Volume II, Number 2 OLD BUSINESS It seems that my blog has

Volume II, Number 2

OLD BUSINESS

It seems that my blog has been taken away from me by Ruth the Republican and Pasquin, whose running commentary about life in general, about Pasquin's real identity, and my ineptitude as a bridge player fill columns. I encourage anyone who reads JIM LEE'S TEXAS to click on all the responses and see some of the interesting stuff that comes in. Pasquin knows almost everything, but since I have known him for years, I already knew that. He correctly notes some singers who used pseudonyms--most recently Harold Jenkins, who sang as Conway Twitty. But how about Freddy Fender (aka Baldemar Huerta) or Joe King Carrasco (what is his real name, and why did he choose the pseudonym?) Then there is the interesting comment posted recently by the man who knew a horse cavalry vet from WWII. Read it and then think about my friend George Fortenberry, who was in the horse cavalry in WWII. George says, the problem with horses and the reason they had to be destroyed was that horses caught malaria, a fact not known when the Army took horses to the South Pacific. I hope George will add his own comment to the blog. It is getting out of my hands anyway. Okay, back to what used to be my blog.

HILL COUNTRY CRIME

Pictured here is just one of Ben Rehder's novels about crime in Blanco County, The main character is not a cop but a game warden named John Marlin. Ben Rehder claims that his father-in-law hit him in the head with a Carl Hiaasen novel and set him to writing about funny crime in the Hill Country. I hope you will rush out and read either or all of the Ben Rehder novels. They are BONE DRY. FLAT CRAZY, BUCK FEVER, and GUILT TRIP. There may already be others in the works. Since these have been nominated for big awards, I am sure he is not giving up the genre. He was at the famous Mystery Evening put on by the Friends of the Fort Worth Public Library last year and is as funny in person as his books are. He doesn't scant the reader on the crimes that infect the quiet reaches of the Hill Country, but he enlivens them with a bunch of loonies and some comic gangsters. John Marlin is not supposed to get into worse crime than poachers who "spotlight" deer or hunt other game out of season, but it always turns out that Marlin gets into deeper woods and waters and even murder most fowl (or is it foul?) I wonder if Marlin is named after the rifle? I have a Marlin .22 lever-action my ownself. I should have asked him that when he was in FTW. Maybe I need to take a road trip to Blanco and ask. I have eaten pie at the Blanco bowling alley (which appears in the books) and could stand to go there again. They make pies with "calf slobber" rising up two inches at the bowling alley.

JOHN GRAVES BY DIVERS HANDS

Here is the cover of a new book of essays on John Graves. Mark Busby and Terrell Dixon edited this work, which grew out of a panel held at a conference in Fort Worth a couple of years ago. There were only three or four participants on the panel, including John Graves himself, so the editors had to round up a bunch of the usual suspects to flesh out the book, which just came out from UTexas Press. I was not on the panel, but since I showed up just as it was ending, they had no choice but to ask me to write something. Since I am not short of ego, I agreed, as did lots of other people. The result is a series of both good and bad essays on Graves. I won't say which are which, but if you buy the book, you can decide. Here is a self-serving footnote: Not long after the panel, TCU Press got John Graves to come to the annual autograph extravaganza and sit on stage with me while I asked him inane questions. The Star-Telegram took a photo of Graves and me and ran it in their "Click" section. In the picture, I am leaning over Graves and we are both looking intense. I thought it might be fun to run that photo as a part of this blog with a caption that said, "Jim Lee Explains Country Life to John Graves." I had bought a copy of the photo from the Star-Telegram and hoped to use it. I wrote somebody at the S-T and asked if I could have permission--free of course--to run the photo. I got an answer saying I could if I would pay $250. So you will have to just imagine me leaning over John Graves and lecturing him on the intricacies of goat raising.

A SIMPLE QUESTION

What Texas band made "The Cotton -Eyed Joe" popular? Bob Wills recorded it, but somebody else made it famous before him.