Gig alert

Be aware that my honkytonk band the World's Greatest Lovers will play our only public show of the summer next Friday, July 27 at Tyranena Brewing Company in Lake Mills. The brewco is at 1025 Owen St. Showtime is 6 pm. No cover!

Good word, or: What Would Thurgood Do

"[Thurgood] Marshall had many similar stories of putting people on. A favorite of his involved unsuspecting tourists who mistakenly entered the Justices' private elevator. Finding a lone black man standing there, they said, 'First floor please.' 'Yowsa, yowsa,' Marshall responded as he pretended to operate the automated elevator and held the door for the tourists as they left. Marshall regularly recounted the story, noting the tourists' puzzlement and then confusion as they watched him walk off, and later realized who he was."

-- Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong, The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court

Pickin' and/or grinnin'

I have long made a habit of naming my computers after country singers. Don't ask me why. My desktop is called Tanya, after Tanya Tucker, and I have a Linux PC named Willie, and I don't mean Stargell.

But did you know I also have a laptop named after "Hee Haw" comedienne and banjoist extraordinaire Roni Stoneman? Do you suppose it's the only computer in the world named after Roni Stoneman?

Good word

"Her email reminded me of another, one a friend received some months ago: 'I took the W off my car today,' it said on the subject line. It sounded like a country western song, like a great lament."

-- Peggy Noonan

On the mend

I'm glad Roger Ebert is better.