The Dallas Observer Suggests You Get Drunk & Roll Down The Grassy Knoll Yelling Al Qaeda Did It

In a mysterious coincidence, during the final week of September, both Fort Worth Weekly and the Dallas Observer issue their highly anticipated Best of the Year issues.

Best of the Year, as in this that or the other thing is the Best of 2014.

I'd not seen a Dallas Observer Best of the Year edition til this year's version.

I've long thought the Fort Worth Weekly Best of the Year version has some goofy elements, but then figure it's a big issue which takes a lot of effort to produce, hence some goofy elements are to be expected.

The most goofy element I have found in the Dallas Observer Best of 2014 edition is in the section the online version calls Arts & Entertainment, which the print version calls Nightlife & Music.

Just having different names for this section is a bit goofy, but the goofy element to which I refer I screencapped above and copy for your reading pleasure below...

Best Spot to Be Drunk and Yell at Tourists Dallas 2014 - Grassy Knoll

Now that Dallas has marked the 50th anniversary of JFK's murder, the city is moving on from the tragedy. It's time to acknowledge that the Grassy Knoll is a great spot to hide in and yell at people. The most elevated point at Dallas' knoll has an excellent view of tourists below, all of whom appear very interested to hear any Dallas factoids, personal revelations or conspiracy theories shouted at them from above. For people intent on yelling at tourists all night, showing up drunk tends to yield more creative results, such as the ever popular "Al Qaeda did it!" Other fun knoll-related activities include just silently sitting and not yelling at people and rolling down the hill.

I am sure whoever decides such things at the Dallas Observer thought the above was the height of hilarity. I don't know what people in parts of America, other than Dallas and Texas, might think about the idea that the Dallas Observer thinks getting drunk and hollering at tourists from the Grassy Knoll is a fun activity, and perfectly appropriate, what with it being over a half century since JFK was murdered at this location.

For some reason yelling "Al Qaeda did it" seems a bit juvenile to me. And would anyone actually laugh at that?

As for rolling down the hill known as the Grassy Knoll. I  recollect way back late in the last century seeing Dealey Plaza for the first time. When I figured out where the Grassy Knoll was at Dealey Plaza I recollect being surprised because it really is not much of a geographic feature. Labeling it as a Grassy Knoll seemed like an exaggeration, as does referring to this little knob as a hill.

Go to my Dealey Plaza webpage and you will see a photo of the little knob known as the Grassy Knoll, which the Dallas Observer thinks is a fun hill to roll down, drunkenly, whilst yelling that Al Qaeda did it....

49 Years Plus One Day After The JFK Assassination The Nick Beef Mystery Continues To Mystify

Yesterday, Thanksgiving, November 22, was the 49th  Anniversary of the Assassination of John F. Kennedy.

The assassin who murdered JFK, Lee Harvey Oswald, is buried about a mile from my abode.

Way back early in this century, prior to attending the 40th Anniversary at Dealey Plaza I had visited the Rose Hill Memorial Burial Park and found Oswald's grave.

I made an entry about the Oswald gravesite on my Eyes on Texas website, a webpage titled Lee Harvey Oswald Gravesite.

For years search engines have had me be the world's go to boy for info about finding Oswald's gravesite.

Decades ago had you told me that in the next century I would be directing people to the location of the grave of Lee Harvey Oswald, my feeble imagination would not have been able to conjure a scenario where that would make sense.

Next to Oswald's headstone there is one for a non-existent person named Nick Beef. Nick Beef has confused people for years.

Yesterday I got email feedback from Rick Saunders regarding Nick Beef. This is what Rick had to say about Nick....

The story I have always heard regarding Nick Beef is that Oswald's grave stone had been stolen or vandalized several times. Finally they just didn't replace the stone. Two reporters split the cost and bought the grave next to Oswald's and put the marker there. There is actually no one buried there. It is simply a landmark for Oswald's grave.

I don't know how Rick missed the explanation about Nick that is on my website....

JFK Researcher Barb Junkkarinen offers the following explanation that first appeared in a newsgroup post:

"According to the folks in the black suits at the cemetery office, Nick Beef is the stage name of a comedian who bought the plot and had a headstone with that name installed. In his act, he apparently tells people that if they want to find Oswald's grave (which info the cemetery office will not give out)...just ask for Nick Beef instead and you will find Oswald. Only thing is...now they won't tell people where Nick Beef's grave is either! Once the cemetery folks realized a group of us (Arthur and Margaret Snyder, Bill Hamley, and myself) who were out there already knew where Oswald's grave was and were just curious about Nick Beef, they told us the story. Of additional note...Marguerite (Oswald's mother) is buried on the other side of Oswald.... sans headstone."

Meth Whores Can Live In Peace At Fort Worth's Ozzie Rabbit Lodge

If I remember right I have previously mentioned that I'm a fan of the goofy ads I find in Fort Worth Weekly.

Fort Worth Weekly is a free tabloid that serves pretty much as Fort Worth's only legitimate newspaper.

Legitimate in the sense that Fort Worth Weekly actually does investigative journalism, acting as a much needed Fourth Estate in this ill-served, hard-hitting journalism-wise, parched part of the planet.

If I remember right, in addition to having previously mentioned being a fan of FW Weekly's goofy ads, I've also previously mentioned the Ozzie Rabbit Lodge.

This week's Ozzie Rabbit Lodge ad in the Best of 2011 Fort Worth Weekly edition lets us know that the Ozzie Rabbit Lodge is the only place Punks, Bikers, Hipsters, your Grandpa, Cowboys & Meth Whores can live in peace.

Meth Whores?

Elsie Hotpepper is definitely not a Meth Whore, but the Ozzie Rabbit Lodge is often the Elsie Hotpepper starting off location for a night of saloon hopping.

For those of you who don't know Fort Worth history, Ozzie Rabbit was the nickname of Lee Harvey Oswald, a nickname given to Lee Harvey by his fellow marines, before Lee Harvey left the marines to go be a communist in the Soviet Union.

For those of you who don't know American history, Lee Harvey Oswald is Fort Worth's most famous alleged assassin. He is alleged to have assassinated President John F. Kennedy, in Dallas, as the JFK motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza, way back on November 22, 1963.

Lee Harvey was then assassinated himself a couple days later by a guy named Jack Ruby.

About the same time John F. Kennedy was laid to rest in Arlington Cemetery (in Washington, D.C., not the Arlington Cemetery in Arlington, Texas) Lee Harvey Oswald was laid to rest in the Rose Hill Memorial Burial Park, a short distance from The Ozzie Rabbit Lodge.

Way back when Lee Harvey Oswald was allegedly aiming that rifle out of a 6th Floor Book Depository window I doubt it crossed his mind that almost a half century later he would be buried walking distance from a bar named after his nickname.

Lee Harvey Oswald Is My Neighbor

This coming November it will be 46 years since Lee Harvey Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby. The JFK Assassination remains controversial with way too many unanswered questions. Or things that don't make sense.

I have mentioned before that had you told me 15 years ago that in 2009 I would be living within walking distance of the gravesite of Lee Harvey Oswald I would not have been able to imagine a scenario where that would make sense.

But, here I am.

Last week I finished a book titled Oswald Talked by Ray and Mary La Fontaine. It was a rather difficult read, hard to follow the minute details at times. This was no conspiracy nutjob book, it was more of a looking back at investigations and conclusions and running them through the filter of new information released in the 1990s.

Reading this book, now that I'm living in Fort Worth, I recognize the places mentioned, like Ridglea West Elementary or Arlington Heights High School or Montgomery Ward.

When Oswald made it back to America after trying out the Soviet Union and finding it not to his liking, he returned to Fort Worth, with his Russian wife, Marina. They moved to a little house near Montgomery Ward, just west of downtown Fort Worth, near what Fort Worth calls "The Cultural District." I believe that house was destroyed in the 2000 Fort Worth tornado.

One of the key characters in the Oswald saga, one who later contradicted the "official" FBI version of the assassination and Lee Harvey Oswald, was this well-off Russian emigre' named George DeMorenschildt. Years later George DeMorenschildt committed suicide, but not before writing down his opinion about Oswald. George DeMorenschildt felt guilty about betraying Oswald by sort of throwing him under the bus to the Warren Commission. So he wrote "I am a Patsy."

There is an amusingly descriptive paragragh in I am a Patsy that describes DeMorenschildt's first trip from Dallas to Fort Worth to meet the Oswalds.

"Someone gave me Lee's address and one afternoon a friend of mine, Colonel Lawrence Orloff and I drove to Fort Worth, about 30 miles from Dallas. We drove over the dreary, sewage-smelling miles separating the two cities. Texas does have lovely open spaces, but here they were degraded and polluted. After some searching, we found a shack on Mercedes Street in a semi-industrial, slummy area, near Montgomery Ward."

So, in 1962 the drive between Dallas and Forth was like he describes it? Dreary, stinking of sewage? Polluted open spaces? I first set eyes on Dallas and Fort Worth in 1981. On that visit I drove between the two towns. By that point in time I would not have described it like DeMorenschildt does, so there must have been a lot of improvement over the 2 decades that separated my drive and DeMorenschildt's.

Who wants to meet me for a beer at the Ozzy Rabbit Lodge? That's a cozy little bar down by Lee Harvey's gravesite. When my mom was here she was appalled that someone would open a bar and name it after Lee Harvey Oswald.

Was anyone reading this blog, there at Dealey Plaza, that infamous November day? Anyone see JFK and Jackie in Fort Worth that morning?

The Curious Case of the JFK Assassination Window

It is looking as if today's blogging is all about odd things people are trying to sell in Dallas, first large sums of money to buy a seat in a football stadium and now fighting over a Dallas window.

Okay, I'll admit the window does have some notoriety and fame. I've even looked out this window. Well, looked out where the window(s) in question used to be located.

See, way back in November of 1963 it is believed that a man, buried near where I live, named Lee Harvey Oswald, shot a rifle from a window in a building known as the Texas School Book Depository. It is believed, by many, that Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole assassin of John F. Kennedy.

When you visit the museum that now occupies the 6th Floor of the Texas School Book Depository building you can see the window from which it is alleged Oswald shot. You are blocked from directly looking out that window.

When I visited the 6th Floor Museum I assumed I was looking at the actual window that was there at the time of the assassination. I was wrong.

Two Texans, Caruth Byrd and Aubrey Mayhew (are those great Texas names, or what?) both claim to have the original sniper's window from the 6th floor.

A couple years ago Byrd sued Mayhew, claiming that Mayhew's claim to have the real window reduced the value of Byrd's window.

Byrd claims he inherited the window from his dad, Colonel D. Harold Byrd, a former owner of the Book Depository. The son claims his dad, the colonel, had the window removed 6 weeks after the assassination.

Aubrey Mayhew (actually from Tennessee, not Texas) bought the Book Depository from the colonel in 1970, thinking he was going to open a museum. The colonel financed Mayhew's purchase, Mayhew defaulted and the colonel re-took possession in 1973.

Mayhew claims that while he held the building he had the assassin's window removed.. The men Mayhew hired to remove the window have signed affidavits attesting to the fact they believed it to be the sniper's window.

Previously a judge has ruled that Mayhew does not own the window, but that judge also did not rule that Byrd did own it.

What a lot of confusion over a window. Byrd has tried a couple times to sell his window on E-Bay, with no success. Currently he is saying he wants to maximize the value of his window so he can sell it and build a wildlife refuge.

Mayhew says he does not want to sell his window, that his goal is just to muck things up and confound potential buyers, thus discouraging any sale.

Mayhew has finally gotten around to hiring a lawyer, previously he had refused. The trial was supposed to start on Monday, without Mayhew having a lawyer, but now that he has hired representation, the trial has been postponed til March 16 to give Mayhew's lawyer time to figure out the case.

I love a good brouhaha over a window.

The Ozzie Rabbit Lodge

I am never a good judge of what is in good taste or tacky or not. For the most part. In my neighborhood there is this bar, well, they call it a lodge. The Ozzie Rabbit Lodge. The East Side's (of Fort Worth) hippest new watering hole.

I saw an ad for The Ozzie Rabbit Lodge this morning in our local alternative news source called FW Weekly, a much more reliable source of information than the local propaganda rag that calls itself the Star-Telegram. In the Ozzie Rabbit ad, at the top, it says "CLASSIC COUNTRY WITHOUT ALL THAT PESKY INCEST!" What does that mean? There is classic country music that does have a lot of pesky incest?

And then another part of the ad says "Don't blame us for the Whiskey Dick!". Again, what does that mean? Whiskey Dick?

Now, maybe I should tell you what the theme of The Ozzie Rabbit Lodge is and why it is named The Ozzie Rabbit Lodge. Ozzie Rabbit was the nickname of Lee Harvey Oswald when he was in the army. Inside The Ozzie Rabbit Lodge there are a lot of iconic images, some huge giant poster size, of well known images from the JFK Assassination and aftermath, including the famous photo of Jack Ruby shooting Oswald.

Why, you might ask, would someone decide on this theme for their hip watering hole? Well, The Ozzie Rabbit Lodge is located in the urban village known as Handley. In the urban village of Handley there is a cemetery named Rose Hill Memorial Burial Park. Located in Rose Hill Memorial Burial park is the Gravesite of Lee Harvey Oswald. Yes, I live in the neighborhood where one of the world's most notorious criminals is buried.

And so you can have a few drinks at The Ozzie Rabbit Lodge ($1.50 Domestic Can Beer, $2.00 Lone Star, The Wagon Wheel spins all night with $2.50 shots) and then after you are suitably fortified you can walk out of Ozzie Rabbit's and head east on Lancaster in search of Lee Harvey Oswald's Gravesite. You can't really have a more hip nightlife experience than that!