RUBBER LEGS AND WHITE TAIL-HAIRS

These humor columns are rural electrification, abuzz with irresistible comedy, just as they were in such previous McManus collections as The Grasshopper Trap and Never Sniff a Gift Fish. A writer for the out-of-doors magazines, McManus' skillful anarchy transcends the trappings of field and stream, zeroing in on the characters and predicaments that will amuse denizens of both backwoods and high-rise. The humorous nature of the book should not, however, prevent the reader from taking serious stock from the vast array of practical information therein. Among the subjects covered are: how to cure a dog of house-climbing, an epistemological background for filleting infinite bluegills, how a common tropical fruit can become an instrument of brutal revenge, and the use and abuse of the Modified Stationary Panic (patent still pending). McManus also explains such natural phenomena as being passed on a snowy western highway by a screaming mountain man doing 65 mph atop an old car fender and strapped to an open parachute. These sorts of arcana may not be the most essential sporting knowledge, but they can surely enrich one's enjoyment of life in the great outdoors. A sure-handed collection of yarns, boyhood reminiscences, and essays. The names of the two most prominent recurring characters--Rancid Crabtree and Retch Sweeny-seem like unfortunate lapses in subtlety, perhaps christened in the author's more exuberant youth. Still, the stories they inhabit are delights. A very funny collection.