Before I seriously attempt to do what I mentioned in the last post and stop looking backward forever (fat chance) or glorifying the past (probably not going to happen short of the grave), let us (us, forsooth) indulge ourselves (here's looking at you, kid) and adopt, for one day at least, one of Facebook's popular features, Throwback Thursday.
We shall do it, not with old photographs (although there are a couple over there in the sidebar) but with two articles for your reading pleasure or consternation (pick one, but not until you've read them) because it is important to stay busy (not to mention connected) during this pandemic, which government experts tell us on the one hand is winding down but which President Biden tells us on the other hand may last until Christmas. You may read one of them or both of them at your leisure, or neither of them. It's still a free country and the choice is up to you.
Where Did All The Saxophones Go?
The World's Most Misunderstood Novel
Any thoughts or comments? I mean besides that I should use fewer parenthesized asides.
Thursday, February 18, 2021
Tuesday, February 16, 2021
Oops, I left someone out
...so let me remedy that right now. Michael Landon, who played Little Joe on Bonanza and Pa Ingalls on Little House On The Prairie, was not the actor's real name. He was born Eugene Maurice Orowitz in Queens, New York.
Speaking of Little House On The Prairie,, Melissa Gilbert, the little girl who played Laura Ingalls, has been married to three husbands: Bo Brinkman (about whom I know nothing), actor Bruce Boxleitner, and Timothy Busfield, the red-haired actor who played Eliot Weston on the television series thirtysomething and Kevin Costner's brother-in-law in Field Of Dreams. Busfield and Gilbert moved away from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood and lived in a rural area near the small town of Howell, Michigan for several years. A couple of years ago, they moved to New York City, so they either are back in their right minds or have lost them completely, depending on your point of view.
Melissa Gilbert's younger half-sister, Sara Gilbert, played Darlene Connor on Roseanne.
Why do I know these things? I have no idea.
Last Night On Jeopardy! Department: The category was U.S. States. The clue mentioned that according to the song "This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is My Land" the land stretches from this state to the New York Island. The defending champion said "What is the redwood forest?" but the last time I looked at the list the redwood forest was not a state. The song does include that phrase in a later line, "from the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters". Another contestant answered correctly, "What is California?"
Last Night On Jeopardy! Department, Example 2: The category was 1821. According to the clue, this king, whose coronation occurred in 1821, was the fourth British monarch to have this name. I knew immediarely that it was George IV since George III reigned from 1760 to 1820. Two of the contestants didn't buzz in at all and the third contestant's answer, obviously a guess, was Edward. I say obviously because Edward VI (two edwards after Edward IV) was the son of Henry VIII back in the sixteenth century.
The Athena-full-grown-from-the-forehead song that greeted me upon waking this morning was another oldie:
Dear, I thought I'd drop a line
The weather's cool, the folks are fine
I'm in bed each night at nine
P.S. I love you
Yesterday we had some rain
But all in all, I can't complain
Was it dusty on the train?
P.S. I love you
Write to the Browns just as soon as you're able
They came around to call
I burned a hole in the dining room table
And let me see, I guess that's all
Nothing else for me to say
And so I'll close, but by the way
Everybody's thinking of you
P.S. I love you
I have a distinct memory of watching Your Hit Parade on a Saturday night and hearing Gisele MacKenzie sing that song. The other singers on the show every week were Dorothy Collins, Snooky Lanson, and Russell Arms.
Tonight on Jeopardy! all three contestants tried but failed to say the title of Dylan Thomas's poem "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" correctly.
There is no rhyme or reason to this post that I can detect, but I am glad that I remembered to add Michael Landon into the mix.
I am going to make a sincere attempt to think less about trivia from the past and think more about the future instead. After all, as Criswell said at the beginning of the worst movie ever made, Plan 9 From Outer Space, "We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives."
Speaking of Little House On The Prairie,, Melissa Gilbert, the little girl who played Laura Ingalls, has been married to three husbands: Bo Brinkman (about whom I know nothing), actor Bruce Boxleitner, and Timothy Busfield, the red-haired actor who played Eliot Weston on the television series thirtysomething and Kevin Costner's brother-in-law in Field Of Dreams. Busfield and Gilbert moved away from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood and lived in a rural area near the small town of Howell, Michigan for several years. A couple of years ago, they moved to New York City, so they either are back in their right minds or have lost them completely, depending on your point of view.
Melissa Gilbert's younger half-sister, Sara Gilbert, played Darlene Connor on Roseanne.
Why do I know these things? I have no idea.
Last Night On Jeopardy! Department: The category was U.S. States. The clue mentioned that according to the song "This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is My Land" the land stretches from this state to the New York Island. The defending champion said "What is the redwood forest?" but the last time I looked at the list the redwood forest was not a state. The song does include that phrase in a later line, "from the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters". Another contestant answered correctly, "What is California?"
Last Night On Jeopardy! Department, Example 2: The category was 1821. According to the clue, this king, whose coronation occurred in 1821, was the fourth British monarch to have this name. I knew immediarely that it was George IV since George III reigned from 1760 to 1820. Two of the contestants didn't buzz in at all and the third contestant's answer, obviously a guess, was Edward. I say obviously because Edward VI (two edwards after Edward IV) was the son of Henry VIII back in the sixteenth century.
The Athena-full-grown-from-the-forehead song that greeted me upon waking this morning was another oldie:
Dear, I thought I'd drop a line
The weather's cool, the folks are fine
I'm in bed each night at nine
P.S. I love you
Yesterday we had some rain
But all in all, I can't complain
Was it dusty on the train?
P.S. I love you
Write to the Browns just as soon as you're able
They came around to call
I burned a hole in the dining room table
And let me see, I guess that's all
Nothing else for me to say
And so I'll close, but by the way
Everybody's thinking of you
P.S. I love you
I have a distinct memory of watching Your Hit Parade on a Saturday night and hearing Gisele MacKenzie sing that song. The other singers on the show every week were Dorothy Collins, Snooky Lanson, and Russell Arms.
Tonight on Jeopardy! all three contestants tried but failed to say the title of Dylan Thomas's poem "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" correctly.
There is no rhyme or reason to this post that I can detect, but I am glad that I remembered to add Michael Landon into the mix.
I am going to make a sincere attempt to think less about trivia from the past and think more about the future instead. After all, as Criswell said at the beginning of the worst movie ever made, Plan 9 From Outer Space, "We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives."
Monday, February 15, 2021
Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Norma Jean, Norma Jean
That title is wrong, of course. The 1976 play and 1982 film were Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean and the proper name referred to the actor James Dean, not the country-western singer and eventual seller of sausage Jimmy Dean. Any confusion all these years later is certainly understandable, except in people who actually saw the play or the film. They have no reason to be confused unless they are senile.
Because of the trivia factoid in the preceding post about American dancer Cyd Charisse's real name being Tula Finklea, I was reminded of Marilyn Monroe. Everybody knows, or should know by now, that Marilyn Monroe's real name was Norma Jean Baker. It follows as the night the day, therefore, or at least it does if you have a warped mind like mine, that as soon as you realize that the name Jimmy Dean rhymes with Norma Jean, you also realize that you have found the title for your next post, which is going to be about other people whose names were changed.
If it didn't follow as the night the day to you, your mind is obviously not as warped as mine.
Several years ago I created a similar post in which readers were invited to try to match the new names with the original names. I won't make you work so hard this time. I will simply (and very graciously, don't you think?) give you the information. It is entirely up to you, of course, what you do with it.
As I am getting on in years, younger readers may detect a certain generation gap.
Here goes:
Tony Bennett's real name? Anthony Dominick Benedetto.
Jack Benny's real name? Benny Lubelsky.
Tony Curtis's real name? Bernie Schwartz.
Tiny Tim's real name? Herbert Khaury.
Cary Grant's real name? Archibald Leach.
Michael Caine's real name? Maurice Micklewhite.
John Wayne's real name? Marion Morrison.
Engelbert Humperdinck's real name? Arnold George Dorsey.
Vanilla Ice's real name? Robert Matthew Van Winkle.
Roy Rogers's real name? Leonard Slye (and he may have been King of the Cowboys but he was from Ohio).
Marilyn Monroe's real name? (all together now, class) Norma Jean Baker.
Joan Crawford's real name? Lucille Fay LeSueur.
Vivian Leigh's real name? Vivian Mary Hartley.
Billie Holliday's real name? Eleanora Fagan.
Joan Rivers's real name? Joan Alexandra Molinsky. (Rivers was not her married name. Rosenberg was her married name.)
Barbara Stanwyck's real name? Ruby Katherine Stevens.
Gypsy Rose Lee's real name? Rose Louise Hovick.
Whoopi Goldberg's real name? Caryn Elaine Johnson.
Dinah Shore's real name? Frances Rose Shore.
Maya Angelou's real name? Marguerite Annie Johnson.
Dale Evans's (Queen of the Cowgirls, wife of Roy Rogers, and her horse's name was Buttermilk) real name? Frances Octavia Smith.
And last, but by no means least, Cyd Charisse's real name? (as we all should know by now) Tula Ellice Finklea.
As Abraham Lincoln said at Gettysburg in 1863, it is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. A reader named Pat from Arkansas told us why in a comment on this blog back in 2008, and I quote:
"Trivia is good! It occupies the brain cells that otherwise would be taken up in contemplating current events!"
Given the state of current events nowadays, spending time with trivia is more important than ever. I'm just trying to do my part in achieving harmony in the world. Feel free to nominate me for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Because of the trivia factoid in the preceding post about American dancer Cyd Charisse's real name being Tula Finklea, I was reminded of Marilyn Monroe. Everybody knows, or should know by now, that Marilyn Monroe's real name was Norma Jean Baker. It follows as the night the day, therefore, or at least it does if you have a warped mind like mine, that as soon as you realize that the name Jimmy Dean rhymes with Norma Jean, you also realize that you have found the title for your next post, which is going to be about other people whose names were changed.
If it didn't follow as the night the day to you, your mind is obviously not as warped as mine.
Several years ago I created a similar post in which readers were invited to try to match the new names with the original names. I won't make you work so hard this time. I will simply (and very graciously, don't you think?) give you the information. It is entirely up to you, of course, what you do with it.
As I am getting on in years, younger readers may detect a certain generation gap.
Here goes:
Tony Bennett's real name? Anthony Dominick Benedetto.
Jack Benny's real name? Benny Lubelsky.
Tony Curtis's real name? Bernie Schwartz.
Tiny Tim's real name? Herbert Khaury.
Cary Grant's real name? Archibald Leach.
Michael Caine's real name? Maurice Micklewhite.
John Wayne's real name? Marion Morrison.
Engelbert Humperdinck's real name? Arnold George Dorsey.
Vanilla Ice's real name? Robert Matthew Van Winkle.
Roy Rogers's real name? Leonard Slye (and he may have been King of the Cowboys but he was from Ohio).
Marilyn Monroe's real name? (all together now, class) Norma Jean Baker.
Joan Crawford's real name? Lucille Fay LeSueur.
Vivian Leigh's real name? Vivian Mary Hartley.
Billie Holliday's real name? Eleanora Fagan.
Joan Rivers's real name? Joan Alexandra Molinsky. (Rivers was not her married name. Rosenberg was her married name.)
Barbara Stanwyck's real name? Ruby Katherine Stevens.
Gypsy Rose Lee's real name? Rose Louise Hovick.
Whoopi Goldberg's real name? Caryn Elaine Johnson.
Dinah Shore's real name? Frances Rose Shore.
Maya Angelou's real name? Marguerite Annie Johnson.
Dale Evans's (Queen of the Cowgirls, wife of Roy Rogers, and her horse's name was Buttermilk) real name? Frances Octavia Smith.
And last, but by no means least, Cyd Charisse's real name? (as we all should know by now) Tula Ellice Finklea.
As Abraham Lincoln said at Gettysburg in 1863, it is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. A reader named Pat from Arkansas told us why in a comment on this blog back in 2008, and I quote:
"Trivia is good! It occupies the brain cells that otherwise would be taken up in contemplating current events!"
Given the state of current events nowadays, spending time with trivia is more important than ever. I'm just trying to do my part in achieving harmony in the world. Feel free to nominate me for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Friday, February 12, 2021
Happy birthday, Abe, plus other info
On this day in 1809, Abraham Lincolm was born. When I was young, the nation celebrated his birthday and also George Washington's on February 22nd. Sadly, we don't celebrate either birthday any more.
Emma Springfield blogged today about getting her first dose of COVID-19 vaccine (Moderna version) and being in and out of the vaccinating venue in 20 minutes.
Braggart.
Not to be outdone or one-upped or something equally horrible (I can't imagine what that could be), Mrs. RWP and I would like to announce at this time that we also received our first doses of COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer version) today. We arrived at the VV (see second paragraph) at 1100 hours (I love military jargon) and left, finally, at 1245 hours. But here's the kicker. Of that 1 hour, 45 minutes of our lives that we will never get back again, Mrs. RWP and I spent fully 1 hour, 30 minutes of that time waiting. The remainder of the time was spent filling out a form, actually getting the shot, and setting up the appointments for our second doses of the aforementioned vaccine on March 8th, which just happens to be the birthday of Beatrice of Castile, Queen of Portugal (1293); Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714); Hannah Van Buren, wife of U.S. President Martin Van Buren (1783); Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841); American dancer Cyd Charisse (1922); and British-Americam actress Lynn Redgrave (1943).
If you thought that was a lot of trivia, here is a POTWWYCNPL (piece of trivia without which you could not possibly live):
Cyd Charisse's real name was Tula Finklea.
Emma Springfield blogged today about getting her first dose of COVID-19 vaccine (Moderna version) and being in and out of the vaccinating venue in 20 minutes.
Braggart.
Not to be outdone or one-upped or something equally horrible (I can't imagine what that could be), Mrs. RWP and I would like to announce at this time that we also received our first doses of COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer version) today. We arrived at the VV (see second paragraph) at 1100 hours (I love military jargon) and left, finally, at 1245 hours. But here's the kicker. Of that 1 hour, 45 minutes of our lives that we will never get back again, Mrs. RWP and I spent fully 1 hour, 30 minutes of that time waiting. The remainder of the time was spent filling out a form, actually getting the shot, and setting up the appointments for our second doses of the aforementioned vaccine on March 8th, which just happens to be the birthday of Beatrice of Castile, Queen of Portugal (1293); Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714); Hannah Van Buren, wife of U.S. President Martin Van Buren (1783); Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841); American dancer Cyd Charisse (1922); and British-Americam actress Lynn Redgrave (1943).
If you thought that was a lot of trivia, here is a POTWWYCNPL (piece of trivia without which you could not possibly live):
Cyd Charisse's real name was Tula Finklea.
Thursday, February 11, 2021
Old habits are hard to break
I continue to watch Jeopardy! five nights a week, and there continue to be times when no contestant knows the answer but I do.
Here is a partial list of correct answers I have found myself yelling at my television set in recent weeks, to no avail:
What is Cape Cod? (the clue included the words 'Massachusetts' and 'peninsula')
What is Cambodia?
Who is Valerie Harper?
What are the Caucusus?
What is Plantagenet?
What is Chancellor?
What is Jamestown?
What is Desire Under the Elms?
What is Song Of Myself?
What is the Stone Age?
What is Hadrian's Wall?
What is smelt?
Who is Joshua? (successor of Moses)
What is Ireland?
What is Seven Days In May?
What is laying on of hands?
What are mustangs?
Who is Ralph Waldo Emerson? (wrote "Concord Hymn" and "Self-Reliance")
This evening there were two more:
What is Lake Superior? (lake in which the Edmund Fitzgerald sank)
What is the Andrea Doria? (ship that sank in 1956 that was named for this Italian admiral)
Well, that's more than enough of that.
Here's something either truly trivial or truly fascinating. I became aware of it back in 1969 when I spent an entire month, the month of February, in Sweden. It's true. I flew out of Fort Lauderdale on February 1st and I flew back on March 1st -- and as the old joke goes, boy, were my arms tired.
It has to do with grandparents. Every language has words for one's grandmother and one's grandfather, I'm sure, but since every person has two grandmothers and two grandfathers it is necessary in English to add the adjective 'maternal' or 'paternal' to indicate which ones you mean. Not so in Sweden.
In Swedish, mother is 'mor' and father is 'far' and there are special words for all four of a person's grandparents. Your mother's parents are 'mormor' and 'morfar'. Your father's parents are 'farmor' and 'farfar'. I am not kidding.
If you know of another language that does this, please tell me in the comments.
Here is a partial list of correct answers I have found myself yelling at my television set in recent weeks, to no avail:
What is Cape Cod? (the clue included the words 'Massachusetts' and 'peninsula')
What is Cambodia?
Who is Valerie Harper?
What are the Caucusus?
What is Plantagenet?
What is Chancellor?
What is Jamestown?
What is Desire Under the Elms?
What is Song Of Myself?
What is the Stone Age?
What is Hadrian's Wall?
What is smelt?
Who is Joshua? (successor of Moses)
What is Ireland?
What is Seven Days In May?
What is laying on of hands?
What are mustangs?
Who is Ralph Waldo Emerson? (wrote "Concord Hymn" and "Self-Reliance")
This evening there were two more:
What is Lake Superior? (lake in which the Edmund Fitzgerald sank)
What is the Andrea Doria? (ship that sank in 1956 that was named for this Italian admiral)
Well, that's more than enough of that.
Here's something either truly trivial or truly fascinating. I became aware of it back in 1969 when I spent an entire month, the month of February, in Sweden. It's true. I flew out of Fort Lauderdale on February 1st and I flew back on March 1st -- and as the old joke goes, boy, were my arms tired.
It has to do with grandparents. Every language has words for one's grandmother and one's grandfather, I'm sure, but since every person has two grandmothers and two grandfathers it is necessary in English to add the adjective 'maternal' or 'paternal' to indicate which ones you mean. Not so in Sweden.
In Swedish, mother is 'mor' and father is 'far' and there are special words for all four of a person's grandparents. Your mother's parents are 'mormor' and 'morfar'. Your father's parents are 'farmor' and 'farfar'. I am not kidding.
If you know of another language that does this, please tell me in the comments.
Tuesday, February 9, 2021
Greek mythology tells us
...many things, not the least of which is that Athena sprang full-grown from the forehead of Zeus. I had a similar experience upon waking this morning. No sooner had I opened my eyes than the entire lyrics of a decades-old song called "I Love Paris" sprang out of my mind, which, when you think about the makeup of our physical bodies, is in my forehead:
I love Paris in the springtime
I love Paris in the fall
I love Paris in the winter, when it drizzles
I love Paris in the summer, when it sizzles
I love Paris every moment
Every moment of the year
I love Paris! Why, oh, why do I love Paris?
Because my love is here.
I have never been to Paris and my love is not now and never has been there. "I Love Paris" was followed almost immediately by another old song, as though someone somewhere was dropping quarters into a jukebox:
A foggy day in London town
It had me up, it had me down
I viewed the morning with alarm
The British Museum had lost its charm
How long, I wondered, could this thing last?
But the age of miracles hadn't passed
For suddenly I saw you there
And in foggy London town the sun was shining everywhere.
I have been to London only once, in March 1969, and it was not foggy.
I didn't tell you these things to impress you concerning my powers of recall. My memory is actually not so impressive. As a matter of fact, sometimes I can't remember things that are very important. What I remember, I remember. What I do not, I do not. What I know nothing at all about would fill libraries. Stadiums. Continents.
Let's move on.
What if the song "Gary, Indiana" that little Ronnie Howard sang in The Music Man were about another city? What if he had sung "Kansas City, Kansas" or "Charleston, West Virginia" or "Kodiak, Alaska" or "St. Cloud, Minnesota" or "Helena, Montana" or "Hannibal, Missouri" or "Waxahachie, Texas"?
In the overall scheme of things, it wouldn't make any difference at all except that Professor Howard Hill's encounter with Marian the librarian might have occurred somewhere else than right there in River City.
Please note that when you say "Waxahachie, Texas" the first syllable should not rhyme with "tax" and if it does you are saying it wrong. When you say "Waxahachie, Texas" the first syllable should rhyme with "hawks". I know this because I grew up in the town of Mansfield, just a few miles from Waxahachie. Let it further be noted that there is no 'T' in Waxahachie; it is not Waxahatchie. On second thought, maybe there should be a 'T' in Waxahachie because here's what a certain online encyclopedia that shall remain nameless has to say about the etymology of Waxahachie:
===============================================
Some sources state that the name means "cow" or "buffalo" in an unspecified Native American language. One possible Native American origin is the Alabama language, originally spoken in the area of Alabama around Waxahatchee Creek by the Alabama-Coushatta people, who had migrated by the 1850s to eastern Texas. In the Alabama language, waakasi hachi means "calf's tail" (the Alabama word waaka being a loan from Spanish vaca).
That there is a Waxahatchee Creek near present-day Shelby, Alabama, suggests that Waxahachie shares the same name etymology. Many place names in Texas and Oklahoma have their origins in the Southeastern United States, largely due to forced removal of various southeastern Indian tribes. The area in central Alabama that includes Waxahatchee Creek was for hundreds of years the home of the Upper Creek moiety of the Muscogee Creek Nation. Again, this would suggest a Muscogee Creek-language origin of Waxahachie. "Waxahachie", therefore, may be an anglicized pronunciation of the Muscogee compound word wakvhvce from the Muscogee words wakv (meaning "cow" derived from the Spanish vaca) and the Muscogee word hvcce (meaning "river" or "creek").
A second etymology that has been suggested for the name is insisted on by speakers of Wichita, the language of the tribe that used to live in the area, but now lives mostly around Anadarko, Oklahoma. Wichita people claim the name comes from their word waks'ahe:ts'i . It means "fat wildcat".
===============================================
I am suddenly reminded that 30 years ago I purchased some land that I still own here in northern Georgia at a place called Wauka Mountain and the locals told me at the time that Wauka meant "low-lying cow". Maybe that is connected to Waxahachine in some way.
As Mr. Spock used to say on Star Trek, "Fascinating!"
Perhaps you have never said "Waxahachie, Texas" and, with God being your Helper, you never will.
I have just one thing to say about that.
It takes all kinds.
I am sure of one thing. Just as the Bible tells us nothing at all about cable television, Greek mythology tells us nothing at all about Waxahachie, Texas or why it is called The Gingerbread City.
Fot that matter, it doesn't tell us why Smyrna, Georgia, is called The Jonquil City either, but that is a topic for another day.
If this post of mine doesn't make sense to you, why should today be any different?
P.S. -- Today is our oldest grandchild's 25th birthday. Greek mythology didn't tell me that either.
I love Paris in the springtime
I love Paris in the fall
I love Paris in the winter, when it drizzles
I love Paris in the summer, when it sizzles
I love Paris every moment
Every moment of the year
I love Paris! Why, oh, why do I love Paris?
Because my love is here.
I have never been to Paris and my love is not now and never has been there. "I Love Paris" was followed almost immediately by another old song, as though someone somewhere was dropping quarters into a jukebox:
A foggy day in London town
It had me up, it had me down
I viewed the morning with alarm
The British Museum had lost its charm
How long, I wondered, could this thing last?
But the age of miracles hadn't passed
For suddenly I saw you there
And in foggy London town the sun was shining everywhere.
I have been to London only once, in March 1969, and it was not foggy.
I didn't tell you these things to impress you concerning my powers of recall. My memory is actually not so impressive. As a matter of fact, sometimes I can't remember things that are very important. What I remember, I remember. What I do not, I do not. What I know nothing at all about would fill libraries. Stadiums. Continents.
Let's move on.
What if the song "Gary, Indiana" that little Ronnie Howard sang in The Music Man were about another city? What if he had sung "Kansas City, Kansas" or "Charleston, West Virginia" or "Kodiak, Alaska" or "St. Cloud, Minnesota" or "Helena, Montana" or "Hannibal, Missouri" or "Waxahachie, Texas"?
In the overall scheme of things, it wouldn't make any difference at all except that Professor Howard Hill's encounter with Marian the librarian might have occurred somewhere else than right there in River City.
Please note that when you say "Waxahachie, Texas" the first syllable should not rhyme with "tax" and if it does you are saying it wrong. When you say "Waxahachie, Texas" the first syllable should rhyme with "hawks". I know this because I grew up in the town of Mansfield, just a few miles from Waxahachie. Let it further be noted that there is no 'T' in Waxahachie; it is not Waxahatchie. On second thought, maybe there should be a 'T' in Waxahachie because here's what a certain online encyclopedia that shall remain nameless has to say about the etymology of Waxahachie:
===============================================
Some sources state that the name means "cow" or "buffalo" in an unspecified Native American language. One possible Native American origin is the Alabama language, originally spoken in the area of Alabama around Waxahatchee Creek by the Alabama-Coushatta people, who had migrated by the 1850s to eastern Texas. In the Alabama language, waakasi hachi means "calf's tail" (the Alabama word waaka being a loan from Spanish vaca).
That there is a Waxahatchee Creek near present-day Shelby, Alabama, suggests that Waxahachie shares the same name etymology. Many place names in Texas and Oklahoma have their origins in the Southeastern United States, largely due to forced removal of various southeastern Indian tribes. The area in central Alabama that includes Waxahatchee Creek was for hundreds of years the home of the Upper Creek moiety of the Muscogee Creek Nation. Again, this would suggest a Muscogee Creek-language origin of Waxahachie. "Waxahachie", therefore, may be an anglicized pronunciation of the Muscogee compound word wakvhvce from the Muscogee words wakv (meaning "cow" derived from the Spanish vaca) and the Muscogee word hvcce (meaning "river" or "creek").
A second etymology that has been suggested for the name is insisted on by speakers of Wichita, the language of the tribe that used to live in the area, but now lives mostly around Anadarko, Oklahoma. Wichita people claim the name comes from their word waks'ahe:ts'i . It means "fat wildcat".
===============================================
I am suddenly reminded that 30 years ago I purchased some land that I still own here in northern Georgia at a place called Wauka Mountain and the locals told me at the time that Wauka meant "low-lying cow". Maybe that is connected to Waxahachine in some way.
As Mr. Spock used to say on Star Trek, "Fascinating!"
Perhaps you have never said "Waxahachie, Texas" and, with God being your Helper, you never will.
I have just one thing to say about that.
It takes all kinds.
I am sure of one thing. Just as the Bible tells us nothing at all about cable television, Greek mythology tells us nothing at all about Waxahachie, Texas or why it is called The Gingerbread City.
Fot that matter, it doesn't tell us why Smyrna, Georgia, is called The Jonquil City either, but that is a topic for another day.
If this post of mine doesn't make sense to you, why should today be any different?
Thursday, February 4, 2021
I'm still here, people
Since my last published post I wrote two more somewhat lengthy posts but discarded both of them.
I don't feel like being clever or infuriating (pick one) today.
On Groundhog Day (February 2nd), a friend I have known for 50 years observed his 98th birthday.
On the same day, our pastor's 88-year-old mother, whom everyone called 'Saint Rita', died from complications of the COVID-19 virus. The very next day, which was yesterday, February 3rd, was the birthday of her husband, to whom she had been married for 62 years. This is a different man from the one I mentioned in the previous paragraph.
Four people whom we knew well have now died of COVID-19. Tom, Craig (both last spring), Carolyn in January, and now Rita this month.
Ob-la-dee, Ob-la-dah, sometimes life goes on and sometimes it suddenly stops.
RIP, Tom (69), Craig (55), Carolyn (79), and Rita (88).
You will be missed by the ones of us who knew you. You will be joined by all of us sooner than any of us would like to think.
I don't feel like being clever or infuriating (pick one) today.
On Groundhog Day (February 2nd), a friend I have known for 50 years observed his 98th birthday.
On the same day, our pastor's 88-year-old mother, whom everyone called 'Saint Rita', died from complications of the COVID-19 virus. The very next day, which was yesterday, February 3rd, was the birthday of her husband, to whom she had been married for 62 years. This is a different man from the one I mentioned in the previous paragraph.
Four people whom we knew well have now died of COVID-19. Tom, Craig (both last spring), Carolyn in January, and now Rita this month.
Ob-la-dee, Ob-la-dah, sometimes life goes on and sometimes it suddenly stops.
RIP, Tom (69), Craig (55), Carolyn (79), and Rita (88).
You will be missed by the ones of us who knew you. You will be joined by all of us sooner than any of us would like to think.
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