Saturday, December 03, 2005

nut farmer obit from oregonian

amy martinez starke wrote a nifty obit in november for andy loughridge, a nut farmer who liked to use "nonsensical phrases that he seemed to have invented."

she listed some of his nonsense phrases including: "If that don't cap old Noley!" That was one that actually meant something: Can you believe it?

she cleverly used the same phrase as the punchline at the end of her story.

in fact, amy did a terrific job of injecting gems that reminded me of the kind of language that neighbors might use in conversation over the back fence. for example:

When Marjorie Roberts, his high school sweetheart, headed to California, he and a friend also headed west on a motorcycle, and Andy just "happened" to run into Marjorie in the Los Angeles area.

and:

For the next 60 years, Andy farmed filberts. (Some may have called them hazelnuts, but Andy figured they were filberts and that's what he called them.)

bravo, amy.

here's the link to Andy's obit.

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