Mensch tracht, und Gott lacht

Monday, July 25, 2005

Turner South and My Yard

I happen to rent the crappiest house and yard on one of the best streets in Athens, Georgia. The property is a real outlier compared to the well-groomed beauties around it. My landlord says he has a plan to rehabilitate, but it hasn't happened yet.

I said that to say this. Turner South showed up on my doorstep and asked if I'm interested in letting them remake my horrible yard. I said yes and referred them to my landlord. If the family gets some TV time, I'll be sure to alert the Reform Clubbers.

Here's the link for the show.

6 comments:

Kathy Hutchins said...

Hunter, are you crazy? The minute these people are done, the landlord will either raise your rent or evict you so he can sell the place at its now-substantially-increased market value.

The last time I was in the rental market was 1990. I was thrilled that my formerly MIA landlord, who had a history of successfully dodging phone calls reporting electrical and plumbing emergencies until I just gave up and fixed the problem myself, was finally repairing the crumbling plaster, replacing the Carpet That Defeated Stanley Steemer, and to top it all off, he fixed the Russian Roulette Gas Pilot Light. Then he sold the house out from under me and gave me three weeks notice to get out.

Hunter Baker said...

Good point, Burwell. And Kathy, come on!!! This is an experience! I had a chance to go on Jerry Springer once and turned it down at the last minute. This is a real step up!

Kathy Hutchins said...

An experience -- yes, I'm sure it is. But aren't you just a little embarrassed that your family might be associated with a TV show that shares a name with that dumb book by Molly Ivins?

Redneck Yard of the Week isn't catchy at all. I suggest Pimp My Double-wide.

Hunter Baker said...

I'd like to have Molly Ivins guest star. Have I ever shared with you my theory that she's really Madalyn Murray O'Hair?

Kathy Hutchins said...

Yes, Hunter, please do share that theory. I think the MSM needs another news cycle to perfect their conspiracy theory linking the Federalist Society to Opus Dei and placing John Roberts at the center of the Robert Hanssen spy scandal, so I'm all ears.

But before you lay into MI/MMO'H, I should confess a sneaking latent fondness for Ivins. I lived in Dallas from 1980 to 87, when the Dallas Times Herald was still in business. Ivins was then a local politics commentator, and when she stuck to harpooning the nutballs that filled Dallas and Austin back then, her writing was sharp and clean and really, really funny. She even skewered her old pals Lloyd Doggett and Jim Hightower once in awhile. And when she got going on authentic "characters" like Max Goldblatt and Bill Clements and Bob Bullock, it was something to see. And she really did know a lot about Texas political history and personalities.

Once she went national, though, she turned into a complete bore: shrill, monotonous, phony, and shallow. It's a real shame.

Hunter Baker said...

I think it was a slow possession. Around the time O'Hair was disappearing from the public scene, Ivins began to emerge nationally. Slowly but surely, Ivins became the same unattractive (in any way you wish to take that), gray, hard-edged, very disagreeable left-winger. O'Hair is alive and well inside Molly Ivins body!!!