Marty’s photo of the day #3685: For wildlife photography, my camera of choice is my Canon DSLR with a 300mm telephoto lens. But it’s not always convenient to carry around that somewhat heavy lens, so I always have a pocket-sized camera nearby too. A few months ago I bought a Panasonic DMC-ZS100, which is part […]
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Category: Stories
Weber Music Hall
Marty’s photo of the day #3683: You are looking at the Weber Music Hall, in the University of Minnesota Duluth. This excerpt from my latest book, Hits, Heathens, and Hippos: Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer, explains the shot: My two favorite performances—so far—have been homecoming shows. The closest college to me is the […]
More of the world’s most adorable owl
Marty’s photo of the day #3680: Well, of course, I can’t just post one photo of what could be the world’s most adorable owl! In this one, note how you can see the reflection of the trees in her eyes. For those who missed yesterday’s post, for photo #3679, here is a repeat of the […]
Kicking back at the stream
Marty’s photo of the day #3678: Deb and I most definitely have “type A” personalities. We’re both book authors, both educational speakers, and both run separate businesses. Even so, sometimes we just have to kick back and watch the world go by. Two weekends ago we backpacked six miles into a remote mountain cabin, which […]
The long and the short of it
Marty’s photos of the day #3673: On February 12, 2020, I got my hair cut in preparation for a college show in New Jersey. At the time, I had no idea how hard the COVID-19/Trump pandemic would hit, and that following that show, I would be switching to performing at colleges via Zoom. After that […]
Falling from the bridge
Marty’s photos of the day #3667: Here are three more photos from Nellie’s first backpacking trip (this past weekend). 1) Nellie always insisted on leading, as we hiked six-miles-to and six-miles-from the Twogood Cabin in western Montana. She did a great job of setting the pace. Except, of course, when the squirrels and chipmunks invited […]
Nellie’s first backpacking trip
Marty’s photo of the day #3666: I haven’t posted for several days, because Deb and I took Nellie on her first backpacking trip. We hiked six miles to the Twogood Forest Service Cabin in the mountains of western Montana. There we spent two nights and had a wonderful time. This was Deb’s and my second […]
When a stump is an owl
Marty’s photo of the day #3659: Yesterday evening I walked with my dog, Nellie, along the ridge our house sits on. I’ve walked our property so many times that my brain has essentially mapped every tree, rock, and stump on our 25 acres. Up ahead I saw a stump that looked out of place. I […]
View of Spain
Marty’s photo of the day #3658: I took this photo in western Spain. This excerpt from my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, explains the shot: Where Deb and I were hiking, the valley floor was at approximately six thousand feet and the surrounding mountain peaks varied between seven and eight […]
Time for Nellie
Marty’s photo of the day #3654: Aside from being an author, my other career is being a college speaker and running Encante Entertainment, Inc., an agency that books other speakers (including Emmy nominee Naomi Grossman, civility speaker Traciana Graves, and Damona Hoffman of the Drew Barrymore Show). What does that have to do with this […]
Senator George McGovern and me
Marty’s photo of the day #3653: For the 4th of July, I thought I’d share an excerpt from my latest book, Hits, Heathens, and Hippos: Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer. In this excerpt, I talk about creating and publishing my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents. And yes, it […]
From the other side of the fence
Marty’s photo of the day #3652: I took this photo while hiking in the rainforest of Malaysian Borneo. At the time, George W. Bush and the Republicans had led America into attacking Iraq without provocation, and only days earlier U.S. soldiers had ripped down Saddam Hussein’s statue. Back home, right-wingers were all over the media, […]
The Badlands
Marty’s photo of the day #3648: Deb and I just returned to Montana after a week-long trip to Minnesota for Deb’s father’s funeral. Milt Froehlich actually died back in January and caught COVID-19 while in the nursing home. He was too ornery to let COVID kill him, but after he recovered it was just time […]
Barter Island Airport
Marty’s photo of the day #3643: After Deb and I canoed across the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (going south to north), we continued out onto the Arctic Ocean until reaching a tiny village on Barter Island. There we enjoyed hot showers and soft beds before flying back to Fairbanks the next morning. This photo shows […]
The curious deer
Marty’s photo of the day #3630: Every morning before work, I take my dog, Nellie, to a clearing in the woods by my house, and we attempt to play Frisbee. Yesterday, we had a very curious (and I think very pregnant) doe hanging around. First, I had to talk the deer out of Deb’s garden, […]
Fitger’s Inn, now and in 2056
Marty’s photo of the day #3616: If you’ve read either Time Is Irreverent or Hits, Heathens, and Hippos: Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer, you know a little about Fitger’s. The historic Duluth landmark used to be the Fitger Brewing Company, but now it is a boutique hotel, a bookstore, and a collection of […]
The spring moose
Marty’s photo of the day #3607: This photo is an hour old. Last night, Deb and I were taking part in our evening “porch” (our tradition of sitting on the front porch each evening with liquid refreshments, recapping the day’s events), when Deb spotted a black figure in the woods directly in front of us. […]
How’s the war?
Marty’s photo of the day #3564: This excerpt from my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, tells the story: Our adventure began on Friday, April 11, 2003, when we landed at Kuching Airport. Our guide, Bayang, picked us up with the Borneo Adventure van. He was a muscular, round-faced man in […]
Dogs and heights
Marty’s photo of the day #3555: One of the ways dogs are like humans is that some are afraid of heights and others are not. I’ll never forget, many years ago, when Deb and I rented a Forest Service lookout tower in northwestern Montana. Our Labrador retriever climbed right to the top, but I had […]
My COVID-19 vaccination: the reaction and the whining
I had never had a reaction to a shot before, but after I got my Moderna COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday, I felt like I had gone several rounds with a heavyweight boxer. My wife, Deb, on the other hand, didn’t have any reaction to the shot she got at the same time. From what we’ve […]