I love Marilyn Howland. She is one of my favorite people. Every Sunday morning she sits on the pew in front of me at First Baptist Church, San Antonio. (It would actually be more appropriate to say that I sit on the row behind her so I can nudge her when she starts dozing during the pastor’s sermon.
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This past Sunday the worship service was close to starting but Marilyn was no where in sight. I got down on my hands and knees and looked under her pew thinking that she might have slipped in un-noticed, fallen asleep and her limp body had slithered to the floor. It was a wasted effort because she wasn’t there either.
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Out of deep concern, I asked someone on her row if they knew where she was. It was then that I learned that she had, a few days earlier while attending a funeral service at the church, slipped and fallen to the floor — landing flat on her face. From what I hear she is quite banged up but is expected to recover from this terrible accident. For this I am thankful.
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What caused Marilyn to fall? No one knows for sure but there are several theories bantering around the church.
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It is a well-known fact amongst the Baptist brethern that Marilyn is no spring chicken since she is a few years older than I am. Some Theologians believe that accidents such as this happen because the Lord uses “Senior Citizens” as examples as to how gravity works.
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Some people who don’t know Marilyn as well as I do think that alcohol might have been involved. I totally reject this theory although it could be theoretically possible that she might take a nip or two for medicinal purposes only.
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The most plausible explanation for the accident is as follows: During her younger days it is common knowledge that Marilyn could “Boogie-Woogie” with the best of them. I have learned from fairly reliable sources that Marilyn was on her way to the ladies room when she, by chance, met the pastor in the hallway. He greeted her and told her that he had recently returned from a trip to Charleston, South Carolina. Marilyn had evidently forgotten to wear her hearing aid that day and in her mind she thought the pastor was asking her to Charleston.
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I don’t for even one moment think that Marilyn accidently tripped and fell to the ground. There is sufficient evidence to indicate that she was zapped by a lightening bolt for dancing in a Baptist church.
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Recently one of my Bisbee, Arizona friends (June Schaub) told me of a beautiful young girl named Hannah Zimmer who loves to draw cartoons. (I think Hannah’s mom, Tiffany, is a friend of June.)
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June told Hannah that I also liked to draw cartoons so I sent Hannah a copy of the “How to Draw People Cartoons” book I had written.
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Hannah just turned 8 years old in Janurary and since birth she has had many surgeries because of a medical problem she has. She lives in Painted Post, New York but is currently at Children’s Hospital at Cincinnati, Ohio where she is scheduled for another surgery on Feb 10, 2011.
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I recently drew a cartoon of Hannah and much to my surprise, she has the cartoon posted on her Blog Homepage.

If you want to meet a special, brave little girl check out Hannah’s Blog

But if you do, please be very careful because I am very sure she will win your heart over too.

I would not say that we live a dull life but I think the last movie my wife and I attended was the original Superman movie. There could have been one or more since then but you know how it is when old age creeps up on you ……. you develop CRS disease (Can’t Remember Stuff).
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This past week, however, we did something somewhat more exciting than we usually do. We were visiting our niece and her husband in the Houston area and on Saturday night we went to the nearby town of LIberty, Texas and attended the Liberty Opry . The Opry is located in an old-time, small-town, movie theatre which was remodeled to feature live entertainment every Saturday night.  The show we attended was featured as “Gospel Music Night”. On other nights they feature other types of music. There program is professionaly done and is family oriented entertainment.
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One of the interesting things about the show is that people with singing talent can audition to be one of the featured stars for one or more of the shows. Our niece Elaine Carlton was one of the stars for the show we attended and besides being one of the most beautiful gals in the world ( someone at her post office told her that was so) , she is also a “dang” good singer.
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The cartoon I drew is of Jay Cantu, one of the owners of the  Liberty Opry and also one of the featured soloists each week.
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Check out their webpage and if you’re ever near the town of Liberty, Texas get reservations for the show. Better yet, if you are a “wanna be” star then audition for the show.

I don’t know if there is something magnetic about my personality but for some reason I seem to attract the most interesting friends.  I remember my youngest daughter telling me during her High School dating days that she seemed to attract a bunch of weirdos.  Come to think of it, maybe that would be a better description for some of my friends.
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I’ve previously written about my friend Dan who was chased by a swarm of wasps while playing golf and my friend Ted who had a bobcat confiscate his golf ball while he was playing golf and refused to give it back to him. In my last post, I told you about my friend Marilyn who often takes a siesta during the worship service at our church. Now I ask you — Do  these seem like normal friends? I think not.
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Just when I think things can’t get worse along comes a “you won’t believe it story” that happened to one of my best friends who I will refer to as Frank in order to protect his true identity. If there was ever a normal person in this world Frank would be it. He is a graduate of one of our Service Academies with a degree in Engineering and is a high “muckety-muck” executive with a Fortune-500 company. Frank is a man’s man. Nothing “sissy” about him.
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I was talking by phone to Frank a few months ago and he told me that he had been to the Doctor regarding a small lump he noticed on his chest. Reluctantly, he also told me that the doctor had ordered a mammogram for him. Being a true friend, I expressed my concern for his well-being while at the same time trying to suppress laughing out loud. The good Lord just seems to drop cartoon ideas in my lap.
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As it turned out Frank was OK for which I am thankful.  He did tell me after the procedure was over:  “I just don’t know why women make such a big fuss over having a mammogram.  There’s really nothing to it.”

Ted Sorich and I began a long-lasting friendship when we met in the first grade in 1944 at Greenway Elementary School in the unique mining town of Bisbee, Arizona — a border town in the southeast corner of the state.  We were in grade school together for 8 years plus 4 years at Bisbee High School.
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Although he will never admit it publicly, Ted always thought he was God’s gift to the pretty girls of Bisbee. He would always brag to me about how many Greenway girls he had kissed before he got to High School. When he kissed one of those girls for the first time he would always come to me telling about his accomplishment. I would listen to him as if I was interested and then would end the conversation by saying “Been there — Done That”.  He finally got the message that he wasn’t the lover that he thought he was.
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Ted, one of Arizona’s best known athletes ended up at Northern Arizona University where , as quarterback, he led the Lumberjacks to many successful football seasons. With his natural athletic ability, the game of golf was a piece of cake for him. Ted now lives in Tucson, Arizona and as an avid golfer he  has been keeping up with my cartoon Blog and I recently asked him if he had any unusual or humorous experiences while playing golf. He told me the following story which I thought was fascinating and his description of this unusual event will be much better than mine:
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” I did have something unusual happen awhile back” Ted said. “I was just finishing a solo round late one afternoon and had hit my second shot right of the green into a grassy area. As I approached the green in my golf cart, I noticed a Bobcat playing with my golf ball.  He’d bat it around, flip it into the air and pounce on it.  I was amused..waiting patiently for the Bobcat to “move on” so I could finish the hole, but he never did. He laid on my ball and never moved so I took a 4 on the hole and headed for home!”

As I previously said, Ted and I have been friends for a long time and I would never question his integrity but one of the things he said in his story raises serious questions about his character.  I know that all of you golfers, after reading Ted’s story, have the same questions as I do.  Why did he take a four on the hole?  It’s evident that the main reason is that he was playing by himself so no one was there to check the accuracy of his scorecard (by the way I’ve a future cartoon coming soon about a golfer and his scorecard that pretty much decribes how Ted evidently keeps his score).  I’ve played golf with Ted before and he’s really not that good of a chipper from off the green.  What makes him think he would have chipped the ball close enough to the hole to make a one-putt?  There are just too many unanswered questions.  Maybe it wasn’t even a Bobcat– but a skunk.  Who knows?