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Kindle Notes & Highlights
“Texas is a state of mind . . . it is a mystique, closely approximating a religion.”
Mary Lasswell: “I am forced to conclude that God made Texas on his day off, for pure entertainment, just to prove that all that diversity could be crammed into one section of earth by a really top hand.”
There is nothing to be gained from viewing Texas hyperbole through a lens of realism.
“Only a rank degenerate would drive 1500 miles across Texas without eating a chicken-fried steak.”
An Alaskan saying back when the pipeline was being built was this: “Happiness is 10,000 Okies pickin’ up a Texan under each arm and headin’ south.” Don’t know why they would have that attitude. We were just making ‘em rich.
Texas was big enough to let Alaska be bigger.
“most everyone everywhere would like, just once, to be a real Texan
Once UT had the money, they had to go shopping for a mountain to put the observatory on. That must have been fun. Mountain-shopping has got to be something that you get to do only once or twice in a lifetime. Luckily for UT, they were located in a state that had West Texas in it, with some of the finest stargazing potential in North America.
They wanted the paper to make their shields bullet-resistant. (They should have looked for Moby Dick. I always found that novel impenetrable. Don’t know what it would do against bullets, but it makes a hell of a doorstop.)
Exasperated, Saint Peter flew the Texan over to the very edge of heaven and had him look over the side. Far, far below there was dense fire and smoke as far as he could see. Saint Peter said, in an almost threatening tone, “What do you think of that?” “That’s a big damn fire, and clearly out of control, but I tell you what, we got some ol’ boys down in Houston who can put that out for ya.”
