Up Late On The Last Day Of March Thinking About Wildflowers, Sweet Tomatoes & Shooting Ronald Reagan

I was up way after midnight, well into the wee hours of the last day of March of 2011.

Which has me up well after the arrival of the sun has revealed that the last day of the month is a clear blue sky day, so far, in my zone of North Texas.

I am not going swimming this morning. It is only 42 degrees out there. I don't know if the 24 hour average has been over 50 degrees. I suspect not. I'm not in the mood for a shivering episode of the extreme trembles.

I learned, this morning, from one of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin's botanists, that this year's Texas wildflower crop will not be a bumper one.

I also learned that a Sweet Tomatoes restaurant is coming to Fort Worth. Sweet Tomatoes is a good thing. A really good thing. The Fort Worth Sweet Tomatoes will be among all the other restaurants in the booming Fort Worth zone of West 7th.

It was 30 years ago, yesterday, that Ronald Reagan was shot by a Jodie Foster addled crazy man. How can that be 3 decades ago? Time flies way way too fast.

Case in point, it is already past 8 this last morning of March of 2011. It is now time to go do something other than swimming. Like maybe have breakfast.

THE LONG ORDEAL OF JAMES BRADY - NYTimes.com

Pictured; Jim and Sarah Brady

In the September 27, 1981 link below Dr. Richard E. Cytowic, a Washington neurologist and medical writer, told the story of President Ronald Reagan's press secretary Jim Brady, shot in the head by John Hinckley during Hinckley's attempted assassination of the President on March 30, 1981.

What followed were hours of confusion and false reports of Brady's death by the news media while the fight to save his life continued at George Washington University Hospital. Some of what is presented in the article will remind the reader of the ordeal of Representative Gabrielle Giffords, of the possible trauma to her brain and the swelling that could have resulted in her death. Like Jim Brady, Gaby Giffords was shot in the daytime, a fact that may have given her a better chance of survival since full daytime staff was on the floor of the hospital as she was brought in.

Brady's story of survival and the aftermath of the shooting may serve as a guide as to what to expect in Gaby Giffords' road to recovery. Dr. Cytowic's story is an eight page glimpse of what it was like on the day Ronald Reagan almost lost his life, and Jim Brady's life was altered forever.

Click the link below for the full story, from THE NEW YORK TIMES.


THE LONG ORDEAL OF JAMES BRADY - NYTimes.com

It is January 21, 2011. As of 8:00PM, 224 Americans have been shot this day.

Had enough? Visit The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

What Would Reagan Really Do? - Newsweek

"Reagan is a difficult icon for Republicans. He was an achiever and, by and large, a successful president. But he wasn’t a successful president in the way that the Republican hero worshipers describe him. Of course ideology was important to Reagan. But he was a success because of, and in spite of, ideology. He cared more about getting stuff done.”.....Ronald Reagan biographer Lou Cannon.


He's been deified by conservatives and has prompted some to try to institute a "Reaganite Purity Test". And he was to be sure......and even his detractors must admit.....the most successful Republican president since Teddy Roosevelt.

But here's the rub; could Ronald Reagan pass the purity test in 2010.

Writer Andrew Romano has some doubts. In this thought provoking Newsweek article he tries to strip away the Reagan mythology and asks the question; "What would Reagan REALLY do?".

READ MORE.....from Newsweek

How does Senator Mellencamp Sound? - CBS News

When I first heard the news of a "Draft Mellencamp" movement regarding the soon to be open United States Senate seat held by Democrat Evan Bayh, I thought it was a mere trial balloon being floated by some who find the idea appealing. But then I thought about it for awhile...can there be a candidate anywhere in America who cares more about the working poor, displaced, and dispossessed? A guy who would and could run on his own agenda and gain grass roots support from Independents in a nominally conservative state in the American Heartland? A maverick who is more "mavericky" than certain self proclaimed mavericks?

And to those who are going to yell "just shut up and sing"....the usual right wing gasbags....its too late for that- the genie as long escaped the bottle. Performers and media types have been running and winning (or being appointed to) political office for decades now- think Shirley Temple, George Murphy, Clint Eastwood, Fred Thompson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and yes, Sarah Palin are among that list.

But how can I forget a man named Reagan? And those are just the Republicans who were once made a living on film and/or television screens.

So why not John Mellencamp for US Senate?

Heck, had he known about this twenty-five years ago he might have kept the aborted stage name of John Cougar...it was easier to remember, and would have made for better bumper stickers.

READ MORE.....from CBS News