Category Archives: Texana

USS Nimitz

Posted on April 29, 2008 | Comments Off on USS Nimitz

The carrier was named for World War II leader Chester Nimitz, of the Hill Country town of Fredericksburg. But the crew consider the ship’s name to be an acronym for Never Imagined Myself In This Zoo. More in a good video not to miss.

Comments Off on USS Nimitz

Posted in Texana, The War, Troops

Tagged , , , , ,

Col. E.M. House

Posted on April 29, 2008 | Comments Off on Col. E.M. House

There isn’t often cause these days to recall the time when men’s collars still turned up instead of down. Nor Edward House, of Galveston, who President Woodrow Wilson referred to as his "second personality." But it all came together this morning, for the old kingmaker of Texas gubernatorial politics, as workers began to cover the colonel’s old horse pasture with Astro Turf. It was the latest facelift for the field that, in 1937, became House Park, a celebrated Austin stadium for the Friday Night Lights of high school football.

Comments Off on Col. E.M. House

Posted in Texana, Texas Football

Tagged ,

The Alamo legend

Posted on April 23, 2008 | Comments Off on The Alamo legend

Thirteen Days to Glory, originally published in 1958, is one of the better myth books of the Alamo. But having only recently read it, at A.C. Greene’s recommendation, I see that it’s shot through with questionable stuff. None is sillier than the "line in the dust" notion foisted on the legend in the late Nineteenth Century by W.P. Zuber. He was a Revolutionary war veteran who was apparently trying to make up for having sat out the battle of San Jacinto as a baggage guard.

So hardy is Zuber’s fable that the D.R.T. now has a brass rod affixed to the flagstones in front of the chapel shrine to commemorate the line. That it is a fraud is logically demonstrated in 2003’s Alamo Traces, New Evidence and New Conclusions. My other favorite Alamo books are the 2000 novel The Gates of the Alamo, with its portrayal of David–rather than Davy–Crockett and ignoring of Zuber’s line altogether, and the 1994 revolutionary military history Texian Iliad, which dismisses the line as without foundation.

Comments Off on The Alamo legend

Posted in Library, Texana

Tagged , , , , , ,

FLDS scandal: the Obama connection

Posted on April 22, 2008 | Comments Off on FLDS scandal: the Obama connection

Everywhere you go, these days, Barry keeps turning up. Rozita Swinton, the hoaxer caller, who led the state to bust the Morman temple in Eldorado is apparantly, wait for it, a Pledged Barack Obama State Delegate from El Paso. So why is she living in Colorado Springs? The plot sickens.

Comments Off on FLDS scandal: the Obama connection

Posted in Scribbles, Texana

Tagged , , ,

Texas olive oil

Posted on April 19, 2008 | Comments Off on Texas olive oil

Mr. Boy’s little league team is sponsored by Time Olive Oil, an Austin outfit which imports its advertised 4,000-year-old organic product from Lebanon. But the company is branching out, planning to let its Lebanon oil become a gourmet product while specializing in the new Texas olive oil industry–from mainly around Carrizo Springs in South Texas. Some cousins on Mr. B.’s paternal grandmother’s side settled there after the Civil War.

Comments Off on Texas olive oil

Posted in Texana

Tagged ,

San Jacinto Day…

Posted on April 19, 2008 | Comments Off on San Jacinto Day…

…is Monday, actually, the anniversary of the defeat of the forces of Mexican dictator/Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna at San Jacinto, in the bayous southeast of present-day Houston, practically in Galveston Bay. The Texian victory led to establishment of the Republic of Texas. The day is the last of what Texana author Mike Cox calls the High Holy Days of Texas history–Texas Independence Day on March 2, the fall of the Alamo on March 6, and the battle of San Jacinto on April 21. I would add March 27, Palm Sunday, the day of the Goliad massacre by Mexican troops–certainly the least defensible thing they did–which explains why some Texians wanted to hang Santa Anna after his capture.

A Dallas cousin and I, doing our Texas genealogies, recently rounded up a possible SJ combatant-ancestor cousin of ours, one John Matchett. We found a pay voucher for JM at the state archives dated in 1840 showing him to have been a member of Capt. Wyley’s Company in Sidney Sherman’s 2nd Regiment from April 1 to July 23, 1836. A few years ago, JM was listed on this unofficial roster but his name–along with all the other soldier names therein–has since been removed. Although he’s still on this, similar one. Still, he’s not on any of the official lists we can find, so we’re not sure what to think about it. 

Meanwhile, in a little irony, Mr. B.’s second grade class starts its "Mexico Week" this year on, wait for it, San Jacinto Day. Multiculturalism at work, I suppose. I wonder if the school system did it on purpose?

MORE:  Meanwhile, today is Patriot’s Day up north, commemoration of a time surely on Texan minds during the 1836 revolution. 

Comments Off on San Jacinto Day…

Posted in Texana

Tagged , , , ,

Gazan charity suicide

Posted on April 18, 2008 | Comments Off on Gazan charity suicide

Interesting how radical a departure the blogosphere sometimes takes from the specific wording of a police press release that "foul play is not suspected," to "found dead, probably murdered," in this case of an Austin man who ran a charity for Gaza children said to be mainly interested in teaching them to hate Jews.

Via Instapundit, who also decided, against the police evidence, to call the death "suspicious."

UPDATE:  Solomonia has now linked to the police release and changed his headline to "probably suicide." Of course, the police could be wrong, but with no evidence to the contrary… 

Comments Off on Gazan charity suicide

Posted in Blogosphere, Israel, Texana

Tagged , ,