Of Hogs, cats and weasels

I got an e-mail earlier today from Jon over at OTRCat.com about a post I wrote not long ago about my love of Old Time Radio (OTR).

Jon asked me to mention his site, through which you can get a ton of old time radio shows through either audio or MP3 compact discs. Because SEO stuff is important as far as searh engines are concerned, I should probably mention that OTRCat is short for Old Time Radio Catalog.

Well, The Hawg doesn't plug any junk sites and I'm here to tell you that Jon has a great one that should be visited by anyone looking to satisfy that OTR fix. He's got everything from the Aldrich Family through Sam Spade over there and the prices are ridiculously low (a CD stuffed with MP3 files will cost you about $5).

The selection of shows over there is impressive and you even get a comprehensive description of the history and significance of each show. Jon's even gone so far as to put together some "best of" collections so you can grab the greatest Dragnet episodes ever made, find a dynamite selection of great Christmas shows, etc. Truth be told, I spent quite some time combing through shows I've never heard of and reading up on some old favorites.

Not sure about a show? You can listen to samples of what's available at the site, too. Download an episode or two while you're at it. The site is well organized and is a joy to simply browse and read. Jon, clearly, loves old time radio and has invested a lot of time and effort in making a top notch site.

Jon mentioned he put this project together in an attempt to preserve old time radio shows. I honestly believe that's his primary motivation as there's no way he's getting rich by selling such quality stuff for about $5 a disc. As I've mentioned before, I respect anyone who goes out of his way to preserve OTR as the Golden Age of Radio represents a fantastic period in American history that we are rapidly forgetting.

For those not familiar with old time radio, that's the medium where great shows like Dragnet and Gunsmoke started. That medium made stars of Jack Benny, George Burns, Gracie Allen and a host of other people. Even greats like Bing Crosby and Bob Hope were stars on radio and you can find some of their material over at OTRCat.com.

Get over there, OK? And thanks, Jon, for telling me about your great site!

Jon, by the way, has inspired me to do something I've thought about for some time -- creating a blog roll and list of sites I like. Look for that soon.

Calm down, Razorbacks fans

I've heard a lot of grumbling throughout the Natural State over the past couple of days. Why? Arkansas barely scraped by another cream puff team on Saturday by beating Louisiana-Monroe by one rotten point.

Yes, Arkansas has spent the past two weeks squeaking by teams we're used to watching the Hogs whip the socks off on a regular basis. The complaints, of course, have to do with the notion that Arkansas isn't whipping those teams badly enough -- there's a team the Hogs will get killed by the Texas Longhorns next week and will get crushed during the SEC regular season.

Anyone who expected the Razorbacks to have a stellar season is living in a fool's paradise. This is Bobby Petrino's first year as the coach and he inherited a mess from the Houston Nutt years. This season will probably be a long one, but anyone who watched the Houston Nutt saga unfold last year should know that Petrino has his work cut out for him. The man's got a young team, after all, and they've got a lot to learn.

Meanwhile, thank God Houston Nutt is out of this state. It seems Ole Miss dropped a game against Wake Forest yesterday.

It appeared, early on, that Ole Miss was going to win that one, but the famed Nutt factor struck and Wake Forest was able to capitalize on some bonehead mistakes. What's this? A Nutt team blowing a game because of some sloppy, undisciplined play? Who would have guessed that?

I feel sorry for Ole Miss fans. They'll learn before long why we got to the point where we absolutely hated Nutt here in Arkansas. At least it's better to have him frustrating fans in Mississippi rather than breaking hearts in Arkansas, I suppose. Still, it's incredible that Nutt -- a complete moron -- ever managed to wind up coaching a team in the SEC is beyond me.

Rumor has it the Benton Panthers were looking for a new coach not long ago and Nutt's name came up. Any discussion of hiring him was quickly killed, however -- we take our high school football seriously down here and look for coaches that are more qualified than Nutt. Heh, heh.

Super Weasel Lawyer Team update

Tim Swift sent me the rough draft of the soon to be famous Super Weasel Lawyer Team comic strip. It's awesome, folks. Tim's sitting in Nashville working on the final draft of the first strip as we speak and I'm very excited about this little project.

Tim and I have decided to create a whole new blog for the strip and I'll provide the details as soon as I have them. I hope everyone enjoys the strip and, as I've said, the project becomes the longest-running lawyer joke in history.

Hopefully, you folks will enjoy watching a couple of Southern boys tear into the legal system. Being a recovering lawyer, I'll enjoy it at least. Stay tuned!

A reminder

I doubt I'll be able to update my blog until Thursday, Sept. 11 (there's a creepy date, huh?) as I'll be dealing with the Arkansas Realtors Association convention from Monday through Wednesday. I'll be going through a bunch of 14 and 15-hour days and will probably be so irate that nothing I'd post would be worth reading anyway.