Offsite Comments

The morning thread conversations are elevated by Vic &c. posting. When they're posted on the ONT tail-end, there's no follow-up discussion, really.

No offense to all the wits posting this a.m. though.

Halfway through. Looking back on just the last 2 years, that's terrifying.

Apparently, the trick now is, Vic posting causes the morning thread, to appear.

Worked again.

too late

Maet's humor - too subtle for the horde.

MP4 - I can't help noting that a significant number of your stories involve alcoholic excess. Funny 'bout that.

Jay Z will make sure the morning threads are posted on time.

If the bit about Beyonce didn't clue folks in, what would?

I'm finally fed up enough with Autoincorrect that I will sacrifice the convenience of predictive text. But I can't remember how to turn it off on this android.

CBD: Yours!

um

1000th? No, too soon I bet.

hi anyway

Comment of the day - thought it was great when I first read it. Glad it got the well-deserved upbump.

Does anyone know of a good Lens Dunham reference blocker utility?

oooo! I coulda been #10, but stopped to peruse the post.

So, will Jay Z fix the 1080 bug?

The last six minutes of Reagan's farewell address.

I usually download videos, and create my own playlist, to watch with Milady and Daughter. I put this at the end of our "election aftermath" playlist. I pre-viewed it, and managed to watch all the way through, but after his final syllable, I found myself sobbing uncontrollably with a big ol' bag of mixed emotions — if I don't have to turn in my man-card to say so. Re-watching it with the fam, they didn't get that far before the tears started flowing, and neither did I.

Some more local color, if you can handle it, this one from 125 years ago come Christmas. Pardon the length.

In the local rag, an article headlined Wild Days During Local Oil Boom contained this story, among others:

One of the first recorded killings in the settlement of Bartlesville occurred on Christmas Eve in 1889 on the steps of Jacob Bartles’ store, according to the “Washington County: A Centennial History” book. Two cowboys, Bob Gilstrap and Frank Leno, got in an argument about one owing the other money. Preparing for a showdown, Gilstrap told the store clerks to “clear out,” then he went behind the counter, picked up some cartridges and loaded his gun.

Gilstrap left the store first, slamming the door in Leno’s face, then turning and firing his pistol through the glass door at his adversary. Leno answered back with a round of lead that flattened Gilstrap. He died on the front porch but Leno miraculously survived when Gilstrap’s bullet was stopped by the heavy clothing he was wearing.

Now the way I heard it…

Gilstrap was a "half-breed," half white, half probably Cherokee. And he was, by reports, a bum. He and Leno would be dropped on whatever job it was they were doing, Gilstrap would take off right behind the foreman, and not show back up until shift's end. Repeatedly. One day, paytime came early and Gilstrap missed it. Leno felt it was his due to take Gilstrap's pay as well as his own. They didn't see each other again until…

Walking around with rifles Christmas Eve was no big deal. Not that unusual in the first place, there was also a turkey shoot that day; every man had 'em. So, when Gilstrap and Leno met up on the street Christmas Eve, they were both armed. Gilstrap challenged Leno for "his" money, Leno wouldn't budge. They got to threatening the way young bucks do, and Leno said let's settle this the hard way. Gilstrap argued that he didn't have any ammo. Leno pulled out a coin and tossed it to Gilstrap, who caught the coin, spat on it, and threw it back in the dirt at Leno's feet, Gilstrap said he actually had money.

They both went in the store for Gilstrap to purchase some ammo. Clearly, they were bristling, because the clerk pulled out his shotgun, and told the two punks, I don't care what you two do to each other, but you're not doing it in here. That's how I heard it, anyway.

The shootout through the door matches what I recall. Gilstrap lost, in any case. They had to wait a day, what with it being Christmastime, before they could get a coffin down from Dewey, a few miles north. They then loaded Bob Gilstrap's body on a wagon, and headed down that muddy road toward Tulsey Town. Several miles south of town, they pulled across the Gilstrap family farm, and up to the graveyard, on the rise above the floodplain.

Bob and his sibling and their parents' graves are all in a row in the cemetery, to this day. A local oil speculator (which 'most everybody who could be was back then) bought the Gilstrap's farm, but never found any oil there. He gave the property to his daughter and son-in-law as a wedding gift. His son-in-law left it to his son, who died untimely and left the property in an unfortunate tangled partnership of siblings. Eventually, after decades of neglect, and years of refusal to change things, Milady and I were allowed to acquire the place from my siblings, and we have lived here the twenty years since.

I've been kind of neglectful in taking care of the Gilstraps' markers. They're laid-flat stones, so they get buried when we cut the grass, and I have to go dig them out periodically.

My version is from memory, but, mostly right, I think. I've told it a few times.

I've had two items sitting open for a while. I was going to put them together in a poster or something, but I'll just post them here.

A contrast in protesters in St Louis interacting with the police

#1

https://theconservativetreehouse.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/ferguson-an...

#2

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B00MqFeCcAE_hVO.jpg

First one c/o somebody (sorry, lost link) on Conservative Treehouse. Second one c/o Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit

Paving bricks care of the "all cultures are equal" good intentions.

Daily Beast c/o War News Updates

They were supposed to be the “new” Libyan Army. Instead they allegedly went crazy in the streets of Cambridge, assaulting strangers, and brutally raping one young man.

The wise theologians at CNN:

A senior American cardinal in the Vatican says that under this pope, the Roman Catholic Church is "a ship without a rudder'' and the faithful "are feeling a bit seasick.''

Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput complains that a recent Vatican conference called by Pope Francis produced "confusion,'' adding, "Confusion is of the devil.''

Honestly, I didn't bother finishing the article. Just passing it along FYI.

I've had this tab open for several days. Glad to be able to close it after this. :)

What 8th-Graders Were Expected to Know in 1910

Eagle Forum c/o Conservative Treehouse commenter elvischupacabra

By the way, FTR, the cattle truck that overturned near our polling place on election morning apparently was carrying 79 cattle. The passenger was asleep in the back compartment (putting out sleep vibes, as we say). Witnesses said the truck seemed to be weaving badly before the wreck, suggesting the driver may have been asleep. (Cause of 20% of accidents, I think I read recently.)