Brian Coltrane

MaryAnne, that was a fun and clever birthday salute. Thank ya! You always find a creative way to mark the occassion. I enjoy looking back at this thread every year, too. Kinda neat that it keeps resurfacing. Mufn, you don't have to send me anything. But I can't wait to see what it is. Heh! I'm spoiled rotten. Man, I have it good. Thank ya'll ! Brian

I doubt Tom has any serious allergies, or he wouldn't have survived his youth on a dairy farm. I suspect his "accent" is more the Wisconsin use of vowels, which tend to have a lot of "a" and "ah" sounds elongated. Like, the word "hospital" sounds like "hah-spital." His home state of Wisconsin would be pronounced "Wis-kahnsin." But yeah, he's lived in NY and on the eastern side of the country long enough that his accent is a real mix these days. Doesn't seem to affect his singing though. Tom will be performing in Miwaukee tomorrow night, btw.

You lookin' to cash 'em in? Alex, it sounds like we could have a customer for ya!

Right. Just like your nickname, "Tinkerbell."

MaryAnne was doing some housecleaning and some old, dormant stuff was purged. I'm not absolutely saying that's what happened to it, but I'll ask her. How long has it been since ya'll last looked at it?

You want a medal? I might find a cereal prize we can award to ya. I've given some thought to your knickname, too. How about "Cowchip?"

Not a problem. It's only fighting if you can defend yourself.

Waaah! You want a new nickname? Haven't I given you plenty to pick from over the years?

That's an interesting take on RR vs. RP. Frankly it's different than how I was familiar with it, but then again it's been a long time since I participated. I would think RR's with everybody playing everybody, could end up chaotic. I suppose it depends on the caliber of writers you're working with. The fun of RR's and RP's is the free-for-all nature, of course. I think if people understand the format and expectations from the outset, things can go smoothly. Whatever gets the creative energy going, I say go for it.

Just let me know when you want to take this outside.

Lotsa good discussion going on in this thread, and I want to weigh in on this particular question real quick. I have no problem with having some RR's that are original (from the show only) characters. I call that "orthodox" Dukes fic and I used to be pretty decent at it myself. There's just one big problem with it in an RR setting... Namely, not everybody can be Bo or Luke. And then you get people who always try to lay claim to one or the other for every story. "I always play Bo, I always play Luke" ... there's not a whole lot of opportunity for other people after awhile. At least when created, "new" characters are in the mix, there's more room on the stage for more players. There were times that MaryAnne and I would be running amok in character, there'd be four or five other "new" characters in there, and then the whole spectrum of orthodox Dukes characters besides. It's simply more inclusive and more balanced than just going, "Okay, we need Bo, Luke, Jesse, Cooter, Rosco, Boss, Enos, Daisy...anyone want Miz Tizdale or Lulu? Okay we're all set." But there's nothing wrong with the orthodox format, and if that's how some folks prefer to roll, I got no problem with it. Like anything else, so long as authors respect each other's work, and try to ADD something constructive to a story when participating, then it doesn't matter what you're wearing, so to speak.

I still haven't finished my "official" review of the book, though I finished reading it some time ago. Been pulled in a lot of directions lately and I apologize for the delay. What I'll say in the meantime though, is the book is good. It's interesting reading, and it has some stories in there that I've been fortunate enough to hear in person, along with others that are fresh and entertaining. Most of all, the book is a good example of personal decisions and where they can take you. Jimmie decided to join the military at a young age; decided to get into acting; decided to move to L.A.; decided to work with this or that, ect ect ect. He's had his share of scrapes and conflicts and disappointments and victories. There was a surprising amount of emotion near the end of the book, which I'm not going to expand on here, for anyone who hasn't read it yet. I will cover more in my future review, though. Good comments by everybody... I think we'll let Jimmie see our feedback when we get a couple more people weighing in.

A clear mind is easy with an empty head.

All you need for a clear conscience is a bad memory.

I've no idea. I've been gone weeks at a time, for months at a stretch. I just jumped on this thread and started some jokes to be a smarty-pants because it said "say no to one-liners." One-liners are a popular form of casual humor. Just like my job description. I don't think we've made any horrible statements. Bad jokes, yes, statements, no.

This horse walks into a bar, and the bartender goes, "Why the long face?" Say NO to one-liners!

Two peanuts were walking down the street in a bad part of town, one was a-salted. Say NO to one-liners!!!