Who Was Jim Ledbetter?

Jim loved little kids, although he never had any of his own. Photo taken in 2010.

   James Louis "Jim" Ledbetter was born on June 25th, 1943. His first wife, Jackie, would jokingly refer to him as "the Antichrist" since he was born exactly six months after Christmas.
   My mother and father were married in California in 1967, and they lived in an apartment complex in Oakland for several years. This is where my parents met 24-year-old Jim. "He was an attractive man. He had beautiful eyes," said my mother. "But he was kind of like a tangled mess." She said he had a good heart, but he wasn't much of a housekeeper. When Jim neglected to pay his utility bill and his electricity was subsequently shut off, he and my father ran an electrical cord from my parent's apartment to his so he could still cook dinner. When my father had to fly back to Alabama to temporarily help out his parents, my mother was left to fend for herself for a while. She said Jim would always check on her to see if she needed anything. 
   My parents moved to Alabama in 1976, and Jim and his new wife Jackie would come visit on their motorcycle. 

That's me with Jim at my parents' house in Alabama in 1979. 

   Jim and Jackie moved to Arkansas during the 90s, and my family and I stopped by to see them on our way to a family reunion. Jim was originally from Arkansas, and they had bought a very beautiful rock house with five bedrooms. They were living in Russellville, a charming little town on Lake Dardanelle. 

Jackie and Jim Ledbetter (and Mica the dog) in 1982.

   Jim told me that Russellville had a college and he invited me to come live with them for a summer. At the time I couldn't think of any reason to do that, but that is exactly what I did a few years later. I ran into personal tragedy in the late 90s, and I wanted to start over somewhere new. Jim and Jackie embraced me as their own child while I finished my bachelor's degree at the local university. When I graduated, they bought an airplane ticket for me so I could travel to Hawaii with Jim on one of his Merchant Marine cargo ship expeditions. "That's what you're supposed to do after you graduate from college," Jackie told me. "Go see the world."

   Jim and Jackie also hit rough times in the next few years, and they divorced. Jackie told me Jim should've seen it coming, although I don't think he did. He was hurt deeply by the divorce and referred to Jackie as "Blackheart" thereafter. 
   Jim and Jackie both married other people soon after their divorce. I don't think they ever spoke to each other again. This was difficult for me to understand, considering how important they both were to me. I think they had been married to each other for more than 30 years. 

   I went to graduate school in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and Jim (along with my roommate Leslie) came to my graduation ceremony in May, 2005. He took us both out to lunch afterwards. That meant a great deal to me, since no other friends or family came to my ceremony.
   When I had to move back to Tennessee to stay with my parents, Jim hitched a trailer to his SUV and hauled most of my personal belongings back east across the Mississippi. He never even asked me for gas money, although I had none to give him. 
   Jim told me once that I was the closest thing he had to a kid. "And don't you forget it," he said to me. He said that twice. 

   Jim loved motorcycles and the biker culture. He said if you knew a biker, you would always have a place to stay. 
   He collected the type of antique fans with wide cages that could be very dangerous to stray fingers.

Jim said these fans were the best. 

  
   He loved the Prairie Home Companion radio program, his cigarettes, and he always, ALWAYS had a cup of coffee in his hand. He loved sourdough bread, red wine, Italian wedding cookies, and motorcycle magazines featuring scantily-clad women. In his free time, he rode his motorcycles and worked on his Greyhound bus.

   I asked Jim if I could temporarily store some of my belongings in his quonset hut garage. When he asked his second wife, she said, "No." I had met his second wife several times before. One of those times was the day of her wedding to Jim. I helped her put on her make-up, I drove them both to and from their ceremony, I was their ring-bearer and their photographer. Some people say that the day of the wedding is usually a woman's happiest day of marriage, but I have reason to believe that was also true for Jim Ledbetter's second marriage. I never saw them get along afterwards, and his second wife became increasingly jealous of me. She had me banned from the hospital when Jim fell ill, and YEARS later, in the months he was bed-ridden in his own house, I was not allowed to visit or speak to him. Jim passed away in his house in Dardanelle on December 20, 2015. 
   I let one of my closest friends read the two-sentence, online obituary posted for Jim. After reading it, she said, "it sounds like he didn't have any family." 
   Jim Ledbetter did have family. My father loved him like a brother. When he would talk about Jim, he would say, "Jim would give you the shirt off his back." When Jim would talk about my father, he would say, "Larry has an ego problem." My father knew I had concerns about Jim's second wife, and we spoke about this just a few days before my father passed away. "Ledbetter would call me if he needed my help," said my father. He said this twice, while wearing his hospital gown and with a nasal cannula strapped to his face. He was in no position to help anyone, but I couldn't say that to him. 
   Before Thanksgiving, while Jim was still here and alert, I sent him a card with a written thank-you for all of the major things he had done for me. I suspect Jim was never allowed to read that card. 
   I considered knocking on his front door, or knocking on his bedroom window. Maybe I could do something just to let him know I was trying to see him before it was too late to say good-bye and thank you. I did call his second wife to see if I could come over. She wouldn't talk to me long enough to even ask that question. 
   There is something to be learned from all of this: Be VERY careful who you marry. Your spouse will have total control over you and who is allowed to see you in the event you become disabled. 

   But who was Jim Ledbetter?

   Jim Ledbetter was a very kind man and a lifelong friend to my entire family. My sister imagines that Jim and our father are together drinking coffee somewhere, which is exactly how I would like to remember him. 

That's me with my Uncle Jim. This was our last picture together. 

   
   

'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Does Not Disappoint (spoiler alert!)

   This is where you need to stop reading if you haven't seen the movie yet. Parts of this movie were so good it gave me chills. Other parts seemed geared towards the children in the audience. (Is Star Wars meant for adults or children??) Most of us who are old enough to remember the first movie (Episode IV: A New Hope) are old enough to have children of our own, and, as always, parents and their children are major components of all Star Wars episodes. 
   Although I tried VERY hard not to watch any of the trailers before I saw the movie, I saw one of them because I work at a video store. (Yes, in some small towns, video stores still exist!) One of the big questions everyone wanted to know was HOW did we get a black stormtrooper?  They are all supposed be clones of Jango Fett (who looks sort of Latino), so what gives? Well, that question does not get answered in this movie. (My sister and my friend Ben disagree with me. They say he was taken from his family and forced to join the First Order. Well, I need a little more information than that!)

Finn, played by John Boyega. 

   I also knew there was a young woman wearing desert rags in the film, because my store sells posters and sticker books with her image all over them. Her character name is Rey (played by Daisy Ridley), and she is the most running-nest character I think I've ever seen. In nearly every scene, she takes off at high speed. She is rail-thin and very athletic, and somehow, even though she has apparently lived most of her life in poverty on the dry and dusty planet of Jakku, she has managed to become a highly skilled spacecraft pilot and technician. In fact, she can fly the Millennium Falcon with skills that challenge the great Han Solo's abilities, even though she says she has never had any actual space-time flight experience. (This is my first complaint. Rey's character seems to emasculate the uber-macho Han Solo in his VERY OWN, LEGENDARY, PRINCESS LEIA-WOOING space ship.) There is no space craft in the ENTIRE UNIVERSE as well known as the Millennium Falcon, and to have a young female scavenger show up Han Solo-the-Sexy-Space-Smuggler was unforgivable. SHAME ON YOU, J.J. ABRAMS!!! No wonder Harrison Ford let you kill him in this movie!! (YES, Han Solo DIES in this movie!!! And now you know WHY.) That, of course, is just my hypothesis. But the younger, wilder Han Solo I grew up with would have put that little girl in her place!

   Something I was surprised to see was a large, chrome-colored stormtrooper with a red cape. I saw a poster of a shiny, kind of sexy-looking stormtrooper in our store, and it just confused me. When he started talking in the movie, I realized he was a SHE. We've never had a female stormtrooper before!!  And after I searched the Internet to find a picture of her, I realized that this character, Captain Phasma, is the FIRST FEMALE VILLAIN in ANY Star Wars movie. And the best part is that she is played by Gwendoline Christie, better known as Brienne of Tarth in the hit Game of Thrones series. Love it!!

There's something different about this stormtrooper...

   Captain Phasma is not our chief villain, however. That honor belongs to a mask-wearing man who apparently worships the half-melted and crumpled helmet from his old grandpappy, Darth Vader. Yes, Han Solo and Princess Leia have had at least one child, and unfortunately, he is evil. Kylo Ren does not appear to have a maimed face like his grandpa, but when he takes his mask off, he looks NOTHING like his mother Leia nor his father Han. This seemed weird to me. There were a LOT of people in the world who wanted to be in this movie, and we couldn't find someone with a suitable creepy voice who at least looks caucasian? Kylo's temper-tantrums with his light saber were enjoyable to watch since he was only destroying property and not herds of sand people like our young Anakin did in Episode II. 
   My very first "favorite thing" I noticed about this movie was written in the big letter scroll that happens right after the Star Wars logo and main theme music come on. Princess Leia is no longer a princess. Now she is GENERAL Leia Organa. HECK YES!!! And I must say Carrie Fisher has aged every bit as well as Harrison Ford. She is still stunning with her big dark mocha eyes and fancy up-dos. Leia has lost her sass, though, and appears to be a tired, heart-broken Resistance war hero. (The Resistance is the new Rebels, and the First Order is the new Empire.)

General Leia (Carrie Fisher) is comforted by Han Solo
 (Harrison Ford).

   There are some interesting encounters between Kylo and Rey that made me think they were brother-and-sister, but we never saw Leia or Han react to Rey as if she was theirs. So why is Rey such a big part of the story? 

Sibling rivalry? Or maybe they are just cousins? 

   Everyone is trying to find a map to Luke Skywalker, who has apparently gone into hiding for a number of years. (Kenobi, anyone? That must be the usual path for a disgraced Jedi.) Near the end, Rey flies to a remote island and climbs up a stone stairway to find a hooded Skywalker staring out into the distance. He turns to look at her (Mark Hamill has not aged as well as Fisher or Harrison!) and she holds up his light saber as an offering to him. This was a very powerful and well-shot scene, and I will admit, it gave me chills. 
   I also really enjoyed seeing the x-wing fighters fly in formation over the water (in a much earlier scene.) The x-wing fighters have always been a favorite of mine. 
   I made sure I attended the very first showing of this movie at my local theater. I do NOT tolerate spoilers when it comes to Star Wars! I remember when Episode I came out in 1999, I went opening night in Huntsville, Alabama, and I was thrilled to see someone dressed as Darth Vader. I shot a roll of film with my old-school Nikon, only to discover that I hadn't loaded it properly and I didn't take a single picture. I really wanted those pictures. I distinctly remember when the Star Wars logo came on screen, and the main theme began, the audience erupted into loud applause. It had been too long since we had been able to see a Star Wars movie in a real theater. (There were sixteen awful years between Episode VI and Episode I). This time, for Episode VII, my fellow opening-night moviegoers offered weak applause for the opening theme, during the first appearance of the Millenium Falcon, and during Han Solo's first entrance. There is more movie magic on opening night than other other time, so I strive to experience this with movies I care about.
   In the end, I was left wondering who Rey belongs to. Is she Skywalker's daughter? If so, who in the world is her mother?? We have lots of questions for the next movie. 
   

On Presidents, Cogs, and Quinceaneras

Madam President

   I feel certain Hillary is going to be our next President. As Madeleine Albright said, "she's the best prepared." Well, no joke! Former First Lady, former Senator, former Secretary of State. Thomas Jefferson was our very first Secretary of State who later became President. (My father would kick a hole through his coffin if he heard me make that comparison. He worshiped Thomas Jefferson and made regular pilgrimages to Monticello. He despised the Clintons, for reasons I could never understand.) Why not Hillary? You don't like her? I saw that book about her with the title, "Unlikeable," but I didn't buy it. I don't want to read about someone else's hate. I want to be inspired! I want to try harder! I want to be elevated to levels I never thought I could reach. I WANT TO SEE A LADY BECOME THE MOST POWERFUL PERSON IN THE FREE WORLD! I don't want to read some white man's lament about how a woman has out-performed him in this life. Yeah. I'm talking to YOU. 

  I went to my first Mexican Quinceanera party this week, for my teaching assistant's little sister. I could not believe how much money was poured into this event! Talk about making a 15-year-old girl feel like a princess. She had a gorgeous formal gown, hired DJs and several videographers who were recording everything. The dance floor had flashing colored lights and smoke effects. She had a HUGE, multi-tiered cake that would rival anything I've ever seen at an overdone wedding. There was a very large, full-color portrait of the girl in her beautiful formal gown, with glamorous make-up and a stunning hair-do in the entrance hall. She wore a tiara in her portrait and at the actual Quinceanera, just in case you weren't sure who the princess was! "It's like a wedding for one person," my teaching assistant told me. All of the girl's friends and family were there, partying the entire afternoon until midnight. Every chair was covered in white fabric and had a big satiny bow in the main color of her party's theme: light teal. The champagne glasses were adorned with satin bows and little flowers and they had her name embossed in silver on them. Even the champagne bottle was dressed up in a way I've never seen before (see pic below.) 

You Must Wear A Formal Gown Or Tuxedo To Drink This Champagne!

 That girl has to know how much her family loves her! What a wonderful tradition. I've heard about southern debutante balls, but I've never been to one. I don't even think they are/were as popular as the Latino Quinceanara. Kudos, Latinos!!  You definitely win the prize for celebrating young women and making them feel important and loved.  I feel sad that Americans truly have no cultural equivalent coming-of-age celebration for their girls. 

   In this same week, I was reading about female genital mutilation in Africa. It is apparently on the decline, but it still performed on a large number of women. Female genital mutilation is a much different type of cultural practice that involves using a razor blade or glass or some other barbaric sharp object to cut out the clitoris and sometimes the inner labia of girls WHILE THEY ARE FULLY CONSCIOUS! Why, you ask? Why do this? Since the clitoris has no other function than pleasure (it is FULL of nerves, allegedly twice as many nerves as the glans of the penis), I think the take-away message is that woman are not supposed to enjoy sex. The removal of the inner labia is even more mysterious, since, even as an anatomy professor, I cannot guess at what could be offensive about them. The delicate inner labia are somewhat like an adornment to the vagina, so the removal of them as well as the clitoris (at least from the VIEWER'S perspective) is like reducing the woman's anatomy to a HOLE, as if to say, "This is what you are to society, woman. You are a HOLE, meant for service and reproduction without pleasure." Talk about being a cog in the wheel of misery. Here is a map of where female genital mutilation occurs in the world:

Where Female Genital Mutilation Is Done In The World

   The injustice of it all is maddening. Why can't girls in Africa be allowed to keep all the parts they are born with? Why can't all young women be celebrated as they are with the Latino Quinceanara? Why can't we have a brilliant, educated, over-qualified woman serve as President of the United States? 

   As long as women are thought of as COGS in a bigger wheel, they will always be subjected to varying forms of abuse. Women's rights ARE human's rights, and it is ludicrous to think of it any other way. 

   I'm going to vote for Hillary. I don't care if my father kicks his way out of his coffin. Thomas Jefferson was no saint, not with his dealings with his slave Sally Hemings. She allegedly gave birth to six of his children, and yet he never released her. (Jefferson's all-white daughter Martha did give Sally her freedom after he died.) Do you think Sally ever felt like a COG in the Great Thomas Jefferson Wheel? 

   I think I'm going to go plan out a cuarenta party for myself next year. 

   

If You've Ever Been A Dungeon Master...

Then this will probably mean something to you!

Dungeon Master Cheat Sheet for the 5th Edition D&D Game

Thank you, Ozuro, for this wonderful cheat sheet! I am particularly fond of the treasure chest with teeth. 

Final DM Screen/Player Cheat Sheet - Color

A Short Trip Through the Veil Nebula

Sulfur = Red

Hydrogen = Green

Oxygen = Blue

Thank you NASA and the Hubble Space Telescope! 

Favorite Quote #17

"Jennifer, some of us can't spell 'elegant' OR 'astronaut.'"

                                                 -My friend Danny, who likes to hunt     

Please don't shoot me, Danny!

    

It's The Dose That Kills

   "It's the DOSE that kills." This is a very important concept I teach to my college students. Water can kill you if you drink too much of it. Drinking contests are like playing Russian roulette...not a good idea! I found this informative video online, and the most disturbing part, perhaps, is that someone actually kept waking up a rat until it eventually died from sleep deprivation. Ugh. 

Can You Find The Real David?

I was invited by a friend to travel to Las Vegas, Nevada for Labor Day weekend last year (thank you, Patricia!), and I was thrilled to see a full-size replica of Michelangelo's David on display at Caesar's Palace Hotel and Casino. Six months later, I flew to Italy and was able to view the authentic David in Florence's Accademia Gallery. As famous as the David is, I really did not know that this was meant to be the David of the Biblical David and Goliath story, or that Michelangelo created this magnificent work to depict the boy right before his battle with the giant. That is a slingshot on his left shoulder. As my bright young co-traveler commented, the look on his face says, "I've got this."  

You can probably tell by the flashiness in the top photo, but the top photo is in Vegas, and the bottom photo is the REAL David in Florence, Italy.

Close-up of David's face. I definitely think he has it!

Thank you, Sally Ride!

Arkansas Hosts Its First State-Wide Bigfoot Conference

A captivated audience listens as Michael Mayes tells his Bigfoot story.
 Photo by J. Lewter

  Just over a year ago, a devastating tornado ripped through the small town of Vilonia, Arkansas and forced the cancellation of a planned Bigfoot Conference. The organizers of the conference decided to try again, and the outcome was better than they had imagined. More than 200 people came to the meeting, which was the first of its kind in the state. Many of the attendees were experienced "Squatchers," while others (like me) were newbies who just wanted to see what happens at these kinds of meetings.

  "I did not know what to expect for the attendance of something new in uncharted waters," said Robert Swain, the director of APES (Arkansas Primate Evidence Society - a major sponsor of the conference.)
 "I told our APES group that I was going to be happy if we had fifty to seventy-five people attend.  I was amazed that two hundred and thirty people showed up!"

   Keynote speakers gave presentations on the folklore and legend of the Bigfoot, as well as some of their own personal experiences and sightings. Bigfoot memorabilia, books and surveillance equipment were all for sale at the meeting, including conference t-shirts that had been printed for the year before and had to be rescued from the field after the tornado ripped through town. 

  Are there any plans for a future conference? Swain says APES is "already evaluating what we can do next year to make it better. YES there will be another conference next year!"

Bigfoot Vilonia sketch. Artist unknown. 

It's Cold In Arkansas!

Photo taken by Bob Allen in Dover, Arkansas.

Funny Astronaut Ad

Favorite Quote #16

"I love football. I don't watch football or Mixed Martial Arts anymore. I don't need people to do things that ultimately end in their death to entertain me."

                                                       -Cameron

A Dedication To All My Lovers AND All My Haters!

2015 is finally here and I would like to wish everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!  I saw this very fine bluegrass version of Auld Lang Syne on my cousin Melvin's social media page, and I just LOVE it! I would like to dedicate it to everyone I know. It is time to let go of the anger and frustration of times past. Bury the hatchet. I've done what I can to mend fences and I am LETTING IT GO! 
   2015 promises to be a very fine year and I am looking forward to what adventures lie ahead. 

  Cheers and HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone!!!!
        -Jennifer