Honky Tonk Hubbalah

While in Nashville on business the other week, Tep and I ran into famous country western megastar, Moshe Mendalbaum, whom you might recognize as the poster boy for Tab soda. He was a diminutive man, but his presence was truly overwhelming. Just being within two feet of him was almost more than we could stand. He had a certain aura of greatness about him, while a slight aroma of rye bread and dill pickles seeped from his great white beard. Upon his head sat a modified yarmulke, which on closer examination turned out to be a tiny cowboy hat studded with pink diamonds, which attested to his fabulous wealth. Upon catching sight of us, he waved his scraggly elbows and ape-like hands (think Robbin Williams) to gesture us closer in a most grandfatherly manner. I asked him if he would sign my copy of his latest CD, entitled "My Girlfriend Mimi Left Me for Shlomo Finkelstein and Ran Over my Dog with my Pickup Truck But it was the Sabbath so I Just Stayed Home and Fixed a Reuben"-- You know, the type of album every red-blooded Southerner can relate to. It was great. We had a brief but stimulating conversation about the most efficient way to clean horse shit from the bottom of boots but were then quickly pushed back to the outskirts of the rapidly forming crowd. The noise erupting from the growing gaggle of big towering buxom women and the legions of little elfin groupies storming the country superstar was literally deafening. Wow, what a babe.

Tep and I returned to Washington, DC the next day a little more world weary but a little wiser just the same.

Gosh, I just love country music.