Tom Dodge Talks About Texas

by Dodge, Tom

• ISBN13: 9781556227790
• ISBN10: 1556227795
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-05-01
• Publisher: Taylor Trade Pub

Summary

Tom Dodge is at his best when he talks about Texas. This collection of writings over the past decade includes his most poignant and provocative National Public Radio vignettes as well as longer pieces from newspapers and magazines. Here are the wry, sometimes ironic, observations on all things Texas his listeners are used to. His insights include a unique analysis of junkyards, railroads, bookstores, horned toads, sandy-land farms, and his grandmother's homemade grape jelly.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
1989
Grandchildren Make You Rich	1	(2)
The Return to Estelline	3	(3)
Back Home for the Hollidays	6	(2)
Someone to Watch Over Me	8	(2)
Making a Federal Case	10	(8)
For Boys, It's Girls Over Ethics Every Time	18	(2)
The School That Thrives on Sex	20	(5)
The Tiger Jones of Footwear	25	(2)
That Good-Tastin', Fine East Texas Muscadine Wine	27	(4)
1990
Love Versus Oedipus Wrecks	31	(2)
Mind Who You Shun: They Might Get Famous	33	(2)
Big Splash in the Panhandle	35	(3)
Give 'em Hell, Harry	38	(2)
Big Shots Get Special Treatment---Pass It On	40	(2)
The Man Who Lives on Weather	42	(2)
The Graduation of a Drop-Out	44	(3)
1991
Uncle Dock	47	(3)
Look Upward, Angel	50	(2)
Art and Patriotism	52	(2)
Handicapped Parking Space Addicts	54	(2)
Will There Be Life After Bingo	56	(2)
Elvis and My Little Darlin's	58	(2)
You Can't Go Home Again But You Can Bike to Grandview	60	(3)
Whole Wheat Nonzense	63	(4)
1992
The Warren Beatty of Dogs	67	(3)
Shut Up and Watch Television	70	(3)
When Superman Dies	73	(2)
The Michael DeBakey of Machinery	75	(3)
The Ghost of Christmas Future is Orange and Glows in the Dark	78	(3)
1993
Put it on Cooksey's Bill	81	(2)
Birthday Bard	83	(2)
The Fender Skirt King of Texas	85	(3)
Spitting Against the Wind of Change or The Town That Sprays Together Stays Together	88	(2)
Topping Out on the Ground Floor	90	(2)
Moving Mama	92	(2)
Horned Toads and Politicians	94	(2)
Classical Bones	96	(2)
The General and the Teenage Queens	98	(2)
Ain't Is to Die For	100	(2)
A Seasoning of Life	102	(3)
1994
Better to Reign in Hell Than Need a Car Part	105	(5)
The Great Midlothian Sawdust War	110	(2)
Grocery Values	112	(2)
What Would Gordon Do	114	(2)
The Double-Dog Days of August	116	(3)
Football---That's the Ticket	119	(2)
There's a Past in My Future	121	(4)
1995
I Left My Parts in Oklahoma	125	(3)
Small Town Values	128	(2)
Old Is as Old Does	130	(3)
How Small Was My Classroom	133	(2)
Another Gift of the Magi	135	(4)
1996
Man or Corporation	139	(3)
Robert James Waller
Don't Be a Fool, Stay in School	142	(2)
Washing and Irony	144	(2)
Whiners Never Die, They Just Grumble Away	146	(2)
Just Call 1-800 Walden	148	(3)
Old Dog Walking	151	(2)
Driver of Hard Bargains	153	(4)
C.W. Moss
1997
Purple Press	157	(2)
The Leaving of Bob	159	(2)
Hard Hands, Soft Heart	161	(3)
The Joy of Anagnorisis	164	(2)
I Just Don't Want the Fax, Ma'am	166	(2)
Where the Cactus Blooms	168	(1)
There's a Clicker in Raymond's Drawers	169	(3)
Shepherds Abiding in the Lawns	172	(3)
1998
Sack and Save	175	(2)
The Coneys of No Change	177	(3)
What's a Three-Letter Word Meaning Anger	180	(3)
The Jilting of Katherine Anne Porter	183	(1)
We're Geezers But Not Wheezers	184	(2)
Johnson County Dreamin'	186	(3)
In the Beginning Was the Word But the Word Now is Profits	189	(2)
Rockport's Guru of Granite	191	(6)
The Lost Art of Play	197	(3)
Good Man of Texas	200	(2)
Gathering for Gladys	202	(2)
Those Small Town Weird Investment Blues	204	(2)
Touring the Cataract Factory	206	(3)
1999
Upon What Meat Doth This Our Geezer Feed	209	(2)
The World's Worst Poet	211	(3)
Mother's Day	214	(2)
Gainesville's Big Jungle Man	216	(5)
Give Me That Old Time Mythology	221	(2)
Give Me All Your Dismembered Men	223	(2)
The Little Trolleys That Might Could	225	(2)
Dead Preachers Society	227	(2)
Picking Up Robert	229	(2)
Reading For Freedom	231	(2)
The Hieroglyphics of Spanky	233	(1)
Rounding Up the Usual Suspects	234	(2)
Getting a Railroad Town Back on Track	236	(6)
Unlucky Dog	242	(2)
Fort Worth's Man of Letters	244	(3)
Index	247