CATTLE KATE

Many years ago, when I was a television news reporter and producer in Phoenix, I made the acquaintance of Jana Bommersbach.  Like me she was originally from North Dakota.  But she was a newspaper reporter.  Later she wrote for magazines, won nearly every award for her work known to modern ma. . . er . . . woman.  She has written the definitive book on the so-called trunk murderess, Winnie Ruth Judd.  She has been a teacher and a television commentator. Actually Jana has done damned near everything and been great at all of it.

So it was a treat to attend a lecture and book signing of hers at the Prescott Public Library the other night.

Jana was talking about her latest book and her first try at historical fiction.

She knocked it out of the park.  Cattle Kate is the story of another woman wronged, represented as a whore and a cattle rustler for over a hundred years.  But Jana put her investigative tools to work and wrote an entirely different story about Ella Watson, a homesteader in Wyoming in the 1800's whose presence and refusal to sell her land so angered a neighboring rancher that he and a handful of other men eventually lynched her and her husband.

Jana spoke for an hour in an impassioned delivery that kept a crowd of more than 60 people spellbound, interspersing her heroine's story with historical facts about some amazing women of the Old West.

After her bravura performance, she signed my personal copy of Cattle Kate in typical Jana-fashion.

Apparently it's my week for lectures.  This afternoon SWMBO and I attended a talk at the Phippen Museum about the legendary Kolb brothers of the Grand Canyon.  In the very early 20th century the two brothers from Pittsburgh built a photo studio at the head of the Bright Angel Trail just below the rim of the South Rim.  Eventually one of the brothers left for California but Emery Kolb stayed for the rest of his life, until he died in 1976 at the age of 95. After the very interesting talk by historian Phil Payne I spoke with him and told him I had done a television story on the brothers' photo studio and interviewed Emery shortly before his death.

All in all, it's been an interesting week.

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

The Friday Funnies kick off another weekend with the sorta sad tale of a homeless man.

Wise guys finish last.

Continuing right along, there's a common theme to this next bunch. I call it "Six Reasons Not To Mess With Mother Nature."

If that hasn't convinced you to stay safely inside the four walls of your house, take it from the obligatory cat picture.

And with that last comment purring in your ears, let me just add A BIG THANK YOU to my contributors this week.  You know who you are.  Have a great weekend, folks, and . . . keep laughing!

THROWBACK THURSDAY

I can't be exactly sure where or when this photo was taken but I'm suspecting it was in Austin, Texas sometime between late October of 1991, when we returned from our sojourn in Mexico, and mid 1993, when we returned to Arizona.  Hint: the framed picture which is the one I posted just last week of our 20th anniversary.  That photo was taken on April 7th, 1991 and we left Mexico the following October.

Computer historians will note the age of that c.p.u. and monitor on the desk and the green letters on the screen.

And longtime fans of Oddball Observations may recognize our beloved Chulapay, the (sorta) Siamese cat who climbed up to be with his master (and under the warmth of that lamp!)

The brownish-blonde hair and the reddish-brown beard?  I remember them well. 

BLUE SKIES

As I have said too many times to count, when it snows in my part of Arizona it never lasts very long.  Before a day or two the temperatures have risen, the skies have cleared and the snow is melted away.  Yesterday's snow barely had a chance to stick to the ground and today it's back to temperatures climbing into the 50's, sunshine and plenty of blue skies.

And speaking of changes, who would have thought . . years ago . . that a raspy-voiced British rock star would become a ballad singer? Who indeed?

SNOW AGAIN?

8:00 this morning in my neighborhood.  (Arizona foothills)

THE BEARD - #7

All right, folks, here it comes.  

The 7th and (to paraphrase what Tina and Amy said on the Golden Globes last night) the last photo of The Beard.  

It has reached a point where I don't feel further progress reports are necessary.

And just to satisfy all those thousands of you who have been begging me for a smile . . .

Kind of looks more like a grimace to me.

Like someone who has just eaten something he didn't like the taste of but is trying to make his hostess happy.

And for those of you without instant recall, here's how this whole thing started out.

Your very own Catalyst on December 1st, contemplating growing his beard out.

Thanks for watching!

FIERY FOLIAGE

These three photos are all of the same plant in our back yard, lit by the sun to blazing glory.

As usual I forget the name of it but it's a dazzler.

And finally, the innermost view.

The last one reminds me of Br'er Rabbit's plaintive cry from that Uncle Remus book of my youth, "Oh, please, don't throw me in that briar patch!"