can’t help but wonder what some of you modern guys and gals would think if I told you that back when I was a child, my favorite toy was a stick. I wouldn’t be surprised ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – February 2012

Jack Pendarvis

Feb 1 2012

Thanks to so many of you for writing in to request more of my famous pine-cone tips. It is no wonder that my modest suggestions on the subject have received a flood of ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – January 2012

Jack Pendarvis

Jan 1 2012

So you are on your deathbed! There is no need to make a big thing about it. We have all been on our deathbeds from time to time. As always, the important thing is to have ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – November/December 2011

Jack Pendarvis

Nov 1 2011

Monday morning I happened to run into the local preacher, Brother Milt, at the grocery store. We were both picking up bouillon cubes, which was such a hilarious coincidence ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s

Jack Pendarvis

Oct 1 2011

Did I ever tell you about the time I traded places with my sophisticated city cousin? We’ll call him Snobbingham Cummerbund IV, because that was his actual name. Ol’ Snobby ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – July/August 2011

Jack Pendarvis

Jul 1 2011

Were I to pen my autobiography, I would most likely call it Confessions of an Inveterate Bird-Watcher, but first I need to look up inveterate. In any case, I think you will ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – June 2011

Jack Pendarvis

Jun 1 2011

Much has been written of the old murder ballads. But what of the old hugging ballads? These quaint tales of people hugging may not carry as much intellectual clout as their ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – May 2011

Jack Pendarvis

May 1 2011

Whatever happened to the lost art of visiting? Nowadays we think we’re pretty smart with our brand-name gadgets, all designed to help us communicate without ever truly coming ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – March/April 2011

Jack Pendarvis

Mar 1 2011

The way I hear tell, there was this fox and this chicken walking along in the woods, and pretty soon they come up on this nice green clearing with a big, smooth, old tree ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – February 2011

Jack Pendarvis

Feb 1 2011

Yesterday I threw away my old harmonica. I guess it wasn’t much to look at (or listen to, some claimed!), but that rusty, broken-down “mouth harp” and I had been through a lot ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – January 2011

Jack Pendarvis

Jan 1 2011

My grandfather may not have had a college degree, but I’ll tell you what he did have: a wife stitched together from brightly colored scraps of cloth and stuffed with ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – November/December 2010

Jack Pendarvis

Nov 1 2010

The question I get more often than any other is “How did you become such a puckish, impish sprite, seemingly not born so much as deposited on Earth via moonbeam?” The second ...

A Microinterview with John Currence

Jack Pendarvis

Oct 1 2010

This issue features a micro-interview with John Currence conducted by Jack Pendarvis. Currence, an award-winning chef, first cooked professionally as a deckhand on a tugboat. ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – September 2010

Jack Pendarvis

Sep 1 2010

Just because it is raining outside, that is no reason not to enjoy yourself. And no, I am not talking about your fancy video appliances and doodads. What if lightning strikes ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – July/August 2010

Jack Pendarvis

Jul 1 2010

Women and men are certainly different. Women have long eyelashes. And that is the only difference between men and women. Sometimes I get together with some of the fellows for ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – June 2010

Jack Pendarvis

Jun 1 2010

If there is one thing people want to know more than any other, it is when I am going to do a column about gardening. “I have been just about going crazy for some ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – May 2010

Jack Pendarvis

May 1 2010

It’s no secret that I used to be one of those grizzled, alcoholic country musicians with a lot of integrity and faded dreams of glory who has to hit rock bottom before ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – March/April 2010

Jack Pendarvis

Mar 1 2010

I have been accused of a lot of things, but disliking the seasons has never been one of them. The seasons! Even the phrase brings feelings of warmth and bounty to the human ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – February 2010

Jack Pendarvis

Feb 1 2010

I am but a simple country doctor with a wry way of looking at the world and a secret drinking problem. Sometimes I like to turn my shambling brand of homespun hilarity to the ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – January 2010

Jack Pendarvis

Jan 1 2010

There is nothing I enjoy more while soaking in a hot bath of Epsom salts and red wine vinegar than contemplating a humble household item and imbuing it with dignity and almost ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – November/December 2009

Jack Pendarvis

Nov 1 2009

After putting the grandchildren to bed, there is nothing I like better than sitting on my wraparound porch in the gathering dusk, gently tapping my old meerschaum against the ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – October 2009

Jack Pendarvis

Oct 1 2009

Cursed with youth and handsomeness, blessed with the soul of a charming eccentric, I wake each morning and polish the cold pewter knob of my walking stick with what some would ...

Musin’s and Thinkin’s – September 2009

Jack Pendarvis

Sep 1 2009

The North has much to recommend it, such as the steel industry, but from what I’ve seen it doesn’t have much to brag about in the way of clouds. Your typical Northern cloud is ...

The Fifty Greatest Things That Just Popped Into MY Head

Jack Pendarvis

Feb 1 2009

50. Ice cream 49. Blue—Don’t try to get creative with your favorite color. We all know it’s blue. 48. Sneeze—It feels great to sneeze. What a relief. 47. Jesus—Love him or ...

An Interview with Joey Lauren Adams

Jack Pendarvis

Mar 1 2007

You know Joey Lauren Adams from Dazed and Confused (1993) and Chasing Amy (1997). In 1999, despairing of being offered another good, complex character to play, she decided to ...

If Sammy Davis Jr Had Written Moby Dick

Jack Pendarvis

Feb 1 2007

“LOOMINGS” Call me Ishmael, Charlie. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth, as happens so often in this crazy business… and believe me, I say that with no undue ...

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

Jack Pendarvis

Feb 1 2006

FROM BOOK ONE 6. I must remember to thank Diognetus for use of his [blow dryer?]. 7. It was Rusticus who introduced me to the Dissertations of Epictetus. What can I say? ...

I Review Books Based on One Random Sentence

Jack Pendarvis

Sep 1 2005

THE DREAM SONGS by John Berryman “He published his girl’s bottom in staid pages / of an old weekly.” The Dream Songs is an undeniably witty and exciting romp, despite an ...