Category Archives: Scribbles

Weaving a tangled Webb

Posted on October 28, 2006 | Comments Off on Weaving a tangled Webb

I confess to having read only one of James Webb’s war novels, the first Vietnam one, Fields of Fire, which I’ve read still sells, along with the others that have made Webb one of America’s few fiction writers who can make a better-than-good living at it. But I did read his non-fictional Born Fighting, and enjoyed its evocation of the redneck backbone of the American military. So I was amazed when Webb decided to become a Democrat to run for the Senate from Virginia. The Republicans, with whom Webb’s right-wing populism would be far more logically aligned, already had their candidate, you see.

Tangled Webb, subtitled Cognitive Dissonance in Virginia, shows why Virginia’s miniscule number of Democrats are having to hold their noses to vote for him. Meanwhile, as the Weekly Standard article hillariously demonstrates, the libs say they will, in the words of one activist for Mexican illegals "consult with him, advise him going forward. Educate him."

Good luck.

Webb really has no chance in Virginia, as a county Democrat party chairman of my acquaintence assured me, unless his opponent Sen. George Allen’s ineptitude gives it to him. Then came the recent stunner about Webb’s incest-pedophillia imagery in one of his books. Webb’s done, stick a fork in him. Unless, in the words of a colorful former Louisiana governor, Allen is caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy.

UPDATE  Cute, but no nicotene. Allen got beat, Webb is the new senator, and maybe someday in his six-year tenure we’ll read about why this man’s man who writes about war needs to have incest-pedophilia in his tales. 

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Cards win the series

Posted on October 28, 2006 | Comments Off on Cards win the series

"Favored by few, the St. Louis Cardinals used an unlikely cast of characters to win their first World Series in nearly a quarter century. Jeff Weaver dominated, David Eckstein drove in two runs on balls that didn’t leave the infield and the Cards took advantage of another wild throw by a Tigers pitcher to beat Detroit 4-2 on Friday night and won the Series in five games."

Tom Higdon, an old Army buddy who lives near St. Louis, will be celebrating this weekend. 

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Hopalong Cassidy

Posted on October 28, 2006 | Comments Off on Hopalong Cassidy

Mr. Boy watches Power Rangers and various super heroes, mostly on Blockbuster DVDs. I’m sorry he’s missing Hopalong and his horse Topper, which I watched in shadowy black and white on "Footlight Theater" in the mid-1950s. But he might find Hoppy shallow, as I occasionally did.

Hoppy was a Californian but his Bar 20 ranch was "in Northwestern Texas," according to the official fan site by the owners of his copyright. "The town in the [original] novel is called Buckskin. Population of one hundred inhabitants, located in the valley of the Rio Pecos fifty miles south of the Texas-New Mexico line."

Even better known than Hopalong was the actor who played his sidekick, Windy, Gabby Hayes, who went on to play second banana to Roy Rogers, the King of the Cowboys.

Think I’ll give it a try, anyhow, with this $7 DVD of five Hoppy westerns from the 1940s. Afterall, I introduced Mr. B. to the inane Power Rangers. Maybe I can work the trick a second time, and he’ll foresake the PR’s Kung Fu moves, in favor of Hoppy’s historically-accurate high-crowned cowboy hat, a cap pistol and even some silver spurs for his sneakers.

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Hitting the Bend

Posted on October 27, 2006 | Comments Off on Hitting the Bend

For something new in tourism, visit the desert.

"Big Bend has been blessed with abundant rain since the beginning of August. This year, we are enjoying the Chihuahuan Desert’s version of a monsoon. It is not an annual event. If it were, it wouldn’t be a desert.  Daily temperatures have been  very pleasant, much cooler than average. Bring a sweater." 

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Explorer 7 not so hot

Posted on October 24, 2006 | Comments Off on Explorer 7 not so hot

I downloaded the new IE7 edition in hopes that it might be faster than Firefox. It is, somewhat, but has other quirks. For one thing the favorites can’t be easily loaded from Firefox, and the IE7 homepage is stuck and can’t be changed. I’ve tried every way I can think of. What a piece of sh***!

The Browser Den review is more complimentary but also discovers enough quirks to make switching back to it from Firefox not worth the trouble.

Via SlashDot 

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Robert Johnson’s graves

Posted on October 23, 2006 | Comments Off on Robert Johnson’s graves

Reading "Looking Around Mississippi," a limited-edition 2005 photo and essay book by Mississippi television weatherman and features writer Walt Grayson, I was reminded there is more than one location for the grave of Delta blues musician and composer Robert Johnson who inspired Elvis and the Rolling Stones and many more.

His 1938 "death certificate simply said he was buried at Zion Church," Grayson writes. "For years no one knew which one."

They’re still confused, judging from this web site and this one, the former choosing to locate Johnson’s remains under a simple flat marker in a family plot behind Payne Chapel in Quito (short for mosquito) reading "Resting in the Blues," and the latter preferring a more ornate cenotaph at Mount Zion Church at Sheppardtown in Leflore County. It says quite a lot more, including "his blues addressed generations he would never know."

Grayson, a Baptist minister, contends the "most likely" grave for Johnson is the one with the modest upright stone at Little Zion Church on the Money Road north of Greenwood, which has this reproduced in Johnson’s handwriting: "I know that my Redeemer liveth and that He will call me from the Grave." Above that it says "he influenced millions beyond his time."

Each marker is attended by flowers sometimes and offerings most of the time, of pennies and half-empty pony bottles of Jack Daniels. The devout obviously are taking no chances.

Grayson’s book, which is full of good reporting and fine photographs, is available via the publisher, and also starts at $144.95 $79.41 used at Amazon. 

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The Night Hank Williams Died

Posted on October 22, 2006 | Comments Off on The Night Hank Williams Died

Saw this Larry L. King play last night for the first time. I can never figure out with King whether he’s simply intent on milking all the Texas cliches (like in "Best Little Whorehouse…") or giving us a genuine view of Texas culture as it once was and might be again. TNHWD, at the Austin Plahouse through Nov. 19. does the latter pretty well, although it piled on rather too many of the former. Like the stereotypical dumb football player who couldn’t forget his big game and so made a mess of the rest of his life. It troubled me some that the one-stoplight West Texas town in the play was named Stanley, and it took me the whole two hours to realize that the title was a metaphor, but I came away liking the actors and pretty much everything else, except the ending. I wanted the Hank Williams wannabee to be redeemed, somehow, and the loose ends (like who was Nellie Bess’s daddy) tied up neatly. I realize that’s not the way Art is supposed to be, but it would be more humanly satisfying, and might sell a lot more tickets.

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