image swiped from copperlove studios
I don't know Kinky Friedman...you might not either. I have several connections to him though. I've read most of his books, mainly rather blasphemous and humorous detective novels. I had a co-worker who helped produce an album of famous artists performing songs Kinky did with his band "Kinky and the Texas Jewboys." Songs like, "Get your biscuits in the oven and your buns into bed."
Classics - although that tribute album was wretched.
Kinky recently kicked off his campaign to become Texas Governor with slogans like "Kinky- Why the Hell Not?" and "Kinky Friedman for Governor- How hard could it be?"
I hope he makes it onto the ballot. It will be a very difficult task. He'll have to convince hundreds of thousands of Texans NOT to vote in the primary and then sign his petitions. Texas, a state that prides itself on its independence makes it almost impossible for an independent to run for statewide office. Go figure.
Anyway, I've bumped into Kinky a number of times over the years. He used to be a regular on our various radio shows because of his quick wit. Then we banned smoking in the building and Kinky never came back
He's a militant cigar smoker.
Anyway I do have a more personal claim to fame to Kinky Friedman.
I've mentioned before on numerous occasions that I believe people name Wayne are predestined to commit crimes, specifically to become killers. I won't go into again...you'll simply have to believe me...or trust people named Wayne...your choice...probably a good idea to lock your doors either way.
Years and years ago WOAI had a somewhat abysmal talk show in the dark of night called "Road Across America" which was originally aimed at truckers and eventually became aimed at anyone who could pick up the rather extensive 50 thousand watt signal of the station. It was hosted by a guy named Ben Baldwin who was known to occasionally augment his coffee with stuff besides cream and sugar, so the topics quite often would stray.
One night I was called in to work for the normal overnight guy and I had time on my hands. I set up our newsroom computers to search for all the stories about people named "Wayne" on the newswire (this was pre-Internet) and crimes. I also had a list of some of the more notorious Waynes already compiled. During a break in the show I went into Ben and gave him the list as sort of a joke. The next thing I knew he opened the microphone and said, "Why are so many killers named Wayne?" He started reading down the list live on the air without giving it a second thought. I was horrified. I mean, there are a lot of people named Wayne out there.
The phone lines lit up like Ben Baldwin after a full night of "coffee"....not only from people named Wayne threatening to kill Ben, but also from all sorts of people with stories about Waynes who were killers or general no goodniks. Ben did an entire hour on the topic ending with a psychologist theorizing that in the 50's and 60's men named their sons after John Wayne and those boys had a hard time living up to their father's macho images. Thus they became killers. It was truly a surreal experience.
Fast forward a few years - Ben Baldwin is gone....Road across America is no more...I still believe Waynes are dangerous life forms and I'm reading one of Kinky's trashy novels, I don't remember which and I'm too lazy to go downstairs to look it up, but there's a line in it that says something to the effect of, "I can't sleep and I'm listening to all night talk radio. The announcer is asking,' why so many killer's are named Wayne?'"
Wayne serendipity.
It has nothing to do with anything, but I was reminded of the story today and the only other things I had to write about were going to take more thought to explain...and certainly more thought for me to understand. Primarily today I've been thinking about and praying about boundaries as well as saying "No" even when it means saying no to one of the sweetest people I've ever met and a project which I truly believe in. I'm having a hard time with it, but somehow I know it's right.
I'm not ready to write about that yet.
So I dashed out this old memory and I plugged Kinky Friedman's run for Governor.
Maybe tomorrow I'll be ready to write on that other topic....how hard could it be?
