christmas behind bars - County Times - Southern Maryland Online

17 Thursday, December 22, 2011
The Calvert Gazette
Sp rts
Fur and
Feathers
By Keith McGuire
Contributing Writer
I’ve been hearing reports
from Calvert, Charles and St.
Mary’s counties that the firearms
season for our region was
dismal. I can vouch for that!
The deer just seemed to disappear
when the guns came out –
more so than usual. Sure, there
were some lucky hunters who
bagged really nice bucks with
their guns, and quite a few does
as well. The local deer processing
facilities report that numbers
of deer brought in for butchering
are less, but very nearly the same
as they were last year. As I sat in the woods throughout the
season, there were not as many blasts punctuating the woodland
symphony as there seemed to be last year.
Last Friday, Maryland DNR released the preliminary
harvest totals for the 2011 firearms season. Overall, the harvest
is up slightly from 2010, but in our region the overall total
is down by about 1% (according to them). Statewide the
total harvest from the regular firearms season was 41,421.
In 2010 the total was 40,694.
The totals for the tri-county region 2011 Regular
Firearms Season are as follows:
County Antlered Antlerless Total 2010 Total
Calvert 243 549 792 704
Charles 555 1085 1640 1878
St. Mary’s 379 839 1218 1304
The Junior Firearms Season was 2 days long this year
– for the first time ever – and the harvest for this season
alone was up by 47%. Twenty of the State’s 23 counties
allowed hunting on Sunday on private land during the junior
season. The statewide total harvest for the Junior Firearms
Season was 3,014. In 2010, 2053 deer were harvested
by juniors. The breakdown for the tri-county region Junior
Firearms Season is as follows:
County Antlered Antlerless Total 2010 Total
Calvert 32 30 62 30
Charles 61 62 123 79
St. Mary’s 48 50 98 42
Last Saturday, instead of being in the woods for
the beginning of the late segment of the Muzzleloader
Season, I found myself at an afternoon holiday party.
There was not a single hunter or angler there besides
me, so I was a little out of my element. One very nice
lady asked me if I knew of a way to get more deer to
her back yard. She loves to watch them and has had
little success at attracting them to stay. She has tried
apples and even a salt lick. The apples rot where she
puts them – even hanging from a string – and the salt
lick dissolves away in the rain.
Now, I really hate to tell people how to attract deer
to their backyards because those who do often regret
their actions when they discover how deer love to eat
Deer Harvest
flowers and rub the bark from small trees and shrubbery.
Still, the lady persisted, so I told her to coat her salt lick
with molasses or one of the concoctions sold in sporting
goods stores for this method of attracting deer. If that’s not
enough, buy several bags of “deer corn” (which is little more
than shelled corn) and spread that corn on the ground. Autumn
harvest “ear corn” will also work. Then I reminded
her that deer are very nocturnal creatures, but when fed and
not disturbed, she could expect to see them at all times of
day or night. Deer are fascinating creatures to watch. A few
years back, I used these methods to attract deer to my own
back yard until my better half – a devoted gardener – taught
me the error of my ways.
If you have a particularly interesting hunting story and
a picture, please drop me a line at riverdancekeith@gmail.
com.
If you have a particularly interesting hunting story
and a picture, please drop me a line at riverdancekeith@
gmail.com.
Ah those summer days of fishing!
A View From The
Bleachers
By Ronald N. Guy Jr.
Contributing Writer
A s s e m b l e
all NFL teams
together and, like
every schoolyard,
you’ll find
a sample of styles
covering the
entire athletic
continuum. The
awkward and uncoordinated
(the
Colts and ‘Skins),
the talented but
unfocused (the
Cowboys), the
naturally gifted and elegant (Green Bay)
and even the bullies are represented. There
are many teams claiming territory in this
latter group, but there’s only one true NFL
playground thug: the Pittsburgh Steelers.
No sports franchise personifies its city
more accurately than the Steelers. The
franchise’s name and logo were, obviously,
derived from the local trademark steel industry,
but the team’s cultural connection
with the region is far deeper than these
superficial indicators. Western Pennsylvania
is synonymous with Appalachia, rugged,
resilient Americans and steel. Similarly,
as far back as the early 1970s and the
famed Steel Curtain defense, Pittsburgh
has proudly been one of the NFL’s tough
guys. Stingy defenses, hard hits and bluecollar,
no-nonsense players have been the
hallmark of Steelers football for 40 years.
The organization long ago adopted a successful
formula that, like a good family
recipe, they’ve stubbornly maintained without
compromise. They draft and develop
their own players and have little use for free
agents who’ve been corrupted with another,
non-Steelers culture. They seek out “steel”-
minded, hard-nosed coaches that embody
the “Steelers way “, show them uncommon
loyalty – they‘ve had but three coaches
since 1969 – and empower them to run the
football operations. It’s a business model,
a franchise and a style of play I’ve admired
for many years. That admiration, despite
the team’s on-going success, is starting to
wane.
Savage Amusement
Violence, an innate aspect of football,
is under assault. League rules regarding
hits on quarterbacks and defenseless receivers
has been redefined; the powers-that-be
in the NFL have absolutely zero tolerance
for helmet to helmet hits and NFL headhunters
who lead recklessly with the crown
of their helmets. As one might suspect, such
violence legislation and its enforcement has
been met with great resistance from fans
and players alike. Every Sunday fans erupt
over perceived dubious personal fouls and
players cry to their union over league-levied
fines for illegal hits. Ground zero for
this battle between old school football ops
and the new school neutering of defensive
aggression is Pittsburgh, Penn.
No team has gotten more publicity for
its blackout hits and fines than the Steelers.
The new rules fly in the face of everything
the Steelers are and team and fans are united
in their angst. I was with them for a while.
Now my answer to Black and Gold nation’s
gripes is “too bad.” The truth is violence
follows the Steelers. If you watch a team
against any other opponent and then watch
them against the Steelers, you’ll see two
different brands of football. The Steelers
are like the attitude-laden co-worker who
brings out the worst in everyone around him
or her. Watch a Steelers game and you’re
probably going to see someone from the
other team knocked senseless and stagger
off the field. And for the most part, football
fans – Steelers fans or otherwise – love it.
That is sad commentary on the lack of basic
humanity pervading society and stands on
Sundays. Our ignorance of the long-term
impact of concussions is long gone. There
should be a collective intolerance for players
who blatantly and habitually hit opponents
high and disgust, not barbaric celebration,
when someone’s husband, father
or son is knocked senseless. For whatever
reason, such play follows the Steelers and
in this battle of wills, the NFL will, thankfully,
prevail. The Steelers will conform…
eventually. Their style represents football’s
past, the league’s approach its sustainable,
safer future.
In the movie Gladiator, an enslaved
Maximus continues to win the favor of his
captors and fans for his victorious acts of
violence in arranged battles. In a poignant
moment, Maximus, irritated by the bloodthirst
of spectators seeking savage amusement,
hurls his sword at his captor’s perch.
The act was met with catcalls and prompts
an annoyed Maximus to yell, “Are you not
entertained?” In that moment Maximus,
as the great human conscience, captures
exactly how I feel about Steelers football.
Am I entertained by Steelers football? Not
anymore.
Send comments to rguyjoon@yahoo.com