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Book Review: The World According to Baxter Black - Quips, Quirks & Quotes |
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Monday, 08 September 2008 |
By Baxter Black. Illustrated by Etienne “A-10” Etcheverry • Copyright 2008, 156 pages, $19.95 plus postage, Smythe-sewn hardcover with laminated Litho wrap •ISBN-13: 978-0-939343-52-2; ISBN-10: 0-939343-52-5. Coyote Cowboy Company
P.O. Box 2190, Benson, Arizona 85602, 800-654-2550, baxterblack.com
Imagine the banner: “Baxter Black for Vice President!” Bumper sticker-BB4VP! Strangely but surely, this typically scintillating print creation from the famous Arizona scholar, seer, team roper, and writer puts to rest the question of his availability for a run. It glibly wags the doctor’s quintessential campaign mantra: coming outta Chute #9 on the Gesundheit Ticket, friend of earth and man, shouting Goodwill to all, promising a coyote in every pot. Poet in the running, he’s electable!
He’s a candidate imminently suited for the second slot on any popular party wish list. Count on him to wear a tie the color of the main course. He could borrow funds for the Republicans, spend them for the Democrats, lose them for the Libertarians, or vice versa. All his policies are in this book, distinctively consummated in the Gesundheit campaign slogan: “I’d give my right arm to be ambidextrous.” If you question the tools and expertise this VP candidate has to offer the country, they’re in The WORLD. It gerrymanders his wisdom for the benefit of all those who might vote. It’s tooled up with the similes, metaphors, and nuance to blast away your cynicism and deliver rip snorting laughter out of the blue. Like the doctor ordered: “...this book is full of Baxterisms, not to be confused with serious writing.” Imperfect Example: Our chartered fishing vessel proved as seaworthy as a Crescent wrench.
America’s Renaissance cowboy poet has recruited another creative artist to embellish his text. I chuckled at the cartoon drawings by Etienne Etcheverry whose signature thumbnail sketches of scrufty horned cows, felicific cowboys in twenty-gallon hats, and lassoing chickens adorn the hilarious Baxterian text. His drawings range from just plain goofy to sublimely goofy. My favorite is his irreproachable rendering of the farmer with pitchfork, pig ala chicken on a leash at his side, dashed off in true Grant Woodian fashion from “Conrad’s Farming Career.” A Vice President could do worse than have a cartoonist of Etcheverry’s talent as pencil knight at the site of his Washington D.C. Camelot.
The crack in the blue marble world on the cover, designed by Becky Harvey, seems to be easing the load off the shoulders of Baxter, resembling a benevolent, poetic Atlas on horseback, struggling with his supporting role. One of the Afterthoughts from the format says: “It’s not how much you make, it’s, did they get their money’s worth.” Send the versatile veterinarian the money, get the book, I guarantee you’ll get your money’s worth. Baxter Black for Vice President. AFTERTHOUGHT-I always nod to a cowboy hat, a real one. This book’s a real one.
Fasten the gate, Bob Howdy, PhD
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