I spent an hour and a half writing something only to delete it near the end. It wasn’t a controversial piece. It was not slanderous or libelous or otherwise defaming. It was actually sort of funny. Therein lies the problem. It was “sort of” funny. Not funny, certainly not hilarious. Just not funny. My post was in the tall tale tradition of great writers such as Mark Twain, though certainly not as folksy and, of course, not anywhere in the same league.
This exercise in futility makes me ask: Did I just waste an hour? No. How can I answer otherwise? I relived a pleasant memory and made myself chuckle a few times. But I didn’t want what I had written out there forever. That is not to say that my body of work does not contain certain instances of crap. It does. Perhaps, what I do here online is an exercise but not futile after all. I create. I write. I amuse, myself. Maybe what I wrote will be a basis for some fresh material for a book. The idea is coming together. Now, if only I can center my thoughts.
Hmmm? Oh, I’m sorry. I was just thinking out loud.
My friend, Paul, called via Skype from Tokyo last night. I had just finished dinner and he was eating breakfast. Sometimes I think Paul keeps up more with what is happening here in the U.S. than I do. That said, he raised an interesting concept that I will try to write about, perhaps, when I am off work Friday or Saturday.
Paul said it is difficult to tell what is real and what is not in our stateside political world these days. He was mostly speaking, of course, of the race for the Republican presidential nomination. I agree and only have to point at Herman Cain’s ill-fated candidacy. Cain said his farewell address was from the “Pokeman” movie but it actually was from a song from the hot stuff disco lady Donna Summer who wrote the song for “Pokeman.” Too weird. Paul has called for some comments on his concept on his Facebook page. I will wait and see what kind of comments he gets to add these into the mix.
20 questions
A former co-worker with whom I keep up through Facebook has asked some strange “20 Questions” of her friends. Most are really interesting, thought-provoking questions such as what religion do you find interesting besides your own or if you have none and another, which tech innovation that has become mainstream do you most like. I put Catholicism for the first. I find it fascinating for many reasons. As for the latter, I wrote the PC with the cell phone camera No. 2. I added that I remember my family’s first TV.
A Who-Done-It Needs Solving
I live in a city of about 115,000 people and metro area of nearly 380,000. Although we are only 80 miles from Houston, I still live in a relatively small city. When a murder takes place in a city of Houston’s size, it being the nation’s fourth-largest city, it usually doesn’t make the front page of the Houston Chronicle unless it is a very out-of-the-ordinary type killing. It’s a little different here in Beaumont, for the most part and especially so when the case when it is something more than a domestic or a fight that got out of hand (cops sometime refer to these derogatorily as “misdemeanor murders.) I think I can also say a murder that stands out here as well is a who-done-it in which the victim is a white person, especially an elderly white woman. Is that racist? I don’t know, but such a murder generates a lot of interest if only because blacks make up a majority in this city.
One story that has received “front-page,” a.k.a. prominent media play, is the homicide of 72-year-old Robbie Rae Allen, who was found dead Dec. 16 in her West Beaumont apartment in the 6700 block of Prutzman Road. Relatives and neighbors described her as outgoing and even sort of the spunky type. She did have meals brought to her and received home health care. It has only been revealed recently that she was smothered to death.
Police have just released a video from a Fast Lane convenience store at Major Drive and Phelan Boulevard in West Beaumont — slightly more than a mile from Allen’s apartment. The video was taken about 48 hours before Allen was discovered dead and shows a woman wearing a red coat and blue jeans and a white hat who used the victim’s credit card. I initially thought this might be the victim herself but it is an unknown black woman.
All murders, for the most part, need solving but especially so this type of homicide. This type of killing is a source of dysfunction for a community. Sure, this thing happens all the time but thankfully not here. I have mentioned before that I don’t think a majority of our area’s news media is particularly adept at “investigating.” There are various reasons for this that I won’t get into. I only say that because, often, we don’t know a lot and some of what we do not know, just maybe, we should. Some police, in my experience and I do have some experience as a police reporter, sometimes feel as if information they glean is theirs and the public has no business knowing anything whatsoever. This is especially true when a murder is involved. That isn’t to say police shouldn’t keep some investigative information close to the (bulletproof) vest. I’m just saying, more details may often be told and it can even be in the interest of the cops to release it.
I do give props to Beaumont police since new Chief Jimmy Singletary has taken charge in the area of public information. They seem to be making a good effort to help both the public and their agency with respect to crime information.
Now I hope cops and citizens can do their thing to help solve this crime. It sure as hell needs solving.
Christmas is kind of a dead time for television which gives me cover as to why I watched “Swamp People” a night or two ago.
The History Channel reality series focuses on several alligator hunters in the swamps in South Louisiana and Mississippi. The episode I watched featured gator hunter Troy Landry cooking up a pot of gator gumbo, I suppose after he “choot ’em.” His sometime partnerLiz Cavalier came to the gumbo cooking and I have to say she done clean up well. Well, not a super model but she had her hair done.
What is confounding about the show is it makes everyone around those parts seem as if all they do is “choot” gators. That is, of course, far from the truth. Many fish, shrimp, grow and smuggle weed, raise dem crawfish, that sort of thing. The whole show makes me feel as if these people strive for a living embodiment of “Amos Moses.” I am talking the mythical gator hunter made famous in the early 1970s by singer and actor Jerry Reed. You know Amos, ” … He could trap the biggest, the meanest alligator, and just use one hand. That’s all he got left ’cause alligator bit it! Left arm gone clean up to the elbow,” Jerry sang with glee (Not “Glee” the TV series.)
Swamp People isn’t a bad show. It’s not a great show and it’s not really a good show. It is a show with minimal entertainment value. If it had a character as reckless as Amos Moses, the show might just be 100 percent, or 15 percent, better. Funny though, I used to think Jerry Reed was singing about Doc Milsap and his pretty wife Hanna raising up his son to eat up his weight in gophers. Later, I realized the word was “groceries.” Either way, it would be kind of comical for someone who could eat up his weight in gophers. Maybe someone like that is just what Swamp People needs.
Former U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson has filed for the Texas 14th Congressional District, according to the Texas Democratic Party Web site. Lampson, a former longtime Jefferson County Tax Assessor-Collector and Beaumont native, will run in a district carved up by GOP Texas legislative members which rearranges the counties in a seat currently held by Ron Paul. That district includes Paul’s home Brazoria County along with Galveston and Jefferson counties.
Jefferson County, my home and once a “Yellow Dog” Democrat stronghold in Texas, has been represented in Congress since 2005 by former Houston district judge Ted Poe. He is a great congressman if you like them spending a great deal of their time on Fox News and other right-wing pursuits. I think that this is a positive development, Bubba!
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il is dead at age 69 or 70, I’ve seen different ages. That is not something over which to gloat, like say Osama bin Laden’s being taken out by SEALS, although a lot of the world outside the late leader’s inner circle probably isn’t taking his death so very hard. I grew up during a time in which folks were expected to say something good of the dead or not say it. So I’ll say it. Kim Jong Il is dead. That’s good.
One can almost feel sorry for the man. He grew up in the shadow of his father, Kim Il-sung, another self-made larger than life despot. What the next Kim Jong, Kim Jong Un, will be like, one can only imagine. But something I know that will be consistent, at least for awhile, is the Korean Central News Agency, the official news agency of North Korea. It is known far and wide for its clarity, well, I don’t know exactly for what the state news is known. It nonetheless presents its news in a way that only those who write it must truly know.
This is the late Kim Il Jong on one of his "field guidance" trips. "Please, will you alone leave me so I can guide in field?" -- Korean Central News Agency photo under Fair Use.
“Every possible first-aid measure was taken immediately but he passed away at 08:30 on December 17.”
Field guidance must be North Korean Dictator Speak for getting away from the palace and having all the hot babes — DPRK-style — at your beckon and call. I speak of the accompanying photograph. No wonder he had a serious heart shock for a great mental and physical strain.
“A national memorial service for Kim Jong Il will be held on Dec. 29.
“Mourning guns will be boomed in Pyongyang and in provincial seats timed to coincide with the national memorial service in Pyongyang and all the people will observe three minutes’ silence and all locomotives and vessels will blow sirens all at once.”
By God, they don’t just use regular guns to mourn the “Dear Leader,” they have “Mourning Guns.” And forget a moment of silence. You will observe three minutes’ silence or you will face consequences! Respect my authoriti! Dead or alive.
Important Notice to be Released — “Pyongyang, December 19 (KCNA) — An important notice will be released at this noon.”
That’s all it says. Obviously, nothing else that has been released by the news agency is important. But this will be, believe you me.
Will that be orange Juche? — “Kim Jong Il passed away to our sorrow before seeing the victory in the drive for building a thriving nation, his great desire, but we are under respected Kim Jong Un identical to him.
“Kim Jong Un’s leadership provides a sure guarantee for successfully carrying forward the revolutionary cause of Juche through generations, the cause which was started by the President and led by Kim Jong Il to victory.”
Rah rah rah! Sis BOOM Bah goes the dynamite!
“Juche,” according to a Wikipedia entry refers specifically to a political thesis of Kim Il-sung, the Juche Idea, that identifies the Korean masses as the masters of the country’s development. From the 1950s to the 1970s, Kim elaborated the Juche Idea into a set of principles that the government uses to justify its policy decisions. Among these are independence from great powers, a strong military posture, and reliance on Korean national resources. “Juche” has sometimes been translated in North Korean sources as “independent stand” or “spirit of self-reliance”, and has also been interpreted as “always putting Korean things first.” ”
The idea is based on the belief that “Man is the master of everything and decides everything,” according to Kim Il-sung. If that is so, then it seems he is leaving out the part that the “Man” is whomever in the dictator’s family happens to be in charge of the country at the time. That will apparently be, in North Korea’s case, the un-Jong Ill, Kim Jong Un.
We shall see if the saying: “Anything is better than Kim Jong Il is on the mark.”
