Hank Parnell

This entry is in part a tribute, and in part preservation of one of his essays in the now defunct http://thetexasmercury.com.

Hank Parnell, during the time I read The Texas Mercury, was a man whose interests I did not necessarily share, but whom I admired. Here was a libertarian who said, proudly, "Yes, I have guns. Yes, the gov't should get off our backs. And, yes, if I accidentally (or intentionally [see below]) shoot myself with my gun(s) I have no one to blame but myself." I liked his sense of searching for intelligence and self-responsibility (even though I do favor a cradle-to-the-grace type of governance, overall).

But there was something so refreshing about him and the whole Texas Mercury clan. They were smart and literate and total libertarians/Republicans, but so honest and intelligent that I had to admire them. They embodied the type of discourse that would make "arguing" about political differences fun, because I couldn't deny their logic and it didn't come from some crazy-zone.

I discovered him through the essay below (which is quite long I regret to say). It was linked to by another site I check regularly, http://www.aldaily.com.

It's about the most efficient way to kill yourself. He wrote it at the x-mas season. I sent it to a friend who told me at the time that she was disturbed. She told me later that a family member, a teenager, had tried to kill herself around that time, and that's why she didn't find it so enlightening. This is just a forewarning.

But it's still so damned funny.

Anyway, I stupidly just saved the link to the article, not thinking that the website might disappear into the ethernet. Then, while lamenting the loss of the piece below, mda told me about a site called http://archive.org, which caches things for long, long periods of time. By finagling and searching, I found the essay that drew me to reading The Texas Mercury in the first place.

Thanks, mda. And dear Hank Parnell--wherever you are, I post this for you. This is yours, and I thank you.

Snuffing it for the Holidays

Hank Parnell

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My x-mas plans

Well, I had been thinking for a few weeks that I should go out to CA to see my niece and meet my nephew (and, oh, yeah, visit my sisters). Well, I got a call from the 'rents tonight. Mom wants to spend x-mas with her kids and grandkids and she's willing to buy my plane ticket out to the west coast to do it.

Hot-fucking-holy-damn-yes.

So I talked to mom about it, and said I wanted to check with E and J (parents to said niece & nephew) to see if they wanted us to inundate them all at once, or gradually. Mom said call E (my oldest sister), check with her, and talk to my dad tomorrow.

E was totally into me coming early, which is what I was hoping for. I mean, love ya mom & dad, but I would like a little time to hang out with my sisters and talk about how insane you make us. As it turns out, I will probably be the plaything of my niece.

yay.
yay.
yay.
yay.
danc-y yay.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I'm not saying that's a done deal but my desire to keep in touch with Q by sending postcards has Totally. Scored. Big. Big. Time.

Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyy. I was literally dancing on the porch when E confirmed that again. "I mean, she doesn't remember you"--it was - eeek - 2 years ago when I last saw here (I start talking about Q on the 8th paragraph)--"but she knows who you are and you're in her mind, because of those postcards. That was such a great idea."

In the last postcard I mentioned butts. And Q loved it. heeeeeeeee.

Look, I don't know why. But I love that little girl so much. I can't wait to meet her brother.

And I just bought Q a Swiss Miss t-shirt!!