Another of the great quirks that makes Texas, Texas, is the Marfa lights. Marfa is in far west Texas — alone, a tiny city in a very arid area. It’s desolate enough that Hollywood thought it would be a great place to film much of the movie “Giant,” which needed to use part of Godforsaken* County to make a point about how desolate Texas can be.
And way out there, there is a hill where one can stop after sundown, and watch the mysterious dancing of lights coming from the not-too-distant hills. So far as I can tell, no good explanation exists for what the lights might be. Physicists have ruled out mirages, and the lights were there long before auto headlights anyway.
Marfa hosts the “Mystery Lights Festival” over Labor Day Weekend (as the story cited above notes, the same weekend as Alpine, Texas, hosts its balloon festival — two West Texas happenings in one trip, perhaps).
Do you know of a good explanation? Anybody got one?
* No, there is not really a Godforsaken County among Texas’s 254 counties. Teachers wishing to use this in the classroom may want to be aware that there is a very short video of the Marfa lights mystery on “Texas Country Reporter’s” DVD collection commemorating 25 years of stories. Texas Country Reporter also has a DVD collection of visits to Texas State Parks, which is a good source of information about Texas geography. I suspect other DVDs from this company would offer other good geography and history supplements (Texas Country Reporter is broadcast on Channel 8 in the Dallas area, and on other television stations throughout the state).
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Molly Ivins’ ghost works overtime (link not safe for work, or school), but ghosts have reduced influence in the land of the living. Exactly how great a tragedy that Ivins died just as the Texas Lege was coming into session and the Bush Administration scandals began their geometric expansion, will never be fully comprehended.
But we can catch glimpses.
Would you believe Warren Chisum cutting off debate on a free speech bill?The Burnt Orange Report makes a commendable effort to channel Ivins, and it’s well worth the read. One of the reasons Texas produces great writers, and great humorists, is the simple fact that there are so many unbelievable stories happening in Texas all the time, stories so breathtaking in their inanity (usually) that the only rational response is laughter.
Chisum and his friends got an idea from somewhere that kids in Texas have a difficult time expressing their Christian faith. Chisum, it appears, has not been in a Texas school room since at least 1900, or he’d know better — but he is a powerful legislator and so his particular flights from reality often end up written out as legislation.
It’s unusual, I know, that in a state where millions of kids don’t have a prayer of getting health care because they don’t have a prayer of getting health insurance, and where kids from poorer school districts have little more than a prayer of getting an equal education, the legislature focuses on the prayer part of the deficits, instead of fixing anything else fixable.
It’s not that the kids don’t pray — it’s that few in the state legislature listen. The kids don’t need a bill to make it legal to do what they already do that is already legal; the kids need a bill that would make the Lege pay attention and do something about the problems.
Blogging has been limited lately; there is much to blog about. Is there enough time to catch up?
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Head down to Port Arthur – in a Mercedes Benz, if possible – for a new self-guided Janis Joplin driving tour. The 15 stops include her childhood home, churches, schools and the Museum of the Gulf Coast, which has an exhibit devoted to the rock and blues singer. For the tour brochure, call 1-800-235-7822.
Is there more? Sure — below the fold. Summertime’s a good time to make the tour — but so is spring, fall, and winter.
A history symposium aimed at high school teachers is set for next Saturday, April 28, at the University of North Texas in Denton. Featured speakers include Ft. Worth Star-Telegram vice president Bob Ray Sanders, and Civil War historian Carl Moneyhon, from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Remember the Alamo! And learn the lessons of San Jacinto, including especially this one: Don’t get caught with your pants down. But of course, you need to know the story of the Yellow Rose of Texas to get that reference, yes?
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
We have a couple of sterling contributions for the next Fiesta de Tejas!
More. We should have more submissions. Texas is a big state, with a lot of people, and a lot of entertaining history. We need more entries. Deadline for entries is end of day April 30, 2007 — I’m looking to publish on May 2.
Fiesta de Tejas! is a blog carnival celebrating Texas, Texas history and Texana. This blog focuses on education and social studies (though the focus wanders a bit sometimes). If you wonder whether a particular post might be useful to the Fiesta de Tejas!, simply ask whether you think more Texans ought to know about, especially Texas social studies teachers.
For distinguished musical composition by an American that has had its first performance or recording in the United States during the year, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).
Awarded to “Sound Grammar” by Ornette Coleman, recording released September 12, 2006.
Also nominated as finalists in this category were: “Grendel” by Elliot Goldenthal, premiered June 8, 2006 by the Los Angeles Opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, libretto by Julie Taymor and J.D. McClatchy, and “Astral Canticle” by Augusta Read Thomas, premiered June 1, 2006 by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (G. Schirmer, Inc.).
Ornette Coleman does nothing without flair (look at the photo — catch the color of the horn, and don’t miss the jacket). Fort Worth native, Coleman won the Pulitzer Prize for composition, for a recording released in 2006. It was the first time that a recording was considered for the composition prize. The Pulitzer judge panel put Coleman in competition sua sponte — his composition was not nominated prior to the judges’ consideration.
So Coleman won for an improvisation, the composition was presented as a recording rather than on paper, and he won despite not being nominated in the first place.
Coleman would make a fun Texas Music Monday in seventh grade Texas history, but it may be difficult to find tracks that are really listenable. His work is deep, and it often takes a lot for a listener to keep up.
Ornette Coleman is one more great Texas Native.Tip of the old scrub brush to P. M. Summer, who called my attention to the Coleman award in the comments of my previous Pulitzer post.
* Yes, of course I left off three or four of your favorite artists. If you can’t name five good-to-great Texas musicians who are not on this list, you’re not breathin’.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
One of the reasons I list various carnivals is to make sure I have a note of the good ones somewhere easy to find. Busy-ness in the last week just kept me away from the keyboard.
This is as good a time as any to remind you that that Fiesta de Tejas! #2 is coming up on May 2 — deadline for post nominations April 30. You may e-mail entries to me (edarrellATsbcglobalDOTnet), or submit them at the Blog Carnival portal to the Fiesta.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
The Texas Senate passed a bill to change the current state-mandated test for high school students. Tests are not a panacea, and the current structure seems to be doing more damage than good, in dropout rates, and especially in learning. What will take the place of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS)? No one knows, yet. Much work to do — but there is widespread understanding that TAKS is not doing much of what was hoped.
Incentive pay for teachers: Despite a cantakerous and troubled roll-out in Houston’s schools, and despite widespread discontent with the execution of incentive pay programs that appear to miss their targets of rewarding good teachers who teach their students will, Texas has identified 1,132 schools in the state that are eligible for the next phase of the $100 million teacher incentive program. Some administrators think that, no matter how a program misfires, they can’t change it once they’ve started it. ‘Stay the course, no matter the damage,’ seems to be the battle cry. (And you wondered where Bush got the idea?)
San Jacinto Day is April 21. Texas history classes at Texas middle schools should be leading ceremonies marking the occasion — but probably won’t since it’s coming at the end of a week of federally-requested, state required testing.
Surrender of Santa Anna, painting by William Henry Huddle (1890); property of Texas State Preservation Board. The painting depicts Santa Anna being brought before a wounded Sam Houston, to surrender.
The San Jacinto Monument is 15 feet taller than the Washington Monument
How could Houston’s group have been so effective against a general who modeled himself after Napoleon, with a large, well-running army? In the 1950s a story came out that Santa Anna was distracted from battle. Even as he aged he regarded himself as a great ladies’ man — and it was a woman who detained the Mexican general in his tent, until it was too late to do anything but steal an enlisted man’s uniform and run.
April 16 marks the 60th anniversary of the Texas City Disaster. A large cargo ship being loaded with tons of ammonium nitrate caught fire and exploded, setting fire to other nearby ships, one of which exploded, and devastating much of the town. In all, 576 people died in Texas City on April 16 and 17, 1947.
View of Texas City from Galveston, across the bay, after the explosion of the French ship SS Grandcamp, April 16, 1947. Photo from International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1259
The incident also produced one of the most famous tort cases in U.S. history, Dalehite vs. United States, 346 U.S. 15 (1953). (Here is the Findlaw version, subscription required.)
The entire Texas City fire department was wiped out, 28 firefighters in all. The International Association of Fire Fighters, Local 1259 has a website dedicated to the history of the disaster, with a collection of some powerful photographs.
Case in point: Lee Cullum is not my favorite journalist, and I think her voice often takes on a scolding tone (my wife thinks I worry about voice too much) — but Cullum has a long and very distinguished career in print and broadcast, especially at our local KERA-TV, channel 13. You’ve probably heard her on PBS’s “The Newshour” or on NPR’s news shows, and if you were lucky, you got to read the Dallas Times-Herald’seditorial pages when she edited it. In addition, the Cullum family in Dallas is big power from wayback. Cullum is well connected in Texas politics. If one doesn’t like what she says, one is obligated to listen. (Here’s a PBS biography of Cullum.)
If this is how they treat people of great distinction, it becomes clear why they are so stridently insulting about great science by great people, including great dead people like Darwin. If it was meant to be entertaining, it isn’t; if it was meant to be enlightening, it isn’t that, either. At best it’s rude, at worst it’s a demonstration of the slash-and-burn tactics that an ethically challenged political group uses in desperation.
Somebody call the Discovery Institute and tell them no one is looking to replace “Imus In the Morning’s” stupider insults.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Kevin Levin’s blog, Civil War Memory, carried this posting — I stole it wholesale — plugging a conference on the Civil War hosted at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia:
Civil War Conference at Kennesaw State University
The Third Annual Interpretations of the American Civil War Symposium will be held on May 4 and 5 at Kennesaw State University. The title of this conference is “The Struggle Within: The Confederate Home Front.” Speakers include the following:
Professor George Rable (Keynote Address): “Blended History: New Approaches to Studying the Confederate Home Front”
Professor Victoria Bynum: “Guerrilla Wars: Plain Folk Resistance to the Confederacy”
Professor Kenneth Noe: “The Origins of Guerrilla War in West Virginia”
Professor LeeAnn Whites: “‘Corresponding to the Enemy:’ The Home Front as a Relational Field of Battle”
All four of the speakers are top-notch scholars. This promises to be a very exciting and educational conference. For more information click here.
[End of stolen announcement.]
It’s a conference where it’s pretty well guaranteed that no one will bellyache from the podium about the No Child Left Behind Act. Plus, this gives me a chance to plug Civil War Memory, and Another History Blog, both of which deserve your attention and can help you out.
For a transplanted Yankee, I’ve been struck with the oddity that Texas kids don’t know much about the Civil War. Certainly they don’t know what the state wants them to know, and what the state wants is substantially less than any Southerner ought to know about the historic events that still push attitudes and actions in the 13 rebellious states and national politics. Texas history teachers could use a few seminars on the Civil War.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the pledge of allegiance to the state flag.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 3100.101, Government Code, is amended to read as follows:
Sec. 3100.101. PLEDGE. The pledge of allegiance to the state flag is: “Honor the Texas flag; I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God and indivisible.”
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this Act takes effect September 1, 2007.
That’s right, kids! Texas, which complained of religious coercion in its Declaration of Independence from Mexico, now has a proposal to add “one state under God” to the Texas Pledge (where it now says “one and indivisible”).
It’s the sort of bill that generally gets bottled up and not acted on. Rep. Dianne Riddle, R-Houston, is playing to some constituency different from most Texans, but then, the entire lege has been doing that lately.
I don’t know what the status of the bill is. The bill was referred to the Committee on Culture, Recreation and Tourism in the House. A hearing on the bill was held on March 20, but so far the bill is still in committee. Alas, many yahoos have jumped on to cosponsor the bill.
Or, until that account is unsuspended by the forces supporting Donald Trump: Follow @FillmoreWhite, the account of the Millard Fillmore White House Library
We've been soaking in the Bathtub for several months, long enough that some of the links we've used have gone to the Great Internet in the Sky.
If you find a dead link, please leave a comment to that post, and tell us what link has expired.
Thanks!
Retired teacher of law, economics, history, AP government, psychology and science. Former speechwriter, press guy and legislative aide in U.S. Senate. Former Department of Education. Former airline real estate, telecom towers, Big 6 (that old!) consultant. Lab and field research in air pollution control.
My blog, Millard Fillmore's Bathtub, is a continuing experiment to test how to use blogs to improve and speed up learning processes for students, perhaps by making some of the courses actually interesting. It is a blog for teachers, to see if we can use blogs. It is for people interested in social studies and social studies education, to see if we can learn to get it right. It's a blog for science fans, to promote good science and good science policy. It's a blog for people interested in good government and how to achieve it.
BS in Mass Communication, University of Utah
Graduate study in Rhetoric and Speech Communication, University of Arizona
JD from the National Law Center, George Washington University
Posted by Ed Darrell 
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 