Texas Tales

I guess I'm in a Texas state of mind today, but I got a real hearty laugh out of two quotes I read today. These might be more appropriate for a twitter page, but here goes:

When a Republican critic called her 'Tom Delay in a skirt,' Nancy Pelosi just smiled, her daughter says, and commented, 'What a disturbing image.'
- Tina Brown, Newsweek

The second is from a book by Loren Eiseley. I just discovered Eiseley's work today, but the first chapter of All the Strange Hours was quite a read. If you haven't lived in Texas, you might not get it:

I stood on the street of that damn Texas town, and the sign on the door before me read:

Anybody who objects to the sight of
Nude People Making Love
doesn't belong in here.
Anything San Francisco can do
we can do better.

Couldn't they ever stop playing chicken in Texas?

That last line just kills me. Will they ever stop playing chicken in Texas? I wonder. I doubt it.

Anyway, this last is thrown in for good measure. It made me laugh when I first heard it whilst I was back in Texas . . .

In an April 2005 address to the worldwide membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, then-94-year-old Gordon B. Hinckley said that he'd never dreamed he would live so long. "My life reminds me of a sign that hung by a rusty staple to a run-down barbed-wire fence in Texas," Hinckley said. "It read, 'Burned out by drought. Drowned out by flood waters. Et out by jackrabbits. Sold out by sheriff. Still here!'"