Tuesday
Dallas, Texas. What a day this
has been. I flew into DFW with my gorgeous wifey. I slept the whole
way, as I always do. At DFW, a car and driver took us to the nearby
Gaylord Resort. It is an immense hotel. A convention of steel
fabricators is taking place here and I am speaking to them. Two
very polite young women checked us in and we went to our rooms and
slept more.
Then, to answering e-mails. My favorites were from L., the
17-year-old daughter of a close friend, who is in Poland visiting
death camps as part of a mostly Jewish project called “March of the
Living.” L’s grandmother was a 16-year-old girl in a town outside
Frankfurt when she was sent of to be a slave laborer at several
different horror camps, culminating in five excruciating years at
Auschwitz. She saw all of her friends die. When she was liberated,
she went “home” to find that all of her family except her aunt were
dead… murdered by the Nazis.
Now, her daughter’s daughter is visiting these death camps as a
proud, healthy, lovely U.S. citizen. God bless America.
The only funny part of the story is that two nights before she
was at Auschwitz, L. was at the immense Coachella Rock Festival
listening to rock music in the sun east of Indio. From Coachella to
Auschwitz. Truly unbelievable.
Then an e-mail from one of the most beautiful women in the
world. She has a project. She is going to make seltzer water at
home with a machine that carbonates water. She is addicted to
Pellegrino and she figures this will save her well over $100 per
month. I cautioned her that Pellegrino has a uniquely delicious
flavor and she might not get the same taste from her carbonated tap
water. She was undeterred. “I am going to make money and help the
environment at the same time,” she said.
Both admirable goals, to be sure.
Then, taking my fiber while I watch the horrible selection
available on TV in my hotel room. Grim. Do Americans really care
that much about storage lockers and weight loss? I guess they
do.
Wednesday
A speech to the steel
fabricators. The event was on the exhibition hall floor where many
entities were showing off their steel fabrication machines. The
room was as noisy as can be, but the audience was great —
thoughtful, solid-looking men and women. Our sponsor is a maker of
ultra-strong, durable, computer-driven steel-cutting machines by
the name of Peddinghaus. Founded long ago in Germany, now based in
Illinois. The owner and his extremely lovely wife were there and
could not have been more pleasant.
After the speech, I talked for a long time with a man whose
family had come from Serbia. He told me heart-rending stories of
what his family had gone through under the Nazis and then under
Tito. What brave people his ancestors were and are.
Then I lay in my bed and watched airplanes gliding in for
landing at DFW. Much closer to my room, hawks soared on thermals.
These were extremely large hawks. In fact, I have never seen such
immense hawks.
Later, I went to a nighttime event at a nearby venue. The first
entertainment was some dancing and cheering by the Dallas Cowboys
cheerleaders. I am bound to say that in my whole life, I have never
seen more beautiful women. It is almost unbelievable that humans
could be that beautiful.
After the cheerleaders, Dana Carvey came out and did the single
funniest show I have ever seen. This man is whatever the next step
is beyond genius. Impressions. Jokes. Singing. Guitar playing. The
imitation that Carvey did of Al Gore was so funny. I thought I
would choke from laughing.
The brilliance and energy of this man is supernatural.
Then, back to my room and a late supper with my wife and then to
sleep.
Thursday
Up, dressed, and downstairs here
at the Gaylord. My lucky fate this day is to moderate a panel
composed of my old marching companion, Pat Buchanan, and “The
Ragin’ Cajun,” James Carville. Again, it was on the exhibit floor
and noisy as can be, but Pat and James were brilliant and lively
and entertaining. I have a tough time making out what Carville is
saying, but when I do “get it,” he’s often quite brilliant. I
disagree with most of what he says, but he’s passionate and
likeable. Pat is also brilliant and although I find him wanting on
a number of historical points, he’s also passionate and
likeable.
After, the event, off to bed to watch the hawks, and then room
service from a witty Ukrainian woman named Oksana, then to DFW to
fly to Little Rock. As usual, I slept the whole way.
We checked into our fine rooms at the Capital Hotel, then went
for a late supper at the bar here. Who should we see but Judge
Reinhold, Hollywood star and talented young guy, with his wife, who
is so beautiful it should be illegal. The bar at this hotel is
probably the friendliest spot on the globe. Every single man and
woman in the room came over and visited with my wife and me. This
is the way life should be lived.
I read in the papers about how civility is gone from modern
life. Not at the world’s best hotel, The Capital, not in Little
Rock. This is paradise.
Friday
A dinner honoring my late war hero
father in law, Dale Denman, Jr., his still very much alive brother,
Bob Denman, also a major league war hero, and a young Marine named
Landon Voigt. S/Sgt Voigt, USMC, two tours in Iraq, had received a
stipend from the Denman Brothers Military Scholarship Fund at UALR.
He and his wife, Christina, were charming and modest. So were all
of the Denmans, especially my wife. Everyone at the restaurant,
Dizzy’s, was as friendly as could be. And so many great looking
women… none as beautiful as my wife, but great looking. Sweet, down
to earth, not angry, as far removed from the women of Beverly Hills
as can be.
I love it here in Little Rock.
On TV, the men and women look insane. Here, they look sane. Big
difference.
