If you missed the show on Skinny Moose Radio today at 3 p.m., you can now listen by streaming the audio right here or going to the Skinny Moose Radio website and downloading it as a podcast or saving it to your computer and listen at your leisure.

My guest today was Kristine Shreve, Director of Marketing for Gun Safety Innovations. We talked extensively about hunting safety and in particular tree stand safety. Gun Safety Innovations has developed a product that will not only allow you to safely raise and lower your weapon from your tree stand and to secure it and prevent it from falling out of your stand.

In addition to tree stand safety, we also discussed outdoor industry networking including bloggers and the impact this is having on hunting and the outdoor sports industry.

Click on the player below to listen to the show or go to the website to download.

Tom Remington

Too often we hear about the great fishing in the west, eastern Canada, Alaska or down under but some of the best fishing can be found in the state of Maine as the below photos and captions attest.

Dennis Bolduc Photo – This picture was taken by Dennis’ brother-in-law, Don Bessey. They were fishing Wyman Lake in Bingham on Dennis’ birthday, June 11th, 2007. This beautiful rainbow trout was caught and released near the end of the day. It weighed 6.2 lbs and was 23 and a half inches long.

Dennis Bolduc Photo – This first picture was taken by Dennis on May 2nd, 2007. It is a 6 and a half pound ( 25 inches long ) landlocked salmon caught by Steve Day of Madison. It was caught in Sebago Lake.

Tom Remington

I want to take a moment to remind readers that a brand new broadcast of “Open Air With Tom Remington” will air today at 3 p.m. on Skinny Moose Radio.

Today’s show features an in depth interview with Kristine Shreve, Director of Marketing for Gun Safety Innovations, maker of the new tree stand safety device the Gun Slinger. Kristine and I discuss hunter safety with a focus on tree stand safety.

Following that, we spend some time talking about the importance of the outdoor blogoshere and how this is becoming a rapidly growing resource for all outdoor sportsmen. I hope you tune in.

If you can’t listen to the show at 3 p.m., as always we will provide a link to our website so you can listen to the show and all the shows at your leisure. I hope you will join me today at 3.

Tom Remington

Roxanne Quimby founded Burt’s Bees. She’s made millions. She’s bought up land in the thousands of acres in Maine and all but locked it out from recreational use. When she sold Burt’s Bees, she retained a 20% interest in the company. Now here’s something that is a bit mind boggling and potentially disturbing for Maine residents.

AEA Investors, the current owners of Burt’s Bees, has retained investment bank Goldman Sachs in order to help facilitate the sale of the company. It is being estimated that this sale could fetch as much as $1 billion dollars.

So, do the math and calculate the potential, without of course knowing any of the details of a payout for Quimby. A 20% share of $1 billion dollars is a lot of cabbage and could also buy up a lot more of Maine’s lands continuing to shut out more and more people, further limiting the available land for recreation.

Mind boggling and a bit too scary.

Tom Remington

It’s that time of year when baseball is in a flurry scrambling around trying to decide who will be in the playoffs and who will be a spoiler or perhaps just totally forgotten. Last night I attended the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Boston Red Sox baseball game at Tropicana Field in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida. The Sox of course are in first place chasing the American League Pennant and hoping for a spot in the World Series. The Devil Rays could just as easily been forgotten this year but they are very much involved in the “spoiler” role.

But so far they have lost two straight to Boston and have a final game here on Sunday. Next week the Yankees, who as of last night, remain 2 and a half games behind Boston in the American League East race.

The photos below aren’t of the best quality because of the lighting and distance away but nonetheless, I thought you might enjoy.

Tom Remington photo – Inside Tropicana Field and a view of the brand new large screen scoreboard in right field. A good crowd was on hand.

Tom Remington photo – Raymond, the Devil Rays mascot, works the crowd helping to keep fans into the game and cheering for the home team. When the Sox are in town, it’s hard to tell who is the home team.

Tom Remington photo – Carlos Pena is the Tampa Bay Devil Rays rookie first baseman. He is a contender for Rookie of the Year honors along with Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia. Last night Pena hit his 41st and 42nd home runs of the season. Pena already holds the home run record for any Tampa Bay Devil Ray.

Tom Remington photo – Red Sox rookie, Jakoby(sp) Ellsberry, heads back to first base as Devil Rays pitcher Sunnanstine tries to pick him off.

Tom Remington photo – The Sox jumped out to an early 3-0 lead but the Rays kept fighting back and eventually took a 6-5 lead into the seventh inning. The Sox tied it at 6 in the eighth. In the ninth, a home run by Valentin put the Sox up for good and that brought in ace reliever Jonathan Papelbon to shut down the Rays and that he did.

Final score?

Tom Remington photo

Tom Remington

In today’s Bangor Daily News, OpEd writer Rollin Thurlow, president of the Allagash Alliance Group, says that he has a different explanation as to why the drop in usage of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway is three times that of any of the other two big parks, Acadia and Baxter. And what is his alternate view?

In the last six years, the usage of the Boundary Waters Wilderness Canoe Area has had only a decrease of less than 9 percent, to 127,000. The number of long-term hikers on the Appalachian Trail has remained steady. The rugged Northern Forest Canoe Trail has opened from New York through northern New England and into Canada, and the Maine Woods Forever organization has opened the Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail. The public is still seeking wilderness and extended canoe trips. If these hardy wilderness-based activities are attracting the public, why are they not coming to the Allagash Wilderness Waterway?

Mr. Thurlow asks a great question and goes on to make argument as to why he feels the way he does. I’m not here to dispute Mr. Thurlow’s opinion, although I may not agree with all of it. What I would like to do is offer an explanation that I’m sure he has thought of and probably neither of us have the resources to prove.

In Thurslow’s piece, he shares with readers about expanded opportunities for outdoor and wilderness seekers as you can see from the above taken from the OpEd. I’m willing to wager that the “type” of user who would use the AWW also would use the Appalachian Trail, The Northern Forest Canoe Trail, etc. I’m also willing to wager, and this isn’t something I’m pulling out of my hat, the number of people who are using such areas isn’t on the increase. At best it is holding steady but more than likely on the decline. We should also point out that probably the typical user to Acadia isn’t a typical user to the Allagash.

The ski industry nationwide has been faced with a similar dilemma for some time. There are only so many skiers and the industry struggled to find a way to increase those users. Their only saving grace has been the evolution of snowboarding. The problem the industry faced is that all ski areas were competing for the same group of skiers. What would Maine look like if it added one more major ski resort? Might I suggest that not only are the three parks, Allagash, Acadia and Baxter, competing for the same shrinking group of users, they are now competing with other outdoor opportunities such as the Northern Forest Canoe Trail.

Granted that might not fully explain a threefold drop compared to the other parks but I don’t think Thurlow can completely blame the management of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway as such. If we are going to do that, then we should be comparing apples with apples and oranges with oranges. An experience on the AWW is far from similar to one at Acadia or Baxter for that matter.

There’s also a certain amount of math realization that should be taken into consideration. First off, there are far more visitors each year to Acadia than to the Allagash. At one time, and I don’t know if this is still true, Acadia was the most visited national park in American. In 2005, Acadia National Park received 2,051,484 recreational visits. Baxter had some 58,000 visitors in 2006. I don’t have numbers for the Allagash but I can assure you it is far less than either of these two.

A 20% drop in numbers when we are talking over 2 million is a lot of people, some 400,000 plus. 20% of 58,000 is 11,600 and whatever AWW numbers look like. The point is, the smaller the number of visitors to a park, the easier it is to show sharper drops when dealing strictly in percentages. If Maine added another similar national park, would Acadia’s numbers drop drastically?

One would have to, in fairness, try to determine how many total user types there are for places like the AWW, Northern Forest, etc. Then look to see how those numbers compare to which places they went.

Mr. Thurlow probably has a strong argument about management of the Allagash but he can’t completely blame the drop on them no more than those park managers can blame ipods, MTV and computer games. Nationwide trends have to be considered as do all aspects, including what I have spoken about – the increase in user opportunities compared to the same or fewer people to use them. That in and of itself will create a significant drop when only comparing one park, like AWW.

Tom Remington

Yesterday’s broadcast on Skinny Moose Radio of “Open Air with Tom Remington”, went off pretty much without a hitch. With each successive broadcast, I get a little more comfortable and putting the show together becomes a bit more easy.

My guest yesterday was, once again, my son Steven, as we both work together to work the kinks out of the show but that doesn’t mean we didn’t have anything to talk about. We covered a little bit of baseball, in particular some Red Sox and Yankees coverage, football and the Patriots and Bill Belicheat, along with a host of other topics.

The focus of the show centered around the topic of wolves in the west and the title to a recent article about killing wolves, where the author of that article said that killing wolves violated the public trust. I spend ample time explaining why that is not true and that the fact is the when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, et. al. turned wolves loose in the Yellowstone area, that was a violation of the public trust. I share some history and information of how the U.S. was lied to about the reintroduction.

This topic will be expanded in future shows to show how much of what all hunters and outdoorsmen face today in battling the animal lovers, animal rights groups and anti-hunters is a direct relation to the reintroduction of wolves and continuing debate about their protection over the property rights of U.S. citizens.

I think you will enjoy the show. You can either click here and download or listen to the broadcast with your own media player, or click on the player below and listen now!. Thank you.

Tom Remington

I usually do not post articles here that are “off topic” but I was sent this story via email and I just thought it was a great story and one that I was not knowledgeable of. I hope you enjoy it.

A GREAT STORY OF LATE-FOUND HONOR AND ITS RESULTS.

Many years ago, Al Capone virtually owned Chicago. Capone wasn’t famous for anything heroic. He was notorious for enmeshing the windy city in everything from bootlegged booze and prostitution to murder.

Capone had a lawyer nicknamed “Easy Eddie.” He was Capone’s lawyer for a good reason. Eddie was very good! In fact, Eddie’s skill at legal maneuvering kept Big Al out of jail for a long time.

To show his appreciation, Capone paid him very well. Not only was the money big, but also, Eddie got special dividends. For instance, he and his family occupied a fenced-in mansion with live-in help and all of the conveniences of the day. The estate was so large that it filled an entire Chicago City block.

Eddie lived the high life of the Chicago mob and gave little consideration to the atrocity that went on around him.

Eddie did have one soft spot, however. He had a son that he loved dearly. Eddie saw to it that his young son had clothes, cars, and a good education. Nothing was withheld. Price was no object.

And, despite his involvement with organized crime, Eddie even tried to teach him right from wrong. Eddie wanted his son to be a better man than he was.

Yet, with all his wealth and influence, there were two things he couldn’t give his son; he couldn’t pass on a good name or a good example.

One day, Easy Eddie reached a difficult decision. Easy Eddie wanted to rectify wrongs he had done.

He decided he would go to the authorities and tell the truth about Al “Scarface” Capone, clean up his tarnished name, and offer his son some semblance of integrity. To do this, he would have to testify against The Mob, and he knew that the cost would be great.

So, he testified.

Within the year, Easy Eddie’s life ended in a blaze of gunfire on a lonely Chicago Street.

But in his eyes, he had given his son the greatest gift he had to offer, at the greatest price he could ever pay. Police removed from his pockets a rosary, a crucifix, a religious medallion, and a poem clipped from a magazine. The poem read:

The clock of life is wound but once, and no man has the power to tell just when the hands will stop, at late or early hour. Now is the only time you own.
Live, love, toil with a will. Place no faith in time, for the clock may soon be still.

World War II produced many heroes. One such man was Lieutenant Commander Butch O’Hare.

He was a fighter pilot assigned to the aircraft carrier Lexington in the South Pacific.

One day his entire squadron was sent on a mission. After he was airborne, he looked at his fuel gauge and realized that someone had forgotten to top off his fuel tank.

He would not have enough fuel to complete his mission and get back to his ship.

His flight leader told him to return to the carrier. Reluctantly, he dropped out of formation and headed back to the fleet.

As he was returning to the mother ship he saw something that turned his blood cold: a squadron of Japanese aircraft was speeding its way toward the American fleet.

The American fighters were gone on a sortie, and the fleet was all but defenseless. He couldn’t reach his squadron and bring them back in time to save the fleet. Nor could he warn the fleet of the approaching danger. There was only one thing to do. He must somehow divert them from the fleet.

Laying aside all thoughts of personal safety, he dove into the formation of Japanese planes. Wing-mounted 50 caliber’s blazed as he charged in, attacking one surprised enemy plane and then another. Butch wove in and out of the now broken formation and fired at as many planes as possible until all his ammunition was finally spent.

Undaunted, he continued the assault. He dove at the planes, trying to clip a wing or tail in hopes of damaging as many enemy planes as possible and rendering them unfit to fly.

Finally, the exasperated Japanese squadron took off in another direction.

Deeply relieved, Butch O’Hare and his tattered fighter limped back to the carrier.

Upon arrival, he reported in and related the event surrounding his return. The film from the gun-camera mounted on his plane told the tale. It showed the extent of Butch’s daring attempt to protect his fleet.

He had, in fact, destroyed five enemy aircraft.

This took place on February 20, 1942, and for that action Butch became the Navy’s first Ace of W.W.II, and the first Naval Aviator to win the Congressional Medal of Honor.

A year later Butch was killed in aerial combat at the age of 29. His hometown would not allow the memory of this WW II hero to fade, and today, O’Hare Airport in Chicago is named in tribute to the courage of this great man.

So, the next time you find yourself at O’Hare International, give some thought to visiting Butch’s memorial displaying his statue and his Medal of Honor. It’s located between Terminals 1 and 2.

SO WHAT DO THESE TWO STORIES HAVE TO DO WITH EACH OTHER?

Butch O’Hare was “Easy Eddie’s” son.

Posted by Tom Remington

Hey! Don’t forget to tune in to the broadcast of “Open Air with Tom Remington” on Skinny Moose Radio starting at 3 p.m. today. Today my guest was again my son Steve and we talked about a variety of subjects but the main topic of conversation was about wolves in the west and my response to an article I read titled, “Killing Wolves Violates The Public Trust”. The basis of my rebuttal was clarification that the public trust was violated when we the citizens were lied to by our own government and others when wolves were forced upon the people from reintroduction.

I hope you’ll tune in. After the program has aired, we’ll list the show with a link for you to listen to at your leisure.

Tom Remington

Remember the day when a professional athlete had class, style, an aura about them that people, especially a kid, longed to be like? Were those the good ole days? What has happened? Where are the Joe DiMaggios and the Ted Williams of the world? What about Willie Mays and Hank Aaron?

Unfortunately, I think those bygone days are such that we’ll not see any again anytime soon. Today’s baseball player is more about themselves and how big a contract they can get while often times exemplifying a lack of respect for the game and the legend of America’s favorite pastime.

Griffin Whitman, a 10-year old who also happens to be a Boston Red Sox fan, sought ought the autograph of Yankees outfielder, Shelley Duncan. What he got surprised him. See photo to the right.

So what’s wrong with that? Probably nothing to most people today but as you might guess, I’m not most people today and I find it childish and ignorant. Here’s how Duncan described the act.

Duncan tells the paper he’s surprised that Griffith and his parents were offended. “I thought I was back in middle school or high school, where you try to make a joke or say something funny, and you end up saying something that gets you in trouble,” Duncan says. “I try to be interactive with people, be funny, have a good time and have a laugh. It’s not always Yankees fans that have us sign stuff. I try to rile ’em up and be fun. I don’t expect anybody to make a big deal about it. Nobody ever has before.”

And herein lies the problem. Someone forgot to explain to Duncan that he’s not in middle or high school anymore. It reminds of the Bible verse that says that when I was a child, I acted and spoke as a child and did childish things. When I became a man, I put those things away.

As a businessman, I would take issue with a representative of mine demeaning the game of baseball. Writing “Red Sox Suck” for a kid with an autograph isn’t representative of multi-million dollar salaries, say nothing about $50 parking prices, $6.00 hot dogs and $35.00 bleacher seats. As a parent, I would think it quite inappropriate. But heck, that’s just me and I think I am now clearly in a minority on such issues.

Tom Remington

If you missed the original broadcast of “Open Air with Tom Remington”, you can get that broadcast right here. The first show featured an interview with my son, President of Skinny Moose Media, Steven Remington. We talked about our media network, the launching of Skinny Moose Radio and related topics, as well as the Skinny Moose bloggers network. Don’t miss the show. It’s filled with lots of information about our plans for the future and how you can become a Skinny Moose Radio personality.

You have two options. You can Download Open Air here, or you can just click on the start button below and play it right here and listen while you browse about and check your mail, etc.

Don’t forget that Skinny Moose Media has our very own tool bar that you can download for your browser. Not only will you get a Skinny Moose Radio network player, you also get direct links to all the latest posts of the Skinny Moose Media blog network. Click here to download the tool bar now. At the top of the page is a sample of the tool bar. Just click on “Download Our Free Toolbar”.

Tom Remington

Today at 3 p.m will be the first broadcast of “Open Air with Tom Remington”. This show is my son Steve and I discussing our future plans for Skinny Moose Radio. This will include talking about our programming plans, how you can start your own show, equipment you need to start a show and a myriad of related topics. I think it is information that listeners will really be interested in knowing.

I have been asked so often about what the show will be etc., that I put together a brief explanation that I have been giving to people. Here it is.

“What I envision for Open Air with Tom Remington is not just me but a lot of participation from other people, other sportsmen and activists who really love the outdoors and are worried that with the trends taking place all around us, there will be no more outdoors to enjoy. I want to talk with other people and talk about the things that really matter. We have to get outdoor sports people talking and becoming vocal. We have stayed quiet for so long that many feel like we don’t care about the issues. That has to change.

“I chose the title “Open Air” because I wanted to be able to let listeners know that the topics of my discussions will reach deeper and wider than mostly hunting issues, which is what the Black Bear Blog is all about. Open means the subject material is wide open and the air signifies the outdoors. When you combine the two together, it should provide for some fantastic topics for conversation.”

To give you a little bit of background on the show, we are in the process of having professionally done audio introductions and closings for the show but they’re not ready yet. I threw together a little introduction of my own so that we could get the show up and running. This will help in getting the bugs out.

The show will run in this time slot, at least for now. If you are unable to tune in at 3 p.m. for the broadcast, the Skinny Moose Radio website will have a listing of the show and a link where you can either download the show or stream it on your own computer’s media player.

I am very excited about “Open Air with Tom Remington” and I have some topics and guest interviews, etc. planned that I think will be great entertainment as well as informational and educational.

I hope you tune in today and every Thursday afternoon at 3 p.m.

Tom Remington