May 17, 2012

May/June 2010

Been Down So Long
(it feels like up to me)
by Tom Davis, Editor-at-Large

ears ago, someone defined an "expert" as "a person who lives more than 50 miles away and has a slide show." These days it'd be a PowerPoint presentation, slide shows having gone the way of, well, slides, but the basic premise still rings true.

In any event, “expert” is a slippery label and one that wears better when it's conferred by others as opposed to claimed by oneself. And while I'm happy to call people like Rick Smith, Ben Williams, and Larry Brown experts, I cringe when someone describes me that way. I think of myself as more of a journeyman, a jack-of-all-trades and master of none. I suppose if you put a gun to my head, I'd admit I'm a pretty good writer; but whenever someone asks me how I came to this profession, I tell them it's because I'm even worse at everything else.

As a football coach once described his team after yet another lopsided defeat, "We're small, but we're slow."

In short, I think my experiences as a dog man, a wingshot, and an upland bird hunter --and certainly my skill level in these capacities -- mirror those of the typical reader of this magazine. I like to think this is a strength, but it depends on how you look at it. You can, and should, read Rick, Ben, and Larry to plumb the depths of their considerable wisdom; but if you try to read me that way, the bucket's likely to come up as dry as the loaves of sawdust my Aunt Gladys passed off as zucchini bread.

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