The day the boys were born, the Rangers were in fourth place in the AL West, three games under .500, and ten games back of the Astros. Since then, they’ve won 11 of 13 to pull into second place, four games back of Houston, and into the third Wild Card playoff spot.
Sammy and the El-Man are bringing that Rangers MOJO!
Well. Until last night. Yeeesh!
Who was that guy wearing the Jacob deGrom jersey last night in Anaheim?
Let’s Go Rangers. Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap.
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Sixteen years after its series finale, ‘King of the Hill’ is making a comeback with a full season of all new episodes beginning Monday August 4 on Hulu. If you’re even mildly interested, I recommend this excellent piece in the latest Texas Monthly by Sean O’Neal titled, “Why ‘King of the Hill’ is the Most Significant Work of Texan Culture in the Past Thirty Years.”
O’Neal puts ‘King of the Hill’ in the same category as Larry McMurtry and ‘Friday Night Lights’ for its serious and seriously entertaining treatment of what it means to be Texans living in Texas. What Mike Judge, the show’s creator, tackles so well is the plight of Texans who live in urban areas–84-percent of us now–attempting to live into and through the outsized Texas legends and myths and the expectations that come with them. ‘King of the Hill’ is also about relationships between dads and their sons, namely how the sons are almost always disappointing the dads and how the sons know it. And how they cope. I’m not sure how uniquely Texan that is. Texas might contribute to it.
What first attracted me to ‘King of the Hill’ in the late ’90s is how perfectly it captures my experiences growing up in southeast Dallas with the Tom Landry Cowboys, blue laws, St. Augustine lawns, traditional values and gender roles, and the State Fair of Texas. The random references to Luby’s Cafeteria, Tom Thumb, Central Expressway, and Drew Pearson are emotional for me. I also really love Tom Petty’s frequent voice work as Luanne’s boyfriend, Lucky. But what keeps me watching the re-runs today is that the show is ultimately about our identities as Texans: our copped attitudes, our inherited traditions, the foods we eat and refuse to eat, the weird mix of superiority and insecurity with which we’re all familiar. This brand new season features a freshly-retired Hank and their son Bobby as an adult chef working in Dallas. A lot has changed in Texas over the past 16 years, and I’m sure a lot has changed in Arlen. I can’t wait to see how Hank and his friends deal with today’s politics, social media, electric cars, and veggie tacos. But we’re all still Texans, trying to get along, attempting to do what’s right, trying to help our fellow Texans, and navigating all the ups and downs of living life with those we love the most.
The best part of O’Neal’s excellent article is near the end when he quotes Hank Hill as saying, “A big part of being a man is doing things you don’t want to do.” Hank’s not complaining. He just feels a certain understated pride in assuming the mantel of being useful. He finds identity and meaning in being the one other people can count on. In a lot of ways, that’s Mike Judge’s vision for what it means to be a Texan. Or, at least that’s the way O’Neal interprets it:
“Like being a man, being a real Texan isn’t about aspiring to some outsized, mythical life but about finding fulfillment in doing the things that need doing, the same way we’ve learned to embrace the things about Texas that, if I’m being honest, aren’t all that great: the heat, the harsh terrain, the Dallas Cowboys. We’re not super beings, but simply the descendants of people who arrived in some of the most unforgiving land in America and declared it, rather obstinately, to be heaven on earth. Our surroundings may have softened and shifted, but that stubborn self-reliance remains.”
Read the piece. It’s very well-written. And maybe go to Whataburger for lunch today.
Peace,
Allan
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