Journal of Post-Ralphaelite Thought

Years later I worked with a guy who was a couple of years older than me who said he never dated anyone who couldn't tell him where they were when Kennedy was assassinated - they were, he opined, either too young or too out of it. As for me, my family had moved from Fort Worth to the Chicago suburbs the summer I turned nine. The elementary school I attended in Park Forest was close enough that I used to walk home for lunch. That Friday 50 years ago, my brother and I had come home as usual and were watching Bozo's Circus on WGN when the station broke away for news flashes that President Kennedy had been shot. I wasn't sure what to think other than it seemed shocking - impossible to believe. But I'd seen it on television. My class had introduced to the idea of  "current events" that year. We were supposed to tell something we'd heard or read about in the news. This seemed like the ultimate current event. I headed back to my classroom (I have no recoll...

I'm a late convert to the Firefox plug-in StumbleOn, but now I'm a believer. Without it, I would have never discovered " The Sneeze ." Last week the author issued the How To Tell If Your State Sucks challenge to a friend, which - to paraphrase - says, if there's a picture of hot air balloons within ONE CLICK of the state tourism website home page, YOUR STATE SUCKS! He offers up numerous examples, including New Jersey, California, Delaware and New Hampshire. Being the overbearing blowhard most Texans are, I thought, surely Texas wouldn't fall into that trap. Then I went to the Texas Tourism website and started clicking. NOOOOOO! Don't believe me? Go to the Travel Tex home page and click the " Activities and Events " link on the left navbar. Thanks to Stephen at The Sneeze for this bit of humiliation (now blogrolled). While you're there, be sure to check out his series, " Steve, Don't Eat It! "