Daily Corinthian • Sunday, July 7, 2013 • 7A
‘Queen of the Air’ brings romance and drama BY TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER The Bookworm Sez
“Queen of the Air” by Dean Jensen c.2013, Crown $26.00 / $31.00 Canada 336 pages The bar was all of an inch in diameter, but it was perfect. You only needed to grab it and hang on, so it didn’t have to be very big. It just had to hold your weight as you swung hand-overhand, hung upside down, and performed monkeyshines on the monkey bars when you were a kid. It was so easy then. Those same moves look easy now, especially when done by a professional.
But as you’ll see in the new book “Queen of the Air” by Dean Jensen, what’s on the trapeze isn’t what’ll keep you hanging. Alfredo Codona didn’t believe in love at first sight – until he saw Leitzel. He was just sixteen years old, a relatively minor trapeze artist and soon-to-be heartthrob. She was eighteen, stunningly beautiful, a “darling with circus audiences everywhere...” Smitten, he pursued her with single-mindedness – but the Queen of the Air had her career to think about, and she ended the short romance. Born to an unwed teenager in 1891, Leitzel definitely had circus blood in
her veins: her father had owned a traveling troupe; her grandmother and aunts were all performers and her mother was a trapeze sensation. It didn’t take long for Leitzel to upstage her. Alfredo was the longawaited son of Edward Codona, owner of a traveling circus. Born in Mexico, Alfredo spent most of his youth watching his sister, Victoria, receive tutoring on the high wire. It was her prowess that got him to Chicago. It was she who saw his heart break when Leitzel said their romance was over. And so, in 1909, Leitzel went her way and Alfredo went his.
She married, divorced, and married again but always had lovers on the side, powerful men who visited her tent after her performances. Her fame grew, and she made “Mister John” Ringling a lot of money. On the trapeze, the grown-up Alfredo “had no peers.” His fame, too, was growing and he had his sights set on a feat that everyone said was impossible. He married a fellow troupe member, but he never forgot his first love. And then, eighteen years after their last kiss, Alfred Codona found himself working beneath the same roof as his beloved Leitzel…
So you say you love a good romance filled with drama. Add 1920s intrigue, period settings, elephants, and a dash of OMG, and you’ve got “Queen of the Air.”
Author Dean Jensen, in fact, makes Leitzel and Alfredo’s story seem more like a novel, with rich settings and good character shaping. But it’s no novel, and in his afterword, Jensen explains how he researched this “epic” story. Long before you get that far, though, you’ll be treated to a few hours of stupendous feats under the Big Top, and back to an innocent time that wasn’t so innocent after all. I could barely tear myself away from this book, and I think you’ll love it, too. For anyone who knows that stardust can be a tarnished and magic is an illusion, “Queen of the Air” absolutely soars.
A beloved pig pal with the grace of a queen named ‘Oink’ BY JIMMY REED Columnist
Even though my old mentor and boyhood best friend Jaybird enjoyed the company of dogs and cats, his favorite pets were pigs. He would have agreed with Sir Winston Churchill, who once said, “Always remember, a cat looks down on men, a dog looks up to men, but a pig will look men right in the eye and see his equal.” I was acquainted with a few of Jaybird’s beloved pig pals, among them Peggy Pokechop, Hortense Hog, and Clarabelle Chitlins, but the pig he loved most was named
Oink. After a day of chopping cotton, he and I would relax on his cabin porch and watch the sun slide beneath the flat Mississippi Delta horizon. He would kick back in his rocking chair, pull out his old cigarette case (one of my most cherished possessions to this day) and light a Camel. Directly, he would fetch a bottle of corn whiskey, and yell out, “Oink, come on up and jine us.” We’d hear an excited grunt, and Oink would trot up the steps, nuzzle Jaybird’s hand, and sit beside him with all the
decorum and grace of a queen. You may have known a few well-behaved pigs, but when it came to poise, manners, and etiquette, none could outdo Oink. Although her great beauty caused Jaybird’s boars to engage in tusk wars, she was demure, coy, and totally self-effacing about her drop-dead good looks. Long, curly lashes swept down over her brown, intelligent eyes, her face was always fixed in a pleasant grin, a couple of incisors poked cutely beside her jowls, and her ears, festooned with bristly hair, rotated con-
stantly, indicating that she keenly enjoyed good conversation, especially Jaybird’s jokes. She was also keenly interested in Jaybird’s corn whiskey. As she waited expectantly, he’d pour a dram or two in her bowl. At first, he held it to her mouth and let her sip, but soon he taught her to hold the bowl with her front feet and raise it to her mouth, although he later regretted teaching her this skill because, as the evening progressed, she left off sipping and began slurping in a most un-ladylike way. And, bless her heart,
she understood English — not that of a pedantic, grammar and syntax English professor, but the field hand vernacular that Jaybird used. Once, I witnessed an amazing example of this un-swinish ability. Jaybird was very protective of the rose bushes in his front yard. Oink was rooting too close to one of them, and instantly he put together a string of prepositions and shouted, “Oink, you better come on away from up in around behind dem bushes.” The pig grunted apologetically and trotted away. Although Jaybird loved
cracklins, chitlins, hams, and pork chops, he never met a live pig he didn’t like. In my mind’s eye, I can still see the three of us on his front porch — a wise old black man, a white boy he raised, and a pampered pet … a pig named Oink. (Daily Corinthian columnist and Oxford resident Jimmy Reed is a newspaper columnist, author and college professor. His latest collection of short stories is “Boss, Jaybird And Me: Anthology Of Short Stories.” He can be contacted at jimmycecilreedjr@ gmail.com.)
Man who drove Hank Williams on last trip dies ATF evidence causes BY BOB JOHNSON Associated Press
M O N T G O M E RY, Ala. — Charles Carr, who was just 18 when he drove country music legend Hank Williams on his final, lonesome journey, has died. The director of the Hank Williams Museum in Montgomery, Beth Petty, said Carr, a retired investor, died Monday after a brief illness. He was 79. Carr’s son, Charles Lands Carr, said his father didn’t talk much about being Williams’ driver on that final trip on Jan. 1, 1953, until late in his life. Williams died during the
“When he was younger he didn’t have an interest in being defined by that moment in his life.” Lands Carr Son night in his 1952 blue Cadillac near Bluefield, W.Va., while he and Carr were on their way to Canton. The Cadillac is on display in the Hank Williams Museum in Montgomery. Carr began to speak more about Williams’ last ride after he became involved with the museum. “When he was younger he didn’t have an inter-
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est in being defined by that moment in his life,” Lands Carr said. In later years, Lands Carr said the museum “embraced” his father who became more comfortable talking about that trip with Williams. “If they invited him, he made a point of being there,” Lands Carr said of the museum.
Petty described Carr as a friend of the Hank Williams museum and as a man who “was always kind to fans of Hank.” Petty said Carr never tried to profit from the fact that he was driving the country music singer on that last trip. Carr was a friend of the Williams’ family when Williams asked him to drive him from Montgomery to a New Year’s Day concert in Canton, Ohio. Carr’s father owned a Montgomery cab company at the time. “My father drove for them from time to time,” Lands Carr said.
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Associated Press
JACKSON, Tenn. — An evacuation of the federal building in Jackson has been called off after suspicious materials turned out to be evidence shipped by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. ATF Special Agent Michael Knight told The Jackson Sun that Friday’s delivery to the Ed Jones Federal building was labeled properly by the agency’s lab, but when screeners looked at the material through an X-ray, they contacted
Michael Knight ATF agent police. Jackson Police Lt. J.D. Hale said it is standard procedure for security to call the department if screeners detect suspicious packages. The ATF’s Knight said the agency appreciates screeners taking a close look. But in his words: “In the end, it was something that was legitimate.”
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A NNOUNCEMENT Dental Arts of Corinth, P.L.L.C.
would like to welcome the patients of Frank T. Dalton, D.M.D. Family Dentistry to our practice. We are excited about the opportunity to continue providing the dental health care for you and your family that you were accustomed to with Dr. Dalton. We hope you will give us the opportunity to get to know you and earn your trust. Please contact our office if you have any questions. Dental Arts of Corinth, P.L.L.C. 1025 Foote St. • Corinth, MS 38834 (662)-287-3156 Edward S. Knight, Jr., D.D.S. Mark R. Mazurkiewicz, D.M.D. C. William Bailey, D.M.D.
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federal building evacuation
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CLOSING
Kossuth Family Health Clinic Located at 820 Hwy 2 Kossuth, MS announces it will be closing as of July 18th, 2013. We encourage all patients of the clinic to find a primary health care provider to continue your care. It has been a great pleasure assisting all our patients with their health care needs for the past ten years. Please come by the clinic to request a copy of your records prior to July 18, 2013. We wish you the best of health in the future and may God bless you greatly.
Betty Hayhurst, MSN, APRN, BC, FNP