Tally-ho

I was interested to read that Blair's greatest regret was the bill banning fox-hunting. Disrespectful of the traditions and mores of the country folk, he said. If he could do it all again, he wouldn't save more human lives, but end more lupine ones. (Wolf, fox, close enough; it's a good line, you'll grant me that eh?) This got me curious about the state of the chase in my own country, and somewhat to my surprise, business appears to be thriving. Check out the web site of the MFHA, the Masters of Foxhounds Association and Foundation, the governing body for the sport in America. If you look at this hunt map you will see that they happen all over the US but are concentrated in my neck of the woods: the mid-Atlantic area, and most specifically Virginia. This stands to reason: central and western Virginia are old-money citadels, where along the sides of many country roads you will see not junked cars and other detritus but long white fences and stone walls. This Wikipedia entry indicates that in general, foxes are not killed in America. The point is the thrill of the case. When a fox "goes to ground" the pursuit ends. I didn't find any clear language on this on the MFHA site, although there were some links to articles about what a bunch of weenies PETA are, so there must have been some bad blood there in the past. Wasps are funny people with funny ways. But I'll say this for them. They'd fight a Wal-Mart or a K-Mart to the death, but they probably wouldn't oppose a mosque, provided it were tastefully set back from the roadway.