Monday, August 12, 2013

Star gazing, or: Sometimes, a hat is just a hat.



I attended a baseball game at Minute Maid Park between the home team Houston Astros and the visiting Texas Rangers (my home team, still) last weekend.  I asked a couple of friends to join me. I chose the Houston location primarily because it's in an air conditioned ballpark, in downtown Houston. Both of these are important considerations to me. Houston's transfer to the American League West this year is something that gives me great pleasure.

On my list of things to do at the game (in addition to paying too much for a Saint Arnold beer) was to purchase a Houston Astros ballcap, now that they have returned to an older-style logo. I have long admired the cap for its simplicity of design: orange cap, blue star, with serif H.


I will no doubt wear my Astros cap often, because it is orange and unstructured. But for the game, I wore the cap I proudly wore into the ballpark... as did about half of those in attendance.

P.S. The game was the best of both worlds. The Rangers won convincingly, and I got to see the choo-choo train move across the left field parapet.

Friday, April 19, 2013

A classic.


My membership perk for supporting my local Classical Music station was a choice between a canvas tote and an unstructured cotton ball cap. Selecting the tote (the standard gift for supporting public broadcast stations since about 1868) might also be construed as lending tacit support for the city of Austin's socialist-driven plastic bag ban. Selecting the ball cap would allow me to protect my scalp... and post to this blog.

Easy choice. Freedom from sunburn, nanny-state tyranny, and pop music!

Saturday, March 02, 2013

Killer Rabbit


In the mid 1960's a bunch of mostly Dallas-based guys, including David Witts (my dad's lawyer at the time), Wick Fowler (of chili mix fame), Frank Tolbert, Carroll Shelby, and commercial artist Bill Neale, all got involved in promoting a land project in the Big Bend area of West Texas.

It was near the ghost town of Terlingua. Among other things, they used/promoted/founded to sell land in the desert was The World Chili Championship and Carroll Shelby's Ford-sponsored racing enterprises. Bill Neale designed a logo for the Terlingua Ranch that combined the style of a medieval heraldic crest lion with a West Texas jack rabbit. This became the logo for the Terlingua Racing Team (which was seen on Ford Shelby Cobras racing and winning in Europe).

I've long been a fan of the Terlingua Racing Team (which kinda actually existed/exists). It epitomized the elements of the Texas Legend I find most appealing.

On a trip to Alpine, Texas (the gateway to the Big Bend), I ran across an outpost of the Terlingua Team at a place called The Stable Performance Cars (run by the retired regional director of the US Border patrol). They race the Terlingua Racing Team Carroll Shelby Mustangs, and they sell stuff.

That's where I bought my Official Terlingua Racing Team Cap.

















1967 Shelby-American Mustang at The Stable Performance Cars in Alpine, Texas.