November 20, 2004: Headlines: COS - Malaysia: Humor: Dallas News: Kinky Friedman, like Texas, is iconoclastic, large, loud and vulgar

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Malaysia: Special Report: Author, Humorist and Malaysia RPCV Kinky Friedman: November 20, 2004: Headlines: COS - Malaysia: Humor: Dallas News: Kinky Friedman, like Texas, is iconoclastic, large, loud and vulgar

By Admin1 (admin) (pool-151-196-36-89.balt.east.verizon.net - 151.196.36.89) on Saturday, November 27, 2004 - 7:26 pm: Edit Post

Kinky Friedman, like Texas, is iconoclastic, large, loud and vulgar

 Kinky Friedman, like Texas, is iconoclastic, large, loud and vulgar

Kinky Friedman, like Texas, is iconoclastic, large, loud and vulgar

Texan of the Year nominee: Cowboy Kinky Friedman

01:13 PM CST on Saturday, November 20, 2004

By JACQUIELYNN FLOYD / The Dallas Morning News

After considerable reflection – there are, after all, 22 million of us from whom to choose – I believe our Texan of the Year should be musician, writer and humorist Kinky Friedman.

This is not solely in recognition of Mr. Friedman's accomplishments, considerable though they are. No, I believe Mr. Friedman to be the purest essence of what Texas represents in these difficult and divisive times: gleeful, shameless, unrepentant, nuts-to-you incorrectness.

Think about it. Who would have thought the day would come when the words "Texas" and "cowboy" were employed as terms of political derision? Yet in this bitter election year, our noble home state – so wonderful, so great – has been castigated by people in places like Boston and Paris and Montpelier as the embodiment of pigheaded unilateralism.

And Mr. Friedman, like it or not, spoke on the state's behalf when he answered such criticisms by appearing on the cover of Texas Monthly , dressed in drag as the Queen of England, a décolleté neckline exposing his hairy chest. He's sucking on a cigar and shooting the finger at the camera.

He was the royal "we," though not the "we" of the British monarchy. He was us, saying, "We're Texans and we don't care what you think! "

I nominate as first runner-up, and for the same reasons, indigenous musician Ray Wylie Hubbard, for his barroom anthem "Screw You, We're From Texas."

Many Texans are filled with horror at such sentiments. Some mistakenly believe this attitude to be rooted in partisan politics.

It's not. Mr. Friedman has put himself forward as a candidate for Texas governor in 2006, calling for such eclectic measures as legalizing casino gambling, reviewing cases of all death row inmates and outlawing the declawing of cats. It's not exactly lifted from the pages of the red-state playbook.

His campaign motto is Rise and Shine and Fight the Wussification of Texas, and his bumper stickers say Kinky for Governor: Why the Hell Not?

The world and the United States and Texas are all changing, some places more quickly than others.

But Texas, like Mr. Friedman, retains its defining characteristics. It's iconoclastic, large, loud, vulgar, carnivorous and unapologetically macho. It's the place where Lyndon Johnson was born and Davy Crockett came to die.

The world may not think much of us, but we're not losing any sleep over it. We're from Texas.

E-mail jfloyd@dallasnews.com





When this story was posted in November 2004, this was on the front page of PCOL:

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Story Source: Dallas News

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Malaysia; Humor

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