The Grande Dame of Texas Democrat politics, though she rarely took any but a cheerleader’s part, will be the subject of eulogies for days to come. Here’s an early obit. The daily is hiding its main story behind free registration, which is too bad, but the sidebars are available. I suppose one is expected to be nice about the dead until the body, or the ashes, are in the ground, and I expect the media will do that, in large measure. But there are many ways to look at Lady Bird, some of them not at all complimentary. A few things she did and more that her deceased husband, LBJ, did to her and in her name. Remains to be seen if they’ll see the light.
UPDATE Jau, at Just Muttering, wonders what I am implying. She might well ask. Mostly I’m referring to details in Robert A. Caro’s "The Path to Power, The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. 1" about LBJ’s political rise. He is known in Texas as the pol who stole an election to the US Senate. Caro shows how he and Lady Bird got rich, by using his position to barge ahead of others in getting radio and television licenses–the basis of their wealth. She acquiesced in this, making her a co-conspirator, if you will. Nobody ever charged them with wrongdoing, but it seems clear that he would never have received the licenses if he wasn’t in Congress at the time. What he later did to her is also in the book, cuckolding her (if that term can be applied to a woman) and generally treating her badly in front of others, all of which she again tacitly approved by not leaving him. Sort of a Hillary character without the political ambition. Shyer, though. But you’re not likely to see any of this in the MSM, even after her funeral. So, if you’re interested, read Caro’s book.
Michael Fay, a Marine combat artist, seems to have cleared out his Fire and Ice blog in favor of a real gallery show in Doylestown, PA. At the James A. Michener Art Museum, no less. Michener, of course, is buried here in Austin. Less well known is the fact that, many years ago, I rented part of an old mansion on the road between New Hope and Doylestown. Meanwhile, I’ve been planning for a while now to get out to the Austin cemetery where Michener is planted to talk to some of the nearby headstone people about getting my own slab ready. Already own the plot. Macabre? Not really. Be prepared, that’s the Boy Scout’s marching creed. I will find a snap of Michener’s stone and post it. I’m not talking about the state cemetery, where there’s a commemorative stone for him, which is just political PR, but Austin Memorial Park. His own chosen headstone is a trifle unusual, as you might expect of such a prolific character. Find A Grave has it, here.
After weeks of soaking rains, it’s a treat to see the sun and a near-empty weather radar screen. It was getting so bad there for a while I could hear the grass growing a couple of inches a day. Of course Lake Travis is still flooded, though it’s declining about a foot a day and at this hour is a mere 697.04. At this rate it’ll be about two weeks until I can get the family sloop a few miles uplake for a replacement of the 22-year-old standing rigging–about 12 years more than it should be for safety’s sake, even on a freshwater lake. ‘Course I’ll probably have to start over again cleaning the mildew in the cabin, which I expect will be renewed after almost a month of being closed up. Still it’s good to be dry for a change. Howdy dry, sit down and stay a spell, if you please. You will? Great!
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 
