Dispatches from the belly of the beast
 

Well, after all the rending of garments and gnashing of teeth I have
indulged in over the years regarding over-commercialization and the
insidious transformation of the sport into an "industry," I find myself
--for reasons we won't go into here--a part-time (and probably
temporary) fly-shop dude.

Who'd a thunk it?

If I can find a way to do it without annoying the owners of other local
shops I've patronized over the years, I will post some thoughts from
time to time.

Two presented themselves almost immediately:

- What with low pay and the phenomenal discounts offered by
manufacturers, employment is likely to be gainful more in a material
than a monetary way. The "savings" on just those few things I've
already got my eye on are quite likely to impoverish me....

- Please, please, PLEASE, look into, oh, I dunno, Shakespeare or Ambrose
Bierce or Oscar Wilde or Mencken or de Rochefoucauld before your next
trip to the fly shop. I had been told once you've heard several dozen
fly shop conversations you've heard heard them all. "Several" is an
lovely exaggeration. Honestly, the next person who tells me it's
"called fishing, not catching, har, har, har" is either gonna--depending
on my mood--get punched in the nose or see a grown man cry......

--
John Russell aka JR

Dispatches from the belly of the beast
 

"JR" wrote in message
...
Well, after all the rending of garments and gnashing of teeth I have
indulged in over the years regarding over-commercialization and the
insidious transformation of the sport into an "industry," I find myself
--for reasons we won't go into here--a part-time (and probably
temporary) fly-shop dude.

Who'd a thunk it?

well, i will be damned. and to think that after my week or so in your
presence at the past western clave left me with the conclusion that here,
with ol jr, we at roff have at least *one* rational, clear thinking, even
intelligent, individual in our midst.

i jest, of course. details? location? mail order? web presence?

yfitons
wayno

Dispatches from the belly of the beast
 

JR wrote:
Well, after all the rending of garments and gnashing of teeth I have
indulged in over the years regarding over-commercialization and the
insidious transformation of the sport into an "industry," I find myself
--for reasons we won't go into here--a part-time (and probably
temporary) fly-shop dude.

Who'd a thunk it?

If I can find a way to do it without annoying the owners of other local
shops I've patronized over the years, I will post some thoughts from
time to time.

Two presented themselves almost immediately:

- What with low pay and the phenomenal discounts offered by
manufacturers, employment is likely to be gainful more in a material
than a monetary way. The "savings" on just those few things I've
already got my eye on are quite likely to impoverish me....

- Please, please, PLEASE, look into, oh, I dunno, Shakespeare or Ambrose
Bierce or Oscar Wilde or Mencken or de Rochefoucauld before your next
trip to the fly shop. I had been told once you've heard several dozen
fly shop conversations you've heard heard them all. "Several" is an
lovely exaggeration. Honestly, the next person who tells me it's
"called fishing, not catching, har, har, har" is either gonna--depending
on my mood--get punched in the nose or see a grown man cry......

I feel the same way about:

"The worst day fishing is still better than the best day at the office."

It's like what Bush/Rove (hypocritically) call the soft prejudice of low
expectations.

If I go fishing and don't catch fish, there'd better be something really
good to compensate for that before I consider it a successful trip.
Really good, if you get my drift. :-) My best day at the office was
pretty damn fine compared to my worst day fishing.

Good luck with the fly shop gig. One of the happiest people I know runs
a big high-end flyshop in Ketchum.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

Dispatches from the belly of the beast
 

On Wed, 14 Jun 2006 10:02:48 -0700, JR wrote:

Well, after all the rending of garments and gnashing of teeth I have
indulged in over the years regarding over-commercialization and the
insidious transformation of the sport into an "industry," I find myself
--for reasons we won't go into here--a part-time (and probably
temporary) fly-shop dude.

Who'd a thunk it?

If I can find a way to do it without annoying the owners of other local
shops I've patronized over the years, I will post some thoughts from
time to time.

Two presented themselves almost immediately:

- What with low pay and the phenomenal discounts offered by
manufacturers, employment is likely to be gainful more in a material
than a monetary way. The "savings" on just those few things I've
already got my eye on are quite likely to impoverish me....

- Please, please, PLEASE, look into, oh, I dunno, Shakespeare or Ambrose
Bierce or Oscar Wilde or Mencken or de Rochefoucauld before your next
trip to the fly shop. I had been told once you've heard several dozen
fly shop conversations you've heard heard them all. "Several" is an
lovely exaggeration. Honestly, the next person who tells me it's
"called fishing, not catching, har, har, har" is either gonna--depending
on my mood--get punched in the nose or see a grown man cry......

What light ov'r yonder Owl Creek Bridge breaks...the creek. The Creek!
It calls, to fish! To Fish! Fishing, like morality and art, usually
requiring as they are wont to do a line someplace, and as such, with new
tackle acquired imaginatively and well beyond one's means, ye shall doth
strive for an understanding of one's place on the small, besotted,
insignificant sphere called planet Earth, bereft of a universal human
condition, and come to a guarded peace with the mundane question one is
forced to ask oneself: why, oh why, must it be in our stars that the
thing be called fishing and not catching...

Better?

TC,
R
....are you both contemplative and contemptuous of being donned in the
fighting garb of St. Crispen's day or reaching thoughtfully yet angrily
for a lavender-scented handkerchief...it's hard to tell from here...

Dispatches from the belly of the beast
 

One of the happiest people I know runs a big high-end flyshop in Ketchum.

Doesn't that surprise me in the least...one of the happiest wolves I
know has a condo with a covered parking space for his Range Rover right
down the road from Tyson Foods...

Dispatches from the belly of the beast
 

Wayne Harrison wrote:

details? location? mail order? web presence?

I'm just working Mondays and the odd day here and there to give the
regulars some days off. Condition of employment was that I have at
least two (preferably three) consecutive weekdays off to fish. Trying
very hard to maintain the illusion of being a semi-retired flyfishing
man of leisure, doncha know? g

One of the older fly shops in these parts.... a smaller, low-key,
laid-back, old-school, comfortable sort of place. A local place.
http://www.deschutesoutfitters.com/

--
John Russell aka JR

Dispatches from the belly of the beast
 

Dispatches from the belly of the beast
 

On Wed, 14 Jun 2006 12:35:09 -0700, JR wrote:

wrote:

...are you both contemplative and contemptuous .....

Hmm. I reread my post to see if there was contempt expressed and saw
that maybe it might be read that way. Ooops. Was meant to be wryly
humorous, but I may have struck a wrong note. Oh, well.

In fact, turns out I enjoy talking to and BSing with customers more than
I imagined I might. I didn't mean to imply that fly shop dudes are in
need of a better class of customer, but rather that we all of us are
perhaps in need of a better class of aphorism.... even a better class of
cliché. g

I didn't take your post as contemptuous, but I might suggest that when
one asks the DJ to spin a little "Shakespeare or Ambrose Bierce or Oscar
Wilde or Mencken or de Rochefoucauld," one should be familiar with
same...

TC,
R
....what light might through yon screen break - fishing is the east and
catching is the sun....

Dispatches from the belly of the beast
 

Dispatches from the belly of the beast
 

On Wed, 14 Jun 2006 21:31:19 -0700, JR wrote:

wrote:

I didn't take your post as contemptuous, but I might suggest that when
one asks the DJ to spin a little "Shakespeare or Ambrose Bierce or Oscar
Wilde or Mencken or de Rochefoucauld," one should be familiar with
same...

Preferring by default to assume the best of others (even here), I'll
choose to believe you're not serious.

Rigid seriousness is the last hurrah for the boring and shallow...

HTH,
R