I had good news yesterday. Managing Editor John Molley called me into his office and said he enjoyed my radio shot on Joe Byrd's Blue Ridge Outdoors program on WFHG Saturday so much that it awakened his wife due to all the laughter, and she came downstairs just as we got onto the subject of John Molley, where I said in response to some banter by Joe, that I always have to give John the benefit of a doubt because he looks so much like the Buddha that I immediately have warm and friendly feelings about him. He even showed me a small Buddha statue he keeps above his desk, a gift from someone else who noticed the same thing. All the talk about Einstein the raccoon evading my traps caused him to have an inspiration, the upshot of which is that I will no longer be covering federal court, and instead will be expanding my column to 3x a week, the other two dealing entirely with animals other than birds, both pets and wild animals. He said he'd been trying to come up with things that make us unique from the Kingsport Times-News and the Bristol Herald-Courrier, and what they don't have is James Brooks. If the readership goes up as a result I will go to a full-time columnist, personal promotion and raises in salary, blah-blah-blah. He wants me to do as many personal appearances as I can arrange, and suggested I use these to promote my novel. That will probably coincide nicely with my retirement in 21 months and 26 days, which would be fine with me, because I could maintain my health benefits and 401k as a full-time columnist. As luck would have it, my first attempt with the new-design live trap from New Haven, a subsidiary of Acme Mfg. Co., and addressed to Wiley C. Coyote was to capture a possum Sunday morning, which I released at Persimmon Ridge Park. Last night I set the two traps side by side and was awakened just as I was drowsing ... Well, I guess you'll just have to wait for this column to appear. Also available online at http://www.johnsoncitypress.com on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, beginning this Sunday. Hopefully, a big part of this will be questions and comments from readers on anything in the natural kingdom - maybe even plants, I'm that open minded about the whole thing. So if you have a question, a comment or something like a photo to contribute, either anonymously or by name, my work email is jbrooks@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx The big question is, do I really want to put Malone Hollow on the map? Anybody got an idea for a ficticious name for where I live? James Brooks ************************************************* BRISTOL BIRDS NET LIST This is a regional birding list sponsored by the Bristol Bird Club to facilitate communications between birders and bird clubs of Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee. It serves the Russell County Bird Club, Herndon Chapter TOS, Chapter, Blue Ridge Birders Club, Butternut Nature Club, Buchanan County Bird Club, Bristol Bird Club, Clinch Valley Bird Club and Cumberland Nature Club. -------------------------------------------------- You are subscribed to Bristol-Birds. To post to this mailing list, simply send an email to: bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe, send an email to bristol-birds-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the one word 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. -------------------------------------------------- Wallace Coffey, Moderator jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx (423)764-3958