I want to welcome Skookum as our newest author at Flopping Aces. With that honor comes his own Icon which will be placed amongst our other great authors.
His bio:
Skookum or Skook is a dual citizen of the US and Canada, but in Canada, he has only lived in British Columbia and Alberta. Skookum is a common Indian word from the Northwest that means ‘heavy duty’. Skook is the least educated of the authors and possibly of all the readers. He has been a professional horseman throughout his entire life and has the scars and broken bones for documentation. His horse work has necessitated travel all over North America and Western Europe. Business and a divorce settlement brought about a residence in the desert of Southern California, a place he once said he would never live. A devoted fan of Ju-Jitsu, boxing, and Kendo, a catastrophic horse wreck 5 years ago, left him unable to train with the MMA fighters; his sparring partners, enjoyed his unorthodox fighting styles and gave him the nick name ‘Poppa Bear’. They said the name evolved by grabbing a hold of him and feeling as if they had grabbed a hold of a Grizzly Bear and of course he was almost twice as old as everyone, so Poppa was a term of affection. It is a nickname he is proud of, to this day.
A committed Conservative, he has kept an eye on the political scenes of Canada and the US for over 50 years. At home in the Canadian Rockies, Skook maintains that he can survive with an ax, a rifle, and a knife in temperatures down to 50 below and has done it on many occasions. He hopes to semi-retire to a ranch in BC or Alberta in the next few years and maintain his horse business on a much slower key and devote more time to writing about the mountains, the people, and the animals of the Northwest. Skook feels privileged to be writing with the distinguished talent here at Flopping Aces and corresponding with the wits who write commentary.
Welcome Skook!
See author page
I can think of no higher privilege than to be the first to congratulate you, Skooks.
When I saw yesterday’s announcement, my first thought was that you should be the next author.
*Stands and applauds*
Congrats Skookum. I look forward to reading your great posts, and also your inciteful commentary.
I love your stories, Skookum. Keep ’em coming.
Thank you, my friends.
It is sad that this coincided with the Cordoba incident, but it was in the preparation stage for a long time before Cordoba.
I started writing commentary at FA hoping to be able to stay up with the fast swimmers. I wrote a few articles and Curt said, “send more.” I was utterly dumbfounded.
I tried to write different material to offer something different, my rejections and commentary responses were used to gauge my editorial content. I will always try radical subjects and approaches and I will drop them just as fast when interest indicates.
I will never engage in name calling, I have always been the first one step into a fight and throw the overhand right, (my best punch, it is hard to remain standing when it connects); I am not a Lefty, but I can lead with a left to set up the right.
I look forward to learning about politics and life here at FA by discussions with my cyber friends. Questions about the North and the wild animals and wild people who inhabit the area will be answered to the best of my abilities.
I will be working with the horses for the rest of the day, but I feel like a kid on the morning of his birthday party.
PV, always remember the peavey can be a precision instrument for moving logs and cants with leverage and authority, and perhaps the only tool of logging that is handled with affection.
Skookum, your entry would be welcomed, not matter what the issue battles were. And I, for one, am ecstatic!
But “least educated”?? Horse manure. Intelligence and thoughtful punditry is not handed by out sheep skins, but gained by extraordinate curiousity in the real world. Which makes you one of the *best* educated, IMHO.
Congrats, eh? 😉
Congratulations – I think?
Being of Canuck decent myself, welcome eh… My grandfather came to Texas from New Brunswick in 1919… 😈
Glad to see a Conservative like you on board!
Ya know, if I was a Dem/Libber I could say I was a Canadian/American… But, since I have a little bit of common sense, I’m not a Dem/Libber… 😛
The least educated including readers ??? I GRADUATED IN THE TOP 90% OF MY HIGH SCHOOL CLASS !!
Yes john. We can tell. We can also tell that you went to public school.
How do we know, you ask?
Because of the missing “sark/off” tag on your comment, it is obvious to everyone but you, that Skooks was being his normal self-depreciative self, and was TALKING ABOUT HIMSELF, not you.
Moronically Progressive is no way to go through life, son.
@John ryan:
wow.
@ Skook,
Good on ya!
Looking forward to your meanderings through the forests of our perceptions. 🙂
Whether or not we agree, stimulating thinking is the “thing,” and you’re delivering the thing. Keep on hiking – trees or no trees, it’s a big, confusing forest.
Welcome Skookum! I’ve loved your stories of the wilderness and your ability to tie them into some current event or other. I’m excited to hear you’ll be around for a good while, and that I’ll get to read more of it.
Congratulations, though I feel like the real winners are us.
Love the prospector symbolism and congrats bigtime. As some of you know, I’ve worked in the Peace River country for many years and can visualize the country and the people he describes. The Peace River country is not for the faint hearted. In fact, it can be brutal. I can relate to the military, dual citizenship, Calgary, his son in law(oil patch) and historical comparisons. Hard to figure why I back him on his posts? Not really. FA wins with this pioneer and conservative. I betcha he resides in Alberta, which is about 80% conservative.
@John ryan:
You have to be joking? You’re that dense?
Skook said he is:
And you took that to mean he was saying he was smarter than the readers?
As flyovercountry said….wow
Congrats Skookum.
I do not come around here as much as I often do to comment and such, but I try and read you guys every day, and I am sure Skookum will do a great job here.
Good to see you have a berth here. I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read so far and will be happy to read more. Good luck and “Semper Fi” Now if I can just get the new laptop to work I’ll be all set.
SKOOKUM: very happy to have you more often, IF I give you problems, just do like
ALBERT EINSTEIN said ” IT’S NOT THAT I AM SO SMART, IT IS JUST that I stay with problems
longer. congratulation, bye and to CURT I thank you. bye
Congrats Skook!
Interesting background. Life experience definitely adds to one’s ability to write.
…. which leaves out johnnie ryan any day of the millenium.
Being from the “back room” out of sight followers, and my first communication here, I must say that Skookum is one of my hero’s.
Truly a free soul, with lessons to be learned from the stories offered.
Though I fall short or Skookum’s experience & knowledge, I do have the ability to understand and learn.
Truly a positive decision offering more from Skookum.
Congrats to Management !!!! (Is that to capitalist??) …. snark
Good luck, and all my best !!!!!
Congratulations, Skookum! Your stories are the best because they share the lessons you’ve learned and the wisdom you’ve gained along the way.
Skook, after meeting many “educated” morons I would say you have a better education than most. You have what those graduates that spent tens of thousands don’t have-common sense.
Congrats, Skook! Your guest postings have always been must reads – looking forward to more of them!
I visit FA frequently to see if there is a “Skookum” presentation. Whenever there is, I shut off the phone and dig in. I am always rewarded with wisdom and clarity when you show up. I can only hope to read more of you in the future, and to thank you and FA for your mutual genius in joining. Thank you both!
This is a wonderful development!
I haven’t been here for a while due to no fault of this blog (just life stuff keeping me busy) and I come back today and find this gem of an announcement.
Go Skookum! 😀
Welcome Skookum!
It’s a pleasure to have you join us here as an official part of the team.
Your work is truly enjoyable, bringing a unique style and perspective to FA.
Looking forward to reading many more of your pieces.
Welcome aboard! Your icon is exactly how I’ve always pictured you, “Poppa Bear”. A grizzly, badass, mountain man steeped in Shakespeare. 😛
Congratulations Skookum and thank you Curt! Such a wonderful addition to my favorite place on the internet, it’s also so nice to have some of the “back room” readers that haven’t commented regularly offer up their best wishes.
My only beef about you is that a lot of your writing makes me have to do some deep thinking…all day long…. among weeds, bugs and dirt, then I’m to tired to come back and respond. As old as I am, you still have me learning. You sneaky little devil! 😉
MISSY: hi, YOU wont get pay for not coming and checking on us,
DID you say BUGS, the songbirds left from here already, They know something we dont,
so when they arrive on your farm, they have a party. bye
Skookum, you are definitely one of my favorites. I am glad you were added to the the flopping aces team, and I look forward to reading your future content. I feel like we are in a place in our world today, where we don’t need the right politics more than we need the right mettle. It seems your mettle was formed out of harsh-truths, cold nights, and a compass that points to true North. Keep up the good work.
SKOOKUM: IS that your choice of image on your top page here?
THE beard is quite long and dark for a redhead. bye
Congrats Skookum.
Like the other comments before mine I will say that I do take umbrage with the line that you are the least educated. World experience is the greatest teacher and you my friend have many degrees that most of us can never hope to attain. Let this forum be your new class and proceed to educate those of us less experienced.
Thank you, I read the commentary from my phone yesterday in between horses and found it to be one of the most touching experiences of my life. It caught me unprepared.
Bees, although the Icon is a little over the top in its flattering portrayal of me, I think it is difficult to capture auburn (cross between blonde and red) in those colors. Unfortunately, there is a dusting of snow on the roof year round now and my beard sold out to the ice and snow, twenty years ago.
I asked for a more realistic portrayal, but Curt pointed out that we don’t want to drive away new readers because of my icon; consequently, I end up looking like a Brad Pitt double. I hate the idea of being regarded as a dandy or a pretty boy, but Curt insisted that we need to make allowances for the survival of the blog.
I am a bit late to the party today, but my congrats also – but, please, my first response to “least educated” was also “you should change that!” Perhaps “least formally educated” – after all, life is a great teacher, is it not?
Congrats Skookum!
Congo-Rats Skook…You deserve it man…
Nice addition for the FA author list. Congratulations Skookum.
SKOOKUM: YOU where a good teacher for my english written. I guess
I must be perfect now, because you left me on my own, bye.
Bees, I have observed your progress with a critical view for a year or so; actually, I was thinking about your progress while driving home this afternoon. You have advanced with extraordinary progress: your primary strength is a critical mind that can function with perspicuity in a second language. That alone is impressive.
I noticed you have stopped using the colon and semicolon; unfortunately, I thought this was a rejection of my instruction or maybe you forgot the rules or became confused. If you need the rules again let me know.
I was going to suggest looking up plural rules. In an effort to be correct with plurals, you often make plurals out of plurals, i.e. thoses for those. There are programs that let you know when you make a mistake like this, usually there will be a line under the word that indicates a mistake.
You must realize, you are a favorite at FA. Your insight and original expression is part of your charm. That is no reason not to improve, but on other sites, writers with a series of mistakes are often crucified and humiliated; however, Ms Bees is shown respect and her opinions are considered noteworthy.
Have you read passages from Hemingway, Orwell, and Melville? They are considered some of the best and by following their examples, you will improve your writing. Melville is hard to follow and his sentence structure is archaic, but what a wordsmith. Hemingway is easy to read and will show you how to put together complex concepts with simple sentence structure.
If you ever wire it all together, you will be a powerful English writer and thinker. You are the one holding yourself back, you are down to the finer points over a few hundred words. The future is yours. Will you reach out for the brass ring?
SKOOKUM: hi, THANK YOU, as always, you are graciously helping me, I appreciate greatly,
I think, my problem is that I’m trying to put my thoughts too fast,so I dont miss any of it,
and mess up with the words and colon semi colon, it’s because I am slow on the keyboard,
but faster than I was before, I’m saying slow enough to loose my whole message, as it come
ON the spur of a moment,: SO I’m lacking coordination between the brain speed and the slows fingers; I will continue to work on that, with your hint on it, when I get to undiscipline
which is a part of my nature also. bye
Bees: Between us, a correction for the run on sentence.
Hi, Thank You, you are graciously helping me, as always; I appreciate it greatly. (Two complete sentences of a connected or relative thought) I think my problem comes from trying to put my thoughts down faster than I can type: unfortunately, being slow on the keyboard causes me to make mistakes with words, as well as semicolon, and colon usage. (Here the colon is used because the second sentence provides defining information for the first sentence.)
I have gained speed, but I am still slow enough to lose my entire message. (Most of the time, ‘but’ will require the use of a comma.) Thus my problems stem from a brain wired for speed and fingers that move slowly. Obviously, I need to work on coordinating the brain and the fingers. I will improve with time, hints will always be appreciated. I will also work on discipline, a component of my nature. (I am unsure of the meaning of the last sentence.)
A good rule to remember is that if a sentence can retain its meaning when you drop a phrase, that phrase should be segregated from the rest of a sentence with commas. For example: The sailboat, an antique from a bygone era, was a wreck and its crew was exhausted, but the crew was proud as they sailed into the harbor. This sentence will stand and retain its meaning without the phrase, (an antique from a bygone era), thus the phrase can be separated from the rest of the sentence with commas.
The speed deficit between thought and finger dexterity plagues most of us. You might consider keeping a tablet with a pen next to your keyboard to keep your thoughts corralled before they gallop away. Of course editing your own writing is imperative without your mother or an editor by your side. I should be writing this rule for myself.
The biggest part of editing is discarding extra words. Fleshing the manuscript, a trapper’s term, means to scrape the bottom side of the hide to remove excess flesh and fat, in writing it means to get rid of unnecessary words, too many words will dilute your message.
Good luck, I hope this helps.
SKOOKUM: I will study thoses comments, seriously, BECAUSE there is a lot to remember,
I will save theses precious ADVICES. thank you again. bye