{"id":1012,"date":"2015-08-31T01:10:16","date_gmt":"2015-08-31T08:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/?p=1012"},"modified":"2015-08-15T21:06:03","modified_gmt":"2015-08-16T04:06:03","slug":"horses-canoes-and-gift-fish-the-writings-of-patrick-mcmanus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/featured\/horses-canoes-and-gift-fish-the-writings-of-patrick-mcmanus\/","title":{"rendered":"Horses, Canoes and Gift Fish: the Writings of Patrick McManus"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Books\"<\/p>\n

\"Pat

Pat McManus at Eastern Washington University By Eastern Washington University [CC BY 2.0]<\/p><\/div>You can’t always be out and about exploring during your adventures. \u00a0Sometimes it’s imperative that you sit on the ground, put your back against a tree and open a great book.<\/p>\n

Well, Patrick McManus’ books aren’t great in the sense of being an\u00a0essential foundation in the literature of Western culture, but they are hilarious and, well, maybe they are great books. \u00a0Most are compiled of stories from his newspaper columns.<\/p>\n

The Tales<\/h1>\n

McManus exemplifies the wild child \u2013 a kid that managed to get into every kind of trouble imaginable and, surprisingly, lived to tell about it. \u00a0His characters range from Strange, his aptly named dog, to the woodsman Rancid Crabtree that liked to offer up little life lessons, to his older sister “The Troll” to his best friend\u00a0Crazy Eddie Muldoon. Not to mention\u00a0Retch Sweeney, \u00a0Al Finley, and his rich friend Fenton Quagmire.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t
“You know how to check fer thin ice, boy? \u00a0Wall, what you do is stick one foot way out ahead of you and stomp the ice real hard and listen fer it to make a crackin’ sound. \u00a0Thar now, did you hear how the ice cracked when Ah stomped it? \u00a0Thet means it’s too thin to hold a man’s weight. \u00a0Now pull me up out of hyar and we’ll run back to shore and see if we kin built a fahr b’fore Ah freezes to death!”<\/p>\n

– Rancid Crabtree in They Shoot Canoes, Don’t They?<\/a>\"\"<\/div><\/div>\n

The stories tell the tale of various situations McManus, maybe, experienced as an outdoorsy kid growing up in the forests of northern Idaho. \u00a0Situations like the deer on a bicycle, the homemade airplane on the barn roof, levitating Lester, collecting road kill and many more. \u00a0Did I mention they are all hilarious?<\/p>\n

The Books<\/h1>\n

As far as I can tell there are 14 books in this series with a story per chapter. \u00a0Here they are:<\/p>\n