| Alberta has a long-standing reputation for attracting and producing characters with scant respect for the law and even less for public opinion. In his latest collection of short biographies, Brian Brennan looks at the flamboyant, eccentric, and downright bizarre people who established this provincial tradition. Meet Wild Bill Peyto, the legendary mountain man who once let a lynx loose in a saloon to see how quickly the drunks could escape. Or Calgary's notorious prostitute Pearl Miller, who left such an impression with Canadian soldiers in WWII that they responded to the American sign "Remember Pearl Harbor" with "To hell with Pearl Harbor, remember Pearl Miller." Or Fred Perceval, the Alberta rancher who inherited the title Earl of Egmont and decided, after a few years in an English castle, that ranching was the better life. Or Elizabeth "Sweaty Betty" Abbott, an Edmonton slum landlord known for punching out abusive husbands and taking care of their battered wives. They're a wild and unruly bunch, but Alberta couldn't be prouder of them.
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