Jerry Flemmons' more Texas siftings

the long version

We are a wordy bunch, always have been, and for almost two centuries, outsiders, intrigued by all the commotion down here in the Southwest, have come to inspect, dissect, cuss and praise. ... Texas is a heroic story, the stuff of dreams and myths. Born of an impossible revolution, settled by peoples from somewhere else, Texas engendered the epic American notion of freedom and independence, of self-sufficiency and derring-do. Texas, above all else, has been a spiritual adventure-and the whole grand chronicle is there on library shelves, in newspaper clippings, old letters, written memories. There's little about Texas that hasn't already been said or written, and Texas Siftings is a kind of social catalog to much of it.