Shall we go to London?

My Wednesday's Guest is Slim Randles, sharing some more of his cowboy humor. And if you enjoy these little essays, you would love his book, Home Country, that is chock full of these kinds of stories. While Slim is guesting here, I am over at Neil Plakcy's blog, The Inside Look, where I talk a bit about an interesting character from Open Season and how he got to be in the book.

“That Harley Jacobsen,” said Doc, grinning and shaking his head. He waved his empty cup toward Loretta, who brought the pot over.

“What’d Harley do now, Doc?”

“He came in the other day, looking good. Relaxed, happy. I’d been after him for some time to take a vacation and get away from the farm and just have some fun. So he and Gladys went on a trip to England.”

“No kidding?” Dud said. “Did Gladys have to use whips and chains to get him away from the farm?”

We all laughed, because Harley is one of those 24/7 farmers. There’s always something to do, and he knows he was put here on earth to do them, every day. And farm? Well, it’s said he could grow wheat on rocks and hair on a bald man’s head.

“How’d he like England?”

“Loved it. He told me about seeing the block where the heads were lopped off hundreds of years ago, and the kings’ and queens’ crowns, and the guards on their horses around Buckingham Palace. I think he was jealous of all the rain they get over there, too.”

 “Always the farmer,” said Steve.

“Oh yes,” said Doc. “Always. But get this … Harley and Gladys were on this tour, you know, and they saw the Greenwich clock. That tour guide said, ‘This is the famous Greenwich clock. All the world gets its time from this very clock.’

“So what does Harley do? Pulls out his five-dollar Bullseye pocket watch and says to Gladys, ‘Not bad. Ain’t but two minutes fast, too.’”

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Friday's Odds and Ends

The image of that terrorist standing on the London street and justifying his atrocious attack on the English soldier is hard to shake. I guess that was the first time I saw such hate and such mis-guided religious fervor in real life. I have purposely not watched the many videos uploaded on the Internet over the years by terrorists. I simply do not want to hear what they have to say.

This time, however, the terrorist was on the evening news shouting that he had a right to hack that poor man to death because British soldiers are killing Muslim women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Kudos to Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, a cub scout leader and mother of two, who got off a bus and tried to reason with the attackers after she tried to help the victim lying on the street. According to a report on Fox News news, the woman kept talking to the two attackers before police arrived at the scene.  When one of the attackers told her that they wanted to start a war in London, she responded: "It is only you versus many people. You are going to lose."

Speaking of terrorists, I did not know that the man arrested in the Fort Hood shooting spree, Major Nidal Hasan, continues to be paid his salary and has earned more than $278,000 since the shooting in 2009 that resulted in 13 deaths and 32 injuries. I probably should not label him a terrorist because, according to a story in The Lookout, that is a designation that the federal government has not assigned him and the reason he can collect his salary, while the victims and families of victims struggle to pay medical and other bills. Because the government called the shooting an act of workplace violence and not an act of combat or terror, those injured don't receive additional pay or Purple Hearts.


Not only is that an insult, it is a blatant example of injustice and skewed thinking. How could anyone justify the situation?

This has nothing to do with the subject matter. Just thought you would like to see something pretty.

 On a lighter note, here is a cartoon from Baby Blues:  Dad and Hammie are walking down the street. Dad says, "Hammie, you have to learn to pay attention to your school work so you can get a good education. Otherwise you could end up digging ditches."

Hammie says, "Ditches? What kind of ditches? He twirls around. "Big ones? With a bulldozer? Tunnels, too?"

Dad says, "I think you're missing the point."
  

Literary Lesson:  "I guess we're all hunting, like everybody else, for a way the diligent and sensible can rise to the top and the lazy and quarrelsome can sink to the bottom. But it ain't easy to find." Editor Webb in Thornton Wilder's play Our Town. Written in 1938, but still applicable today.