The above photo itself, which has taken on a viral life all its own outside the pages of National Geographic Magazine, is intriguing and sad, especially after studying the faces of the chimpanzees behind the fence. But read this for the full story of Dorothy and the grieving onlookers for the maximum impact.
(Photo by Monica Szczupider, National Geographic Magazine.)
Save for the occasional times when Laura Bush would swoop into Midland undetected by the masses for a private visit with mom (protected by swarms of Black Yukon driving, wrist-talking secret service guys), and those two famous appearances standing by her president-husband's side on their way to and from Washington, the former First Lady really never made it a habit of visiting her hometown during the Bush family's 8-year residency in the people's house. Not publicly at least.
After Tuesday night's presentation benefiting the Bynum School, we now see what we have been missing. Funny, endearing and warm, the former First Lady held the crowd of 750 at the Midland Center in the palm of her hand from the moment she first appeared onstage. Her words were brief, but in giving the school's supporters updates on the family -- her former president-father-in-law's most recent skydiving adventure and mother-in-law Barbara's recent heart surgery -- she made everyone feel a part of her family.
While we have been less in her absence, we can now instead turn our appreciation to the fact that Laura Bush did make her public return to Midland and for that we are now better and we can only hope there will be more public visits to come. After all, how many times do you get to say you (and 750 others) went to dinner with a First Lady?
Her stories of George H.W. Bush skydiving over Kennebunkport and Bush 41's joke about the new pig valve in Barbara's heart ("She's been craving corn") were laugh out loud funny and proof of Mrs. Bush's skill with an audience and a punchline. Working on her memoirs, Mrs. Bush said the title of her book will be "Former Shy Librarian Tells All." Watch Laura Bush's speech at the Bynum School Fundraiser Tuesday.
Her visit was no doubt friend helping friend; Midlander's Don and Suzie Evans long depended on the school for the education of their daughter with special needs.
As noted on the Facebook page of fellow Midland blogger Cindi Mladenka, who also once turned to the school for her own late daughter's education, Mrs. Bush helped put a new face on Bynum wth her appearance Tuesday night. The school, its directors, board members and parents have to be floating today because of the success of the event last night.
Laura' Bush's public persona has always been elegant and poised. She served the country well and was a great representative of Midland. She "done us proud" and it was good to have her back home.
Understandably, that all changed earlier this week when Chou was visited by Bob Phillips and a production crew from Texas Country Reporter. Phillips had been alerted to Chou's story by someone at Midland College who sent an article to the show's creative staff.
Ricky said Phillips and his producers took shots of him at his tortilla station at H-E-B and then at his home where his studio is located. Ricky was impressed with the professionalism of the crew and he described Phillips as quiet and nice.
The crew was unable to tell Ricky exactly when his story would air, but he was left with the impression that it would be within a few weeks.
Texas Country Reporter currently airs in Midland-Odessa on Sundays at 10:30 p.m. on Newswest 9.
Dropped call on W. Michigan Ave in Midland.
Patoski says his objective with the exhibit will be to focus on the overall picture and how the event of high school football affects entire communities. The exhibit will also involve the many varied aspects that supplement the big games: bands, cheerleaders, drill teams, mascots, even mums and fans.
"High school football is our richest tradition in Texas," Patoski said. "It is our deepest community binder, transcending race, religion and class. Everybody puts aside their differences on Friday nights. You cannot grow up in Texas and ignore football."
Patoski is collecting memorabilia, archives and stories from throughout the state in preparation for the exhibit, and said he hopes to include the Little Southwest Conference (the former District 4-5A) to the Rio Grande Valley and even down to the six-man game. Together, such artifacts and mementos of the sport work together to create a bigger pastiche of who we are as gauged through our passion for the national pastime of Texas.
"All the stories that I am hearing speak to me of why Texas high school football is like no other kind. No one else does it like we do it," Patoski said of the Texas gridiron experience.
Patoski attended this year's Odessa High win over rival Permian, a game he called "big time football like nothing else." His research has also taken him to the DFW metroplex where he watched Euless Trinity play Allen and marveled at Allen's band: 690 members strong. Patoski said at that game, when the bands, the teams, cheerleaders and drill teams were added together, over 1,000 students were participating.
The wider appeal of the exhibit will come when the other extra-curriculars are included; supplemental entertainment and students that work together to make our Friday nights a must-experience phenomenon.
"From Gussie Nell Davis and the Kilgore Rangerettes on, we invented the business (of dance)," Patoski said. "There are so many dance squads that perform like the Rangerettes. And there is a photographer right now shooting nothing but pictures of mums. No one does mums for homecoming like we do in Texas."
Although likely not a part of the official exhibit, Patoski related a story of how one high school official broke off an interview because it was time for him to "patrol under the stands," where high school lovers commonly congregate during the game. Even high school love is ingrained in students at the Friday night football experience.
Patoski, a Fort Worth native who spent years chronicling the interesting and unique in the Lone Star State for Texas Monthly, is an avid hiker and lover of the Big Bend region and West Texas. He currently lives in the Hill Country and is also working on his next book, which he describes as a cultural history of the Dallas Cowboys. The book is due out in the fall of 2011.
To suggest rare or unique items for consideration in "Texas High School Football: More Than The Game," drop an email to footballexhibit@thestoryoftexas.com.
Photos: Cedric Benson would be a "strong candidate" for inclusion in the Texas High School foobtall exhibit for his helping to lead Midland Lee to three consecutive state titles in 1998-2000, while the Odessa Permian Panthers dynasties, including the team that led to Buzz Bissinger's N.Y. Times Bestseller, "Friday NIht Lights," would be a definite part of the exhibit, according to Patoski.
Bidding opens at $7.50 per shirt or $25 for the entire set! Call Now: 1 800 ARRRRRRRRR.
Such a humiliating loss sorta takes the excitement out of that old rallying cry, "Bring on Kansas, baby!"
So, I had the flu last week. I could feel it coming 36 hours before it went full blown on me, and when it hit, it hit big. 102 fever, chills and sweats at the same time. Bad cough and snorting sounds up the nose. No wonder they called it the swine flu. When you have it, you sound like one and you roll around sweating like one. (Which is not to say I had H1N1, I'm just sayin') ...
But with the bug coming both barrels, I found a quick fix doc since mine, who I admire greatly, was out of town. And, I should say this doc found me, too.
I didn't have the flu when I went to the doctor, at least that's not what the hearty Q-tip up the sinus cavity showed. Negative, the stick said.
So, when I went to the doctor I didn't actually have the flu. It was I guess a sort of pre-flu thing that didn't make itself shown on the swab.
Bronchitis, the doctor said.
But I had a 102 fever last night!? I whined.
Well, with that kind of fever it sounds like the flu, he said.
He left two or three minutes later, replaced by a nurse with a needle. She poked me and went away and I went home, crawled under the covers and felt sorry for myself for the rest of the weekend, watching every football game I could find, working the remote control like it was an electric piano.
By Monday I was mostly fine. Today I got the bill in the mail. And I'm feeling sick all over again.
A five minute office visit with a doctor, a head scratcher of a diagnosis, a shot (at least a shot!) and a bill for .... $605. I'd need to be sitting down if my backside wasn't already so sore.
Six ... hundred ... and five ... dollars? Thank you sir may I have another?!
Six hundred and five dollars? For five minutes with a doctor and a shot (at least a shot!)? No wonder we're all sick to death of health care. Thank goodness for a co-pay, but still ... take a look at the itemized statement: $165 to fill out new patient paperwork? I'm not that interesting! $120 for a flu test that didn't even show a flu though I left with a diagnosis of the flu? Sorta? $40 for something called "administration code"? What is that exactly? I'm paying $40 for something that I don't even know what it is?
I wouldn't for a minute suggest that the Obama Health Care plan is the answer, but I think we can all agree: we have a big problem that needs to be fixed.
Wow! Hold on to your wallets, people. Sniffle season is coming.
Lyle Lovett has made a career of quirky songs, brilliant gospel-tinge foot stompers and plaintive ballads, and has proven with 10 or so albums that he rightly belongs alongside giants like George Strait and Willie Nelson when it comes to making listeners feel the sense of place that is the Lone Star State when listening to his music.
His latest, "Natural Forces," released Tuesday, steers away from Texas more than previous efforts, yet he still most definitely deposits listeners wherever it is he happens to be singing about -- the Bayou, the road of middle America or the wayfaring life of a rodeo cowboy in this case. On Lovett's latest, he has taken up the cause of the Native American, the down on their luck and the cowboy, but has still found room for his trademark innuendo-laden humor, found on "Pantry" and "Farmer Brown/Chicken Reel," both not so subtle plays on bedroom humor.
His nods to Texas are sorely missing but the poetry he both writes and interprets, and the way his voice delivers the material as only it can makes up for it, sort of. What the Texan listener is left longing for are his odes to their great state. There is nothing here that approaches the singular greatness of "That's Right ("You're Not From Texas)" and the album as whole doesn't quite equal the thoroughly memorable "My Baby Don't Tolerate," but as is the case with Norah Jones (who will release her new CD Nov. 17), anything Lovett puts out is at the very least a few steps ahead of most anyone else.
10 Great Texas Songs by Lyle
"That's Right ("You're Not From Texas)"
"San Antonio Girl"
"The Truck Song"
"Cute as a Bug"
"South Texas Girl"
"Texas River Song"
"West Texas Highway"
"Wallisville Road"
"Texas Trilogy"
"Don't Touch My Hat"
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