John writes:

> I think South Texas in August would be great place as well. Heck, from what
>  it sounds like the attendance was, I could have everyone out to the ranch
>  for a round-up and bar-b-que...I need a few more hands during the round-up
>  to help with de-horning, preg-testing, cycle-mating, and inoculating all
>  those momma cows...besides it is great fun to watch city folk get chased by
>  a 1800 lb. momma cow...:)

In that regard, the following editorial appeared in the Op-Ed pages of the NY
Times two days ago:

======================================

August 28, 2001

Hotter Than a Crawford Ranch
By RUTH PENNEBAKER

AUSTIN, Tex. -- All those reporters who are always clustered around President
Bush should have been suspicious the minute he started stomping around his
ranch in the middle of August. Instead, sweating and gullible and, frankly,
kind of pathetic, they earnestly reported the president's rhapsodic remarks
about going home to Texas in the summer. They bought the implication that
Texans wouldn't miss a Texas August, even if it is 110 degrees in the shade
(except there's not any shade).

The truth is, nobody with a brain the size of a kumquat stays in Texas in
August. Most of us head to the mountains and cool, dry breezes of New Mexico,
where we like to think we're not considered nearly as arrogant and obnoxious
as we used to be.

Who can blame us for leaving? You don't want to be here in August unless you
enjoy quality time with rattlesnakes, fire ants, sticker burrs, dust, drought
and burning sun. Assuming you don't have a child in the public schools (which
unaccountably begin their year in mid-August), you try to be elsewhere. Of
course there are a few unlucky souls who have to stay here for the whole
month. Sometimes I've been among them. And when it happens, there's only one
pleasure we Texans get from it. That's when we get to host someone from one
of the Northern states or another country and watch their reaction to the
heat.

My husband and I have welcomed guests from Japan who were so overwhelmed by
the heat from the asphalt that they barely made it from the airport to our
car, a Belgian professor who almost passed out on an ill-advised walk, and a
woman from Spain who arrived in our ordinary triple-digit September
temperatures wearing her fall clothes, all of them black. Was this weather
unusual? she asked my husband, fanning herself frantically. Not really, he
told her, although now that she mentioned it, it was a little cooler than
usual. Years later, he still chuckles fondly at the memory.

I certainly don't want to suggest that President Bush is having a little fun
at reporters' expense. Far be it from me to hint he's playing a Lone Star
State version of "get the guests." But those reporters should listen
carefully. If he starts telling them it's more temperate this August than
usual, they might suspect they're giving all of us Texans a little light in
all this heat.

=======================================

And now, before anyone writes and accuses me of being anti-Texan, my family
comes from the area north of Houston, along the Trinity River. In fact, if
you go look up "Atmar" (which is a synthetic name, so every Atmar is related
to me, other than those in Iran & Iraq who independently came up with the
same name) on any sort of web page address people finder, you'll see that we
primarily infest the area between San Antonio and Houston.

Nonetheless, I'm very pleased to be in New Mexico.

Wirt Atmar

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