Acclaimed Novelist Daniel Woodrell Dies

 

by Pa Rock

West Plains Typist

Nationally acclaimed author Daniel Woodrell passed away at his home in West Plains, Missouri, last Friday, November 28th, at the age of seventy-two.  His wife, Katie Estill-Woodrell reported that his cause of death was pancreatic cancer.  Woodrell had suffered from colon cancer more than a decade ago and defeated that malady.

(Do you know what elevates an author to the rank of "acclaimed"?  When he is eulogized in obituaries in The New York Times, the New York Post, the Washington Post, Variety, and other national publications - that's what!)

Daniel Woodrell was born on March 4, 1953, in Springfield, MO, and had lived in West Plains since the mid-1980's, a place that he and his wife liked and decided to call home.  He grew up in Springfield in southwest Missouri, and moved with his family to Kansas City during his adolescence.  He didn't like life in Kansas City and moved on by joining the Marines at the age of seventeen in 1970.  He was stationed in Guam where he learned about "pacifism" and had his mind opened to a broader world.

Woodrell graduated from the University of Kansas at Lawrence in his late twenties with a bachelor's degree in English, and he went on to attend the famed Iowa Writers Workshop where he earned a master's degree.  He published eight novels, most of which were set in the Missouri Ozarks and the most famous being Winter's Bone which was made into a movie starring Jennifer Lawrence - and garnered the young actress her first Academy Award nomination.  When Woodrell completed the novel Give Us a Kiss in 1996, he coined the term "country noir" to describe it, and that appellation has since been adopted for the genre of writings focused on the hard lives of America's rural impoverished class - a genre in which Daniel Woodrell was very much at home.

By moving to the Missouri Ozarks, Daniel Woodrell was able to enmesh himself in the world about which he was writing.  In an interview with Esquire Magazine in 2013, the author mentioned being "tormented" by his "tweaker neighbors," a not uncommon happenstance in the Ozarks.  When he penned stories of the hard lives in rural southern Missouri, such as the characters depicted in Winter's Bone, Daniel Woodrell knew the personalities, circumstances, and lives of his subjects.

The late celebrity television chef, Anthony Bourdain, called Daniel Woodrell "the best writer in America."  Bourdain brought his television show to West Plains in 2011 to spend time with Woodrell collecting and preparing local foods.  They skinned squirrels for pot pies and spent time on the Current River gigging for suckers.  It was during that expedition that Woodrell fell from the boat and broke his shoulder.

Daniel Woodrell told compelling tales that captured the hard-scrabble life and culture of the contemporary Ozarks, and he was able to that by becoming a part of that community and culture - and experiencing what he wrote about.  I've read several of his novels, and they all ring true.  Woodrell's passing leaves a void in the genre of "country noir" that will be very hard to fill.

Rest in peace, good sir, and thanks for sharing so much of yourself with others while you were here.

Hegseth Underbusses an Admiral

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Every year new words emerge through popular usage and gain entry into our daily vocabulary.  The big on-line dictionaries entertain us toward the end of the year with their selections of the best of the new words.  Last week the Oxford English dictionary announced that "rage bait" was its word of the year. (Rage bait is something posted on-line with the intent of angering others and getting reactions.)   The Cambridge dictionary went with "parasocial," a one-sided relationship where one party feels an intimacy with another party who may not even be aware of the party of the first part - such as between a fan and a celebrity.

Dictionalry.com  chose "67," (pronounced"six-seven") a term signifying vagueness and indecisiveness and used by people to show they are "in the know" or part of an elite group which understands such vague lingo as"67."   Collins dictionary chose "vibe coding," a software development practice that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to generate, refine, and debug code based on natural language prompts.

Merriam-Webster, a leader in on-line and print dictionaries, has yet to announce their word of the year for 2025, so I decided to speed things along a bit by offering my recommendation.  It is a verb that I saw used on the internet for the first time yesterday, but knew immediately what it meant - and with Trump in the White House it could slip into common usage very quickly.

The word is "underbus," which sounds as though it might be an adjective, perhaps describing a type of road scale for weighing large vehicles, but in the news story I was reading it was clearly used as a verb.

The story where "underbus" was used is still controlling the news cycles two days after it first broke.  It is the one about Trump's "war" on small boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, one he describes as a "war" on narco-terrorists, and an effort on which he is completely focused except when he is pardoning rich and politically-connected narco-terrorists from the same region.

The Trump administration began attacking small boats in the Southern Caribbean and Eastern Pacific in early September of 2025 and quit releasing information on those attacks on November 15th of 2025.  During the time that the administration was being transparent about its "war," they reported 21 strikes on 22 vessels with a dead body count of 83 people.  The claim was continually made by the administration that the boats were transporting drugs, though no evidence to back up that claim was ever presented to the press or the public.

Last week the Washington Post ran a story which said that in an attack on September 2nd, two survivors were seen clinging to debris in the water, and that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered a second strike to kill the two survivors.  The administration response since that story came out has gone from Ramboesque braggadocio about the might of the US and its military, to bickering over legal definitions, and finally to serious underbussing.

Donald Trump, who takes quickly takes credit for anything that goes right or is seen to have strong pubic approval, backed away from the killings when the level of concern from members in both parties of Congress began rising and the public started demanding answers.  Trump decided that he had been unaware of the matter and had left it all with his inexperienced and unqualified Secretary of Defense.   Hegseth roared like a lion for a bit, but as the water he was in began to heat, he underbussed the matter to a navy admiral, and said that poor man ultimately gave the order to kill those evil drug smugglers.  As of yet, the admiral apparently has not passed the blame on to his secretary.

A couple of weeks ago a group of six Democratic members of Congress, all military veterans and/or members of the US Intelligence community filmed and released a video reminding members of the military that they are obligated NOT to follow illegal orders.  The video incensed Trump who used it for political purposes as he referred to those mmbers of Congress as "traitors."  There was even talk from Trump and Hegseth about bringing Senator Mark Kelly, one of the group Trump called "the seditious six," back to active duty so that he could be court-martialed for taking part in the video.

And then the Washington Post broke the story about the murder of the two survivors of the attack on their small boat.    It we are legitimately at war, then the act of killing those two fishermen or sailors could rise to the level of a "war crime."  If we are not at war, those two unarmed individuals clinging to floating debris were murdered.  Either way it will make for a nasty stain on somebody's reputation, and maybe even bring some time in the slammer.

The six members of Congress who reminded members of the military of their obligation to uphold the Constitution and not follow illegal orders have been vindicated.  The buck no longer stops on the President's desk - he was off playing golf and had no knowledge of the incident whatsoever.  The Defense Secretary said he had "moved on to another gig" when the act occurred, so he didn't know about it either.  If you are the lowly triggerman in a war crime - just following orders - you are very likely going to own the entire thing when the underbusing reaches you.

Somebody will ultimately pay for this war crime or murder - maybe - and my money is on the admiral's secretary - unless she has an assistant.

Judah, a Sensible Sixteen

 

by Pa Rock

Proud Grandpa

Today is the sixteenth birthday of my Oregon grandson, Judah.   He was born in Oregon and has lived in the same house all his life, but he does travel.   The family took a nice vacation in California a few years ago, and the entire family - Judah, his parents Scott and Molly, and his siblings Sebastian and Willow - have also been back to see grandparents in Missouri and Oklahoma on several occasions.

When Judah gets interested in a subject, he digs deep to learn as much as he can about it.  He had a strong interest at one time in the HMS Titantic, and during one of the family trips back to the midwest Judah was able to visit the Titantic Museum in Branson.  He also developed an interest in tornadoes and learned a great deal of factual information about Missouri's Joplin tornado .

Judah's mother and sister came to Missouri this year for Thanksgiving, but Judah, who is now focused on weather, elected to stay home with his Dad in Oregon, at least in part because of the weather forecasts in the Midwest.  He did update his mother with weather bulletins while she and Willow were here.

Last summer, while on my annual trip to Oregon, Molly, Willow, Judah, and I rode the train from Salem, Oregon (their hometown), to Seattle, Washington, where we spent three days hitting the tourist stops.  Judah seemed to especcially enjoy the Space Needle, and on the final evening of our trip he and his mother took a walking "ghost tour" of several haunted attractions around Seattle's famed Pike Place Market.  He enjoyed that special activity with his Mom and had lots to say about it when they got back to the hotel.

Judah is a very bright and inquisitive young man.

Enjoy being sixteen, Judah.  It only comes around once, so make it a year you will always remember!

Willow is Fourteen (and a day)!

 

by Pa Rock

Proud Grandpa

My youngest granddaughter, Willow, turned fourteen yesterday, and I feel awful because I let her big day slide right on by.  My flimsy excuse for the oversight is that even though today is only Monday, it still has been a very hard week!  Willow lives with her family in Oregon, and in my defense, I did personally hand her a birthday card and a gift one week ago today when she and her mother were visiting in the Ozarks as part of a special Thanksgiving trip.

Willow will be heading to high school in the fall.  It is near her house and her older brother went to the same high school, all of which should help take the edge off of the experience, and she told me that she is looking forward to the move from middle school, especially the new activities and challenges that high school has to offer.    I know she will make many good friends during the years that she is there.  High school is an exciting time . . . I remember . . . barely!

Happy (late) birthday to you, Willow.   I hope you scored many nice presents.  I also hope you had a good time while you were visiting in Missouri and Kansas.  We sure did enjoy getting to see you and your mother.  Have a wonderful year - and a great time in high school!

Much love on the day after your birthday from Pa Rock, Rosie, Gypsy, and Uncle Nick!

Let's Try "Trickle Up" for a Change

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The United States of America can't afford to help impoverished working Americans, some of whom are holding down two and even three sub-minimum wage jobs, with supplemental food assistance (SNAP), or assist them in meeting skyrocketing health insurance premiums through subsidies, or with rent subsidies, but it can come up with plenty of money to let the billionaire class operate on an almost tax-free basis - with plenty of access to government subsidies.

The sky is the limit for America's billionaire class, while they fight like hell to keep the rest of America shackled in poverty.  That's no way to run a country, or a society, or an economy.  One of the rubs in that approach is that most of the super wealthy make their money through selling goods and services to the masses, and that requires the masses, those on the lower end of the economic ladder, to have the means to make those purchases - a source of income with enough left over from bare survival needs to accommodate shopping.  That can't happen if there is no floor so stop their descent further and further into abject poverty.

I read a review of a new book yesterday that I though summed up this situation well and gave some insight into a compromise between extreme wealth and life in the sewers of civilization - in its title alone.  The book is by Oliver B. Libbly, described as an "entrepreneur, non-profit leader, an a public policy 'thinker.'  Its title is "Strong Floor, No Ceiling:  A New Foundation for the American Dream."  In it the author looks at the current economic situation with the rich inevitably wanting more and more of the economic growth and leaving less and less for those who are already without, many of whom work multiple low-paying jobs to fuel the economic growth that flows into the pockets of the rich.   The rich don't like regulations and anything that puts limits on their growth, and they see taking more from others as a way to keep growing - and that greed cuts into the programs of the social safety net, programs which are intended to provide an economic "floor" for the impoverished.

Libby argues (and again, I have only read reviews and not the actual book) that if there is not going to be limitations on the amount of wealth people can accrue, there should at least be a solid floor beneath the feet of the working classes, enough to ensure survival and an opportunity for growth.

If there is going to be no ceiling, and generally speaking there is not much of one at present, there should at least be a strong floor from which others my ultimately begin to ascend and take advantage of those limitless opportunities.

A strong floor to me sounds like something that guarantees food, healthcare, housing, and education - basics for sustaining life and giving people an opportunity to work and achieve more.  Yes, that will involve some sacrifice on the upper end, and people who have amassed more money than they can ever spend may have to redirect some toward the public good through increased taxes, but in the end they will be helping form a society more capable of feeding the economy and encouraging innovation and growth.

Money will trickle up faster than it has ever trickled down.