Posted on June 19, 2010 - by Hubba

The Shad Olson Show

I have said before that I do not intend for HH to be a political website, and my recent political activity notwithstanding, I mean it.  I am not here to join the red state/blue state, old state/new state debate.  Really.

Because I’m about to introduce and endorse a “conservative firebrand” (his words, not mine.)  I was reminded of him yesterday when I caught the tail end of the Jim Thompson Show while moving my pickup.

For several years, Shad Olson was an evening news anchor KOTA Territory TV, the illustrious old war horse of western South Dakota television.  He had a clear midwestern voice, good diction, and was otherwise unremarkable as far as I was concerned.  I have no idea if he’s good looking or not, I’ll leave that up to the girls in the audience.  After all, KOTA TV had Alicia Garcia and Amanda Greslin, I wasn’t paying much attention to Shad Olson.

Shad became more remarkable on April 15th of this year when he appeared at a Tax Day Tea Party Rally in Rapid City.  I don’t think anybody found even that terribly remarkable except for the local media, who began remarking to anyone who would listen how terribly unprofessional Mr. Olson was for appearing in public and giving a little speech about civic duties and such.  The Rapid City Journal (more…)

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Posted on June 18, 2010 - by Hubba

I Guess You Ain’t My Constitchency

So a while back (early March, to be exact) I was at lunch at Frank Timmons’ place when a local politician showed up to get signatures on his petition to get on the ballot.  And I got an awful, terrible idea.

I guess I should back up a little.  The “Upland Trask” residence, as I used to call it, was and is a hotbed of politically interested people, railing against government corruption, greed, graft, and once during late ‘99, the end of the world.  I always postured myself as the levelheaded one, getting labeled a “compromiser” (I think after being called that, I had the right to challenge the accuser to a duel) on occasion.  While I was politically interested, and usually agreed with the rest of them on principle, I found it difficult to enjoy my coffee of a country mornin’ surrounded by red-faced people wildly gesticulating and having coronaries over some far-off foreign policy decision.  My position was, in short “if it’s not hiding under your chair, can we not worry about it today?”

I guess familiarity really does breed contempt.  Upon moving away from the people whose passions I had scorned, I began reading books.  And I am slowly becoming a political activist.  I don’t believe I’ll ever achieve the level of professional indignation that some of my relatives have, but I have certainly become alarmed with the state of things that I am willing to do my part to effect a change. (more…)

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Posted on February 26, 2010 - by Hubba

A Beautiful Day, Funeral Notwithstanding

Today I went to the funeral of Jane Scofield, who spent the better part of her life, timewise, as a Meade County special education teacher.  In that capacity, she had a large influence on my life as one of my speech therapists.  I had no idea until today that the small smiling woman who drove a dirty hatchback (I forget what kind it was) joined the Marine Corps, served in Punjab India in the Peace Corps after that, obtained an associates degree in animal husbandry, her teaching certificate, and a masters degree in teaching.  The woman set out to experience all of the world that she could while changing it at the same time, and boy howdy, did she ever.

The funeral was well attended, but not terribly sad.  I think this was partly to do with the absence of the departed, but more (and this is not particularly respectful of the dead) because it was a nice day today.  And to a people who have been hunkered down at home with sub zero temperatures, starving cows and at times, no water, it was just enjoyable to go to town in a light jacket.  It was kind of muddy, there were puddles in places, and spring seemed to promise that it would be hear soon, it just had some things to take care of first.  The people at the funeral reception huddled in groups with coffee and sandwiches, offering good natured complaints about recent circumstances that should have caused major depression, and in general seemed to enjoy each others company and the sunshine.

I don’t think Jane Scofield minded at all.  In fact I bet she enjoyed it.

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Posted on February 22, 2010 - by Hubba

With Talent On Loan From God/ The Magic Of WD 40

I thought I’d do a double header today, partly because it’s been a day or two, and partly because two things really made me laugh today.

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When I was a kid, I got to listening to Rush Limbaugh because Dad listened to Rush Limbaugh.  We were very politically active and aware, and Rush Limbaugh seemed to agree with our point of view, or maybe we agreed with his.

But later, and about the same time now that I think about it, Rush went the way of the fishsticks in our family.  I don’t remember why dad quit listening to him, but us kids probably realized we could listen to some cool tunes instead of a fat guy who rustled papers into his microphone.

Fast forward ten or fifteen years, and the “cool tunes” don’t seem so cool anymore.  There are still cool tunes, they just don’t play them on midwestern top 40 radio stations.  This becomes especially obvious when you spend all winter in say, a feeding tractor with a radio.

So I got to fishing around on talk radio and NPR, and eventually found my old friend Rush, who hasn’t changed a bit.

I really don’t disagree with Rush Limbaugh on anything except his completely ignorant insistence that the Grand Old Party, unencumbered by the Grand Other Party, could fix everything.  Which paradoxically is the same as disagreeing with everything Rush says.

Whether or not I agree with him, he is still free entertainment, and pretty entertaining at that.  The unapologetic confidence, the unvarnished social truths, that bitchin’ bassline from the Pretenders.  I find it comforting somehow knowing that Rush is still on the Golden Microphone ruffling feathers.

Today I was in my pickup doing the radio station shuffle and finally settled on Rush midway through a segment.  Rush was discussing some piece of legislation that I was too late too catch.  But he was saying, and I’m probably paraphrasing a bit-

“This bill has to be aborted.  I have always been pro-choice, I believe everything should be given life, but for the first time, I am saying that something needs to be aborted.  It was conceived by the most unhappy parents in the world…”

No matter what you think of Rush Limbaugh, no matter if you’re a conservative or a liberal, no matter if you even know what the hell he was talking about, that was a brilliant piece of off-the-cuff satire.

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Frank Timmons is getting a load of cattle feed tomorrow, so we trotted out the swing-out auger in preparation.  The hopper was full of ice and old crumbled pellets.  We went and got the propane torch, and I started heating the mess so that we could open the trap door on the bottom of the hopper.

After a while it became clear that although there was still a big frozen mess in the hopper, it was not to blame for the failure of the trap door.  I finally decided that maybe the hinges on the trapdoor were rusted shut, so I walked to the shop and got the WD 40 and a hammer.  I came back, sprayed WD 40 all over the hinges, tapped on them with a hammer, and went to the other side of the hopper with my crowbar.

I never believe that WD 40 is actually going to work.  I am always sure that this will be the time that the liberal application of the stuff will be a waste.  And so I am always almost stunned when it works again.

Sure enough, the door that I had been twisting with my crowbar before, groaned grudgingly for a half inch or so.

I have no idea what they put in that stuff, dioxymethyzonepolysorbate 4 1/3, atomic waste water, angel pee, I don’t know.  But it sure works.

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Posted on February 19, 2010 - by Hubba

Oh Fishsticks!

Wednesday began the season of Lent, as has been noted before, when among other things Catholics are to abstain from all meat except fish on Fridays.  Back in the old days, Catholics were supposed to abstain from meat 52 Fridays a year, but somewhere in there, the rules were relaxed a little.

Which brings a Catholic to the question of what to eat on Fridays during Lent.  I don’t find abstaining from meat one day a week all that bothersome, and there are lots of tasty ways to prepare fish.  There are those people who abhor fish, and for them the whole no-meat-on-Friday probably does seem like an unbearable cross (see what I did there?) but I am not one of those people, provided there are no onions in my fish.  An onion really really onions up a fish it seems like. (more…)

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