Hi Sharon. My clearest memory of Texas -- well, apart from JFK's assassination -- was getting off a motorcycle on a cold winter day (in 1970? 71?) halfway across the Panhandle and and realizing that -- apart from a straight line of weather-beaten telephone poles all the way to both horizons, I was the tallest thing in sight for 360°. It blew my mind, so I had to sit down on the frozen dirt and take a couple of deep breaths before continuing on to California. California Dreaming. The folly of youth.

Could it be that all that flatness has led over time to, um, a kind of mental flatness? Or perhaps to arrogance, you know, the feeling that you tower over everything? Like J.R Ewing? He was a tall man. Or Greg Abott?

Naw, Greg Abott's not a real person! What am I thinking?

Lot of wind in Texas, they must be famous for their wind.... the dust, too.

Anyway, there's a lot of really great, long-suffering Democrats in Texas. (Just not quite enough. Not yet.)