The Severed Cortex

OK, technically I planned on starting back January 1st. That didn't pan out. It's not a good start is it? Good thing it isn't my New Year's resolution because I would have broken it the first day. My New Year's resolution is the same one I do every year: I try to work the word c*cksucker into every day conversation. What can I say? It's my life's passion and I seem to be the lone crusader.

My real reason for not writing for 2 months is, as many of you are aware, because I moved. As of December 30th, I have taken up residence even farther north. Into the heart of Big Ten country. I see a SEC satellite football package in my future.

All in all the moving process is very stressful. Selling our house was a bit of a nightmare to say the least, but somehow between the pissing contests of negotiations and the logistics of physically moving our crap, we managed to get through it. Well, so far. We aren't actually finished yet. We still don't have most of our stuff. We wound up using a delightful combination of PODS, internet movers, UHaul, and storage areas in order to move a ridiculous amount of crap. The jury is still out on whether PODS is a good idea or not. The early reviews are mixed. The movers we found via the internet were certainly serviceable, although they did manage to scratch the floors at the old house. We'll see how they do on the new house. UHaul was fantastic. I have nothing but good things to say about my UHaul experience. They came through for us when we needed them and they gave us a great deal.

As the days progress I'll detail the process of our own personal hell of a move. I shouldn't make it sound completely terrible. At least I have a home. I'll also try to bring my music catalog up to date. I didn't buy as much music as normal but I still managed to buy some. I'm sure I'll just jump back in with the Robert stories. Robert and I hung out some over the last couple months, but we didn't do as much as we normally do. We'll be making up for that in the coming weeks, including a trip to see the Globetrotters.

Number 67. He was positively giddy about the Obama win and he had stories to tell about being an election official yesterday.

Some other notable November 5th birthdays:
Tatum O'Neal, Bryan Adams, Bill Walton, Sam Shepard, Art Garfunkel, Elke Sommer, Vivian Leigh, Roy Rogers

Link: http://champs.mshsaa.org/results/bracket.asp?Bracket_ID=806

Missouri's high school football playoff system is a joke. There are 4 teams with 3-7 records in the playoffs and one of them is guaranteed to make the top 8 in the state with a 5-7 record. It might even be Caruthersville.

Link: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-studs-terkel-dead,0,2321576.story

My friend Elizabeth tipped me off to this. Damn near one hundred and still writing a book. That's pretty amazing. Honestly I didn't know a lot about Studs Terkel. I had seen him on 60 Minutes interviews and a couple of other things, but I didn't read any of his major works. You see, back then Al Gore hadn't built the series of tubes that we all know as the internets, so I couldn't Wiki him. I really knew about Studs Terkel from reading Mike Royko's column, but it Royko always wrote about him in the highest praise. In the sort of praise that made you think Terkel was perhaps wiser than all of us. Yes, I read Mike Royko. He was syndicated in the Commercial Appeal.

Link: http://www.dddnews.com/story/1470783.html

Gary Figgins is one hell of a nice guy. He actually graduated two years behind me, but I had a lot of friends from his class, including Gary of course. Actually, I didn't actually know Gary all that well in high school. I mean, I knew him. Everyone knew everyone at my small high school. I just knew him more after high school from the Beta Club, an informal gathering of beer drinking and pseudo intellectualism created by my good friend John Karnes. Meetings were loosely organized around Tuesdays, or so.
Gary started a quarterly travel magazine several years ago and I've received a copy since it's inception. (Compliments of my parents). It's obviously a mechanism for promoting Missouri travel, but it is a very nice magazine. Gary usually does a photo essay in each edition and his work is extremely impressive. One of the regular contributors is JY Miller, former CHS math teacher and founding Beta Club member. I was not a founding member, but instead was a minor recurring character, partly due to my work on the river and partly due to the fact I didn't much care to drink beer at a family pizza restaurant. Loved the pizza though.
A link to Gary's excellent Show-Me Missouri magazine.

Link: http://www.kfvs12.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?vt1=v&clipFormat=flv&clipId1=3054579&at1=News&h1=Caruthersville&rnd=82718065

I wish the reporter would stop calling it Cruthersville. It's CAruthersville.
What they don't mention is that the high school was moved. Twice. Once just a block (or so) away within the first couple years of being built, and then again to the other side of town in the 1930's. Our class had the high school sign built, replacing some piece of crap sign left over from the 1950's. Ours was all brick and solid. I forgot to look to see if it was still standing when I rolled through there a couple weeks ago. There was also a memorial with bricks that were engraved with our names. I think one for my sister and one for me, but maybe we were both on the same brick. I'm sure that thing was smoked in the tornado.

Some random thoughts about that high school

Shooting hoops in the gym.
The band room and spending a lot of time sitting next to Jerrianne Malone.
Our primitive system for cheating on tests in physics.
Any math class with Mr. Wilson, an albino math savant.
The trampoline on the 2nd floor.
Neely Mitchell's hall pass, which was one large turkey foot.
The couple of plays I performed in.
The Gordon twins fighting the Constant brothers. It was a bloody slaughter.
Black History Assembly, followed by an informal rebel march at lunch.
Asking Mr. Jones did he say he was meeting a queer down at the truckstop. He answered with f u Moore.

Link: http://www.showmemissouri.net/photoessays/photoessays/chsdemo.html

My high school, declared structurally unsound from the 2006 tornado, was finally demolished today in order to make room for a new school. Kinda sad, but definitely needed.

Link: http://www.mosaicatl.com

My old high school friend Jody Dean just bought this place in Buckhead. If you are traveling through Atlanta, or live there, make sure you stop by and have a nice dinner. Tell him you know me and you will get nothing for free.

Link: http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/10/21/obit.moore.ap/index.html

He shouldn't have been messing around with Coffee Brown. She'll cream ya every time.