Monday, December 24, 2007

San Antonio, TX

Remember the Alamo!

This is an old joke but it is true. The Alamo area still consists of about 200 white people surrounded by thousands of Mexicans.


Other than that, there is not much to San Antonio other than a man-made riverwalk shopping area, rude homeless people and, drum roll please, an animatronic Davey Crockett!

In case you did not know, the Alamo was a mission used by the Mexican Army to control the Texas territory. This was a time when, in a strange twist of irony, the Americans were considered the illegal immigrants -- in Mexico. Rather than establish themselves by roofing and cutting people’s lawns, the American rebels took over the Alamo. This really ticked off the Mexican dictator, General Santa Anna, who called himself the Napolean of the West. I guess this was because he was short and crazy. So in February 1836, Santa Anna decided to bring over 6,000 troops to attack the Alamo to make a statement that he would not tolerate such uprisings. The 200 American defenders held their ground, using slogans like “Victory or death”. A local beer company would like you to believe they had other slogans, too.

This group included Jim Bowie, the knife guy, and Davey Crockett, king of the wild frontier. The Americans stood their ground but were obviously overwhelmed. Their heroic legacy is known worldwide as taking the ultimate sacrifice for freedom and eventually led to the Texas Revolution a few months later.

Now to the rude homeless people. They are ridiculous. The first night I was in the city, I saw a homeless lady reading a newspaper. I thought you were supposed to use newspapers for blankets. I also thought that if you can read a newspaper, maybe you should find a job.

And everyone is asking for spare change. One time, while talking to a friend on my cell phone, a guy interrupts me with, “scuse me. Scuse me. Do you have a nickel?” A nickel? I told him, “All I’ve got is a quarter. Do you have change?”

On a serious note, the Rivercenter Comedy Club was a lot of fun even though they decorate for Christmas like they have seen a real Christmas Tree.


It was nice that the Notre Dame Alumni Club came to the show, too. Here I am with comedian J.R. Brow and the club members.


No comments: