Bill Denton asked if JDM was exaggerating as far as southern
names were concerned. Whether it be nicknames or real names,
it is hard to exaggerate. When I was a reporter in Georgia I
often interviewed the chairman of the state house
appropriations committee, a very powerful legislator, by the
name of James H. "Sloppy" Floyd. Everybody called him Sloppy,
his childhood nickname both at home and at the capitol. He
used it when he first ran as that's what people knew him by.
Little roly-poly guy like Boss Hogg in the
"Dukes of Hazzard." He died and the legislature decided to
name the newly built twin tower state office buildings after
him and they became "The James H. 'Sloppy' Floyd Memorial
Towers" and informally the state cafeteria at the top of one
of them became known as "Top of the Slop."
Real names are also a bit different. I recall my Uncle Buren
(last man named after Martin Van Buren) had a great friend
named Birdis Tumlin. And then there was my great grandfather
who decided to name five or six of his daughters after states
of the union. Whether her name contributed to Aunt Tennessee
running away from home is open to question but her sisters
Indiana, Florida, Georgia, Helena Virginia and Louisiana all
missed her and prayed over her until she returned thirty
years later.
Anyway, that's not what I intended to write about. I was in
Charlottesville, VA visiting my daughters at the university
there and visited again two excellent bookstores. Among my
prizes were several by Michael Collins, including 1988'S
MINNESOTA STRIP, the true crime collection MURDER PLUS that
features articles by Jim Thompson, Hammett, Gardner,
Whittington, Halliday and several others. I also picked up
several by Stephen Dobyns, a writer who has recently caught
my eye. One I am excited about reading was one of his
"mainstream" novels but it looks very much in line with our
focus. The title: THE CHURCH OF DEAD GIRLS. I liked the
opening. Without giving anything away as to plot, are there
any out there who have read this one and have an
opinion?
Oh, and my apologies for the typo "Huggines" in the subject
line of my message on the death of Roy Huggins.
Richard Moore
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