Author Archives: Gavin Stevens

About Gavin Stevens

Humptulips County is the wholly fictional on-line residence of Stephen Ellis, a would-be writer, an avid fan of William Faulkner and his Yoknapatawpha County, and a retired lawyer.

Summer Is A-Fadin’ Away

Posted on August 31, 2013 by Gavin Stevens

While it isn’t the last weekend of summer according to the calendar, it certainly is in accordance with our shared culture. The long Labor Day weekend has always marked summer’s conclusion in the United States, for the school years in districts across the land have either begun by then or … Continue reading →

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Fat Finches And Fantasies

Posted on August 17, 2013 by Gavin Stevens

“Three years ago at dusk on a spring evening, when the sky was a robin’s-egg blue and the wind as soft as a day-old chick, I was sitting on the verandah of my farm home in eastern Iowa when a … Continue reading →

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The Joys of Friendships Arising From Sharing Risk

Posted on August 9, 2013 by Gavin Stevens

While I enjoyed practicing law for many years, I recently retired. I never lost my zest for serving others, but the administrative requirements of modern law practice finally got to the point where I was no longer having fun – the dictates … Continue reading →

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Of the Intersection of Fragility and Beauty

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Gavin Stevens

Yesterday, tired from three days of travel and the consequent catching up on chores around the Farm, we decided to go out for pizza and ignore the restrictions of our respective diets. As we turned the corner from one of the lanes … Continue reading →

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Who Is That Old Broad, Anyway?

Posted on July 12, 2013 by Gavin Stevens

So you see, the quality of humor is not a personal or a national monopoly. It’s as free as salvation, and, I am afraid, far more widely distributed. But it has its value, I think. The hard and sordid things … Continue reading →

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Languor in a Summer’s Afternoon

Posted on July 3, 2013 by Gavin Stevens

The alphabet of the trees is fading in the song of the leaves the crossing bars of the thin letters that spelled winter and the cold have been illumined with pointed green by the rain and sun — The strict … Continue reading →

Posted in Our Place in the Firmament, Ponderings on the Meaning of Things | 2 Comments

To Each His Own Mélange

Posted on June 28, 2013 by Gavin Stevens

Some people move through our lives and then they’re gone like the morning rain. Some stand with the stillness of a soldier at their post and never change. Some dance along the waterline like waves against the coast. Some forever haunt you … Continue reading →

Posted in Our Place in the Firmament, Words and Music | Comments Off

Reunions Good and Bad

Posted on June 23, 2013 by Gavin Stevens

It is the summer of my 50th high school reunion, an event I have elected to miss. I have some modest curiosity about what everyone I once knew has done with their lives, but not enough to travel to Eastern … Continue reading →

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Ah, The People We Met

Posted on June 12, 2013 by Gavin Stevens

And he was easily riled and likely to shout Frequently wrong but never in doubt Cheryl Wheeler, Frequently Wrong but Never in Doubt I finished the thing; but I think I sprained my soul. Katherine Ann Porter on her novel Ship … Continue reading →

Posted in Civics, Friendship, Ponderings on the Meaning of Things | 1 Comment

American Myths

Posted on June 2, 2013 by Gavin Stevens

We spent three days in Budapest recently, and, as we are wont to do, we got into a discussion with one of the crewman on our ship, a young man who previously lived in the United States for about three … Continue reading →

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