Kennedy Dies
Chapter closed on drunken life

R.I.P.
Mary Jo Kopechne
July 26, 1940 – July 18, 1969

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Fishing on Spring River, 1956

Uncle Walt Martin and wife Annabelle, along with sons Walt Jr., Wallace, Larry and Jimmy, came to visit on a summer vacation from California and their home on the Mojave Desert near Death Valley.
We went fishing on Spring River with the entire family, including Annabelle's mother, Mrs. Crandall.
All of us were getting bites and bringing in, well, crawdads, large crawdads. We caught a few small fish, but by and large it was crawdads. Walter thought maybe after we tossed them back in that we were catching the same ones again. He proposed we toss them far up the bank behind us.
As time passed and bites slowed, each of us begin moving up and down the bank seeking greener waters.
I moved around so much I found myself back where we had all started as more or less a group. Mrs. Crandall was still there, sitting with her large frame and her legs straight out. Heavy as she was, she must have decided that once she flopped down she was going to stay put. The problem was as I noticed by approaching the scene was that all the crawdads we had tossed upbank were now slowly crawling back to the water and she was in the path of a good half dozen or so of the pincered lot. I didn't expect that they would actually do her any physical harm, but I was also sure that when they went from blindside to full view she would be startled beyond recall.
Figuring the best thing would be to warn her since she had time to remove herself from her current position, I said, "Mrs. Crandall, some crawdads are headed your way."
She raised her head some and looked out at the waters.
"No," I said. "Behind you."
At that instant she spied one from the corner of her left eye as she turned her head sideways. She let out a grunt and kind of squirmed and scooted forwards slightly.
"Help," I hollered, realizing she had sat long enough that she was not going to be able to get to her feet on her own and that I was not going to be able to handle the balance of the load on my own.
Uncle Walt and some others arrived, appraised the situation, laughed and helped her to her feet.
We ended the day all having a good time and taking home a few frying-size fish.

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Easy Picks

Predicted 2009 regular season records:

Vanderbilt 3-9
Tennessee 7-5

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Yahoo headline:

Authorities examine why a small plane and helicopter collided on a clear New York day

Simple. There was a helicopter involved.

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Yahoo headline:

Vick to speak to youths about dogs

Yassah, Massa.

Why does the NFL commish still want to run Michael Vick through the hoops? Vick has apologized all over the place. Why, since we know Vick will never reconcile in his mind that he ever did anything wrong by being involved in dog fighting.

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Sotomayor first Hispanic justice no big deal

Adding Sonia Sotomayor to the supreme court is just adding another voice for the ACLU. What is even more irksome is the media angle that trumps all else: our first Hispanic justice. As if that makes for water fountain conversation. Sure, I realize it might for some Hispanics. As for the media, I suggest we trim the nationalities list a little more before we can even consider this as being significant. Here's a few for starters (forgive my ignorance if someone has already filled a spot on this list of yet to be justices):

Albanians
Argentines
Australians
Austrians
Belgians
Brazilians
Britons
Canadians
Catalans
Chinese
Colombians
Cubans
Czechs
Danes
Dominicans
Dutch
Finns
Greeks
Hungarians
Iranians
Japanese
Kazakh
Koreans
Monegasque
New Zealanders
Peruvians
Poles
Portuguese
Puerto Ricans
Quebecois
Russians
Sardinians
Slavs
Slovenes
South Africans
Spaniards
Swedes
Swiss
Ukrainians
Venezuelans
Welsh

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Punchboard anyone?

Galena, Kansas, and its immediate surroundings has produced every con game and con master worth noting, including bootlegging and Tony Alamo.