Excerpt from Flatlanders and Ridgerunners: Out-Riddling the Judge Back in Prohibition my uncle made moonshine. His name was Moses Kenny and his whiskey--they called it “White Mule” was the best in the county. Well, the feds got after him and finally they arrested him. Took him to a federal judge down in Philadelphia. Now, the judge liked a good time and thought he’d have a little fun with this hick from the mountains. When Uncle came into court, he said, “are you the Moses who can make the sun dark?” Moses looked at him and said slowly, “Nope, your honor. But I am the Moses who can make the moon shine.” The judge let him go.

Gil “The Arm” Hamilton was one of the top operatives of ARM, the elite UN police force. His intuition was unfailingly accurate; his detective skills second to none; and his psychic powers—esper sense and telekinesis—were awesome. Tough and deadly, Gil Hamilton could reach right into a person's brain for the truth . . . or for the kill! Read all the stories of the legendary ARM operative, collected here in one volume for the very first time: • Organleggers aren't stopping at robbing body parts from the corpses of the frozen dead. Now they're stealing from the living . . . and Gil is a prime target! • The most beautiful woman on Luna has been falsely accused of murder. Unless Gil can prove her innocence, she's doomed to end up as a sack of spare parts in the organ banks. . . . • And more . . . Plus an all-new, never-before-published Gil Hamilton adventure!

It is the year 2110 when a man awakens next to the Winooski River in Vermont with a severe case of amnesia. He soon encounters the acting leader of Vermont, King Henry, and his party, and is told that Vermont is now a fiercely independent republic and that he is a Flatlander, or one who is purportedly from the Old Country. The name sticks. But there is a problem: many Vermonters have a seething hatred for Flatlanders. Henry eventually agrees to offer Flatlander citizenship, but only under the condition that he successfully complete ten quests to better the overall Republic of Vermont. He reluctantly obliges to fulfill these quests, which are made even more difficult because of the prejudices against his kind. As Flatlander embarks on a journey full of strange yet endearing characters, creatures, and legends, a magical world is brought to life as he comes closer to discovering who he once was, while piecing together an entirely new identity. In this humorous fantasy adventure, cultures and customs collide within a medieval-like Vermont as Flatlander attempts to fulfill his ten assigned quests, uncover the mystery of his past, and find his place in the world. Included are 33 beautiful black and white illustrations by Sam Balling.

During September, October and November, an army of hunters, twenty-five percent larger than the entire United States Marine Corps., marches across country to the Cowboy Hunting lands of the Rockies. For every one who makes the trip, countless others wish they could, but simply don't know how. This book hopes to help them. Yes, it is a book about hunting, but really, it is a book about adventure. It is a book about leaving day-to-day life and living for a short time in a world 180 degrees and thousands of miles in another direction. Any time two or more hunters gather, it will be only a matter of minutes before the conversation becomes a festival of hunting stories. Each story spawns another one, which leads to another one and yet one more. While this is a how-to book, it is also a collection of stories, gleaned from those who have lived them. Each story is true or at least as true as the memories of old Cowboys can be.

Brendan Smith was born and raised on Long Island, New York, a bagel's throw from New York City. In 1985, Brendan unexpectedly found himself moving to Central New Hampshire. Over the next ten years, he worked hard at adjusting to life there. From learning to rake his roof, to buying firewood for the first time, to trying to fit into the social setting of a morning at the dump, he found that these, and many more adjustments, would not be very easy for this Flatlander. Since 1995, Brendan has been recounting these humorous adventures weekly on the pages of The Weirs Times. This book contains the best of those early columns.

Explore Illinois mug-by-mug!