Day 50 of 1000

Now I know that what I am about to write is about personal taste and does not hold true for everyone, but there is something I really want to get off my chest.  It came clear, again, that some things are only good if you have not done them for a long, long time.  I am not talking about those things that one does every so often just to remind themselves why they hate them like driving through the campus at the University of Oregon or reading anything written by Noam Chomsky or Paul Krugman.  I am talking about those things that are really good, but only in small doses.

I was reminded of this when I downloaded Louis L’Amour’s Crossfire Trail and read it during my daily walk over the last couple of days.  As Louis L’Amour books go, it was great.  It has the tough, noble, good guy that gets the girl by shooting and beating up a small army of dastardly (although a little one dimensional) bad guys.  I knew when I finished the book that it would have been a much better read if I had waited two or three years.  You see, I read Utah Blaine by L’Amour last week.  The reason I bought Crossfire Trail was because I enjoyed Utah Blaine so much.  It is like the one time I ate too much Dungeness crab.  If you have every had Dungeness crab you would think that last statement was an oxymoron.  It is not.  I was actually TIRED of Dungeness crab for a period of about three days.

Now, to take this a little further, someone made the silly statement that Texas rodeos are better than Oregon rodeos*.  Well, beside the fact that it is not true, it made me think of what joy it gave me during my formative years to attend the St. Paul Rodeo in St. Paul Oregon.  Still, and many probably believe this disqualifies me as a critic on this subject, the reason it was enjoyable is because we went only once every three or four years.  Too much rodeo is the same as too much Dungeness crab or too much Louis L’Amour in too short a period of time.  How much time?  It varies depending on the subject.  With Dungeness crab, I can get back in the saddle (no pun intended) after about a week.  With Louis L’Amour it is one or two years.  With rodeos it is three to five years.

I am going to get myself into a lot of trouble for making this next statement, but, from my perspective, Oregon State University football games are a lot like rodeos.  It is a lot of fun to talk trash about the game at the water cooler on Monday morning, but sitting through a game is only fun every two or three years.

*It should be noted that even Larry Mahan, the best Texas rodeo cowboy in all of history, is from Oregon.