by John Jefferson

An old cowboy saying goes, “There never was a horse that couldn’t be rode; there never was a man who couldn’t be throw’d”.

It’s actually a more illustrious way of saying “Nobody’s perfect.” Neither man nor horse. It eases the pain of suddenly being reminded that no matter how hard you try; you’ll never be perfect. Only one man ever was. It makes you feel a little better when you foul up. Reminds you why they put erasers on pencils.

I resemble that. In my case, it’s usually from getting frantic at deadline and my fingers move faster than my brain.

Blame it on computers. A sage observer a few years back commented that these new, revolutionary replacements for typewriters made it possible to make mistakes faster than any invention besides tequila and handguns.

The morning after the 1948 election, The Chicago Daily Tribune got in too big a hurry to get to press and go home, figuring Tom Dewey was far enough ahead of Harry Truman to run a banner headline that announced, “DEWEY DEFATS TRUMAN.” Some newspapers that week ran a grinning picture of newly elected President Truman holding a copy of that paper. Nowadays, most current readers have never heard of Dewey.

Closer to home, when A&M and Rice played in 1955 in Houston, Rice was ahead 12-0 with just a little over three minutes to play when a reporter decided he had his story and took the press box elevator down to beat the crowd. As the elevator descended, he heard a tremendous roar as the Aggies suddenly awoke from a lackluster performance and scored the first of what would be three touchdowns to win.

And there was a movie theater across the street from a classy hotel once that ran a marquis touting a double feature it was showing. The first feature was “Big Cat”. With the only separation between the features being that the second was on a separate line, the theater promoted its title: “House Across the Street.”

A realtor once told me I was making a big mistake by not buying the house he was showing. I curtly told him I had made mistakes and would probably make many more. I didn’t realize how prophetic that was. This week marked the 186th Woods, Waters, and Wildlife column I have written. I’ve caught a couple of mistakes before publication. A few got by me, however. And they stung.

I misplaced a letter about my first miscue and regret not acknowledge it. A recent message pointed out that I wrote a hunting license was needed to hunt wild hogs. Once required, that was changed. On private property, all you need is landowner permission.

A message this week really hurt. A good friend and experienced big game hunter told me I misidentified a cheetah as an ocelot.

Indefensible! I should know better.

And looking back at this column, was the saying “Never was a horse”? Or “Never was a hoss”?

Maybe somebody’ll tell me.

JJ