I'll just entertain myself

The panels shown are mostly by later artists. VT Hamlin was the real genius that made it work.

Along the easement in front of my home, I see constant signs of Crayfish activity. No place but there. Possibly, the fact my yard gradually slopes higher, all the way to the back fence that borders a cul de sac, in a separate neighborhood, makes it inhospitably dry for them. I run the lawnmower over the hills they build, each time scattering dust over a wide patch, and they build new ones any time they want.

Earlier today, I did some work on my water pipes. This necessitated dipping out water from the past several days' rains from the meter box and scooping out lots of mud so I could get to the cutoff valve. As I worked, two crayfish kept running out to see what all the hubbub was. Each time my hand approached too closely, they ran and hid. Cute little bastards.

When I worked at the apartments, monsoon rains sometimes drove crayfish out of the ground and I would find them on the concrete drive because they fell there and then could not scale the curb to return home. I never failed to rescue them. They are surprisingly alert and quick, considering they spend their lives in holes, underground.

I've spent over an hour searching for a furnace blower motor for my 1983 mobile home. Didn't want to purchase an entire furnace, but might have to.

William Faulkner
My interest in Faulkner was kindled when I watched a movie that starred folk singer Odetta. Sanctuary. His name was in the credits. When I read his novel by that name, it turns out that some characters in the book were similar to some characters in the film, but the stories were not the same. Sort of like Max Brand's novel Destry Rides Again had nothing to do with the movie by that name. But I wanted to know about Faulkner and bought three of his books. Light in August was my favorite.

Faulkner got his prize for The Sound and the Fury. I launched right into it, relatively happy until the second part changed the context. I have a literal approach to everything. A mind that gets ambushed by Asperger's. Got lost in his book and had to get it explained to me. After it was explained, I put the book aside and no longer cared to finish it.

I keep him on my list of good authors anyway.

I said early on I would list movies I do like. I will start with some of the westerns and add more later as I think of them, keeping John Wayne for a separate category. I can't say what is the top favorite.

Of the Wyatt Earp films, I like Darling Clementine, with Henry Fonda and Victor Mature the best, and Gunfight at OK Corral with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas second. The others are good too, but not as good as these. In my biased opinion.

Jesse James. My favorite is Jesse James and its sequel The Return of Frank James. Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda.

Wild Bill Hickock. Gary Cooper in The Plainsman.

Billy the Kid. Can't name one for a favorite. The ones I think of all missed the mark in some ways.

Davy Crockett. Fess Parker.

Random favorites.
High Noon
The Good The Bad and The Ugly
Outlaw Josie Wales
The Gunfighter
Yellow Sky
The Ox-Bow Incident
MacKenna's Gold
The Scalphunters
Dances With Wolves
Cheyenne Autumn
Cowboy
Last Train to Gunne Hill

The list is very much longer

Here’s 2 of recent John Wayne’s that are well known:
True Grit (earned him his only Oscar)
The Shootist

Both good movies. I've watched The Shootist four times. The telling of it's good and I like that so many favorites of mine get in on it. James Stewart, Scatman, Ron, Richard Boone, and some others.

Continuing the list of westerns I really like:

Nevada Smith
Tom Horn (Steve McQueen)
Rawhide (Tyrone Power)
Hang 'Em High
Chato's Land
Vera Cruz
The Unforgiven (Burt Lancaster)
Buck and the Preacher

Here are some of my non western favorites

Grapes of Wrath
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The petrified Forest
Sergeant York
Viva Zapata
Ben Hur
El Cid
Cyrano de Bergerac
Gone With the Wind
Malcolm X
Color Purple
Lady and the Tramp
Stalag 17
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
First Blood
Rocky
Saturday Night Fever
Titanic
The African Queen
Virgin Spring
The Greatest Story Ever Told

More later

And Groundhog Day which is more of a noreaster.

Vincent Price’s Witchfinder General has been classed as a Western despite being set in the most easterly part of England.

Price plays the historical character Matthew Hopkins who used the chaos of the civil war as cover for him turning up somewhere, blaming x amount of innocent women for natural disasters, and making himself very rich in the process.

A good film set in the West Country is Withnail and I about two out of work actors in the 60s who go to stay with one of their uncles in Devon. It is very funny, and the film that shot Richard E Grant to fame.

I don't get around that much, filmwise. Those are two I have neverheard of.

A few more films I like

Buddha
Midnight Cowboy
Fritz the Cat
Blazing Saddles
Life Stinks
Good Morning Vietnam
Platoon
Born on the Fourth of July
Rainman
The Graduate
Catch 22
Stormy Weather
Heidi (Shirley Temple)
It's a Wonderful Life
Scrooge
Planet of the Apes
Forbidden Planet
The Day the Earth Stood Still
When Worlds Collide
Star Wars
Confessions of a Chinese Opium Eater

There is a wonderful scene in a genteel tea room full of old ladies where the two main characters are roaring drunk.

I think it’s on YouTube.

Square of Violence (Broderick Crawford)
Go For Broke
Bound For Glory
Alice's Restaurant
Scarlet Street
Casablanca
Boy's Town
Huckleberry Finn (Mickey Rooney)

Night in Casablanca
several Laurel and Hardy shorts
The Bank Dick
My Little Chickadee
Mary Poppins
Ratatouille
Cotton Comes to Harlem
The World the Flesh and the Devil
The Angel Levine
Watermelon Man
Smokey and the Bandit
Deliverance
The Longest Yard

When I was a kid, age six, I took to hanging near my Mom to listen to her radio programs. Not the soap operas. Just the music. I knew Dude Martin and Eddy Arnold, Hank Snow, Hank Thompson, The Sons of the Pioneers, and more. My favorite was Hank Williams. After a time I began to sing with them and then went solo. She told me, "I wish you were on the radio so I could turn you off." Singing became part of my makeup. A compulsion I have never shaken. Which would be fine, I guess, except for one thing. I can't sing. As my wife told me, "Your voice is not musical. At all." It has never mattered. People get mad when I don't shut up. It's like a crowing rooster. There is one in the neighborhood that crows all day long. I didn't figure out until watching Youtubes about Asperger's that it's what we do. That and repeat words and phrases, relentlessly as parrots. Maybe I should purchase a kazoo.

No need to embarrass me by looking up Dude Martin on youtube.

In Calgary, we have a Jan 1st celebration every year by the blues and country folks called the HankOver. I think it's been going on for over ten years. There are about 15 musicians, one Emcee, and about 250 attendees. They produce it like a radio show. It's always been fun, funny and fantastic. Gotta love ya some Hank.

My fave was Charlie Pride.

And good for you for singing even though they think you can't. You've got more guts than I do and I admire you for that.

I love Charles too. He did Kaw-Lija almost as good as Hank.