Ice-skating buffalo
Friday October 27th 2006, 12:56 pm
Filed under: Non-Knitting

I’m not trying to spoil the book for anyone, but I do figure that not a lot of people are running out to buy it because of my having mentioned it. So I wanted to share my favorite part of “Winterdance”: at one point, Paulsen saw another Iditarod musher sitting, his dogs parked, looking down at the scene below the rise at a point where Paulsen couldn’t see. The other guy motioned him over, saying, You’ve got to see this!

Down below them was a frozen lake and four buffalo. Two were out on the ice, trying to rise awkwardly to their feet. The other two were on the side. One backed up the embankment, carefully, and then with tail held high, went running forward and hit the ice with its front legs apart just so, so that it went twirling around and around on the ice. It got up, legs slipping out from under it, shakily and with the obvious buffalo equivalent of a grin, while the next one backed up the embankment to come do the same thing. Run, hit the ice, spin like a top–next!

Worth the price of the book just to read that part. Go buffalo. And cheers to the men who took the time away from the race to stop and see it.


6 Comments so far
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Alison,
what a wonderful gift from your friend, and great timing too…thanks for sharing that passage! 🙂
Too funny.

Comment by Karin 10.28.06 @ 11:01 am

You know… I really liked the one book by Gary Paulsen that I read. I can’t think why I haven’t read this one.

I’m on my way to the library where they say they have a copy on hold for me.

Thanks for this! Much appreciated.
-Robin, who doubts the book has been spoiled

Comment by Robin 10.28.06 @ 12:59 pm

Oh boy… I went to the library. I got the book. I read the quote on the cover. It’s about humans’ relationships with dogs? Duh…how do you have dog sled races without relationships with dogs?

Just then Scruffy licked my face. He missed me. I’ll read about dogs anytime.

I went on to the Y where I overheard a conversation bemoaning the end of daylight savings time. It’s a chill wind that’s blowing today. Way over here not all of us are looking forward to our own upcoming dances with winter.

It’s all right. Gifford’s doesn’t make pumpkin ice cream in June.

Comment by robin 10.28.06 @ 3:12 pm

Thank you; it was a wonderfully thoughtful thing for him to do, not to mention a good read. And then following it up, he called while I was still at Stanford, giving Richard and me a chance to catch up with him a bit, getting us away for a moment from the whole hospital scene to just focus on our friendship. There are times and places where a visitor makes all the difference.

Comment by AlisonH 10.28.06 @ 3:31 pm

[…] And then he reminded me.  After the musk ox got reintroduced to Alaska, the buffalo did.  “Where the deer and the antelope play” had nothing on these guys. […]

Pingback by SpinDyeKnit 05.10.10 @ 11:48 pm

[…] areas while trying to come up with something relevant to both the colors and the muskox. I’d read a little before, (I loved the story of what the re-introduced buffalo did, thank you for the book, Scott!) I have a […]

Pingback by SpinDyeKnit 01.04.11 @ 10:04 pm



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