Eight Feet Deep

This weekend I looked back, for some reason or the other, at my college yearbooks. It is rather amusing to see how people looked and dressed in the olden days (about 25 years ago).

I saw a photo of the outside and marquis of what was the SFA Theater on North Street in Nacogdoches, Texas. It was basically located between the campus of Stephen F. Austin State University, where I attended, and what was the Crossroads, where I drank a lot of brews. Playing at that particular time at the movie was “Urban Cowboy.” I’m sad to say that I saw that dreadful movie at the SFA Theater. friends can get you to do all kinds of things you wouldn’t do under normal circumstances.

But what caught my attention in the yearbooks — even more than students dressing up like urban cowpeople or wearing ripped sweatshirts “Flashdance” style — was a student protest pictured in my 1980 yearbook. The students were protesting against the Iranians who had in 1979 taken Americans hostage at the embassy in Tehran. One particular sign held up by a rather well-dressed, young lass read: “To Hell with Iran. I’ll pay $1 a gallon!”

Here we are today and relations with Iran are worse than ever. But we are on our way to paying $3 a gallon for gasoline. I guess that’s progress, huh?

” … Stuck some stuffing up its butt and called it ‘Macaroni.'”

No, that really isn’t the real pony Macaroni that Caroline Kennedy rode in her young White House years. What I mean to say is it isn’t a stuffed Macaroni. Nor is it lasagna. It is a sculpture of the famous pony which stands near the entrance to the State Dining Room at the White House.

The pony Macaroni (not to be confused with Boney Maroney who is as skinny as a stick of macaroni) really isn’t the point here. Rather it is how people love their pets and animals in general. If that isn’t something close to a believable statement one should only consider the case of the Burmese phython named Houdini.

Houdini, an Idaho man’s pet snake, intended to swallow a rabbit the other day and ended up swallowing an electric blanket along with the blanket’s controls. I was tempted to say “its controls” but I was afraid someone might mistake that to mean that Houdini swallowed the rabbit’s controls. Apparently the rabbit was all out of controls. Ha! Ha! Ha! That’s not really funny is it?

The snake’s keeper took Houdini to the vet where the doctor surgically removed the foreign matter, likely along with most of the man’s life savings. But I saw Houdini’s keeper on one of the morning television shows this morning and he said he didn’t care what it had cost to save Houdini.

Some people would say such actions were ridiculous, spending so much money on a snake that apparently couldn’t discern a rabbit from an electric comforter. Others would say it was stupid for the news to pay attention to such a story. But the fact is, my friends, people generally love their pets and animals in general. Those of us who have or have had pets generally regard them in some form or fashion as family. When I worked as a newspaper reporter, stories I wrote about animals usually got more of a response than any human on which I wrote an article. If the story was something about hurt or neglected animals, even more people would call or e-mail.

No, newspapers and television are not stupid for doing stories about animals. It really is what most of those who watch or read wants.

I have a great love for animals and I understand the passion of those who love animals, realizing of course there are people who don’t like animals and abuse them. But I do wish people could get as excited about their fellow human beings as they do their pets or other critters. I say that as the Middle East is about to explode with the Israeli-Hezbollah-Lebanon conflict along with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict along with the Sunni-Shiite-U.S.-and whomever conflict.

Wouldn’t petting a dog or cat, or even a snake, be a more productive activity than, say, blowing people to bits? I know that’s ridiculously naive. But I thought I leave this thought to chew on for the weekend rather than an electric blanket-filled rabbit.

Well, the secret is finally out. A survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project has revealed that only 1-in-10 bloggers concentrate their sites on politics.

The study went on to say that 2-of-14 bloggers devote their sites to hotdogs while strangely only less than 1/1000 of 1 percent say they blog regularly about mannequins who have very vain but imaginary conversations.

“We don’t attract as much attention as Drudge or Kos or any of the big boys who are into politics,” said Gilroy P. Murdapple, a Maytag repairman by day and blogger about mannequins at night. “Yet we have a very devoted fan base, although many of those who e-mail we later find out are in prison.”

Behind blog sites about kitty cats and post-partum depression in popularity were sites worshiping goats and a very devoted group of bloggers who are into Spandex.

This is not my beautiful croissant.

I’m sitting at Rao’s bakery on Calder Avenue in Beaumont at the breakfast hour. Well, at someone’s breakfast hour. I’ve just had a sausage and egg croissant. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great. People pay for the ambiance at Rao’s both at their Calder location and at the one near Parkdale Mall. I’m not sure about the Rao’s in Memorial Hermann Baptist Hospital, or whatever its calling itself these days.

Hospital food, as long as you’re not a patient, can be surprisingly good or astonishingly bad. And it doesn’t seem to matter whether the food is prepared by an outside firm or the hospital itself.

I do like the big fan they have out here on the patio at the Calder Rao’s. The last time I was here they had a portable air conditioner. I think the fan works just as well, perhaps better. And even at 8 a.m. you need a fan out here in late July. The high is going to be in the upper 90s today. But it’s not just the heat. It’s the heat and the humidity. Jeez, I don’t want to think about it.

This week I’ve managed to get up early (6-ish) and go for a walk. It is just too hot at any other time of the day. Except for weekends this will probably be my schedule for awhile. I won’t get to see some of my neighborhood buddies as often. I say buddies, they are just those folks who wave and speak to me on my walks. Once in awhile I will come across my friend, Sarah, driving to or from work. I suppose it’s good to change the old routine every now and then.

Daylight is burning, so I better get busy looking. Looking for what? I don’t know. Maybe I am searching for a profundity. One large profundity to go, por favor!

Just a quick post to let everyone know I’m alive and well. Well, alive at least. I am having a bit of trouble with Internet at home. I don’t quite what the problem is unless paying the bill has something to do with it. Funny how that s**t works! I may be posting rather infrequently for awhile. I just don’t know. Right now, I got things to do and … well, more things to do. Addidas.