Texas Accents Among Other Accents

When I first watched and listened to the Super Viral Susan Boyle YouTube video (if you have not seen this, stop reading this blog now and go watch it) I thought it was interesting how Susan spoke in such a thick Scottish accent that she was a tad hard for my American ears to understand. And then she started singing and the accent went bye-bye and the voice of an angel appeared in its place.

And then, after she was done singing and the audience calmed down enough for the judges to speak, I was struck by how different the English accent is, when well-spoken, from the more flourish-free American accent of Americans from some regions of America, like the Pacific Northwest.

Some versions of the English Accent, as spoken in the UK, are very easy to listen to. Is it called High English? I don't know. But it is easy to understand, unlike Cockney English, which can be funny to hear, but hard to understand.

Now, there are some regions of America with strong accents. Like Brooklyn. Or Boston. Or the South.

There are many variations of Southern Accents. Wikipedia has an interesting article on the subject. Even within a specific Southern Accent there are variations, like different types of Texas Accents.

There is an extreme version of the Texan Accent that I really have trouble understanding, almost as bad as Boomhower on King of the Hill. And then there is the lilting, warm honey Texas Accent that I can never get enough of listening to.

Gar the Texan is from the Midland-Odessa West Texas zone, same as where George W. Bush grew up. They have similar Texas accents, though Gar the Texan's can ebb strong and weak, particularly strong if he is having a case of the vapors. Gar the Texan is very articulate. When he uses polysyllabic words he pronounces them correctly, and thus sounds Texan and smart. With an accent.

Now, George W. Bush is not the most articulate man on the planet. When George W. pronounces a polysyllabic word he often gets it wrong. Such as when he tries to say "nuclear." I think the Texas Accent, combined with the mispronouncing, may have been part of what caused many to perceive George W. as not the brightest light ever to glow in the White House.

There are a lot of versions of English accents. I find the Canadian version very unpleasant. I think this may be partly caused by having lived most of my life near the border, with access to Canadian TV and plenty of Canadians. The Canadian Accent has this way of sounding as if they are inflecting everything they say with a self-doubting tone, even without adding "eh" to the end of virtually every sentence. It comes across, to my ears, as sounding insecure and unsure about what they are saying.

Some English Accents are so easy to listen to, like Australian. How does one accent variant end up sounding Australian and another Canadian? Canadians live mostly within 200 miles of America. Why have we not rubbed off on them more in this department? Well, to be fair, which is not my long suit, some Canadians do lose the annoying accent when they become American actors, like Michael J. Fox.

I find the Hybrid-English Accents very easy to listen to. Like Italian-English, they sound so charming. I can't think of any of the hybrids that don't sound like music to me. Russian-English, good thing. I like the Mexican-English Accent. Or any Spanish Speaking-English Accent, for that matter. Middle Eastern-English Accents sound good, with plenty of variations. Indian-English, as in the nation, not the Native Americans, can sound a bit insecure, like Canadian Accent, but the lilting, sing songy way of speaking Indian-English is quite pleasant to listen to.

As for Native American-English, it comes in a lot of versions. I have heard all sorts of Indian-American accents and have liked them all. Very easy to listen to. I once spent an hour talking to a Navajo at Monument Valley in Arizona. I can still remember his soft easy Navajo-American Accent. A lot of Native Americans pretty much lose any accent. That is particularly the case with a lot of Pacific Northwest Native Americans.

Why are there so many Indians and Indian Reservation Lands in Washington and so few in Texas? What did you Texans do with all the Indians?

Okay, I have started to digress. Time to stop talking about accents.

Wal-Mart's Milk Price Is Still Wrong

It seems like weeks now since I first blogged about Wal-Mart's Supercenters having big $1.98 signs above their milk, with that same $1.98 price repeated on the shelves for each type of milk, whole, 2%, 1% or skim.

I last bought milk last Friday, and blogged my two cents worth, along with a picture of the two cents I got for complaining to Wal-Mart's misnamed Customer Service.

It was on that day I learned why Wal-Mart is now making a lot of pricing errors. Because they no longer have a motivation to be careful, due to dropping their refund policy when they are caught making a mistake.

I do not know if it is true, or not, but one local told me the Texas State Legislature changed the law regarding pricing mistakes, removing the refund penalty that had provided a motivation for stores to not mislead their customers by putting one price on the shelf and charging another price at checkout.

Scandalous.

And now, today, Tuesday, 4 days after I last got milk at Wal-Mart, I did so again. This time fully expecting it to still ring up at $2, but this time I was armed with my camera to take a picture of the big $1.98 sign. The other picture is, obviously, today's receipt. Unlike last Friday, I did not go to Customer Service to get my two cents. There was a line. I wouldn't have bothered even if there had been no line. I was hungry and wanted to go home and make tacos.

I wonder how much money those 2 extra pennies, or 1% surcharge, has added up to for Wal-Mart.

Flat Bobcat Encounter at River Legacy Park

Well, I've had me a day. I got up well before the sun did today. That had me in the pool early. About 11 I decided to try and ride the River Legacy Park Mountain Bike Trail. I figured it's been enough days since Friday's rain, that it should be dried out.

The first time around was uneventful, wildlife-wise, except for one brief encounter with a skinny green snake.

Somewhere between the 3 and 4 mile mark I came upon a turn off to a new trail. I'd just been there last week and saw no sign of this new trail. The trail twisted and turned, tracked back and forth, I had no idea what direction I was going. And then after about a mile of slightly slow going, due to the new trail not being broken in yet, it rejoined the original trail. I think I maybe gained 50 feet after twisting and turning around for a mile.

On the second time around I quickly came upon the biggest, as in overweight type big, guy I've ever seen on a mountain bike. No, I did not get a picture. I asked if I could pass. He was pleasant. I don't see how that guy could manage some of the ups and downs.

About a mile later my front tire suddenly went wobbly. It quickly went totally flat. It was not long before the Big Guy came up behind me. I was surprised. I think he'd taken shortcuts. He offered to help. I said thanks, but I'm just gonna walk it out. There are those shortcuts, I figured it'd be about a mile of pushing the flat tire. I was right.

About a minute after the Big Guy's offer of help, I came upon my first bobcat in a long time. He was a big one. He did not seem too nervous about me. I talked to him and he seemed to be doing some sorta growling thing. I was able to get my camera out and take a lot of pictures. Eventually he slowly walked away from me as I continued to snap pictures. He only walked about 10 feet, to sit in the shade of a small tree.

So, I ended up going about 7.7 miles with my bike today, with 1 mile of it being on foot. I did not like being on foot. It is a very warm day. The sort of very warm spring day that brings out the snakes, like Copperheads. It is not easy to spot a snake in the grass. Especially when it is tall green grass.

2009 Fort Worth Prairie Fest Urgent Request

It is just 6 days til April 25 and the 2009 Prairie Fest.

Don Young has sent out an Urgent Request for help. If you can help there something thirst quenching in it for you.

Below is Don Young's Urgent Request

Success has caught up with Prairie Fest. The biggest little green fest in Texas has grown about 30% larger than last year and is still growing. We need your help pronto.

Canopies, also know as pop-ups, are urgently needed. Size must to be 10' x 10'.

If you can loan us one or two, please contact me immediately. There's a beer/wine ticket in it for you.

Thanks a mil!

Don

If you can help, call 817-731-2787 or email.

Luling Watermelon Thump & Watermelon Medicinal Value

For quite some time I have noticed a big drop in the number of spam emails I get from people offering help in improving the condition and performance ability of a special part of me.

Speaking of that, did you know that a Texan has discovered a Natural Viagra? Watermelon. Bhimu Patil, director of the Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center at Texas A & M University, at College Station, claims watermelon has more citrulline than previously believed.

Citrulline is an amino acid that relaxes and dilates blood vessels, the body converts it to the amino acid arginine, which is a precursor for nitric oxide, an oxide which is a key component in a key male component.

No one knows how much watermelon one must eat in order to gain any possible salubrious affect. Watermelon is 92% water and 8% sugar. It is rich in lypocene, an antioxidant which gives it its red color. It is fat free. It contains Vitamin A, C, and a lot of other things that are good for you, especially citrulline.

While you are contemplating eating some watermelon you'll be happy to know that the 56th Annual Luling Watermelon Thump will take place June 25, 26, 27 & 28 down south in Luling, Texas. Luling is on Interstate 10, about 50 miles east of San Antonio and about the same distance south of Austin. That'd make Luling about 230 miles south of my location in Fort Worth.

Thousands of people come to the Watermelon Thump. There's a Carnival, Beer Garden, Lots of Food, Magicians, Fire Eaters, Street Dances, Arts & Crafts, Melon Judging, a Rodeo, Parade, Watermelon Eating Contest and, of course, the World Champion Seed Spitting Contest.

On Thursday you can go to the Thump for free, including the Entertainment and Dance. On Friday and Saturday it'll cost you $2 General Admission, $20 for the Dance/Concert. Kids under 11 admitted free. Admission is free on Sunday.

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?

Only Child Syndrome: Case History #2

I've blogged about Only Child Syndrome several times.

Every day people from all over the world come to this blog seeking relief from dealing with the Syndrome.

Whenever I blog about OCS it seems to generate a lot of interesting comments. Many of them amusing. Some, inadvertently so.

Only Children who developed the Syndrome make the funniest comments. Always denying the existence of the Syndrome, while at the same time exhibiting, verbally, classic OCS attitudes.

And then you have the Only Children who get it and are working on it. I like them.

Now, I have never said that all Only Children develop the Syndrome. But, all the Only Children I have known have had the Syndrome to varying degrees. But, I'm sure if I knew 100 Only Children that there would be several totally Syndrome-free. Some parents are good parents, no matter if they have One Child. Or a dozen. Other parents have One Child, and, though they may mean well and not realize they are creating a monster, that is what their bad parenting does.

Two of the worst Only Child Syndrome cases I have known were very similar in how the Syndrome manifested itself in them. Which was ironic, because they had so many things in common in addition to both being Only Children.

They had the same first name, they both had alcoholic fathers, they were born within days of each other, in the same month, they were both overweight, with one being morbidly obese, they both had a history of imaginary boyfriends. They both were infatuated with me. (shudder) They both were unkempt, and, well, let's just say beauty is in the eye of the beholder and this eye always saw the opposite of beauty when his eye beheld this particular pair.

And how did Only Child Syndrome manifest itself in this pair? They both required a lot of attention. Both had at least 2 personality modes. One being a semi-normal acting mode. The other being what I would call performance mode, as in acting up to get attention. Both were extremely neurotic, bordering on being paranoid much of the time. Both lacked self-awareness, with no sense of how others viewed them.

As it is with a lot of Only Children, a big deal must be made over birthdays, even well into adulthood, when most of us have reached the point where we prefer the day to be ignored. Both were known to throw elaborate parties for themselves. Homage had to be paid, or you risked a rage.

Which is another thing this pair of Only Children shared in common. Anger management issues. Both could fly into nonsensical rages when some random present moment thing would trigger a neurotic reaction. Very unpleasant to be around.

Both had a highly evolved sense of entitlement. That could lead to any number of bad things.

Both were extremely over-bearing, very opinionated, but both lacking the intellectual ability to reason their way out of the arguments they created. Both using the foot-stomping temper tantrum method of getting their way in a disagreement.

Obviously, I see neither of these particular Only Child Syndrome cases anymore. Which is a good thing.

Wind Chimes Need To Be Banned

Way back in December of last year I blogged about how much I dislike the noise pollution caused by windchimes. And the fact that there seems to be no awareness, here in Texas, that the things unfairly impede upon the peace and quiet and privacy in ones own home.

More enlightened parts of the world, like cities and towns in west coast states, ban the noisemakers from being used within a certain distance, like 300 feet, of a neighbor's ears.

I really don't know how anyone can be so cluelessly rude as to impose this type irritant on their neighbors.

Anyway, the reason windchimes are fresh on my mind is not because I've got my windows open and am hearing one, all I'm hearing is a lot of melodic birds chirping. The reason the windchime pet peeve is fresh on my mind is because the ubiquitious Mr. or Ms. Anonymous commented on what I wrote previously about windchime noise pollution. I thought the comment was amusing, so I'll repeat it below...

I bought an inexpensive sounds of windchimes CD and sent it to my neighbor asking if they could take down the chimes and instead listen to this in the privacy of their own home. Still waiting to see what happens as these windchimes are HUGE.......they hang from a post on their back deck that looks like a hangman's noose device. If my diplomacy doesn't work....I'm going Navy Seal on the thing.

Something Not Natural About The Tandy Hills Natural Area

The picture does not do justice to how colorful this part of the Tandy Hills Prairie was looking today. The Tandy Hills has only 6 days to get fully bloomed in time for Saturday's 2009 Prairie Fest.

I hope I remember to go to Prairie Fest, unlike what happened last Saturday when I totally forgot I was going to go the Main Street Arts Festival.

I saw a couple unnatural things today whilst hiking around the Tandy Hills Natural Area. The most disturbing unnatural thing was up by the tallest tower, right by the Tandy Hills Litter Shrine. Flags had been stuck in the ground and orange stripes sprayed marking an electric power line route. It would appear this means there will be some digging soon. I doubt the Shrine will survive.

The other unnatural thing I saw today was also flag related. All over the park I saw red flags stuck in the ground, with all but one saying "Long Route." I've no idea what this means. The red flag that did not say "Long Route" said something Latin and "Buttermilk Primrose." The Latin term for the yellow flower made me think that Don Young was behind that flag. He seems to know the Latin name for everything.

The weather today is about as perfect as it gets in Texas. 80 with low humidity. The pool was perfect this morning. I suspect it will be even more perfect tomorrow morning.

People are coming to this blog from all over the world, again, looking for help with Only Child Syndrome. Why does this and the search for the World's Biggest Butt go in streaks? Maybe I'll muster the energy to blog about Only Child Syndrome again. If I can help just one victim deal with the syndrome, I'll have done a good thing today.

Fort Worth Stockyards Saunders Park

Yesterday I made mention of a seldom seen part of the Fort Worth Stockyards, that being the Marine Creek Linear Park and the part of the Linear Park known as Saunders Park. I said this spot reminded me of Venice, but the photo I used didn't really do a good job of showing what this park looks like. Hence this followup blogging.

I'll use the verbiage from my Eyes on Texas website webpage about this part of the Stockyards.

Most Fort Worth Stockyard's visitors do not realize a river runs through it, well, actually a creek, Marine Creek, which a short distance from this point will join the Trinity River. In the above photo we are standing under the bridge which most people walking on Exchange Avenue don't realize they are on when they are in the White Elephant Saloon or standing near the Fort Worth Stockyards sign. There is a paved trail called the Marine Creek Linear Park of which this location is a part.

Now we are in the aforementioned Saunders Park, overlooking Marine Creek. This is a very attractive, scenic part of the Stockyards that few see. There is a sign on the south side of Exchange Avenue pointing visitors to an alley that leads to the park, but that one sign seems to be the only effort made to direct people to this location. Tim Love's Lonesome Dove Bistro is the only Stockyards venue to take advantage of this asset. The Lonesome Dove has a deck overlooking the park where diners can enjoy the view.

When you explore around the Saunders Park zone you can see signs that at some point in time it was bigger, with trails eroded and rockwork fallen apart. The Stockyards area and North Main Street seem to have a history of projects that don't quite get finished. I think one of them is called something like La Gran Plaza. Basically an alley was fixed up, sort of Mexican themed, but it didn't get finished. I think the Rose Marine Theater was part of that renewal attempt.

Another thing about Saunders Park. It was in the tunnel part of this trail that I saw the biggest snake I've seen since I was in Texas. That was very unsettling. I think it was a water moccasin. But when I get in snake panic mode my snake identification skills tend to suffer.