Category: Assorted Bob

I found myself at the Knoxville airport this morning at 5:30, waiting for a 6 o’clock flight to wonderful, frosty Cincinnati. Two funny scenes that made it a little less painful …

1. While waiting in line to pay for my News Sentinel, a clearly flummoxed man, wife and infant were in front of me trying to pay for an assortment of goods they were purchasing. Based on their accent, I’m guessing they were from the West Indies. The guy was having a real tough time figuring out U.S. coins and how much he needed to give the clerk to complete the transaction. Finally, he held out a handful of coins: “Take what you want,” he said with a chagrined smile.

I started laughing and told him: “That’s generally the way it works anyway.”

I’ve tried to conduct similar transactions in foreign currencies, and it’s always trying. I could feel his pain.

2. After buying my paper, I found this nugget buried back in the local section. It generally annoys me when something bad happens and people say “That’s what god wanted.” But I’d like to think that in the case of this particular Klansman, it is what god wanted …

Man accidentally shot during KKK ceremony

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – A gunshot fired in the air during a Ku Klux Klan initiation ceremony wounded a participant when the bullet came down and struck him in the head, authorities said.

Jeffery S. Murr, 24, of Erwin, was in critical condition Monday in intensive care at Johnson City Medical Center, hospital officials said.

Gregory Allen Freeman, 45, of Elizabethton, was charged with aggravated assault and felony reckless endangerment in the Saturday night incident, Washington County Sheriff Fred Phillips said.

The ceremony occurred about 8 p.m. near Limestone. A 26-year-old Elizabethon man was blindfolded, taken to a wooded area and shot with paintball guns as Freeman fired a 9mm handgun in the air.

A bullet struck Murr on the top of the head and exited at the bottom of his skull, Chief Deputy Patrick Littleton said.

Just a heads-up: We’re going to hold our annual tree decorating party on Saturday, Dec. 13. I’m hoping to get the invite together this weekend. If you’re out of town and plan to attend, let us know so we can start planning. Click here to see last year’s invite. There are links to other invites, going back to 1996, in the left nav on the main page of Opposable-Thumbs.com.

While I was running Xena and Ozzy at Melton Hill Lake yesterday morning, Ozzy started acting strangely. He stiffened, nose in the air, and started walking gingerly as if across sharp gravel. Then Xena reacted, too. She was bolder, bounding forward to where the dead fox lay in the field. It’s neck was ripped out. Body still steaming in the morning cold. A coyote must have caught it, I thought. I was quick to drive the dogs away from it, thinking rabies thoughts. As we continued through the park, the image of that fox stayed with me. It resonated more than I realized.

I’ve begun re-reading Joyce’s Ulysses, and later on Saturday I came upon this passage, where Steven is walking along the shore and watching a dog that’s moving toward him stop to investigate the bloated body of another hound.

“… The carcass lay on his path. He stopped, sniffed, stalked round it, brother, nosing closer, went round it, sniffling rapidly like a dog all over the dead dog’s bedraggled fell. Dogskull, dogsniff, eyes on the ground, moves to one great goal. Ah, poor dogsbody! Here lies poor dogsbody’s body.

“– Tatters! Outofthat, you mongrel!

“The cry brought him skulking back to his master and a blunt bootless kick sent him unscathed across a spit of sand, crouched in flight. …”

Amazing. It also drove home what an incredible writer Joyce was. In fact, fueled by insights from the Ellman biography of Joyce, I’m enjoying this go-round with Ulysses much more than past reads …