This 'n That (A phrase you will often hear in Texas)

We went to Houston to attend the memorial of a long-time friend of Richie's.  This service was held in the National Veterans Cemetery there and consisted solely of the flag presentation to the widow, followed by insertion of the box of ashes into The Wall.  There were no songs, no sermons; only a lovely tribute to the deceased by a grandson.

The flag was spread out (to show there were no holes in it?) and the re-folded.  The box was put on a small table; the flag next to the box.

The bugler began to play "Taps."  About halfway through it, I noticed something.  The bugler's fingers were not moving on the taps and there were no muscles contracting in her face or neck.  "Taps" was taped!

We joked about it afterwards, saying it was exactly the kind of thing that would have amused the deceased tremendously.

Back to the house we all went and a good time and great food was had by all even though mid-afternoon a storm cell landed (and stayed) directly over the house.  The wind was so fierce that the rain was blowng in sidewise!  Naturally the women and children scurried into the shelter of the house.  The men, kings of all they surveyed (a blown-over garden chair) lingered on the covered patio.  I'm happy to report that they all got soaked.

Riscky BBQ, Ft. Worth Stockyards, has been there for at least 20 years.  Here are some samples from the menu to make your mouth water - barbeque bologna and cheese sandwich, $5.95; Fried Corn - the corn is shucked off, battered and deep fried. $5.95

No, we didn't order any of it; we knew we were going to Pappadeux for dinner. 

Texas Eats

We misplaced ourselves heading from the Houston airport to the American Funeral History Museum.  Spotting a sizeable, free-standing building that promised "Carlo's Great Mexican Food," we wheeled in for some lunch. 

I ordered the #1 which came with:  guacamole salad (a melon-ball sized scoop of guacamole on chopped lettuce,) a beef taco which came in a cup-shaped taco shell - meat on the bottom, lettuce and tomato on top; a chili con queso which is a half-crispy tortilla shell, bent like an upside-down bowl and slathered with melted cheese (Velveeta would be my first guess) and -- after I'd demolished most of the above, here came a cheese enchilada!  Richie had the #2 which substituted a second cheese enchilada for the beef taco.  Both were $5.95!

We met my cousins Jean Ann and Kay and Kay's husband Jim for dinner at Goodd Co. Seafood, 10211 Katy Freeway, Houston.  Kay and Jim had what we call Mexican shrimp cocktails, but which are called "Campechana" there ($14.95)  Jean Ann had the Mesquite Shrimp Dinner ($19.95) Richie Shrimp Etouffe ($19.95) and I had "shrimp pie" which was a flaky empanada-shaped pillow filled with gravy, chopped shrimp and lots of flavor ($3.75) and a Texas Shrimp Appetizer which was four bacon-wrapped shrimp -- with drawn butter as the dipping sauce! ($9.95)  With drinks our meals averaged out to about $32 per person. 

Red and Barbara picked us up at DFW and we went directly to On The Border which is a tradition of ours.  The brisket tacos with onion strings (see above) were great.  We ate so late in the afternoon that all we wanted for dinner was a snack.

We didn't eat anything at the Ft. Worth Sidewalk Art Show, but we did have a drink at the rooftop bar/restaurant called "Reata."  Lovely view (if you like Ft. Worth).  There's a huge glass dome that's probably used for inclement weather, but I know I wouldn't want to be sitting under it in lightning.  Bar tab was $26, add $5 tip and we were outta there.

We then headed over to the Ft. Worth Stockyards to have a beer in perhaps more of a congenial setting.  Reata is kind  of "awl bidness honchos and they-uh ladies, in proper frocks."   The mass of Harley-Davidsons parked along the main drag of the Stockyards were more our sort of thing.  We shared a red plastic mesh dish of French fries, battered onion strings and battered jalapeno slices. 

For dinner, we went to Pappadeux, 2121 Airport Freeway, Bedford, TX 817-571-4696.  It is another favorite place and is part of a mid-Western chain.  pappadeux.com - take a look at their menu.

Red's Half-Chicken

Barbara's lump crab cakes

Shrimp gumbo - Richie

Day 1 - Houston

After an uneventful flight (my favorite kind) we got the rental car and headed north to the National Museum of Funeral History, 415 Barren Springs Drive, Houston   281-876-3063

We first toured this museum some 25 years ago, so naturally there were some changes.

Embalming in Early American Times was replaced by Embalming:  Egyptian Style.

There was a separate exhibit on papal funerals plus one of Pope John Paul's Pope-Mobiles.  The Pope didn't wear a seatbelt but his driver and his aide did.

Caribbean coffins still had their own exhibit and I enjoyed imagining how the bodies had to have been placed to accomodate such as being buried in an airplane -- arms flung out inside the wings?

The triple-wide casket had a story -- long, long ago, a couple's young child (boy or girl never specified) died.  So grief-stricken were the parents that they decided that the man would kill the wife and then commit suicide.  All three would then be buried in the same coffin.  So they ordered it.

Time passed, the couple changed their minds and moved away.

Nearly 20 years after their special order, the wife wrote to the funeral home, wanting delivery of this casket.  The undertaker wrote back that since they'd never paid for it, he had sold it and it was no longer available.

There is a room set aside for Presidential funeral memorabilia where previously a mock-up Abraham Lincoldn't funeral cortege stood alone.  A duplicate of Ronald Reagan's casket takes pride of place.

The twin, glass-sided carriages from the Victorian ear are made 3/4 scale and were for children.  The white one was for girls; the black one for boys. 

Dallas for Culture, Ft. Worth For Fun

Here are some of Richie's shots from the Ft. Worth Art Show on Sunday. After we saw that, we went down to the Stockyards and watched the twice-daily herding of the Longhorns down the main drag. As it happens there was some sort of Harley convention going on down there, too.

We Flew Every Other Day for Five Days

Day 1 - LAX to Houston
Frank Da Cabbie was right on time to pick us up at 5:15 for a 6:35 a.m. flight. As we pulled away from the house, he said, "I lost a good friend yesterday - Dick Clark." (gasps on our part) "Yeah, my wife and I were caretakers for a long time at his Malibu estate." He went on to say that Clark was a very nice guy and Frank didn't think Clark had had any plastic surgery.

Day 3 - Saturday Houston to DFW
The co-pilot's name was given as "Captain Perfecto Gutierrez." I found his first name reassuring...

Day 5 - Monday DFW to LAX
The security guy really did pay attention to my Driver's License. He said, "Can you tell me your first and last names?" (Certainly an odd question) but I said, "Nina Murphy." There is a pause while he studies my paperwork and then he handed it to me and said, "Enjoy your birthday!" (Which is next Wednesday.)

On all three flights we were asked to step into a box? Container? and to put our feet on the orange feet below us, in the orange feet's position. "Clasp your hands over your head..." A bar of light moved across the white screen we each had to face and the Security Guy said, "Okay, you can come forward." It lasted all of 3 seconds and didn't bother me a bit.

Except for these bits -- at LAX the Security Lady approached me and said, "Would you mind if I examined your left knee?" "Certainly not," I said and bent it forward for her inspection. She gingerly felt around on it for maybe another 3 seconds and said, "You may go." And I said, "Actually, it's the right knee that's bad - do you want a look at it, too?" Stern-faced she declined.

At DFW this morning, same procedure except the Security Lady wanted to feel the tops of my arms, where shoulder pads would be had this sweater had them.

Now I'm wondering what the hell is wrong with my good knee...

Leaving With a Laugh

As the cab is picking us up at 5:15 a.m. I won't have time to post this before that.

For a few good laughs, visit whitehousedossier.com and click on the headline "Obama Eats Dog: The Serious Part." A friend of ours has a Beagle so I suggest "beagles with cream cheese" is for her! I also liked "Rover Over Easy."

Short Chapters

In my lexicon, "short chapters" is code for "bathroom book."

"Mortuary Confidential; Undertakers Spill the Dirt" by Kenneth McKenzie and Todd Harra Citadel Press Kensington 234 pages $15.95

This is a collection of anecdotes from funeral directors and they cover funny things as well as poignant. This is not in any way a grisly or morbid book.

Have you ever been to a funeral where a fist fight broke out, and escalated to gunfire? You might be a redneck if you brought dead Granma to the funeral home ... rolled up in a sheet in the back of your pick-up truck. "We didn't want to bother the funeral director."

Mortuaries are often now in third generation hands. Families still live above the business, literally. Someone has to be on-call every night and what could be handier than to answer the phone above the garage and then pull on clothes, run down stairs and roll out the wagon?

People who work with the dead provide a necessary service, but they have outside lives, too. Each contributor lists his hobby under his story title - they range from a guitarist to a Vet; an amateur boxer to a college football fan.

The tale "Men and Makeup" starts with this line: People assume that because I'm gay, I must naturally be good at makeup. Another director writes that if he wants to rile up his wife, he asks her if she'd like him to do her makeup.

Funeral directors are human beings (despite what many of us might have thought) and it's a very nice look at their lives and works. I recomend it as a perfect bathroom book or a take-on-the-plane book. Especially on a plane; no seatmate will want to chat with you. And that can be a very good thing...