A Man of Many Hats.....well, one or two, and a few ball caps

What started as a comment on my wall on another blog site, then noted by my "lady" mentioned a couple of lines down, is to be the subject of this blog. Someone observed the hat that I wear in the profile photo I have posted on both blogs and inquired as to its origin, current fate, and any "comical" stories????? about it. So here dear girl, is the "story you recommended I make it into.

While my day to day attire normally includes a gimme, bubba ball cap from Costa Rica, or South Padre Bank, or my black, jalapeno print cap from Marble Falls Marine, I do indeed still wear my "Pat Hat" as my lady refers to it, quite proudly, on many occasions from dining in or out with friends, to the occasional Jackson Browne, David Gray, or Jimmy Buffett concert. When I am not wearing it, it becomes the headwear for a wooden bear carved from a tree with a chainsaw, that I purchased from a roadside vendor in Colorado years back, that sits in a display case full of various Gulf rig coral, antique mike nelson scuba gear I have retired, various collectible musical instruments, antique glass insulators I unscrewed from pole lines I dismantled with the death of the railroad communications system many years ago, and a host of books and atlases, and last but not least, the one eared teddy bear my folks bought for me before I was born, almost sixty years ago. No, I don't think I have ever written a piece on that hat, just as I have never written a piece on my favorite old purple and black ski parka, or my last cool pair of shades I bought, when I could still see without prescription spectacles. I have had a few compliments on it, when on the town, but this is the first time anyone was ever really focused on it as an "inquiring mind", looking for some in depth info on it....... It was a gift from a dear friend who on occasion, wears one similar to it, and bought it for me after he saw them on some old Portuguese guys on a European vacation, and deemed it something that he thought I must have. He is an old wordsmith, and retired newspaperman, who has likely forgotten more about story telling, old time printing, journalism and newspaperin' than most modern "journalists" will ever learn. "

Houston Sports Venue Naming Rights 101

This one is probably just a product of too much time on my hands, but I couldn't help but think that maybe our local sports venues first shots at licensing their stadiums as far as naming rights, left a little to be desired.......well, since after the Astrodome anyway. It's not exactly like the Astros had anything to do with the demise of Enron, in allowing their beautiful ballpark at Union Station to be renamed "Enron Field", but history speaks for itself.........

Now we have the Rockets' new home........The Toyota Center. That does seem a fitting name for a building housing a sports franchise that obviously is in serious need of a recall though, doesn't it? While "Come see the home team floor it at the Toyota Center" would have been a cool promo it does appear that that this year's cagers apparently had their accelerator stuck on "idle".

Looking Back At My Sunday.....

.....made biscuits, bacon, con huevos for the girl, the surfer kid and myself.....later, spent a bit too long enhancing my tinnitus, but the aforementioned surfer dude, benefited from a real world experience. One that will likely make him re-evaluate the thrill of some of his video games. For his first time, an hour or better on the firing line with a real Glock Model 19, and sandwiched between soccer moms, would be Rambos packing Mossberg cannons, a few suburbanites killing a chilly afternoon, and a couple of guys you just know will turn up on the evening news, was a bit of a sobering experience for my boy. Good news, is that handled the weapon with the safety and respect that he was taught to. Better news yet, for a dad, was that in departing the range, when queried about the experience, he said it wasn't as cool as he expected it would be. While his paintball and airsoft experience translated into a rather impressive display of accuracy and discipline with the 9mm, I think the reality of what firearms really sound like, and just what they are capable of doing or causing, finally won out over the sound from computer or TV speakers, and only having to use lightning fast fingers on a keyboard or X-Box controller. For all of the preaching I've done, nothing could have been more eye opening for my son, than seeing and feeling what he did today.

After all of that, Mr. pacifist pilot, found out that he could still put a pretty tight group around the noggin of a paper "bad guy". Hope I never have to do that. As I told the two of them, while it's handy to know how to handle a gun, don't look to this old boy to put backstrap on the menu.......I am much more content sacrificing by gigging, and gathering a mess of flounder, or tricking a slew of whiting, or specks into jumping from the surf into my skillet(and they are a helluva a lot easier to field dress and get to the dinner table than a 140 lb furry four legger that I had to at first look in the eye, then blast with a cannon. Please don't misunderstand me, I won't turn down venison steaks or sausage. Just don't look to me to bring them home........

Wrapped up the evening with my headphones and hanky, on YouTube, being mesmerized by Jim Dandy and Black Oak Arkansas, The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Annie's Band(Heart), and the Guess Who.......oh, and visiting Edith Ann, The Loon, Sugar Magnolia, The Truth Ferret, and Fred Reed and Timothy McSweeney's motley stable of writers.......

Did You Have A Coonskin Cap?" , or get a "dear john" Letter......

Did you? I did. Before G.I. Joe, and waaaay before X-Box and G.T.A., when it was still cool to clothespin playing cards on our bikes so the spokes made them sound like we had a motorbike, or to play cowboys and Indians, or battle in the yard, with those drawing the short straw having to be the Japs and Germans, there was also some Texas pride going on, as Davy Crockett was on TV and the ballad of Davy Crockett, was on the radio. Fess Parker, the man who embodied that hero for us on TV as kids passed this week. I hope it didn't go without notice for many, as he was in real life, a good man, and a gentle giant as well.

In addition, a master singer/songwriter, Alex Chilton, who went largely unnoticed beyond penning and singing "The Letter", and "Soul Deep", as the founder of the Box Tops, also passed.

These passings may not mean much to a lot of people, but they were both part of the input that influences who I and probably a lot of other boomers are today. They will be missed.

A Beetlejuice Rerun.......

Okay, I have to admit that I am posting this at the request of my friend Edith Ann(and that's the truth),and after reading a similar article in today's Advocate. Actually, this originally appeared in the Advocate back in 2006, but I s'pose since I wrote it, it isn't technically plagiarism, right?

Breakfast With The Beetles
By pilot in A Pirate Aground In The City
January 27, 2006

Eewww factor high on this one......I caught a piece of a story on the radio about 4:30 this morning on the way to work, regarding the pretty colored fruit on the bottom of Yoplait Raspberry Yogurt, and ruby red grapefruit juice. It turns out that they don't come by those bright red hues quite so naturally, and need a bit of a boost in the pigmentation department to spiff 'em up and make them look all the more tasty, they do. Also turns out that the most effective and safe coloring agent for these products, comes from a little cactus eating female beetle from south of the border known as Dactylopius coccus.


By the way, they also use this dye in shampoo, candy, and many other products as well.
Credit the Aztecs and Mexican indigenous tribes for discovering this little bug, and the Spaniards for capitalizing on it.

Yes Birddog - I Snopes'd this one. Like I said - 8.5 eewww factor. Probably pegs the needle on the PETA (people eating tasty animals) meter too, considering it takes about 70,000 of these ladybugs to make a pound of dye.
I'd love to hammer on this one more, but it's time to head downstairs to the Greasy Spoon for a yogurt and some grapefruit juice.........

Read about your breakfast here:
http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/bugjuice.htm

What's Next - Transgendered History Month?

Caught an editorial in today's Victoria Advocate, that got my attention for a couple of reasons. It was regarding Womens' History Month", and by the time I saw it, it had one typically inappropriate comment on it by a local freak, P.M. Tasin. I fired one over his bow, and in turn, it was along with his comment, summarily removed. Mission accomplished! Anyway, I started this as another comment to the article, and after reading it, decided it was a stand alone rant, so here it is:

Well now, we just had black history month. Then here comes womens' history month. I have looked briefly at my calendar, and have yet to find mens' history month...I suppose in a year or two, they'll have a transgendered history month as well. Has anyone else considered that these events are about as useful as some of the B.S. throwdown holidays that the banks and government closes their offices for? The majority of these little fiestas are just self serving events with a heavy slant toward commercialism. For my money there is a subject taught in schools today that should cover just about all of those who want to think that their race, gender, or religion is special enough to have a holiday. It's called "history". It pretty much is all encompassing. I think a country's Independence Day, and some other notable accomplishments or tragic events as a society, would qualify as a holiday - like Cinco de Mayo, Quatro de Julio, and especially Texas Independence day. Remember how in the interest of not being excessive, they just lumped Washington's birthday and Lincoln's B-Day into one day? Well maybe they could do the same with all of the women's history month, black history month, gay history month, etc., and just narrow it all down to "Human Day", and keep the banks and Post Office open a little more. I'd babble on about this here, but now I need to run out before all of the womens' history month cards get snapped up at HEB and CVS.

Kinky for ...........

.......well, hell, for something, please? Honestly, the man just wants to make a difference in our lives, and we should elect him for something, and give him his shot. Just returned from a Kinky Friedman concert at a little club here in the city tonight. A little chilly night to be sure, with a few pretty flurries, but unfortunately for my boys, nothing to make tomorrow a "snow day"........
I go back a lot of years with the Kinkster. Back to the time when he paid his filing fee to run for President against Jimmy Carter, and when Carter was campaigning to lower the speed limit to 55, Kinky one upped him by proposing a $54.95 speed limit. Yes, the man is just a tad irreverent, but his heart is in the right place, and he honestly wants to serve Texans in an elected office and to make a positive difference in our lives. That should count for something, shouldn't it? Tonight he showed his environmentalist side, when declaring that upon his death, rather than hog up more real estate, he'd like to be cremated, and have his ashes scattered in Rick Perry's hair. Now that brought a tear to my eye.
All kidding aside, Kinky was in town to entertain, not campaign, and for me, it took me back to the 'Dillo in Austin, in '75. He did his country crooner show, showcasing the talents of his lifelong buds, Lil' Jewford on piano and spoken word, and those of Ratzo, his capable guitarist and also old friend and "boy who travels with him". He took the time to read a chapter from his latest book as well, a touching tribute to his father, a WWII veteran, which all in attendance found quite moving and entertaining.

I so enjoyed his show, and was rewarded by a smile and pat on the shoulder from him coming and going to and from the stage, almost as if he recognized me from Austin so many years ago, as a member of his tribe. I have always told those who would listen, that he is a good man, and that he would be a step in the right direction, if elected to any office he aspired to. I hope this is his year.

Just for an example of Kinky's honesty and his earnest desire to represent us in our state government, allow me to share this......As far left as I lean, and as dad liberal/conservative as I am inclined to be, I was accompanied tonight by my sweet young companion of a couple of years now. She is, if categorized, about as conservative a person as you'll ever come across, and after having been dragged to the show by me, and subjected to a couple hours of the Kinkster's charm and bared soul, she declared that regardless of her political affiliations or her right leaning views, that Kinky will get her vote next week, as Agriculture Commissioner. Trust me, that is quite an endorsement coming from her, as she is not easily swayed, or inclined to be frivolous in her decision making. I hope you will see your way clear to vote for him as well.