General – Page 28

Ricky the Studious

Written by Hank on December 9, 2013. Posted in General. 1 Comment on Ricky the Studious

Center of attention (just the way he likes it) Last week Ricky sat in on not just one, but two of my writing workshops. The first was the Tuesday After-School Writing Club I started for fifth- and sixth-graders at Bryant Elementary School in Bridgeport. The second, the next day, was my evening memoir writing course at Trinity College in Hartford for adults who are . . . quite a bit older than the fifth and sixth graders. (I took him along because we, Ricky and I, were on our way...

Really Lame Excuse

Written by Ricky on November 27, 2013. Posted in General. No Comments on Really Lame Excuse

“Sorry, I had to give Robby a ride to practice.” How many times did I hear that line, or some variation of it, when Beagle Man would be running late for a doctor’s appointment or a dinner with friends? And when he really screwed up, he’d play the sympathy card. “Had to take Robby down to Greenwich for physical therapy. Two hours they kept the poor kid! And then the traffic back up 95 . . .” You see what’s going on here, don’t...

Ricky? Ronnie? Reggie?

Written by Hank on November 22, 2013. Posted in General. No Comments on Ricky? Ronnie? Reggie?

Robby and Ricky as pups I must have told the story about how Ricky came to be “Ricky” a thousand times: How Robby, then 9, named his beagle puppy for Ricky Williams, the Miami Dolphins running back, and his ultimate hero at the time. How when Williams retired unexpectedly at age 27, two days before training camp, Robby was shattered. And how, after quickly recovering from this devastating blow, Robby pragmatically #34: Ricky Williams Herman announced his intention to...

Smarts

Written by Ricky on November 18, 2013. Posted in General. 1 Comment on Smarts

Last month, another of those “10 Smartest Dog Breeds” lists came out. This one had beagles at #4. Now let’s think about this. Dogs don’t take SATs or ACTs or Wonderlic tests, so what, exactly, are we going by? How easily we can be trained? Border collies and German Shepherds are ranked ahead of me because they can be taught to work. And this makes them smart? Hmm . . . I remember how I handled my first trainer. He couldn’t get me to sit,...

Ricky the Beagle for RTM!

Written by Ricky on November 11, 2013. Posted in General. No Comments on Ricky the Beagle for RTM!

Remember my friend Gustav? He’s a Norsk Buhund (yes, some of my best friends are Norsk), and I wrote about him last February. He belongs to Eric, who works with Mrs. Beagle Man. In a lot of ways, I look up to Gus. For one thing, he has an actual job at Mrs. B’s office. You don’t believe me? Just look at the photo below. But even more than that, he just ran for office in Gardiner, NY — and he got 6 votes! That really makes me envious, because, to tell you...

Andrew’s Army

Written by Hank on November 7, 2013. Posted in General. 1 Comment on Andrew’s Army

Something a little different today. Andrew Accardi One of Beagle Man’s very favorite kids in the entire world, Andrew Accardi, passed away last week at the age of 20, after battling pediatric neuroblastoma for 15 years. My own personal remembrance of Andrew will be in tomorrow’s print version of the Westport News. (You can see it now in the Westport News on-line version.) If, as they say, Andrew’s spirit lives on in all of us, well, that is one damn strong...

Depart From Beagle Man’s Plan? I Don’t Think So . . .

Written by Ricky on November 4, 2013. Posted in General. No Comments on Depart From Beagle Man’s Plan? I Don’t Think So . . .

So it turns out we did hike the Lye Brook Trail after all, even though Beagle Man wrote in his last post that we Me on the Lye Brook Trail couldn’t. About an hour-and-a-half before we were supposed to leave VT on Friday, the sun broke out — and you know what that means. If it’s a nice day . . . And since Mr. Obsessive had it in his head we were supposed to do the Lye Brook Trail, then by God, that’s what we were going to do! Even though we had less than an...

Why Ricky Gets Dragged Along On All My Hikes

Written by Hank on November 1, 2013. Posted in General. No Comments on Why Ricky Gets Dragged Along On All My Hikes

Hiking Bromley: We didn’t “summit,” but we had a great time Am up in VT. Came here Wednesday night, straight from teaching my writing course in Hartford. It always occurs to me when I reach Trinity that I’m 1/3 of the way to VT and pointing in the right direction — so this time I continued on. According to my internet weather site it was supposed to rain all day Thursday and Friday in VT, but ever the cockeyed optimist, I didn’t believe it. So far...

Beagles and Bantams and Bears, Oh My!

Written by Ricky on October 21, 2013. Posted in General. 1 Comment on Beagles and Bantams and Bears, Oh My!

On Saturday I went to Hartford to see my real good friend Rob G. play football, Trinity against Bowdoin. Trinity Catching up on some sleep during the game . . . won 40-21, but honestly? I wasn’t all that into the game (see photo, right). What was cool, though, is that there were dogs all over the place. In the parking lot, on the grounds near the stadium, walking the track — it seemed like the Westminster Dog Show as much as a college football game! I met a really awesome...

Myself As Muse

Written by Ricky on October 17, 2013. Posted in General. 2 Comments on Myself As Muse

Mary Oliver’s a famous poet, and she just came out with a book called Dog Songs. Here’s what she has to say about Is Mary Oliver’s Ricky . . . dogs, in general: “They are a kind of poetry themselves when they are devoted not only to us but to the wet night, to the moon and the rabbit-smell in the grass and their own bodies leaping forward.” Cool. I suppose the idea of this woman writing a collection of poems about dogs really grabbed me because her...