Mon.Jan.31: Thoughts on True Grit
Grit… What is it? Today’s quote: “I am not the most successful or most talented person in the world, but I succeeded because I keep going, and going, and going.” -Sylvester Stallone I heard a speaker recently refer to it as “DQ.” Don’t quit. Grit is simply the refusal to quit. Grit won’t quit. It rhymes and it’s true. The book, True Grit by Charles Portis, has always been one of my favorites. I first saw the original movie in 1969: a drive in theater in Joplin, Mo. I was traveling with my Grandmother Pearl Iles and Aunt JoAnn back from a visit to South Dakota. My Uncle Bill was teaching on an Indian Reservation there. It was a seminal trip in my life. The first trip “way off” to a different part of the world. I fell in love with the movie and have seen it many times. Even before the recent remake, I was listening to the audiobook version of True Grit. My next book to be written, As The Crow Flies, is told first person by a teenaged girl. For an adult male to write that is a challenge, so I’ve studied how Charles Portis did it with Mattie Ross. To me Mattie Ross is one of the most memorable characters in American fiction. The new movie does her character justice. Rooster Cogburn: who can forget John Wayne’s Oscar-winning portrayal? It’s iconic. But I was very pleased with Jeff Bridges as Rooster. He had true grit. A question: Where does the term “true grit” fit in on the storyline? Who played Texas Ranger LeBeouf in the original movie? (Matt Damon fills the role in the remake.) What differs about the eye patches worn by “each Rooster?” Let me hear from you. Curt Iles
Thur. Dec. 9 Southern Thoughts
“There ain’t no tacky like Southern tacky.” I’ve seen it all: pink flamingos filling the yard, trees painted white up to head high, tires half-buried as borders around the flowers, junk freezers at the driveway end for the trash (can anyone spell t-r-a-s-h b-e-n-d.) These are the things I love about Southern Living (and I’m not talking about the magazine.) Here’s one of my local favorites: taking the head of a huge catfish and hanging it on a highway sign. Don’t ask me why, but I’ve see them from time to time. One hung on Mitchell Harper Rd. near East Beauregard for over a year. This specimen hangs proudly at the intersection on La. 463 with its intersection with La. 121 near Hineston, La. Like I said, “There ain’t no tacky like Southern tacky.”
