Tickling catfish
Subtitle: a Texan looks at culture from Amarillo to Borneo
By: by Jerry Craven ; illustrated by Jean Dixon.
Edition: 1st ed.
Series: A Wardlaw book
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: College Station
Language: eng
Number of pages: 147
Subjects: Manners and customs; America wit and humor -- Texas; Texas -- Social life and customs
Description: Tall tales and "true stories" are mixed here with author Jerry Craven's mind-teasing musings on culture and language. Starting with West Texas, Tickling Catfish builds its way surely through anecdotes and allusion into the ways of people elsewhere - from a street musician playing a leaf in Mexico City to gem smugglers in Malaysia, from Texas boys tripping cows to Singaporians listening to dogs bark in Chinese. And all the stories are told with an appropriate dose of sophisticated prairie humor.

In his art of telling stories, Craven balances timing, rhythm, style, and content. His style is at once elegant and simple, a mixture of up-tempo phrasing and brief story lines that flow naturally to one of three conclusions: punchline, moral, or wish. The stories share observations on customs, language, home, and human nature and serve as a hedge against parochialism, even when focusing on snipe hunts, armadillo grabs, and hog boxing.

Whimsically illustrated by Jean Dixon and recognizable to readers anywhere, Tickling Catfish offers new, recent, or would-be Texans a cheerful companion in their quest for full Texas citizenship.