There are two sorts of men who buy old hotels. The first believes every creaking floorboard is an insult to civilization and cannot sleep until every nail has been replaced with chrome, every wall painted a fashionable shade of forgettable… Continue reading

Nobody came to Africa looking for guard duty. Men came for the work that mattered, the long patrols through thorn country, tracking poachers who butchered elephants for ivory, or hunting guerrillas who slipped across forgotten borders carrying rifles stamped with… Continue reading

There was a time when Storey County concerned itself chiefly with practical frontier matters: mines caving in, tourists wandering into homes and pretending it was “historical research,” and whether Virginia City might finally blow clean off Sun Mountain one windy… Continue reading

It is a curious arrangement of Providence that the sky should be stocked with gulls who have never once applied for honest employment, yet are forever found commenting loudly on the labor of those who have. These winged philosophers drift… Continue reading

There was once a time in America when a newspaper considered it respectable to begin a story with the unfortunate souls who had departed this world. A man and his wife would perish, and the editor, being of sound mind… Continue reading

Now it may be that I have reaped precisely that which I have sown, for there is an ancient and unbending law in this universe, a law as fixed as the Truckee’s muddy course, that a man who engages in… Continue reading

When I’m in danger of taking life too seriously, I look at my dog. Now, you might say that’s a little too simple, but then again, simple is underrated. Buddy’s a German Short Hair mix with a lopsided grin and… Continue reading

There are places in this country where people respect privacy, mind their own affairs, and refrain from discussing their neighbors’ business. I have read about such places in books, which is where I suspect they remain. Our neighborhood is not… Continue reading

Well, let me tell you about the scientific endeavor I recently undertook, though I reckon calling it “science” might be an insult to proper scientists everywhere. You see, a man afflicted with the devil’s own arthritis, what the fancy doctors… Continue reading

There is no creature in America more confident than a man who has been awake all night and has convinced himself that coffee is a substitute for the laws of nature. He will argue with his wife, his employer, his… Continue reading