Something Solid
type: channel
description: by Jesse Mullins, Jr. - "The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid." G. K. Chesterton
date: 2023-06-07T19:33:18Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
generator agent: https://wordpress.org/
items: Book Review: REBEL: The Last American Novel
items: When a Government “Does Good”
items: On the Set with Sam Elliott
items: Koolaid Powder in Rain Gauge
items: Review: Wichita State Baseball Comes Back
items: Twenty Years Ago… AC Gets Its Start
items: American Cowboy Magazine’s Backtrail: A Great Ride
items: Can You Guess What This Is?
items: Love Jesus, Hate Religion?
items: We Need a New Word for “Terrorism”

Book Review: REBEL: The Last American Novel
type: item
creator: Jesse
date: 2020-12-12T19:19:26Z
subject: Posts
description: Rebel: The Last American Novel; by T.L. Davis; 12 Round Publishing, Montrose, Colo., 275 pages, trade paperback. Life never affords enough comfort or security to youth that they can pass through their nonage without some acquaintance with the sterner side of human existence. For some, that acquaintance can come even in the tenderest of years. […] The post Book Review: REBEL: The Last American Novel appeared first on Something Solid.
encoded: Rebel: The Last American Novel; by T.L. Davis; 12 Round Publishing, Montrose, Colo., 275 pages, trade paperback. Life never affords enough comfort or security to youth that they can pass through their nonage without some acquaintance with the sterner side of human existence. For some, that acquaintance can come even in the tenderest of years. But for anyone, even the sheltered and mostly grown, life shows its rougher edges soon enough. And so by our teens we are all awakened to the insensitivities that life can visit upon us. How we respond to that awakening defines our character. “You’re a tough one, aren’t you?” “No,” Nick answered. “All you kids are tough.” “You got to be tough,” Nick said. “That’s what I said.” The Nick Adams figure of Hemingway’s early short fiction is a character study in American youth coming of age in a world that is amply ready to test them. Sometimes the tests are grim. Sometimes they are sobering. Or the tests can be interludes of uncertainty or banality or boredom or unfairness or loneliness. In Rebel: The Last American Novel, by T.L. Davis, the story follows the ups and downs—and tests—of Lane Daniels, a protagonist who, in the prototypical mold of Nick Adams, finds himself in an unsettled standoff with life. Maybe here there is a tincture of Holden Caulfield as well. Or Huck Finn. Or Harvey Cheyne. A disaffected teen, Daniels breaks from his family, friends, and school to venture into the world in a quest to assert his own self-sufficiency and independence—qualities he likens to freedom. Set in the 1970s, in northern Colorado and parts thereabout, Rebel tracks Daniels’ trajectory, beginning with his disillusionment with school, continuing through his conflict with authorities, following his peregrinations in Colorado and Kansas, and culminating with his reuniting with friends and family, while yet on the verge of a fresh goodbye. In the end, Daniels, who typifies his region’s lingering frontier ethic, seems to strike what might be thou…

When a Government “Does Good”
type: item
creator: Jesse
date: 2019-10-21T18:17:15Z
subject: Posts
description: People who live in the United States ought—all of them—to be about the business of doing good. But the government of the United States has no business going about doing good. Serving justice, yes—when justice needs to be served. But for the government to actively do good? That’s going beyond its function. Humanitarian organizations and […] The post When a Government “Does Good” appeared first on Something Solid.
encoded: People who live in the United States ought—all of them—to be about the business of doing good. But the government of the United States has no business going about doing good. Serving justice, yes—when justice needs to be served. But for the government to actively do good? That’s going beyond its function. Humanitarian organizations and churches ought to be about doing good. The private citizenry ought to be moved to do good. But no entity that gets its resources by force of law has any business doing good. Such action by a government is a usurpation of the rights of the individual. Whatever resources, assets, and/or funds such a government is expending and dispensing in such ventures ought to be restored to the individual members of the public who surrendered those funds under penalty of law. Let the individual do good. The collective has no mind of its own, no conscience of its own—no matter how much one might want to posit that voting and representation give the government a “mind” or a “heart.” None exist there. Such qualities exist only at the level of the individual. C.S. Lewis rightly challenged the idea that the “collective” exists at all. It is an abstraction only—it is nothing concrete, has no “will” of its own, and its deeds bring glory not to God nor even, necessarily, to the electorate or to “constituencies,” for at the grassroots level those individuals were passive in any given act of “government do-good-ism,” and the elected officials who appropriated the funds deserve no credit for spending others’ sacrifices—all such sacrifices themselves having been taken by force of law. It is not a good system, this business of nations behaving as though they have, or that they represent, a conscience. It weakens a people, by taking their own conscience away from them, constantly sapping their own resources that would otherwise make them able to exercise fuller virtue in their own lives, exercise greater free will, and enlarge their own souls by making uncoerced …

On the Set with Sam Elliott
type: item
creator: Jesse
date: 2016-05-05T20:40:10Z
subject: Blog
description: Yesterday I received this photo from my longtime friend Robert Guernsey, who is a cameraman on the Netflix sitcom The Ranch. That’s Sam Elliott, star of the series, in the center. Robert is on the right and his first assistant cameraman, Vito De Palma, is on the left. This was taken during the last week […] The post On the Set with Sam Elliott appeared first on Something Solid.
encoded: From left: Vito De Palma, Sam Elliott, Robert Guernsey on the set of The Ranch. Yesterday I received this photo from my longtime friend Robert Guernsey, who is a cameraman on the Netflix sitcom The Ranch. That’s Sam Elliott, star of the series, in the center. Robert is on the right and his first assistant cameraman, Vito De Palma, is on the left. This was taken during the last week of shooting before summer hiatus was to begin (in May). Robert showed Sam a back issue of American Cowboy magazine that I had sent him. The issue (JA99) had Sam as its cover story. Sam wasn’t aware that Robert and I had any connections, but as soon as Robert mentioned to Sam that Jesse Mullins had written the article (I interviewed Sam in Palm Springs – this was many years ago), Sam replied, “I know Jesse. In fact, I’ve seen him two other times since this article was done.” That’s true – I visited with Sam on at the Western Heritage Awards in Oklahoma City on two different occasions. Sam autographed the magazine cover for Robert, and that’s why Robert is displaying it in this shot. Thanks, Robert, for sharing this. Fun stuff. The post On the Set with Sam Elliott appeared first on Something Solid.

Koolaid Powder in Rain Gauge
type: item
creator: Jesse
date: 2014-08-15T20:42:24Z
subject: Blog
description: My wife Kit and I were disappointed when, after installing a rain gauge just 8 feet outside our kitchen window, we couldn’t discern the rainfall amounts on the gauge from that distance. Each reading required a trip outside. We decided to add some kind of dry substance that could add color – for us it […] The post Koolaid Powder in Rain Gauge appeared first on Something Solid.
encoded: My wife Kit and I were disappointed when, after installing a rain gauge just 8 feet outside our kitchen window, we couldn’t discern the rainfall amounts on the gauge from that distance. Each reading required a trip outside. We decided to add some kind of dry substance that could add color – for us it was a pinch of Grape Koolaid powder – to the bottom of the gauge when the gauge was dry. Some days later (this was a month ago) we got a two-inch rain and you can see the results – this photo was taken from our kitchen window. Works wonderfully. That red blob in the photo is the neighbor’s wheelbarrow. Reminded me of that poem by William Carlos Williams: So much depends upon A red wheel barrow Glazed with rain water Beside the white chickens. Well, no chickens. But a nice image. Here’s a shot of another rain gauge reading – smaller rainfall – with squirrel. <img decoding="async" class="wp-image-3183 size-full" src="https://jessemullins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/SSpostPicKoolaidRainGaugeWithSquirrel.jpg" alt="Squirrel beside our rain gauge that held a tiny pinch of grape Koolaid powder to make the rainfall reading show up better. Try it - it works!" width="426" height="640" srcset="https://jessemullins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/SSpostPicKoolaidRainGaugeWithSquirrel.jpg 426w, https://jessemullins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/SSpostPicKoolaidRainGaugeWithSquirrel-199x300.jpg 199w" sizes="(max-width: 426px) 100vw, 426px" /> Squirrel beside our rain gauge that held a tiny pinch of grape Koolaid powder to make the rainfall reading show up better. Try it – it works! The post Koolaid Powder in Rain Gauge appeared first on Something Solid.

Review: Wichita State Baseball Comes Back
type: item
creator: Jesse
date: 2014-06-29T23:59:48Z
subject: Blog
subject: Posts
subject: Reviews
description: Wichita State Baseball Comes Back: Gene Stephenson and the Making of a Shocker Championship Tradition (The History Press, historypress.net, Charleston, S.C., 2014, 140 pp., 31 black-and-white photos, $19.99 paperback). No one needs to be a fan of Wichita State University baseball, nor—I’m tempted to say—even a fan of college baseball or even baseball itself, to […] The post Review: Wichita State Baseball Comes Back appeared first on Something Solid.
encoded: <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-3167 size-medium" src="https://jessemullins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/WichitaStateBaseballComesBackBookCover2Smaller-200x300.jpg" alt="Book cover for Wichita State Baseball Comes Back" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://jessemullins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/WichitaStateBaseballComesBackBookCover2Smaller-200x300.jpg 200w, https://jessemullins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/WichitaStateBaseballComesBackBookCover2Smaller-682x1024.jpg 682w, https://jessemullins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/WichitaStateBaseballComesBackBookCover2Smaller.jpg 750w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />Wichita State Baseball Comes Back: Gene Stephenson and the Making of a Shocker Championship Tradition (The History Press, historypress.net, Charleston, S.C., 2014, 140 pp., 31 black-and-white photos, $19.99 paperback). No one needs to be a fan of Wichita State University baseball, nor—I’m tempted to say—even a fan of college baseball or even baseball itself, to find pleasure in the consistently entertaining narrative that is Wichita State Baseball Comes Back: Gene Stephenson and the Making of a Shocker Championship Tradition (historypress.net). No, this is just good storytelling—fit fare for any reader who likes against-the-odds tales, and especially those told with the kind of irrepressible energy and wryness that is the hallmark of author John E. Brown. Brown tells the story of a coach’s mission to bring back the sport of baseball to a university that had abandoned the game some seven years prior. And not just bring it back, but make of it a winner, and not just a winner, but a perennial national powerhouse—which is exactly what coach Gene Stephenson did, starting in 1977. And to do it all on a shoestring. By 1982, his Shockers had played themselves into the title game of the College World Series. By 1989, they’d won the title itself. Along the way, they rewrote college baseball record books and they rev…

Twenty Years Ago… AC Gets Its Start
type: item
creator: Jesse
date: 2014-05-23T22:59:40Z
subject: Blog
description: The photo that accompanies this blog post is a shot I snapped moments ago of part of an article that appears on page 22 of the current (June) issue of American Cowboy magazine. That issue commemorates the 20th anniversary of the magazine for which I was founding editor (and for which I was editor-in-chief for […] The post Twenty Years Ago… AC Gets Its Start appeared first on Something Solid.
encoded: The photo that accompanies this blog post is a shot I snapped moments ago of part of an article that appears on page 22 of the current (June) issue of American Cowboy magazine. That issue commemorates the 20th anniversary of the magazine for which I was founding editor (and for which I was editor-in-chief for 15 years). The photo shows publisher Bill Bales (seated) and myself during the year (1994) of the startup. American Cowboy published a profile of Bill in this issue (that’s where this photo appears) and in the same issue I contributed a three-page guest editorial in which I looked back over the beginnings of the magazine and most of its history – through my tenure, anyway. I also wrote about the values that we instilled in the magazine. In another blog post on this site (“American Cowboy’s Backtrail: A Great Ride”) I add some details about the beginnings of the magazine and some insights into what it meant to those of us most involved in the enterprise. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-3161" src="https://jessemullins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/MeAndBillBalesPicInACmag.jpg" alt="MeAndBillBalesPicInACmag" width="478" height="640" srcset="https://jessemullins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/MeAndBillBalesPicInACmag.jpg 478w, https://jessemullins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/MeAndBillBalesPicInACmag-224x300.jpg 224w" sizes="(max-width: 478px) 100vw, 478px" />This occasion marked the first time I’ve written anything for American Cowboy in the five years since I’ve been away. I was invited to participate in the 20th anniversary project by the magazine’s new editor-in-chief, Bob Welch, and I thank Bob for his graciousness and for the fine job the magazine did on the issue, including the profile of Bill that was written by AC‘s former deputy editor, Tom Wilmes. Look for the issue on newsstands now. Better get it – milestone editions like this are worth having and preserving. Bill and Sandy Bales are coming to the Abilene hom…

American Cowboy Magazine’s Backtrail: A Great Ride
type: item
creator: Jesse
date: 2014-05-02T19:34:25Z
subject: Blog
description: Howdy, neighbor! If you’ve arrived here after having read the material in the 20th Anniversary Edition (June/July 2014) of American Cowboy magazine, then know that this is the article you’re seeking. I said I’d be sharing “further reminiscences” here, and that’s exactly what’s going on. I’ll try not to repeat too much of what […] The post American Cowboy Magazine’s Backtrail: A Great Ride appeared first on Something Solid.
encoded: Howdy, neighbor! If you’ve arrived here after having read the material in the 20th Anniversary Edition (June/July 2014) of American Cowboy magazine, then know that this is the article you’re seeking. I said I’d be sharing “further reminiscences” here, and that’s exactly what’s going on. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-3151 size-medium" src="https://jessemullins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/MullinsJesseWithJPSbrown2013-300x225.jpg" alt="JFM with JPS Brown" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://jessemullins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/MullinsJesseWithJPSbrown2013-300x225.jpg 300w, https://jessemullins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/MullinsJesseWithJPSbrown2013.jpg 640w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /> J.P.S. Brown (left) and myself (snapping a selfie) on the porch of Brown’s ranch house outside Patagonia, Ariz., in April 2013. I was in Tucson that month for the Tucson Book Festival and I wanted to see Joe, so I rented a car and drove the two hours down into that beautiful country. I’ll try not to repeat too much of what I said in the commentary I wrote (“Taking the Long View,” p. 68) for that issue. The essential milestones: AC was launched in 1994 in Wichita, Kan. In 1995 we took the outfit to Sheridan, Wyo. I was there in Sheridan with my family until the summer of 1999, when I had to move to Texas, for family reasons. The rest of the crew stayed in Sheridan for a few years before relocating about 35 miles down the road to Buffalo, Wyo. AC was sold to AIM Media in May 2006, whereupon AIM moved the publication to downtown Boulder, Colo. (fall 2006). I remained with the magazine until June 2009, still working from Texas. So, all told, I was with the magazine through its startup (which actually began in 1993, some months before its debut) and for its first 15 years. That’s what I’m writing about here – that decade and a half that established the direction, scope, and significance of the magazine. I know this may be a bit disjoint…

Can You Guess What This Is?
type: item
creator: Jesse
date: 2014-04-10T19:36:42Z
subject: Bible
subject: Blog
description: I had been growing them for, oh, three years or so before it struck me just how early the fruit appears. Yes, if you are “playing along,” the answer to my question, “Can you guess what this is,” is… grapes. The accompanying photo shows a grape cluster as it looks only a few weeks after […] The post Can You Guess What This Is? appeared first on Something Solid.
encoded: <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-3133 alignright" title="GrapesInApril" alt="SSpicGrapesSmallApril10Tweet" src="https://jessemullins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/SSpicGrapesSmallApril10Tweet.jpg" width="448" height="448" srcset="https://jessemullins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/SSpicGrapesSmallApril10Tweet.jpg 640w, https://jessemullins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/SSpicGrapesSmallApril10Tweet-150x150.jpg 150w, https://jessemullins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/SSpicGrapesSmallApril10Tweet-300x300.jpg 300w, https://jessemullins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/SSpicGrapesSmallApril10Tweet-184x184.jpg 184w, https://jessemullins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/SSpicGrapesSmallApril10Tweet-175x175.jpg 175w, https://jessemullins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/SSpicGrapesSmallApril10Tweet-60x60.jpg 60w, https://jessemullins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/SSpicGrapesSmallApril10Tweet-70x70.jpg 70w, https://jessemullins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/SSpicGrapesSmallApril10Tweet-120x120.jpg 120w, https://jessemullins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/SSpicGrapesSmallApril10Tweet-185x185.jpg 185w" sizes="(max-width: 448px) 100vw, 448px" />I had been growing them for, oh, three years or so before it struck me just how early the fruit appears. Yes, if you are “playing along,” the answer to my question, “Can you guess what this is,” is… grapes. The accompanying photo shows a grape cluster as it looks only a few weeks after the first leaves appeared on the vine. I shot this image today, April 10, 2014. Ten days or two weeks ago the individual grapes were super-tiny–like about the size of sesame seeds or something like that. They seem to come out just days after the leaves appear. When I first started growing grapes, I would look for some kind of little flowers or something like that to appear first, before the clusters, but I’ve given that up… if there are any signs earlier than the little clusters themselves, I don’t know what they are. Grapes will not gr…

Love Jesus, Hate Religion?
type: item
creator: Jesse
date: 2014-04-02T16:37:36Z
subject: Blog
description: What’s with the new anti-“religion” sentiment? Maybe you’ve noticed it yourself. There has appeared—in conversations and statements on the web—an oddly pejorative treatment of the words “religious” or “religion.” I’ve started collecting them and I’ll share my first four (first that I’ve saved) here: From a person’s tagline on Twitter: “Christian, husband, father, friend, author, […] The post Love Jesus, Hate Religion? appeared first on Something Solid.
encoded: What’s with the new anti-“religion” sentiment? Maybe you’ve noticed it yourself. There has appeared—in conversations and statements on the web—an oddly pejorative treatment of the words “religious” or “religion.” I’ve started collecting them and I’ll share my first four (first that I’ve saved) here: <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-3120" alt="SSloveJesusHateReligionPic" src="https://jessemullins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/SSloveJesusHateReligionPic.jpg" width="275" height="183" srcset="https://jessemullins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/SSloveJesusHateReligionPic.jpg 275w, https://jessemullins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/SSloveJesusHateReligionPic-140x94.jpg 140w" sizes="(max-width: 275px) 100vw, 275px" />From a person’s tagline on Twitter: “Christian, husband, father, friend, author, pastor, indulging Starbucks, eluding religion… selling out, daily, to Jesus.” And another: “A non-religious Jesus follower, a husband, a father, a pastor, a horseman, a cattleman, and an advocate for agriculture.” This one’s a tweet, not a tagline: “When you let Jesus truly come in, religion goes out the window…” Same for this one: “Love people! [all people] and love God! Not religious, free!” Plus there was this [following] sentiment, found in the title of a painting I saw while I was editing American Cowboy. The painting was a scene of a cowboy, horseback, looking out upon a vast panoramic canyonland. The title was: I don’t go to church. This is my church. I’m at a loss to understand how the idea of religion, or even “religion,” interferes with or subverts or diminishes a faith such as Christianity. And I do assume that these individuals who are quoted are directing their remarks at Christianity, not at Islam or the Hindu faith. I realize that that is an assumption, but I notice that the figure whom they contrast against “religion” is Jesus or God, and so Christianity would seem to be the “religion” in question. So why is religion bad wh…

We Need a New Word for “Terrorism”
type: item
creator: Jesse
date: 2014-03-22T22:08:27Z
subject: Blog
subject: different name for terrorism
subject: different word for terrorism
subject: Jesse Mullins
subject: jessemullins.com
subject: Malviolence
subject: name for terrorists
subject: new name
subject: new name for terrorism
subject: new word
subject: new word for terrorism
subject: Something Solid
subject: Terrorism
subject: word for terrorists
description: Will the latest massacre at Fort Hood again be labeled simply “workplace violence”? Given the intense criticism that the White House received for the way it blocked any attempts of officials to label Nidal Hasan’s actions at Fort Hood in 2009 as terrorism, one would think that the White House would be a little slower […] The post We Need a New Word for “Terrorism” appeared first on Something Solid.
encoded: Will the latest massacre at Fort Hood again be labeled simply “workplace violence”? Given the intense criticism that the White House received for the way it blocked any attempts of officials to label Nidal Hasan’s actions at Fort Hood in 2009 as terrorism, one would think that the White House would be a little slower to inform us all that there is no terroristic intent behind this so-similar shooting. How can they know? Does anyone really know anything about this incident? Is propaganda more important than facts and details? But we’re told, almost as soon as the news breaks, that there’s no terroristic motive associated with the Ivan Lopez incident that took place hours earlier today (April 2). We’ll not know anything related to motives until the investigators have had some time to sort out the details and probe into the circumstances. It’s absurd for any government to discount terrorism in an action such as this – and to do so in knee-jerk fashion. Absurd, that is, unless that government is led by an individual or individuals who have a desire to suppress any news that points to Islamic-related terror strikes. We’re supposed to believe that Benghazi was strictly a non-terroristic action as well. Meanwhile, as the world ponders the possible implications behind the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, with all the accompanying worry about the possibility of terroristic intent behind that act, we again find ourselves assailed with that presumptuous word “terrorism.” I won’t try to suggest that the word is inadequate in denoting what a perpetrator of “terrorism” hopes he has perpetrated. It does succeed in expressing that. But therein lies the problem. “Terrorism” is an apt term for the act only insofar as we grant some credence, and some power, to the intent of the terrorist. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft wp-image-3106" alt="Photo of opened dictionary" src="https://jessemullins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/TerrorismDictionaryPic.jp…