"We just got a let-ter! We just got a let-ter! Wonder who it's from!?"

Man, I can't stand Blue's Clues.

Be that as it may, Chet the E-Mail Boy has been hopping this morning trying to clear out the old inbox. If he keeps tapping any harder on that telegraph key, he's gonna catch it on fire! (No, Chet, not really. Now get back to work.)

Chet rushed in here just now having finished his final typeset of the following message from some guy:

Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2004 02:30:18 -0600
To: terryoglesby@yahoo.com
From: "Tony von Krag" [address redacted]
Subject: Possums in the yard

My friend Laurel has a great site on TV picks and a fine Live Journal to boot, http://www.livejournal.com/users/laurel/. She had a nice blurb on wild Possums in backyards from Mark Evanier, so I thought I'd tell you about this. BTW I'm from NOLa and I have to tell you Yankee (Yankees are anyone who lives/born above Red Stick IMO) Alabama Auburn fans: "Geoux [sic] Tigers" coz LSU will win the SEC again this year.
--
Tony

Chef Anthony von Krag ACF retired
Have spices & cast iron cookware, will travel
User of sharp knives, Washer of hands and cutting boards
You want Me!!! To cook *THAT* well done?

Now, far be it from me to criticize anyone else's misspellings, especially if it's some sort of retired Italian/German/Cajun guy hopped up on moonshine with an assortment of dangerous cutlery, but if you're going to come in here talking that crazy talk, the least you could do is spell "GEAUX" correctly! I should know it by now, having to endure ceaseless tauntings from My Friend Jeff^TM who was incarcerated at LSU for five years.

At least Mr. von Krag has good hygiene. It's important to remember to always clean your hands and cutting boards to eliminate dangerous organisms and germs. Sadly, it was too late when Tony learnt that, but let his example be a guide for you all!

NOW THEN, as for Miss Laurel, she indeed does have an interesting site--turns out that she lives up there in Minnesota, and has even written some stuff for the same inkrag as Mr. Lileks, and best of all, she loooooooves the teevee. Hard to top that. Even if she does associate with people who wear purple and gold.

And the link to Mr. Evanier's (a bigwig animation and cartoony guy) site is great, too--full of stuff about his backyard critters, including a variety of possums. Oddly enough, he is also friends with the Carolyn Kelly, daughter of Walt "Creator of Pogo" Kelly, AND several years back, he worked on a project for CBS called Mama Don't Allow:

A little over a decade ago, someone at CBS decided to produce an animated special based on a colorful book by Thacher Hurd. It was named Mama Don't Allow and it involved the hoary song of the same name. Briefly, it's the story of a young possum named Miles who is given a saxophone which he plays so badly that his mama orders him from the house. He roams about with his instrument, repulsing others with its sounds until finally, near the end, he learns to play the thing well. The end. [Not quite--Ed.]

all of which means that there is some sort of odd, cosmic coincidental sort of thing going on here.

Or not.

But, anyway, many thanks to Mr. von Krag for writing in, and for allowing me to tease him in a highly public way. As I always say, no one with the last name of Krag can be bad--the Krag rifle has the smoothest operation of any bolt action rifle ever made--period. If I had the extra cash, I would go buy one just to be able to sit around and fiddle with it. But that's just me.
posted by Terry at 9:58:00 AM