Rubber Legs and White Tail-Hairs

Fans of McManus (The Grasshopper Trap will welcome these 27 little excursions into the life of the narrator ""Pat,'' the author's alter ego. His humor is directed at fishermen, hunters, campers, gun-swappers, little boys and willful weather. All but the last two are recognizable. Deliberately ``simple,'' the humor is always good-natured: the worst character is a prissy, visiting auntand she turns out to be a nice person in the end. The settings are all in the West, often in Pat's boyhood town of Delmore Blight, Idaho. Boyish pranks and adult foolishness get the mostattention, with the usual cast of McManus characters: Retch Sweeney, Rancid Crabtree, wife Bun et al. Among the best pieces are ``Angler's Dictionary'' (``Best fishing timeYesterday or last week. Worst fishing timeNow.'') and ``Advanced Duck-Hunting Techniques'' (see the Toilet Tissue ploy). It's good, clean, old-fashioned fun. (September 25)