. . . And no, Kemba wasn’t one of them. But he certainly got his share of notoriety in absentia!  Sandy Stark, the first of my classmates to spot me as I cruised through the doors of the Teaneck (NJ) Marriott at Glenpointe, said, “Well if it isn’t the Beagle Man!”  She added that Kemba was the sec…

Beagle Man and the Missus spent three days last week in Nashville.  Maybe you remember that I’ve been to Nashville a couple of times myself?  [September 2011, LA/XC-1, Ricky Storms N-ville;         and September 2013, LA/XC-3, You Never Know Who You’re Gonna Run Into in Nashvil…

It’s 9:15 AM — a gorgeous, blue-sky spring day.  I’m driving over to Winslow Park for a fun, relaxing time with my boys, Kemba and Ruckus. I park in the Westport Playhouse lot, in the absolute closest spot to the off-leash area, and open the doors.  Both dogs make a jailbreak to where a cluster of…

It’s two days later, and I still feel like I was hit by a truck. The incident took place Wednesday, in Winslow Park, and it wasn’t a truck that hit me.  It was two dogs.  Two large, white dogs, running at full speed, like silent cruise missiles.  By the time I became aware of them, I was flat on m…

A snippet of conversation overheard between Kemba, Ruckus, and Ricky . . . RUCKUS:  What do you make of this new, tiny, squeaky mini-person in the house?  And how long d’ya think he’s gonna be around? RICKY:  Bad news, Ruckster.  The little guy is part of your pack now.  Notice the way your mom an…

All right, here’s the prize break-down in Matt’s 45-man March Madness pool:  First place: $1,250; second place: $600; third place: $300; fourth place: $50; last place: $50 worth of (top-quality) toilet paper.  And though Beagle Man won’t come out and say it, I know what he’s thinking: that he’s go…

Friday morning I got this text (screenshot, right) from Robby.  The time was 7:37 AM, as indicated.  Clearly he had SportsCenter on — no surprise there — as he was getting ready to head to the office.  The teaser — BACK IN DAY: CARDIAC KEMBA — caught his eye.  Of course, he had to watch — work be…

For a long time now, I’ve been thinking that a lot of people don’t take Beagles as seriously as they should.  Watching Westminster last week only confirmed my opinion.  Okay, so maybe a German Shepherd won this year — congrats, Rumor — but nobody can deny my Beagle brethren have dominated recent We…

There’s something strange going on.  Listen to this.  Duke, a new dog, came to visit me in Vermont weekend before last.  He was cute and curly — a Labradoodle, I think.  At first he seemed kind of wimpy when I started wrestling with him (the way I do with Ruckus all the time), but I have to give h…

I’m often accused, especially by members of my own family, of wasting time pondering things that others find . . . not really important. Like, what makes some towns choose black letters on white background for their street signs, and others go for the white-on-green look? Last week one of my writi…