I finally came across a good definition of this music style. The style orginated in Oklahoma, orginally from the Stillwater area.
Red Dirt music: An indigenous (read that as Oklahoman) mix of folk, bluegrass, and honky-tonk.
Every Time I Went to Kiss Her
When I was a young teenager my father had a hi-fi stereo, state of the art. We boys were not supposed to touch it, but of course we occasionally did. In my father’s LP collection was a comedy record that we had been explicitly charged with not listening to…under any circumstances. That ranks right up there with waving the old proverbial red handkerchief at “el Toro”, with telling Brett Favre he should retire, or Mt. Everest beaconing Sir Edmund Hillary. It became a challenge. I had to hear that comedy record. Continue reading “Every Time I Went to Kiss Her”
Open Season on The Young Rev. Joe
Outsized would have described my Uncle Sam, my Aunt Irene’s husband. He had an outsized personality, and he was prone to tell outsized tales of questionable veracity. He was physically a big man. I do not know what his height was, but he always seemed taller than my 187 centimeters. He was a man who loved to eat, and his weight showed it. He was just a big man.
Although I never thought about them, he had one physical characteristic that apparently bothered him. It was his ears. They did not quite stick out 90 degrees from his head, but they were definitely more of an obtuse angle than the usual acute.
My cousin Perry inherited his ears. When Perry was 12, he had plastic surgery to go from obtuse to angular in the pinna department. Shortly after the operation he and his mother, my aunt, were visiting at our Grandmother’s house.
Yo…Melinda
Happy Birthday
Hope you have a good day off September 3rd!
Quien es este hombre?
This is a presentation that I wrote for the beginning Spanish class I am taking. I am not sure how this sounds to the Latino ear, but I suspect like a fifth grader’s report. I’m just now learning to use past tenses. I’ve discovered that Spanish has at least two past tenses while in English, if it is past it is past.
Yo tengo mucho interés en este personaje histórico, porque su hermana, Hanna, es mi abuela hace seis generaciones.
Él tiene tumbas de los estados de Missouri y Kentucky, y ambos de los estados afirmaran que está enterrado allí.
Él nació en 1734 (mil setecientos treinta y cuatro) en el condado de Berks de la colonia de Pensilvana. Sus padres eran cuáqueros. Una de sus hijas se casó con un hombre que no estuvo cuáqueros. Porque del matrimonio fue una controversia en la comunidad de cuáqueros. Se desilusionó con la religión. Él paró a ir a la iglesia. Sin embargo consideraba sí mismo un cristiano todavía y bautizó a todos sus hijos.
Él había poca educación formal. Continue reading “Quien es este hombre?”
The Raping of America
Now That’s Rich – New York Times op-ed piece by Paul Krugman
From the article:
“We need to pinch pennies these days. Don’t you know we have a budget deficit? For months that has been the word from Republicans and conservative Democrats, who have rejected every suggestion that we do more to avoid deep cuts in public services and help the ailing economy.
But these same politicians are eager to cut checks averaging $3 million Continue reading “The Raping of America”
Does Ice Cream Cause Breast Cancer?
Is Your Favorite Ice Cream Made With Monsanto’s Artificial Hormones? – Huffington Post Article
Why my title? It is a quick synopsis of the article by John Robbins in Huffington Posts. Basically rBGH, artificial growth hormone that is so prevalent in our milk supply was developed, pushed through FDA approval, and promoted by Monsanto Chemicals. One of the effects in cows of rBGH is increased IGF-1 in their milk. Monsanto’s own research showed Continue reading “Does Ice Cream Cause Breast Cancer?”
Did Ya Hear…
Rosemary was two-thyming Basil? Many folks were wondering how sage this was.
High Cost of Cheap Eggs
Lessons From the Egg Recall: Cheap Food Makes You Sick – Huffington Post Article
I moved to cage free and preferably free range eggs a while back. I’ve given up mayonnaise because the eggs in it come from such places. While the eggs are pasteurized it would be an economic vote for such places as the Iowa factory farms producing the tainted eggs to buy such a product.
And eggs are not the only cheap food that has a high cost. Just about all the meat (chicken, turkey, beef, and pork) in the supermarkets of this country comes from industrialized farms. It has been well documented why these are not good places, and definitely not good places to get the food that nourishes your body. As much as I love a good steak, I cannot in good conscience eat one anymore.
This is a capitalistic society. Dollars are economic votes. Is seemingly cheap more important than the environment, the workers in such places, the animals welfare, or if self interest motivates, your health? Is it really ethical to sustain such places with your continued participation by buying their product? Unfortunately, for so many of these corporate operations, the bottom line is what matters. It should be different, but they only change when they see their bottom lines headed the wrong way.
How are you voting?
Winter’s Bone
I was curious when scanning the local theater offerings to find a movie that was not on my radar. Reading the first few lines of the synopsis, I became curiouser and curiouser. The film was shot in Southwest Missouri, directed by a woman and winner at Sundance. My hubby, being of a good nature, often lets me drag him to the latest movie that I want to see. But he does tend to like little known, artsy and foreign films. We have an agreement that certain percentage of rentals must be in English.