We are impressed with the WASTE MANAGEMENT PHOENIX OPEN.
While not exactly made in heaven, it seems a good match — Waste Management, Phoenix and golf. For the record, it should be noted that we have eschewed references to garbage players, crappy players, and quotes such as this from TS Eliot’s Wasteland:
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
What’s more we also reject the view of some that Phoenix is the epicenter of waste. I, for one, would never support such a notion because Phoenicians are frightening: Of the 30 legislative districts in Arizona, 17 lie mostly within the over-heated confines of Maricopa County; Maricopa voters elect the governor, secretary of state, attorney general and the superintendent of public instruction and just about any right-wing dicey ducey that comes along. It is therefore unwise to talk trash about the capital city or to even hint that it is a city of garbage. If you dare to step out of line, the Legislature and/or the executive will kick you in the Rio Nuevo and beat hell out of your Hispanic studies course. And they will be nasty sonsabitches going about it.
Jim Cook used to think the rivalry was funny, and he did what he could to keep it frothy like “Half a Sack of Cats,” which is the title of his memoir. Cook was known far and wide in this state as “The Official State Liar of Arizona.
He was a terrific reporter and spent his career with The Arizona Republic before he retired.
Jim was the official state liar. He created the “Journal of Prevarication,” the official publication of the Wickenburg Institute for Factual Diversity. The Journal, of course, was “the most trusted name in lying.”
Cook’s wit and talent was pretty much beyond any Arizona journalists before or since his time.
If you have not read Cook, you’re in for a treat. Read his journal here. His memoir — the full title is “Half a Sack of Cats: Jim Cook’s Version of His Raffish Youth — is available from Amazon here. He died three years ago.
Recent Comments