A round-up is a task performed by cowboys when they bring in the cattle.
I
am not a cowboy. But I spent 30 years in The Cowboy State of Wyoming so sometimes
feel like one.
Yesterday,
a big galoot from Laramie, Wyoming – Frank Crum, 6-foot-7, 315-pound OL for the
Denver Broncos -- caught a touchdown pass from Bo Nix as the Broncos beat the
Bills. Crum grew up in Laramie, played football at Laramie High School, and
played six years for the UW Cowboys. His father and grandfather all played for
UW. Way to go, big fella.
Later,
in overtime, Bo Nix powered the Broncos to the OT win. He broke his ankle along
the way and now is out for the rest of the playoffs.
Meanwhile,
UW’s Josh Allen, everyone’s favorite in Laramie where UW retired his uniform
number in tribute, sat and watched his Super Bowl dreams evaporate.
A
big, strange day for Wyoming. Wyoming excels in Big & Strange.
I
miss it. Now living in Florida which has its own Big & Strange.
Earlier
in the day, Chris and I cheered on the Florida Gators as they beat Vanderbilt 98-94
in NCAA men’s basketball. The Gators (UF my alma mater) are a hard-driving
bunch with players from all over, some appearing mysteriously out of The
Portal. There’s this small guard Xiavian Lee who portalized from Princeton to
make amazing shots and there’s Rueben Chinyelu who steamrolls his way to the
bucket. I was happy to see the win and glad there was no OT to interfere with
the Broncos/Bills game. I know of no Wyoming connection for the Gators but
looking for one.
Just
finished reading (for the second time) “Never a Lovely So Real,” a biography of
Nelson Algren by Colin Asher. I love the book for its unflinching portrait of
Algren powered by Asher’s love of the subject. Algren was my first writing mentor,
a strange old man dressed in rumpled clothes and a beat-up cap who taught
writing to UF undergrads in 1974. I was a non-trad student, a university newbie
at 23 who had been out doing something interesting. Nelson taught writing in
many places (including the MFA bastion at Iowa) and was openly scornful of
learning writing in the academy. He came from those mean streets of Chicago and
learned his trade on the road. He wrote about the travails of regular folks. He
must have looked around that stifling classroom and said what do these people
know of the ways of the world? Go out and do something interesting and then
write about it. I did. Was still learning. Algren told great stories and my Vietnam
vet buddy Mike and I took Nelson to a strip club on Gainesville’s outskirts and
had a swell time. We smoked pop with him although he said it didn’t do much for
him as he had smoked it many times with jazz cats in 1930s Chicago. Nelson
liked one of my stories and gave me his agent’s contact info which I never
followed up on. He also gave us all a list of recommended reading and I worked
my way through it, parked deep in the stacks of the UF library. Asher has a new
book coming out which sounds cool. It’s titled “The Midnight Special: The
Secret Prison History of American Music” and will be released by W.W. Norton on
June 30. Check out his cool web site at colinasher.com for more info.
I get up every day cursing Trump and his fascist minions. Cursing is one thing. Doing something about it is another. I am a lifetime voter and Democrat who has been active in party politics. It ain’t always pretty but you gotta get your hands dirty if you want to make something. Algren was blacklisted for 30 years for being a Commie. His pal in the WPA Writers Project, Richard Wright, was forced out of the U.S. for his activism. I write regularly to the dimwits who want to turn Florida into a Maga Playground. Write. Demonstrate. Vote, please vote. There’s a good chance that Trump and his goons will find excuses to close the polls in November. Do not let him do that. It’s up to you.
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