Here’s an old Gene-centric cartoon from 1998. I’m traveling today on cartoon business (Yes, there is such a thing!), but I’ll be back here as soon as I can. If you’re in Tishomingo County and you see a beat-up bright blue Ford pickup truck, wave!
RIP, Rufus Thomas
By Jimmy Johnson
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130 responses to “RIP, Rufus Thomas”
I also was brought up to make the bed upon arising – but have learned to leave it open.
Cleaning lady makes the bed once a month. That was also true when wife was here. We made the bed when we washed the sheets. “Sometimes in the springtime and . . ..”
Maybe had heard of him at Stuyvesant but remember him from Govt.* 101 at Cornell. *’Political Science” in some schools.
Peace, emb
Debbe 😉 I owe you a song. I hate 20-hour days…
Ruth Anne, the absolutely best starry, starry night I ever had was camping on the summit of the Manama Observatory on the Big Island in Hawaii. There is a reason the observatory is up there. Really cold. Almost froze but most incredible stars. And the mountain goats bleated all night.
“Manama”? Isn’t that one of the middle eastern desert sheikdoms?
There is a wonderful bookstore here that I love. Got myself I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett, a tee shirt that says “I do my own writing stunts” and a second that says “Be careful, you may show up in my novel”.
But my favorite is a quote I intend to frame, “It takes a Village to raise a writer.”
Good morning Villagers…
Going to be a long harvest here…The Boss said no one takes time off until harvest is over. He’ll be pulling in the guys to work at the mills and that means it’ll take me more time to put the hen house back in order for the next day…..oh well, I’ll take that paycheck.
Bed making? I make it when I come home as husband is usually sleeping when I leave. I had a friend who raised two stepsons, her rule was she didn’t care if they made the bed when they got up or before they went to bed…the bed got made that day.
Jackie….quit being anonymous….I miss your ‘love Jackie”…..I am so happy for you, love the T-shirts.
Indy Mindy…sleep anyway you can get it 🙂 With your hours and stress you probably just fall into bed….and how is the new job hunting going?
Light bulbs…we use those funny looking ones that look like pig tails (and yes, you are reading a blond moment here)….there’s about 350 of them in the hen house, they stay on from 6 am until 10 pm. and are 40 watt with low heat index.
gotta go
ya’ll have a blessed day
get some rest GR 😉
An 8.3 quake in Chile last night with magnitude 7. aftershocks. Tsunami warnings in effect around the Pacific including US. Debbe, I don’t twig harvest. Don’t you harvest every day? Congratulations to the observation and analytical skills of villagers. You know who you are. Finally, rain threat to Tampa area from storm in Gulf. No biggy.
Is it ok to feel stupid and delighted at the same time? Item in The Writer’s Almanac about Ken Kesey [probably his birthday]. Mentions that “One flew over the cuckoo’s nest” is from a children’s folk rhyme, presumably Brit.:
The film’s title was derived from a familiar, tongue-twisting Mother’s Goose children’s folk song (or nursery rhyme) called Vintery, Mintery, Cutery, Corn. The ones that fly east and west are diametrically opposed to each other and represent the two combatants in the film. The one that flies over the cuckoo’s nest [the mental hospital filled with “cuckoo” patients] is the giant, ‘deaf-mute’ Chief:
Vintery, mintery, cutery, corn,
Apple seed and apple thorn;
Wire, briar, limber lock,
Three geese in a flock.
One flew east,
And one flew west,
And one flew over the cuckoo’s nest.
I’ve not seen the movie nor read the book, but realized that the point is that Old World cuckoos don’t build nests; they are all brood parasites. Have known the term for decades, but just woke up. Have a hunch that the website doesn’t know the double entendre either, and perhaps most Americans don’t. Our cuckoos are only occasionally brood parasites. Peace, emb
http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/webcam/oldFaithfulStreaming.html
A bison bull has the viewing bleachers cleared…
The rain probably helped. One person with bumbershoot just wandered by.
At the beginning (and end) of I Shall Wear Midnight, there’s a description of a chalk figure: a giant man who is very obviously male. Like the White Horse from Wintersmith, this is a real feature in England, the Cerne Abbas Giant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerne_Abbas_Giant
Heard from my New Zealand weather station a few minutes ago, they are at less risk now, he knows I don’t and won’t turn on a television. So he sent me a note about expected tsunami so I would know. Just heard he and dog had returned to boat to get some sleep, then said they’d had a big sudden surge that pushed boat into dock but no damage.
Of course he’ll be in Chile in November’December so now I can worry about earthquakes AND ice packs in Drake passage.
Love, anonymous
Mindy/Indy: did you send me a private email at 10:12 this morning or has someone been able to send out stuff over your name? I won’t open it unless you verify that you sent a message.
In case anyone wondered and because little else is happening here today, I inquired about Judge Learned Hand and NYCity because his name popped up quite often in the NYCity newspapers from the time I started reading newspapers (ca. 1946) onwards. The name stuck with me. As his judgeships were based in NYCity, I wondered if he were well-known just around NYCity or elsewhere. So far, only Charlotte/NH has indicated familiarity with the name while not being a resident of NYCity.
I suppose, then, that his name was rather better known in the region in which he worked than elsewhere. The Wikipedia article does say that Judge Hand’s decisions are the ones most frequently cited [of all lower court judges] by the Supreme Court in their own decisions.
From the same Wikipedia item, I’d say his wife was something, too!
In the 70’s, I was assistant county engineer in Colbert County Alabama. We had a road on a peninsula in the backwater of the Tennessee River. We had to around through Tishomingo County Ms to get equipment to the road.
We know a couple who are sailing the South Pacific and are currently in Pago Pago, American Samoa. The tsunami warning there said that they might expect seas of 1 meter above normal. She said they couldn’t tell if what they experienced was due to that or to the windy weather they were having.
Can’t remember what he did for a living but he must have done well to be able to commission a catamaran suitable for crossing the Pacific. Not my retirement dream, but I admire people who not only dream big but make it happen!
CEP, I have heard the name, but could not have told you who he was or even if it was a he. I was, however, good friends with Judge Fred Turner, who, as an attorney, was involved in a world famous case. You hear the results of that case almost every time that you turn on the tv. Do you know which case that was?
“Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it.” – Judge Learned Hand
I researched who he was when I was a teen, from seeing his quotes in both works of fiction and non-fiction.
cxp – I haven’t opened my email in days, and never at work. Don’t open.
Jerry: haven’t the foggiest notion as to what case that was.
Mindy/Indy: Thank you for the info.
GR6: the citation which arose briefly [from Judge Hand] was one in which he said things to the effect that whoever controls the media controls the country. I imagine researching him was, at the very least, edifying.
We are going up against the County about taxes – I am now armed with 2 of his decisions.
Dear c-xp, thank you ever so much for inspiring me to look up the life of Learned Hand in Wikipedia! I like to read about people’s lives — their backgrounds, their childhoods, their school and work lives — their loves, spouses, children, and family life. Judge Hand had a most interesting life, needless to say! And I also found out that he bought a home in Cornish, NH for his family and spent a lot of time there. I read the entire long Wikipedia article, altho I did only skim the later sections about his legal decisions and opinions.
Dearest Ghost, you are a well educated man.
Jerry in FL, thanks for that. I never knew the origin of that companion to the Miranda reading provided to each newly-arrested person.
How’s Precious being assimilated into your family?
C-XP, I became aware of Learned Hand in college due to this quote:
“Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one’s taxes.”
His name, of course, is enough to arrest attention, but he also seemed to have a lot on the ball.