This will be my first story for you today, because it’s the most unbelievable thing that happened this week. I was duped. We must not ever take anything as the truth. A couple of months ago, I picked up an OFF! Backyard citronella scented candle with a triple wick. The package also stated that it burns for up to 50 hours. It was not cheap, but it was exactly what I needed to prepare for my future summer. What a deal! I would already have possession of it for the first day of mosquito crazy, prepared for the first summer evening of sipping a cocktail on the back porch. I’m SO on top of things! Well, I worked in the yard this past Saturday, and placed the candle at my back door so nothing could sneak inside and torture Teller and me with buzzing and biting all night long. I also had some little bug repellent stickers the size of a quarter, that I found in NC, stuck to both shoulders of my shirt, one on the hem of my cotton skirt and one on my hat, plus two more stuck to the back door, right next to the candle. I was very pro-active, but nothing was working. I whined to my neighbor that nothing was working. Then I decided to look at the candle package one more time. Orange and Green packaging with OFF! written in big letters… I have lived in South Texas most of my life so I know what a can of OFF! looks like, and this looks just like a can of OFF! except for some smaller letters that say… NOT INTENDED TO REPEL MOSQUITOS. What! I read it three more times. Seriously!? Then I pulled it up online. People have not been kind on the posted reviews. Why in the world would anyone want to intentionally purchase a candle displayed in the pesticide section of the store… intended just for ambiance. No one really enjoys the smell. Misleading, deceptive, false advertising, and another scam by a large corporation that knows we don’t pay attention anymore.
What do you get when you cross a mosquito and a lightning bug? A mosquito that you can see coming for you.
In South Texas, in Boca Chica to be exact, SpaceX launched the world’s most powerful rocket for the fourth time. Environmental groups are concerned with the debris and damage being done to Boca Chica, a place where folks like you and me have gone to retire… a place where shorebirds nest and nature is supposed to rule. This time they set up cameras so they could show the damaged eggs and debris of nine nests. We Texans sure know how to tear up stuff, we just can’t seem to get the hang of fixing nature back the way it’s supposed to be.
Don’t Trust Words, Trust Actions.
As I was leaving my neighborhood the other day, I saw the city guys in the big ditch with the weed eaters, TRYING to cut down all the weeds. I say ‘trying’ because as I drove home that evening you could see that it wasn’t a very good finish job. Now a friend just showed me that the City of Clute is using goats to clean out the ditches. What an awesome idea. I think that’s the way we are supposed to do it anyway… animals eat the grass, then they poop, which helps fertilize the grass, which grows so the goats can come back and eat more. Best idea ever. How in the world did we get to where we are now. Are you listening, Lake Jackson? Storm season is here, and we need the ditches mowed short in case of massive rain. Rent a Ruminant Texas. The process of rechewing the cud to further break down plant matter and stimulate digestion is called rumination.
RECENT BIRTHDAYS: Actor Joan Van Ark is 81. Val Ewing on Knots Landing. Mystery author Patricia Cornwell is 68. Her books have sold more than 120 million copies including the Kay Scarpetta novels. Boxing Hall of Fame Roberto Duran Is 73. Pop singer Gino Vannelli is 72. “People Gotta Move”, “I Just Wanna Stop”, “Living Inside Myself” and “Wild Horses.”
Actor, musician, and comedian Martin Mull died at 80. He rose to fame in the 70’s starring in the soap opera parody series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (I loved that show), its spinoffs, Fernwood 2 Night and America 2 Night. In the 90’s Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Rosanne, Arrested Development, Two and a Half Men, and more. In 2016, he was nominated for his guest role on Veep. Definitely a classic.
Senior White House photographer Ron Edmonds was on his second day of the job on March 30, 1981, when John Hinkley Jr. used a revolver to shoot President Ronald Reagan outside a Washington hotel. Reagan was struck, then shoved into the waiting limousine that sped to the hospital where doctors were able to save his life. That coverage and series of chaotic images won Edmonds the Pulitzer for spot news photography. James S. Brady, White House press secretary, and secret service agent, Timothy McCarty, were also shot that day. Ron Edmonds covered the White House for 28 years. While working in Hawaii in 1973, he was assigned to take photographs of an Elvis concert, but Colonel Tom Parker didn’t want any press coverage. The Star-Bulletin threatened to seek a court injunction to stop the show, so Parker relented. Edmonds was escorted straight to his seat at the concert and given instructions, “The lawyers said I have to let you shoot pictures, but I don’t have to let you move around.” Ron Edmonds died last month at age 77.
Richard “Kinky” Friedman was a remarkably interesting man. Ahhh. I should really use a stronger word here than interesting, a bit fearless. He was a musician – Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys and his very first band was King Arthur and the Carrots, a songwriter, novelist – mostly crime novels but 18 in all, satirist, Texas Monthly columnist, candidate for Texas governor in 2006, candidate for Texas agriculture commissioner in 2010 and 2014, and just plain funny. I say he was a poet in every sense of the word. Kinky Friedman died last week at 79. If you have a few minutes, take the time to read his story. I was listening to an interview with him on NPR this morning and he said, “My therapist… Willie Nelson… called me early one morning and asked me what I was doing. I told him I was watching Matlock. And he told me to start writing music again, so I did.” There are some great stories and I promise you will love them.
Mark Dodson, voice actor, died at 64 of a heart attack. Dodson began his career in 1983 voicing Salacious Crumb in Return of the Jedi, the Ewoks in Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, and Niima Scavenger in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. He also voiced the Mogwai in Gremlins 2, 3, & 4, and Zombies in Day of the Dead. Dodson also had voice roles in commercials and video games, including Ghostrunner 1 & 2, Bendy and the Dark Revival, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, Star Trek Online, and Heroes of Newerth.
Tina told me to watch the show Reba, now on Netflix, but I hemmed and hawed and didn’t watch it until this past weekend. I’m sorry. It is so cute… it ran from 2001 to 2007. Reba has a new show coming (she is officially leaving The Voice) and will star in a new sitcom, “Happy’s Place” about a woman that inherits her father’s restaurant and discovers her new business partner is a half-sister she never knew she had. McEntire’s former costar, Melissa Peterman, who played Barbra Jean on Reba, joins the cast as Gabby, the restaurant’s “needy and dramatic” bartender. 2024-2025 Season.
True patriotism springs from a belief in the dignity of the individual, freedom and equality not only for Americans but for ALL people on Earth… Eleanor Roosevelt
The Oscars are considering a major change. The Best Actor and Best Actress categories would be gender-neutral. Most other categories, such as directing, writing, and producing, are already gender-neutral, yet these non-acting categories are for the most part, occupied by men. Some female nominees have also expressed concern that a single prize would put men at a distinct advantage because of the more numerous roles available to them. According to the Women’s Media Center, men have received 78% of the Oscar nominations in non-acting categories over the past 17 years.
Let the Fourth of July always be a reminder that here in this land, for the first time, it was decided that man is born with certain God-given rights; that government is only a convenience created and managed by the people, with no powers of its own except those voluntarily granted to it by the people. We sometimes forget that great truth, and we never should. Happy Fourth of July. Ronald Reagan
The body has a normal temperature of 98.6. Easy for me to remember because of that old 1967 song called 98.6 (it’s good to have you back again…) Seriously, in this extreme heat, which looks a whole lot like our new future, heat stroke can happen very quickly if your body heats up just a few degrees. Dehydration can cause shock. The heat confuses your brain, shuts down your organs and stresses your heart. Drink water and find shade. Please remember to take loving care of your pets. Dogs pant to increase evaporation from their nose and lungs, which cools them down from the inside out. (Humans sweat.) Change your pets water often, even inside pets. I add a few ice cubes a couple of times a day to their water bowl. It’s too hot on their paws to go walking during the heat of the day, or to even stay on concrete during the heat unless it’s shaded. Pets depend on you.
Rudy Giuliana has been disbarred after a state appeals court found he had lied in arguing that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from his client, Donald Trump. An 88-year-old man who was the getaway driver in two different bank robberies in Montana last summer, has been sentenced to two years in a federal prison medical facility. He said he robs banks to make money. Hmmm. Good point. Charlotte the California Round Stingray who miraculously became pregnant… with no male companion in sight, or in the aquarium… has died in North Carolina. Two new Pandas have arrived at the San Diego Zoo, the first pandas to enter the US in 21 years: gifts from China. Their names are Yun Chuan (almost 5-yr-old male son of a panda born at the San Diego Zoo in 2007) and Xin Bao (a four-year-old female.) An arranged marriage, I suppose.
Happy Fourth of July. You’re welcome. George Washington
Send comments to Lisa Baker at lisa@thesourceweekly.com
