14 Aug 2008
Hugh Fitzgerald
�
Ann Treneman may have been born in corn-fed Iowa, and even lived�for a time in�Texas,� but perhaps she should return for a refresher course in our demotic. The True-West (that is, based on the dialogue of movie Westerns) version (west of the Mississippi and south of Amarillo, and she should�if she lived in Texas have known it) of "all tuckered out"�is "plumb tuckered out"�as in "You look plumb tuckered out. Why don't you come on in and set a spell."�That �plumb� implies the sagebrush, and the tumbling tumbleweed, and the view of Monument Valley, and being back in the saddle again.
While I don�t have much truck with her last generalization, either, I won't raise a ruckus about�it. I am, you see, an American, a real life nephew of my Uncle Sam, and born -- well, born very close to the Fourth of July.
14 Aug 2008
reactionry
Dead On The Fourth Of July
Or: Keeping Up With The Joneses & Hugh*
(see Tom Jones, et al., Gentle Readers & Pop Fans)
Or: To The Massacre Bourne
Or: Bourne On Angels' Wings
Or: Sometimes You Feel Like A Filbert**
Hugh has made merry (Mary; maybe) with important dates (as "Philibert"** said, "You got nuts; you got dates), giving an excuse to post stillborn comments never made on the "Last Drifting Cowboy Dies" thread. The title was to have been "Last Rorke's Drifter Dies". Before googling, I hadn't the foggiest as to the name of the last surviving veteran of the battle which took some of the sting out of the news about Isandhlwana (the "h" is not as constant as that of the Queen Maedbh/Medbh who once so distracted Mr. "Fitzgeraldh") at Victorian breakfast tables. The character of the earnestly upbeat Colour-Sergeant in question was given a substantial role in the movie, Zulu, and the real life Frank Bourne managed to join the ranks of the noble dead on the day of cessation of hostilities in the first World War "which knew its name" in Europe, a trick almost as neat as that of Jefferson and Adams who kached on the same anniversary of the formal beginning of hostilities with the Mother Country.
I'd give a hat tip to the below, but I don't have the link handy at the moment:
"Finally, a few people have made references to Colour-Sergeant Frank Bourne, wondering whether or not he really existed and if so why he was never awarded the V.C. for his conduct on the day. Yes, he really existed and yes, he did fight at Rorke's Drift. He was in fact recommended for a Victoria Cross, but told the powers that be that he would rather have a promotion instead. This he was given along with a D.C.M and an O.B.E. He was the last surviving veteran of Rorke's Drift when he died on V.E. Day 8th May 1945 aged 91 and with a rank of Lt. Col."
http://www.rorkesdriftvc.com/defenders/bourne.htm
*The latter is impossible and the former, difficult with respect to the roll call of the Welsh soldiers in Zulu.
btw., no word of lie; no Wullah-Bullah this time; I was born, well, though not necessariy well-born, on Flag Day
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