A Song With Heartbreaking Lyrics

Country music has a few of them to drink more beer to. Here's Tanya Tucker singing "What's Your Mama's Name." It turns out he wasn't so creepy after all.

Devushka

Well, the halcyon days of Spring finally came to Nashville; and Katarina had come back home after a year abroad working as a translator in Plovdiv, Bulgaria and Kyiv, Ukraine.  Gosh, the winters there were cold!  And the carefree Devushka styles she had worn the previous summer had been put away for the late fall and winter.  The Nashvillian spring had a lot more warmth than she was used to; and she deliberately planned to underdress for the weather wearing her bold, flashy halter and bare midriff. (Even with a little muffin top.)

That went over like a lead balloon with her kinfolks in Davidson County.

"Scandalous," they exclaimed; and an affront to Tennessean righteousness. However, this is akin to the pot calling the kettle black. After all, Tennessee is really up there when it comes to opiate abuse and meth labs.

Stirring Up the Political Pot

We live in a  hypersensitive era; so I want to say up front that this is a Heidi attempt to be satirical, or ironic, if you prefer.

In a later time of studied hypersensitivity, a number of the old ways were gradually phased out. The Confederate monuments were taken down, language was adjusted to different sensibilities, and people were generally playing nice. Part of this was the passing of Donald Trump and the Democratic reaction; and also to emotional fatigue. God Damn!

This posed a dilemma for Philbert Wilson, who needed a new p.c. to trumpet in order to establish his bonafides. But, damn! Everybody was acting pleasant, and no issue was apparent. But, for an issue-seeker, this was not good.

However, lo and behold! He found something. While Google surfings he found an old song entitled "Rebel Rouser" back from the 1950s or so. OMFG! Is this to rouse up some Neoconfederates? Anyway, Philbert got into action. He got up petitions and tried to get this musical work banned on the internet.

As a further inducement, this same musician did his version of "Dixie."

Too bad Philbert did not listen all the way through. "Rebel Rouser" was an instrumental.

Excerpts from the Flathead Beacon Police Blotter

9:06 a.m. A Whitefish man reported that he got bitten during a disagreement with his dog.

9:37 a.m. A dog named Buster wandered into a Columbia Falls home.

3:25 p.m. A dog has been barking “non-stop” in Kalispell.

8:24 p.m. Lake County called to see if Flathead County had any room in its jail. It did not.

10:22 p.m. Someone was driving through a Bigfork neighborhood and slowly shining a light into various homes.

10:42 p.m. A TV reporter called to see if anyone wanted to chat about the avalanche reported on Big Mountain earlier in the day.

A single cow was running down Farm-to-Market Road. Seems the cow would want to run away from the market.

A Columbia Falls man said his neighbor covered his car in “beans and cereal.” The man said that if a sheriff’s deputy didn’t show up soon he would “take things into my own hands.”

Montana State Song

Overreaching to Be Indignant About Something

Call me insensitive, but maybe some people are too easily prone to wax indignant.

I read in the Washington Post that a group of high school students in Chevy Chase, MD* got upset because a student-generated list rated a number of the girls on looks. And the power of authority came down hard, assigning one boy to detention. But, more to the point, this rated a story in the WaPo!

Is Tuesday now a slow news day? Has The Donald been that inactive and suddenly laconic so as to not fill that newspaper? Is Washington so crime-free and Arcadian so that nothing newsworthy ever happens. Has Congress collectively taken a vow of silence?

We live in strange times; but this takes the cake.

A reminiscence: when I was in h.s., I was on another list. Assessing the endowments of various students. I was nicknamed Heidi Without Alps.

My point is, there is a lot of big-time sexual harassment going on out there. For Christ's sake, go for that; and don't waste time on piddling things! This is nothing more than lazy journalism surfing on a superficial problem while ignoring big-time problems.


*I didn't know he was that important to rate a town being named after him!

A Ban on Plastic Bag Bans

Now we have another example of governmental meddlesome: a ban on plastic ban bans. You read that right: the Tennessee General Assembly is now considering a preemptory strike on two cities' moves to outlaw plastic bags. Okay, what's wrong with this picture?

Well, maybe banning one-use plastic bags is a good environmental move. Okay. And apparently Memphis and Nashville are looking into doing so. But here's the rub: some legislators from smaller towns are looking to overrule local control. Jesse, is there some lack of adherence to principle going on?
Oh local control, where is thy sting?

Oh principle, where is thy victory?

[A tip of the hat to that old grouch, St. Paul.]

It would seem to me that the principle of butting out of other peoples' business should apply on the state level, too. Why should someone in a jerkwater town presume to have a say on what happens in Davidson (Nashville) or Shelby (Memphis) counties? Doing otherwise is exactly the same as out-of-state people butting into what happens here or in Tennessee.

There's a sin of presumption involved. Or what the ancient Greeks called hubris ὕβρις.