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Tuesday, January 20, 2026

First Time I've Heard THAT Name in a Song ...

When I was a kid, during a family drive from Lebanon, Missouri to Springfield, Missouri on some business or another, my mom and dad decided to drive a little further and see if a house they'd once lived in was still there (IIRC, it wasn't). The little town was Bois D'Arc, pronounced "Bo-Dark" because MURKA.

I was surprised to hear "Bo-Dark" name-checked in a song referencing several states, but not Missouri, until I did a little Internet searching and learned that 1) there are five Bois D'Arcs in the US, including one each in the four states the song does mention, and 2) it refers to a type of tree, also known as the "Osage orange" tree, for which the Missouri town is named because there was such a tree near the original settlement (it's not common in the area; my mom once said she thought Bois D'Arc was French for "rainbow").

The wood of the Bois D'Arc tree is decay-resistant, making it ideal for the usage mentioned in the song:
With a great big ol' hard-on like a old Bois d'Arc fence post
You could hang a pipe rail gate from
Learn something new every day ... and it's one of my new favorite songs. Kinda reminds me of back home.

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Wordle 1676 Hint

 Hint: To ruin e.g. a reputation (or, what you might call W.S. Gilbert's creative partner if you knew him personally).

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

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First Letter: S

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Monday, January 19, 2026

Happy Birthday ...

Lysander Spooner would turn 217 years old today had he lived to ages typical of those asserted in the early Old Testament.

I quote Spooner at least once a week to the effect of:

But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain -- that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.

But today I'd like to offer a second quote from him that I don't share as often but that's at least as continuingly apropos of current events:

A man's natural rights are his own, against the whole world; and any infringement of them is equally a crime, whether committed by one man, or by millions; whether committed by one man, calling himself a robber, (or by any other name indicating his true character,) or by millions, calling themselves a government.
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