Hey y'all:
Mo' satellite trucks in town today than at any other time in Tuscaloosa history.
Set a record.
Today if you went to Buie's clip on FOX6.comhttp://www.myfoxal.com/myfox/pages/Entertainment/Detail?contentId=1469632&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=7.3.1, you had a featured link to a webcam with Paul Finebaum for the entire afternoon.
Pretty kewl!
It would really help Saban to adopt the message of the song called THE DAY BEAR BRYANT DIED! HTTP://DAYBEARDIED.COM
The great Young Jr. Baby Criminal [Class of '64] and Dothan Tiger tackle Ray Hutto sent us this incredible link.
I've known for a long time that I was conceived in August of '49 but DIS THANG BE DAH BOMB!!!!
YOU WILL REGRET NOT CHECKING IT OUT!
I PROMISE!
http://www.paulsadowski.com/birthday.asp
Best,
RR http://myspace.com/paulbearbryant
NEW YEAR'S EVE
http://www.cafepress.com/missingnebraska/1803697
Got in from work Friday night and had a call from Archie. He was on his way to Dauphin Island and he wanted me to come down and stay with him and Paula for the New Year's Eve celebration. He also wanted me to pick up a sack of oysters to shuck.
Saturday morning came as a big surprise because Lee told me he'd bought me a lawn mower. I took the little truck to go get it only to find out he had BOUGHT ME A PRACTICALLY NEW, ONE YEAR OLD CRAFTSMAN RIDING LAWN MOWER! It was a pleasant surprise but I had to go back to the Archie's Whorehouse and get a trailer. Then I had to rearrange the whorehouse so the mower would fit so I started off the day with a crunch for time.
Finally got out of town about noon so I had to travel wisely if I was going to make it to Coden Bayou before sundown so I could buy a sack of oysters. Like I've said a million times, I'm a great guest but I don't think I would have been as welcome showing up empty handed with no oysters.
I paid attention to my driving and kept the distractions to a minimum but I did catch a few scenes that REGISTERED!
Saw two home boy soul brothers in full urban garb with caps cocked to the side riding horses through the grounds of a government housing project in Eutaw. I wondered whether they were Alabama natives or just visiting for the holidays. I'm sure you don't see things like that in Detroit or L.A.
I admired the produce stands along the way with Florida strawberries for sale along with turnip , mustard and collard greens stacked high.
Saw a lot of goat farms and catfish ponds occupied by Canadian geese. Thought about the first time I saw a Canadian goose at Lake Eufaula. They were so rare when I was growing up but you take 'em for granted now.
Same with pelicans.
Thought a lot along the way about my AARON BURR'S CAPTURE IN ALABAMA PROJECT.
I found it ironic that before Ft. Stoddert was established in 1799 on the first bluff above Ellicott's Stone, Bienville had settled the Roman Catholic Apalachee Indians on the same bluff after they refugeed to Mobile after the South Carolina slave raids around present-day Tallahassee destroyed the Catholic mission district in that area in what was probably the largest slave raid in North American history.
Thought about living three hundred years ago in what is now Alabama and learning the Mobilian trade lingo along with Indian sign language. All of that "lingua franca" originated right here and with those tools of communication, you could, like Lewis & Clark, communicate with all the Indians no matter what their language.
Saw some kewl messages on church signs.
My favorite: BE AN ORGAN DONOR - Give Your Heart to GOD!
Saw a lot of road kill :beaver, nutria, deer, skunks, polecats, raccoons and possums. Very few armadillos. Saw where somebody had run over a deer and come back and cut it's hind quarters off. Now if that ain't country, I'll kiss yo' ass.
Got to Coden before sundown and got an 88 pound sack for $31. The cat made it an honest deal by weighing my sack and charging me a wholesale price of 35 cents per pound.
Archie and Paula had gone over to some Tuscaloosa friends beach house for dinner so I moved into my side of the house and cooked some Oysters Rockefeller and Oysters Bienville on the grill.
After eating, I cleaned up and went down to the Pub to hang out with Paula and Rhonda. The juke box had really gotten polluted by too much country music. DON'T POLLUTE THE JUKE!!!!
Despite all the country tunes, I did find "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" by the Temptations and "Louie, Louie" by the Kingsman. They also had THE BEST OF MARVIN GAYE along with THE BEST OF Z.Z. TOP so I found plenty of party music for the evening.
One of the things that happens to me all the time is people suggesting subject matter for my blogs.
It happened again Saturday night at the Pub and because of the conversations I had at the bar, I want to address the subject of THE WAR ON TERRORISM.
Hey y'all, I know a lot of Americans have sacrificed everything fighting for this country and I know there's all sorts of tragedies in people's lives because of the war effort but I got one thing to say and that is that there are THREE SIMPLE TRUTHS about this war that give me comfort:
#1 Nobody's been drafted!
#2 We killing Moslems every g*ddamn day which is what we have TO DO if we gonna keep our country.
#3 This war is giving our police officers and National Guard plenty of practice in doing all of the things necessary to deal with the current crop of thugs infesting Alabama's streets and sidewalks.
That's all good stuff to me.
I left the Pub at closing [1 A.M.] & got home safely and got up early because I realized the night before that I needed to edit my blog in order to avoid getting into any conflicts with the girls down at the Pub.
The entire coast was covered with a dense fog throughout the Sunday morning of New Year's Eve. In fact , the street lights were still on at 10:30 A.M.
The strangest thing I saw on the way from the island to Coden was how the fog had brought all the snowy egrets in close to the road. All along the ditches and cuts along the causeway egrets were feeding. Saw a lot of loons and cormorants but nothing compared to what I would see before sundown.
Got to Greg's house on the bayou and edited the blog to avoid trouble. My discussion with Greg really helped me to piece together what happened during the hours before the capture of Aaron Burr on February 19, 1807. Greg was correct in suggesting that THE REMINISCENCES OF GEORGE STROTHER GAINES would be essential.
Greg and I have been having trouble understanding how Nicholas Perkins, the man who captured Burr, was able to travel the 20 miles between Wakefield and Ft. Stoddert at night. Here's the explanation according to Gaines who was there and whose brother arrested Burr.
Nicholas Perkins was Register of the Land Office in Wakefield and he owned land on the Sunflower Bend of the Tombigbee. Greg believes he knows the location of the ghost town of Wakefield and the location is near the Sunflower Bend.
Burr showed up at Perkins' cabin a little after dark on February 18. Burr was dressed in disguise but Perkins believed him to be the former Vice-President so he made preparations to collect the $2000 reward posted for Burr's capture.
Burr and his companion were looking for directions to Col. Hinson's house which was 7 miles away. Hinson's place was south of Wakefield in the direction of Fort Stoddert.
After Burr and his companion left, Perkins convinced the Sheriff to accompany him to Hinson's house to see if they could capture Burr for the reward money. Sheriff Brightwell agreed to go with Perkins to Hinson's place. Once they got there, Perkins let Brightwell go inside the cabin because he was on bad terms with Hinson. Undoubtedly, Sheriff Brightwell came under Burr's spell because he never came out of the cabin so about midnight Perkins decided to go get Lt. E.P. Gaines at Ft. Stoddert.
Perkins then rode 15 miles before daylight to Joe Bates' place on Nannahubba Bluff. Here he borrowed Bates' canoe and he and one of Bates' Negros paddled 8 or nine miles down the Tombigbee to Ft. Stoddert.
At the fort, he told Lt. Gaines about the man he suspected was Aaron Burr. After serving Perkins breakfast, Lt. Gaines along with 4 or 5 men accompanied Perkins on the ride north toward Hinsons' place. That afternoon, they found Burr riding the trail just south of Hinsons' along with Hinson and Sheriff Brightwell.
Burr asked Hinson who were the riders that were approaching them.
Brightwell said, "That's Perkins. You're gone."
Burr exclaimed, "God have mercy!"
This was when Lt. Gaines served Burr with the proclamation from the governor and the president which ordered Burr's arrest.
Believe it or not, I avoided trouble by taking care of my business with Greg's computer in Coden and returned to the island where I finished shucking my 88 pounds of oysters in the shell.
Here are a couple of hints for shucking oysters. It is best to shuck oysters in the daytime so you have lots of light. Archie has three different knives. The best is a home-made Coden knife made from a sharpened piece of an automobile suspension spring. The second one has a thin short stiff blade and the third has a thick long blade. Most oysters can be shucked with the Coden knife but the other two always come in handy.
I shuck all the oysters in the sack and keep the best cooking shells in an ice chest. This keeps the shells fresh and I wash the shells again before stuffing them with oysters and whatever else I'm putting on them.
At 4:15 Sunday afternoon, about the time I was cleaning up from shucking the sack of oyster, one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in Nature occurred. Over the deck of the beach house, thousands of cormorants began flying south in successive V formations of about 20 at a time which stretched the entire length of the island.
Archie said, "They must be having a cormorant party out on the sand bank."
It was really unbelievable. There were so many that you made sure you kept your mouth shut when you looked up because you weren't sure what was going to be falling out of the sky.
We had a gorgeous sundown on the Gulf Sunday evening and we fired up the grill for mo' Oysters Rockefeller and Oysters Bienville.
After eating I pulled out the four Madras shirts I brought down and had Paula pick the best one for me to iron. Paula said,"You'll great in blue." & she were right!
Archie, Paula and I sat around the breakfast bar drinking champagne and talking stuff and I even did my own OO7 Tarot reading. Archie and Paula enjoyed watching me tell my own fortune and I turned over the frist 007 card, THE MAGUS #1 IN THE TAROT!
Suddenly we realized that New Year's Eve Midnight was less than ten minutes away so we made a Bee Line to The Pub.
We got to the Pub with 5 minutes to go so as soon as we ordered drinks we were in for the countdown for 007. As God as my witness, the best first words you can hear on New Year's morning are ,"GIVE ME A REAL KISS!"
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2007!!!! I was lucky enough to become the object of the affections of my Little Beach Bunny Elf from Sand Mountain and the second thing she said to me in 2007 gave me such a high blood pressure attack that I about had a nosebleed!
Archie and Paula were ready to retire early because they wanted to go to the POLAR BEAR DIP at the Flora-Bama at noon on New Year's Day. I wanted to go too but I also wanted to see all the thing the Pub had to offer Sunday morning.
Archie and Paula hauled me back to the beach house so I could get the Exploder so soon I was back at the bar talking to Billy about the two gorgeous Shakira wannabes who liked dancing to Fergulicious, Crazy by Knarls Barkley and Sexy Back!
Got home safely before 4.
I guaran-damn-T-you oyster stew is absolutely the best hangover cure known to me!
After shaking off my hangover by eating the oyster stew, I went looking for a Press-Register and none were to be found. The clerk at the 7-11 told me to check The Bakery so I drived by there and the box was empty and as I went down the block I turned at St. Edmunds by the Sea Catholic Church and there was the priest out in front of the church in his full white vestry garments greeting the only family who showed up for noon New Year's Mass. I wonder if he performs mass when nobody shows up.
I missed THE POLAR BEAR DIP so I laid around the house all day reading THE REMINISCENCES OF GEORGE STOTHER GAINES [edited with an Introduction and notes by James P. Pate] and watching my former seventh grade science student, Courtney Taylor, break the ALL- TIME AUBURN RECEIVING RECORD in the 2007 Cotton Bowl while whipping Nebraska. I'll never forget asking Courtney why he thought he didn't need to get his lessons and he said, "Mr. Reg, I know I need to get my lessons but you need to know that I'm gonna be a big professional football player one day!"
COURTNEY'S LITTLE SEVENTH GRADE ASS WUZ RIGHT!
It was so nice to lay around the house, deck and yard all New Year's Day in my swimsuit. MAN, WE GOT IT MADE IN ALABAMA! {don't tell nobody though}
Everybody acted like they were mad when I finally made it in to work Tuesday morning because I'd missed my eviction at 711 36th Avenue. Karen, Lee and Kevin talked about how bad the eviction had gone and I told them,"Man, the tenants told me they'd be out before the sheriff got there." I was freaked out until I got over there and found out that the tenants had told the truth and the folks who had to pull up my slack didn't have jack to do. The only thing that happened was everybody got on my case because I'd gone to the beach two weekends in a row.THE BASTARDS WERE JUST JEALOUS!
Anyway, I ALMOST got up on time Tuesday morning.
I know'd I hadzzzz to goes home but I showl didn't wants to!
So I got up early Tuesday morning and headed back to Tuscaloosa. I swear I saw Billy from The Pub pulling onto the bridge right as I was leaving it. KOZMIC! Yeah It were time fo' me to get back to the land where to Bodock's spooky fingers branch up into the Confederate grey skies! It was time to get back to where folks paint tires for yard art and name their byways things like 12 Link Road or Peppermint Road. Time to go back where folks wave at each other, bitch about how the government steals and wastes money and how the ALABAMA HYSTERICAL COMMISSION will not preserve a rotting antebellum house because some idiotic over-educated academic shithead http://academicshithead.blogspot.com says the paint ain't right and nobody can paint the house because they haven't painted 25 CERTIFIED old houses. You ain't shit wid dah Alibammy Hysterical Commission if you can't talk about why you can't paint or drywall something.
Got home to see my son. He'd just got back from the Minnesota/Ontario borderlands with photos taken from the business end of a dog sled.
Hope y'all had a happy new year! ROLL TIDE!
Best,
RR http://myspace.com/paulbearbryant
THE 22nd ANNUAL POLAR BEAR DIP 2007 AT THE FLORA-BAMA
http://pensacolanewsjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070102/NEWS01/701020316/1006
Plateau Community Celebrates Kwanzaa!
http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/116756082136160.xml&coll=3&thispage=1
NUTRIA RECIPES FOR THE OYSTER MAN OF HERON BAY
http://www.nutria.com/site14.php
VIRTUAL SHOPPING
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%22VIRTUAL+SHOPPING%22&btnG=Search
AGRICULTURAL ROBOTICS
http://www.agriculturalrobotics.com/news.html
CAPYBERA
My search is over. Professor Acacio de Barros, a colleague visiting from Brazil, has eaten capybara, or, more properly in Portuguese, capivara. He reports that, while hard to find, capivara is quite tender and tasty. "It isn't gamey at all like you would expect it to be, but more like a mild pork," he said, "I prefer it over pork." It can be found in select barbeque places, rodizios. He was not sure about the price, since rodizios, being all-the-meat-you-can-eat kind of places, don't really reveal that information. Apparently, most people in Brazil do not know that the capivara is a rodent. Eating habits would probably change given the modern day culture of picky eating. Other fun animals in Brazil, though not for eating, include the cotia, a micro-capivara found in downtown Rio, and the anta, also known as tapir, found in the rainforests.
