Burning Questions

By

-

February 21, 2023

I know the cowboy and cowgirl community looks to me as a stylish trendsetter who is always in fashion. As a man of few fashion surprises who owns at least three pairs of jeans and a stack of T shirts, some even without colorful pictures of cows or cars on them, I realize I have a responsibility to share my insight as to what’s fashionable.

I’m constantly barraged with questions like, “What’s in style, shotgun chaps or chinks? Fringe or no fringe, vest or no vest, Pendleton or polyester, a feather in one’s hat or a hat band, belt or suspenders, wrist watch or pocket watch, jinglebobs on your spurs or no jinglebobs?

As a leatherworker I’m often asked if it’s fashionable to put your name on the back of your belt or did that style go out with Lyndon Johnson? (I prefer initials on the tip of your belt.) And yes, you should wear a belt and pull up your pants. Even though teenagers are often seen with their pants pulled down like they have $500 worth of nickels in them, it’s not a style that will ever catch on with the cowboy crowd. Can you imagine Trevor Brazile getting off his horse after roping a calf and mooning the crowd in Vegas at the NFR?

The top five five questions I get from people who want to dress as stylish as myself are…

#5 Levi or Wrangler? I was a Levi man in my younger years but that was before I learned that Levi gives hundreds of millions of dollars to extremely liberal causes, while Wrangler sponsors the NFR. So now I’m a Wrangler man. Okay, okay, the fact that Levis now cost $60 per pair might have a little something to do with my fashion awakening. At any time you could add up the cost of everything I’m wearing and the total wouldn’t be near $60! Compromise position: Cinch jeans.

#4 Square toe or pointy toe? I notice a lot of rodeo cowboys and cowgirls are wearing square toed boots these days but, call me old-fashioned, I believe that proper boots should have pointy toes so you can get your foot out of the stirrup faster with less hang up. Compromise position: My favorite boots have always been Justin Ropers with a round toe. Under no circumstance should a cowboy or cowgirl wear those silver toe caps on their boots that make them look like derelict rock and roll singers.

#3 Outside or inside? Because I also make spur leathers people ask if the buckles should be on the outside or inside? It depends on what part of the country you’re from. If you’re from California the buckles should be on the inside so you can put a big gaudy concha on the outside of your spur leathers. If you live closer to Texas and Nebraska it’s fashion forward to wear the buckles on the outside which is more practical. Compromise position: I really like the three piece spur leathers with a concha on the outside and the buckles in the middle.

#2 Wild rag or bolo tie? Wild rag for sure, unless you happen to be from Arizona. I’ve traveled that state extensively and have found that only an Arizonian can wear a bolo tie and look good at it. Arizona cowgirls are also the only ones who look good with big old Squash blossoms around their neck. Maybe it’s the turquoise? Compromise position. Do like I do and don’t wear either one because neither a wild rag or bolo tie looks good with a tee shirt.

#1 Black or white? The number one question: “Is it more fashionable to wear a white (actually grey) or black hat?” I used to wear nothing but silver bellies but I’ll admit that nothing looks better than a properly shaped black hat, except under really dusty conditions. I’ve seen some auctioneers wear brown hats, but you have to be really courageous and good looking to pull this look off. Compromise position: Just wear a straw hat all year round. They’re lots cheaper and you won’t care as much if one happens to blow away or get stepped on by a bull or horse. I’ll admit straw hats don’t look good if you wear one with a suit but I tend to avoid any enterprise that requires wearing one of them darn things.

KU News: Upcoming photo exhibition at Spencer Museum of Art, new University Scholars

By

Guest Columnist

-

February 21, 2023

0

From the Office of Public Affairs | http://www.news.ku.edu

Headlines

Photos by Accra Shepp at Spencer Museum of Art document Occupy Wall Street, COVID-19
LAWRENCE — A new exhibition, “Dissent, Discontent, and Action: Pictures of US by Accra Shepp,” opens Feb. 18 at the Spencer Museum of Art. Through two portrait series, “Occupying Wall Street” and “The Covid Journals,” New York-based contemporary photographer Accra Shepp reveals a sense of community, hope and resilience during an era of tremendous social, political and environmental change.

New class of University Scholars announced
LAWRENCE — The 42nd class of University Scholars and their faculty mentors were recognized during a reception hosted by the University of Kansas Honors Program on Feb. 9 in Nunemaker Center. The new University Scholars include Kansas undergraduates from Lawrence, Linn, McPherson, Olathe, Overland Park and Prairie Village.

Full stories below.

————————————————————————

Contact: Elizabeth Kanost, Spencer Museum of Art, 785-864-0142, [email protected], @SpencerMuseum
Photos by Accra Shepp at Spencer Museum of Art document Occupy Wall Street, COVID-19

LAWRENCE — A new exhibition, “Dissent, Discontent, and Action: Pictures of US by Accra Shepp,” opens Feb. 18 at the Spencer Museum of Art. Through two portrait series, “Occupying Wall Street” and “The Covid Journals,” New York-based contemporary photographer Accra Shepp reveals a sense of community, hope and resilience during an era of tremendous social, political and environmental change.
Shepp began photographing the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in New York’s Zuccotti Park on Oct. 1, 2011. He was drawn to the sea of individuals as a photographic subject, based in part on his observation of the crowd’s diversity. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Shepp again captured portraits of the people in his city. The series began at Elmhurst Hospital, just a few blocks from Shepp’s home in Queens, during a moment when the hospital was filling with COVID-19 patients. Later that year, Shepp’s attention shifted to demonstrations and the outcry for justice that occurred after the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.
Shepp said his work speaks to the responsibility of artists to “make present important historical moments and conditions.”
All 39 photos in the show are printed at a large scale in black and white, providing a sense of continuity although the series were made nearly a decade apart. Kate Meyer, Spencer Museum curator, said that uniting these two groups of photos for the first time in a gallery provides a unique viewing opportunity.
“Together these images prompt us to think about how the same issues of equity and justice that drove protesters to the streets in 2011 became even more relevant during the pandemic and continue to shape our society today,” Meyer said.
Shepp will visit the Spencer Museum later this spring to engage with KU classes and the public. “Dissent, Discontent, and Action” will remain on view through June 25. It is co-curated by Meyer and Luke Jordan, the Spencer Museum’s photography specialist and lecturer in KU’s Department of Visual Art. The exhibition and related programs are supported by KU Student Senate and the Linda Inman Bailey Exhibitions Fund.
-30-
————————————————————————
The official university Twitter account has changed to @UnivOfKansas.
Refollow @KUNews for KU News Service stories, discoveries and experts.

Tweets by KUnews
————————————————————————

Contact: Dustin Vann, University Honors Program, [email protected], @KUHonors
New class of University Scholars announced
LAWRENCE — The 42nd class of University Scholars and their faculty mentors were recognized during a reception hosted by the University of Kansas Honors Program at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 9 in Nunemaker Center. Attendees celebrated this year’s scholars and mentors with refreshments and heard remarks from Sarah Crawford-Parker, University Honors Program director, and faculty member Nathan Wood.
The University Scholars Program recognizes and encourages sophomores who have demonstrated intellectual achievement and curiosity. Selected students receive a $1,500 scholarship, are assigned an Honors Faculty Fellow as a mentor that supports their academic interests and participate in a seminar course that promotes interdisciplinary engagement on a topic of contemporary interest.
This spring’s seminar is taught by Wood, associate professor of history. “Technology and Society” will encourage students to apply a historical lens to the technological innovations that shape our world.
“I hope students will think differently about their relationship to technology, reflecting on how its history can provide analogies for understanding our connection to technologies today,” Wood said. “A historical perspective on technology helps us to be humbler about what it can achieve, more realistic in our assessments of its novelty and sober about the inequalities that have been intrinsic to its use.”
The 2023 University Scholars are listed below alphabetically with major, hometown and faculty mentor:
1. Zakariya Ahmed, interdisciplinary computing major from Overland Park, mentored by Thom Allen, assistant teaching professor of architecture.
2. Levi Cromwell, classical languages and history major from McPherson, mentored by Darren Canady, director of undergraduate studies and professor of English.
3. Andrea Gunara, behavioral neuroscience major from Leander, Texas, mentored by Stephanie Zelnick, professor of clarinet.
4. Molly Handelman, music therapy major from Highland Park, Illinois, mentored by Nilou Vakil, associate professor of architecture & design.
5. Brinley Hull, computer science major from Prairie Village, mentored by Yvonnes Chen, professor of journalism & mass communications.
6. Kanchan Khemani, business analytics and information systems major from Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India, mentored by Nilou Vakil.
7. Shreya Koduri, molecular, cellular & developmental biology major from Overland Park, mentored by Katie Batza, director of graduate studies and associate professor of women, gender & sexuality studies.
8. Carly Kolle, biology major from Linn, mentored by Katie Rhine, associate professor of African & African-American studies and geography & atmospheric science.
9. Shamaria Massenburg, a multimedia journalism major from Knightdale, North Carolina, mentored by Yvonnes Chen.
10. Caleb Prescott, aerospace engineering major from Lawrence, mentored by Mary Klayder, associate director of undergraduate studies and senior lecturer in English.
11. Diego Prieto, microbiology major from Bogotá, Colombia, mentored by Kyle Camarda, associate professor of chemical & petroleum engineering.
12. Aarush Sehgal, molecular, cellular & developmental biology major from Chandigarh, India, mentored by Kyle Camarda.
13. Kalie Traverse, a molecular, cellular & developmental biology major from Olathe, mentored by Mary Klayder.
14. Hoang Viet Le, a microbiology major from Bien Hoa, Dong Nai, Vietnam, mentored by Elizabeth MacGonagle, associate professor of African & African-American studies and history.
15. Emily Ward, an anthropology and political science major from Edinburg, Texas, mentored by Katie Batza.
Created to recognize and encourage academically talented and motivated sophomores, University Scholars was founded in 1982 under the leadership of retired U.S. 10th Circuit Chief Judge Deanell Tacha, then KU’s vice chancellor for academic affairs, along with longtime University Honors Program director Francis Heller, the Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor of Law and Political Science.

-30-
————————————————————————
KU News Service
1450 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence KS 66045
Phone: 785-864-3256
Fax: 785-864-3339
[email protected]
http://www.news.ku.edu

Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, director of news and media relations, [email protected]

Today’s News is a free service from the Office of Public Affairs

To Mask or not to Mask; that is the Question

By

Steve Gilliland

-

February 21, 2023

0

OK, so even though I call myself a “realist” my wife most often labels me a “pessimist.” I’m not very warm and fuzzy, I don’t go about turning cartwheels of joy and there is usually not a smile on my face for no good reason. Both Joyce and I are just getting over our first ever bout with COVID, and now, according to our Dr. and the CDC, we should spend a week wearing a mask when we are out in public. So, I’ve come up with some ways wearing these dreadful face masks might actually benefit Kansas outdoor sportsmen.

I talk to myself…a lot, and by the way, I’ve never lost an argument with me. With a mask over my face and looking for all the world like Billy the Kid robbing a train, I can stroll down the aisle at Cabalas and talk myself into or out of buying another gun, and no one will be the wiser. Behind the mask, my mouth and lips can be reciting the pledge of allegiance a dozen times forward and backward and none will ever know. Unless of course I violate the first rule of talking to yourself and speak so loudly my wife can hear me through the closed bathroom door (yes this is experience speaking again.) And for those of us (you know who you are) who have trouble keeping your mouths shut in a deer blind, viola, the dreaded face mask solves that problem too.

There are myriads of scents associated with hunting, fishing and trapping. From the sweet, musky scent of gunpowder or spring wildflowers to the near stench of catfish bait or that awful gamey smell of an old tom turkey. And let’s not forget the tear rendering smells that can boil forth from a cabin or tent full of deer hunters, especially after consuming aunt Martha’s secret family baked bean recipe the night before. Once again, face masks to the rescue, as its devilish hard to smell anything through one of those contraptions. It brings to mind a deer hunting trip decades ago when I would have given anything for a face mask.

One deer season while I was a youth still living in Ohio, I went with a much older coworker who was convinced we needed to hunt Pennsylvania, so we dragged his tiny (very tiny) camping trailer with us to a state park somewhere in PA. The next morning, we stepped out into 8 to 10 inches of fresh powdery snow.

This trip was put together on a whim, and we had absolutely no idea what we were doing or where to go, but off we went. After a dismal and exhausting day trudging up and down wooded hills and through endless valleys, and not seeing another life form, we miraculously found the trailer again, and decided to go somewhere for a good hot meal before bed. We found a little café and settled in to await a couple nice steaks.

My buddy ordered a beer to go with his steak, and then noticed on the bar what was often a staple in those days at little country bars; a gallon jug of pickled hard-boiled eggs. After we had devoured our steaks, and he’d had another beer and consumed half-a-dozen eggs from the jar, we returned to the tiny trailer and crawled into bed.

That night I learned that there is a terrible chemical reaction that takes place between beer and pickled hard-boiled eggs deep within the recesses of the consumer’s body. I can honestly say that night I would have given anything for a face mask and to sleep outside in the snow…continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors!

Steve can be contacted by email at [email protected].

Yesteryear: How it was

By

Milo Yield

-

February 21, 2023

0

I wuz chewing the fat with my neighbor last week and we were discussing our grandkids and great-grandkids.
My neighbor related that his big brood of “grands” were visiting on a nice, sunny day recently and they wanted to know what life was like for Grandpa when he wuz growing up in the 1940s and 1950s.
My neighbor told me how he answered their question. He gathered up all their smartphones, shut down his internet and wi-fi, gave each of them a Popsicle and told them to go outside and play until the sun went down.
He said the kids were lost outside until he went out and taught them how to play “Drop the Handkerchief” and ” “Hide and Seek.” Then he helped them gather up some scrap lumber and they built some bluebird houses and mounted them around his farm.
“I think they had fun,” he told me, “but they’ll never admit it.”
***
Speaking of using the internet, my memory is so terrible that I had to change my password to “incorrect.”
Now I get a reminder “Your password is incorrect” every time I enter it wrong.
***
A farm daddy is working in his shop when his young son comes running out of the house calling to him.
“Daddy, daddy, what’s sex?” asks the boy.
For a moment ol’ Dad is dumbstruck, but then decides that if his son has asked the question, then he must do his best to answer it.
So, for the next few minutes dad talks about the birds and the bees, then human relationships, love, that babies live in mommy’s belly until they are born, etc. In fact, he does a pretty good job of covering every aspect.
Eventually, he comes to a stop and notices how oddly his son is looking at him. So, he asked his son, “Why did you want to know?”
“Well, Mommy said to come out and tell you that dinner would be ready in two secs.”
***
I’ve raised chickens with roosters for the past 40 years. And, I’ve had my fair share of ill-tempered roosters that would flog me if given a chance. With few exceptions, I’ve broken the feisty roosters, and gained their respect, by showing them I’m the real boss of the henhouse. Down through the years, there’s been a few that I’ve had to turn into flavoring for chicken and noodles. But, that’s been rare
Now I read a true story about a mean rooster that caught my attention. An Irish guy, 67, was killed by an aggressive rooster when the bird flogged his leg and plunged its spur into an artery and the poor bloke bled so much that he died of a heart attack.
I guess I’ve been lucky. Well, I won’t have to worry about mean rooster attacks for many more months. When we get our new home built and moved into, the local zoning laws prohibit my owning a flock of chickens.
That will be sad in a way because I’ll have to resort to eating yucky store-bought eggs. Or, maybe, hopefully I can find a farmer who is selling farm fresh eggs.
***
Speaking of our new home we finally took a positive step in the right direction last week. Remember that we have the property bought and a nice water well drilled on it.
We met with the builder in Manhattan and reviewed the sequence of construction needs. First priority was picking out kitchen cabinets and vanities and counter tops. So, we went to a vendor near Topeka and selected light-colored, knotty birch wood for our cabinetry. While there, we selected the cabinetry hardware, too.
On our way back to Manhattan, we stopped in St. Mary’s at a quartz and counter top dealer with a huge inventory. We ended up choosing a light-colored, slightly-veined quartz for our countertops.
We overnighted with long-time friends in Wamego and spent an enjoyable evening playing card games with as many as nine players.
The next day we stopped at a major building supply company and evaluated emergency electricity generators for our new home.
After that, Nevah went to a baby shower for our 4th great-grandchild — a great-grandson expected to arrive on the scene in late March. While she was “showering,” I enjoyed a stag party close by.
***
Well, about the only sporting event that made me happy this week was the Chiefs winning the Super Bowl. Other than that, both my college alma maters — Bea Wilder U I and II, lost basketball games to their big rivals. Hopefully, we’ll “git ‘em next time.”
***
Words of wisdom for the week, “A firearm is like a parachute. If you need one, and don’t have one, you’ll probably never need one again.”
And, from Plato: “If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools”
Have a good ‘un.