Brian Coltrane

I'm sure we can figure out this mobile app thing. In the meantime, MaryAnne has an appointment with a duck pond.

This just in....Bubba Watson, the pro golfer who bought LEE 1 at the Scottsdale Auction, is gonna do a parade lap around the track with it on the Phoenix International Raceway on March 4. Ya know, that guy is having the time of his life with that car. And it's gonna be cool to see a General Lee on a NASCAR track in front of a packed grandstand. Here's the article: http://www.speedwaymedia.com/?p=21023

Bahahaha! Showing up to Hazzard Homecoming/DukesFest in that Rolls Royce, would be totally appropriate for some of us here at HazzardNet.

Mufn is a heckuva programmer. I'll talk to her about it and see what we can come up with. We've always got a long list of Unfinished Projects, so it's helpful when ya'll tell us what you'd like to see. Then we can prioritize stuff. Meanwhile, here's an example of why we don't let MaryAnne program stuff. This is what happened when she tried to install a remote starter in her car. Now I'll find out if she's paying any attention. Heh!

Great suggestion. And this would be something MeadowMufn would need to look at, as it falls into the Big Smarts department, which isn't me. Or MaryAnne.

Pizza means mozzarella cheese! Hot, gooey, bubbly cheese.... The best way to grow pizza is to dial up an order for delivery. Extra cheese.

Ok, I'll look for Wallace and Gromit on the label. I might have tried a knock-off brand, or again maybe it was just old. There's a number of cheese stores n' gourmet food shops in my area, so I'm sure I can find it and maybe some of these other ones. Spray can cheese is not cheese. And I hate to say it, but "American" cheese makes me cringe. That's not cheese. It's mostly oil. (inside cheese monger tip: if it contains "milk protein concentrate" or "whey protein concentrate", those ingredients are industrial waste products that are salvaged from the inside of dairy production hoses and the like. It's not, technically, recognized as a food, but the FDA has been looking the other way on this for years. Check the labels of everything from Cheetos, Doritos, to Junior Mints to Cheez Whiz, to cream cheese, and sour cream packages. It's becoming harder to avoid. This cheap substitute for real milk has contributed to the collapse of raw milk prices and has led to the loss of family farms around the U.S.) Ahem. Pardon the soap box there, but cheese is a food of the gods and should not be trifled with. Dang, I'm gonna halfta break into the block of sharp cheddar I was saving. I need to think about something other than cheese for ten minutes.

Thank you all, sincerely. We are all family here, and ya'll are loved too. I'm not sure how to put this into words. We all have times in our lives when things get tough. We experience setbacks, losses, or life events...challenges, however you want to say it. Or we're just plain busy, overworked, or worried about something. Sometimes any combination of the above would keep me from posting on HNet for months at a time. But I would always take time to at least check the forums, read the posts. It was always something to hang on to. A break from whatever I was mired down in, at the time. The Dukes of Hazzard may be just a tv show, but it's an overwhelmingly positive, upbeat, brighter look at the world than we get elsewhere. The show always ended on a good note, reinforcing the idea that no matter what happens, we've got our friends and family, and things will be alright in the end. There is no greater compliment to HazzardNet than the words y'all have already spoken. We could not ask for a better group of people to share this place with us.

Bahahaha! Great sketch there. I would have been hoppin' mad too, had I went in for cheese and been denied. Not that cheese is a big deal, but... Then again, yes it is. Talking about stereotypes, my State is chock full of 'em. Ya know Hoss, I'll give that Wensleydale another chance. I might have got an old one that was sittin' around too long. If you have a brand to recommend I'll look for it. I'm not much for the heavy blue cheeses or the strong-scented ones. I brought home a block of Beer Kaese once, unwrapped it, and thought a sewer line ruptured. I lived in an apartment at the time and the smell took over the whole place. It looked like a good, tasty, smooth cheese, but I couldn't get past the scent. I chucked it outside. The smell was so strong, people were rolling up their car windows as they drove down the street. It was kinda funny to see people hustling down the sidewalk and trying to figure out what that awful stink was. I left it outside for a couple days, and upon realizing that even wandering coyotes would have nothing to do with it, I buried it in the yard.

We have a Bastille Days shindig around here in July. Used to be a little tent-event thing, and now it covers 8 city blocks and runs for 3 days. Crazy fun.

I love that two-can trailer. Yeehaaw! Not sure what bar ya found in your google search Hoss, but evah-dently St. Practice Day is all over the place! Meanwhile, my local Irish tater restaurant has this on the menu: Traditional Bangers and Mash Irish brats slow cooked in Guinness beer and then fried with thin layer of olive oil to produce awe inspiring bangers on a mountain of mashed potatoes,topped with onion gravy. Now, this might be a stretch, 'cause I don't think the Irish brought bratwurst recipies with them to the New World. But I wasn't there at the time, so who knows. MaryAnne, you got a good point about the British and cheese. Which made me remember "Wallace and "Gromit" as another fine export from across the pond. Which, after watching an episode, led me to try some Wendslydale cheese. And no disrespect to our British cousins, but...it was like eating plaster. I've sampled dry cheeses before, but man alive, this stuff was like baked clay. Could have been the brand, (it was imported but I can't remember the label) but I haven't found the will to try it again. Now I have to take a break here and go raid the fridge. I've got a nice block of colby that's suddenly on my mind.

Thank you, SissyDuke. I'm sincerely honored. MaryAnne would be honored too if she was paying any attention. ( heh! ) Seriously, it's appreciated. And everybody here has said something nice to us at one time or another, and it always means a lot to us. I will admit that the Facebook page has taken me away from the home site here a little bit, but that's part of the learning curve. I still read the Forums daily even if I don't chime in every time. MaryAnne, Mufn and I go way back...but ya know what really makes me smile, is knowing that we'll go way forward, too, and be together in years hence. And I'll still be behind with the newsletter, and I'll still be posting stuff that will make MeadowMufn wonder why the heck she ever gave me the password, and I'll still be getting into pie-fights and minor skirmishes with MaryAnne. I'm sure they'll get me back by changing the passwords and not telling me, or by changing my avatar to a picture of a donkey or something. And I wouldn't trade it for the world. I hope that ya'll will be with us for years to come, too! (Mufn, if you're gonna give me another 50% of 50% of 50%...I don't think I can afford the raise!)

You fit right in here. The animated series is fun to watch too, if you don't already have that. Boss and Rosco made great cartoon characters.

Been meaning to ask, did Byron's General Lee replica ever sell? I've been watching the market for orange clunker cars, and it's not real hot right now. Don't know if it's just the time of year, or what.

Interesting topic. In my neck of the woods in the States, the Irish are honored as drinkers worthy of our companionship. We've got an "Irish Fest" in the summer that's kind of like St. Patrick's Day x 100. And then there's an upscale store in a local resort town that's Irish-themed, and they sell the thickest sweaters I've ever seen, along with imported whatnot, and box mixes for Irish soda bread. It's classy. It's overpriced. But it's a positive image. In my hometown here, we've got an Irish-themed potato restaurant (stuff-it-yerself potatoes) and the 17th of every month is "St. Practice Day" because it's like a mini-St Pat's shindig. They serve Irish Stew and corned beef and cabbage, ect. The Irish Stew is excellent. (it's made with Guiness in the gravy.) Now, the English...what we know about the English is limited to fish and chips. Except for what we've picked up by watching "Dr. Who" and "Monty Python." Along with James Bond movies. Locally, we seem to relate to the Irish a little easier, though I'd say the sterotypes we have are generally positive ones. Or at least good-natured.

Thanks for finding those, Hoss! I think it's safe to say that Dierks is still a Dukes fan. Heck, if the media was asking me how many times I've seen all the Dukes of Hazzard episodes, I might round it a little bit too. Otherwise they'd put me in the nut house.

Just want to share some upbeat stuff here. First of all, with all the Dukes stuff going on, it's hard to believe this is 2012 and not 1982! We got Tom Wopat and John Schneider making car show appearances, we got a pro golfer driving the General Lee to the Phoenix Open, we got country music star Dierks Bently telling a newspaper how he watched "The Dukes of Hazzard," and we got major retailers carrying new Dukes of Hazzard t-shirts. Plus the Dukes are still on CMT, the late hour nonwithstandin', and Hazzard Homecoming is just about six months away. If all this is news to you, lemme break it down a bit for ya! Tom Wopat will be at the Canton Hot Rod Show on Feb 18 & 19! Looks like his autograph prices are reasonable, 10 bucks for an autographed photo and 5 bucks for each item you bring in yourself to have signed. Click the link there for his scheduled hours of appearance, and get there early. John Schneider will be at the Rod and Custom Car Show in Monticello, Iowa on Feb 25 & 26! Last we heard he was charging a lot more for autographs so be prepared. We'd take a guess but then somebody, y'all or him, could get annoyed if we're wrong. The Dierks Bently article looks like it bit the dust because the Toronto-Sun isn't showing it online anymore (Canada for ya, eh?) but in a nutshell: Dierks has seen every episode at least twice, he had a "Dierks of Hazzard" t-shirt, and owned a Dukes of Hazzard watch. Those familiar with his "What Was I Thinkin' " hit will find no surprise there, with the obvious Dukes reference in it. Golfer Bubba Watson has been true to his word, crusing around Phoenix in his General Lee. Reportedly, he and his caddie climbed out the windows when arriving at the Phoenix Open, and grabbed his golf clubs from the trunk. Yeehaa! Naturally, all this Dukes publicity ain't going unnoticed. Sears, Target and Kohl's each have a Dukes of Hazzard t-shirt in stock. We've found 2 designs so far, one is exclusive to Kohl's as far as we can tell, the other looks like it's at both Sears and Target. Click on the store links to go see 'em and order, if you'd like. I'll be recapping this plus adding more news in our upcoming (and late) newsletter, but meanwhile this should tide you over!

Update: the Hazzard Homecoming registration/ticket page has been updated at CootersPlace, so those of y'all with Hazzard County vee-hicles can register online. Basically if you bring a General Lee or other recognizable Dukes of Hazzard show car, you get 2 free passes. But you gotta register in advance, and then check-in at the gate during the event. For everybody else, early bird tickets are on sale through March 31. No confirmation yet as to who is going to be there. The big announcements will probably be made after March 31. So if you think you're gonna go to Hazzard Homecoming, you might as well get your tickets soon, while they're cheap!

Phyllis chimed in on the FB post I just put up, and said this: "For those of you wanting to send condolences to Al's family the address is Al Wyatt, Jr. PO Box 6596 Malibu, CA 90264 I am the person who originally posted the information about Al's passing and it came from Tom Sarmento."

It seems the FB audience is more passive. There's exceptions of course, but I've noticed that people who participate in the Forums here (and other sites) are Duke fans at a deeper level. Either they've been fans longer, or already know more about the show, ect. Having had a chance to analyize facebook, I realize that the success in it follows exactly what we've seen on for Forums for years: 1) there will always be more people willing to read, than there are those who are willing to talk 2) facebook makes it very, very, easy to receive comments and opinions and info, without feeling like you have to stick your neck out and participate. 3) yet those who like to yap have an unlimited amount of people they can reach because passive users can "share" a remark without saying a word of their own. So it makes it a little tougher for the ol' fashioned Forums here, in some respects. Though the way FB moves at the speed of light, it's impossible to get an in-depth conversation going about anything. It's quick hits and on to the next thing. Another drag on the Forums is the fact we have to put a lot of energy and resources into protecting it from spammers, porn peddlers, abusive users, and the like. So there's a barrier to entry, so to speak. Users have to register, and right there some people don't wanna go any further. But we've always felt that it's better to have fewer people in the sandbox than to let in bad eggs that would ruin the place quickly. We're lucky to have such good people on HazzardNet here. I think we've had to ban, what...1 person in the last two years or something. Mufn usually throws the axe so she would know more on that point. All said, HazzardNet's home site remains here to stay. We'll also keep up with the times and offer stuff on Facebook and Twitter and YouTube. Preserving and promoting the Dukes of Hazzard comes down to sharing it through whatever venue people choose to employ. Lemme just add....Yeeehaaaa!

Aw man. I remember a couple years ago he had some health issues but I didn't think we'd lose him this soon. Does anyone have a link with more information?

Awright, this thread started out sounding like a compliment, and then it turned into somethin' like..."*YAWN* nothing going on, whassamatter with you guys?" HNet speaks to a lot of different interests in the Dukes world. Yours is primarily fanfic. Hate to say it, but with the advent of YouTube, people aren't writing as much as they're posting videos nowadays. That said, we still have people writing fanfic, and I'm sure they would love to have you read their stories and give feedback. Myself, I'm behind on the monthly(quarterly?) newsletter, along with about 3 other HNet related projects. I'd love to have more time to sling pies at MaryAnne, and we manage to trade a few barbs back and forth (all in fun) but our first, collective priority is serving our users and members. All of them. To the best degree possibe.

Just a quick update, registration for Hazzard County cars is underway for the 2012 Hazzard Homecoming. Ol' Cooter ( Ben Jones ) is looking for General Lees, Jeeps, Plymouth Road Runners, Uncle Jesse Pickup Trucks, or whatever ya got that goes with the show. If you can't figure out how to register your vehicle online (and I couldn't) then call up his Nashville office at #615-872-8358 for details. Usually those bringing a car for display get free admission to the event. Perks are always subject to change, so ask any questions right up front.

I came across this pic while working on something else. Thought you might like it.

Ya know that's a good question and I'm glad ya'll brought it up. Back when HazzardNet started, there was no Facebook. There wasn't a "smart phone." There wasn't an iPad or a Kindle Fire or any of the mobile dee-vices that are so common today. Myself, I log in from home, but I used to sneak on during the work day, depending on the gig I had at the time. But a relative of mine has a Kindle Fire (that you can't pry out of her hands) and she revels being able to check Facebook at the coffee shop or wherever there's free wi-fi. So, ironically, in my own family I got somebody who visits our FB page more than the homepage or Forums on our main site here, and it galls me to no end sometimes. But it comes down to what works best for the device and the time you have. It's something we gotta pay attention to. After all, Hazzard County is wherever you find it, and everybody comes in from a different road.