Böcker av Calvin Hight Allen

Did you know that flying fish sometimes fly with seagulls? That Moon Dogs sometimes hunt on Earth? That grasshoppers have been on the planet for 350 million years? That assassin bugs carry switchblades? That clumps of jellyfish can fly? That demons live among us? That the Flash and his wife zip through the area? Do you know how to tell fact from exaggeration from falsehood? This book contains some of Calvin Hight Allen's favorite photographs with whimsical captions. The photographs, taken by the author and some of his friends in the "Old Men with Cameras" photo club, are as unique as they are stunning; the captions, as penetrating as they are clever. They cover an amazing variety of subjects from local barns to far-flung galaxies. Wide-ranging in imagination and steeped in erudition, the captions sparkle with sometimes ironic, iconoclastic, irreverent, and unconventional humor interspersed with tenderness, empathy, and appreciation in capturing the essence of human nature.

As Isaac Allen grew up, he learned to love working with his hands, and eventually became a builder. In the process, he, his father Calvin Allen, and his mother Maria Fire formed an unofficial yet very productive construction company -- Eyeball.

Dan Weaver is a headhunter who specializes in construction searches. When a young mother tries to talk him into a different type of search -- looking for her engineer-husband who's gone missing in the wilds of Canada, Dan is reluctant. He's got his own wife, his own life in Asheville, North Carolina. However, the more he hears about the mysterious disappearance of this young engineer, the more intrigued he becomes.

Growing up on a subsistence farm in North Carolina, Jap Allen married his childhood sweetheart, got his degree in veterinary medicine from Auburn University, served in the army, and established his practice in eastern North Carolina. When Jap started into practice in the 1950s, he worked mostly on farm animals -- on small farms and at the local stockyard. Money was scarce, and he was sometimes paid in produce. Mules were the tractors of the day, and Jap treated many mules for colic and other problems -- even bringing one back from the dead. As his small-animal practice grew, he ministered to a wide range of pets, from boas to Yorkshires. He also inspected animals at stockyards, slaughterhouses, and rodeos. Knocked out by a mule, chased by bulls, and battered by car wrecks, Jap survived his veterinary adventures for 42 years -- until dementia forced him into early retirement.