Wilson Post Blogs

By JOHN L. SLOAN
“Hard to find a better eating fish than a walter.” Said Harold Dotson. “They aren’t much to look at and they don’t put up much of a fight but they sure plate up right nice.” Made me look again at the five fish cooling on the bag of ice in the Coleman cooler. I was starting to get hungry.

A walter is a slang name for a walleye. They are a member of the pike family and have all the attendant teeth that go with that group. They also have weird eyes. They are often called “marble eyes”. In daylight, they appear to be blind.

Senor Dotson and I were putting along on the carp arc, a small pontoon boat with a 25-hp kicker and a pump that pumped water right out of the lake and allowed a hot fisherman to cool off. We had four rods in holders-two with night crawler rigs and two with weighted, long-lipped crankbaits. The crawler rigs were winning 4-1.

Dear Ken: Who played the “Soup Nazi” on “Seinfeld”? What other shows or movies has he been in?
The actor is Larry Thomas, and he was nominated for an Emmy for the role. Born Larry Thomasof, he has appeared on such TV shows as “Caroline in the City,” “Arli$$,” “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch,” “C.S.I.,” “Drake and Josh” and “Arrested Development.” His movie credits include “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery,” “Postal,” “Not Another B Move,” and he will be in four films this year. In May he appeared in character as the temperamental soup cook at a New York Mets game where he told the crowd, “No soup for you!” I’m sure they lapped it up.

By JOHN L. SLOAN, June 15, 2011
The use of bait for hunting deer is controversial and involves a complex set of biological, social, and ethical issues. Biologically, population influences related to baiting can be important in the dissemination and maintenance of disease and can affect the natural movement, distribution, and behavior of deer. Baiting can also influence survival and reproduction of deer, particularly when it moves towards supplemental feeding.

Finally, concentrations of deer at bait sites may lead to effects on other species, habitats, and ecosystems.

Just fish in the DAM SHADE
By JOHN L. SLOAN, June 8, 2011
It is a cool, 97 degrees. Even the trees are sweating. Not Judge Dave Durham, fishing guide Richard Simms and I. We are cool and comfortable bobbing gently in the shade of Chickamauga Dam. The dam rears high above us, providing plenty of cool shade. We are fishing for bluegill.

However, that is just temporary. The ‘gills are just for bait. We are cat fishing on a day that will approach record heat. Probably we will use chicken breasts, cut in strips. The ‘gills are just for insurance.

Dear Ken: How many Oscars has Robert De Niro won? Where did he grow up and what was his first movie appearance?
The native New Yorker, 67, who grew up in the Little Italy section of Manhattan and later Greenwich Village, has been nominated for six Academy Awards and won two. His wins came in the films “Raging Bull” and “The Godfather: Part II.” The other nominations came for “Taxi Driver,” “The Deer Hunter,” “Awakenings” and “Cape Fear.” He first appeared onscreen in 1965’s “Three Rooms in Manhattan” but received no screen credit. His first credit came in “Greetings” in 1968, and his first boffo performance came in 1973’s “Bang the Drum Slowly.”    

Dear Ken: What is Charlotte Rae of “Facts of Life” doing these days?
The actress, who portrayed Edna Garrett, the housekeeper/chaperone on “Diff’rent Strokes” and “Facts of Life,” most recently appeared in an episode of “Pretty Little Liars.” Born Charlotte Rae Lubotsky in Milwaukee, Rae, 85, has done it all from cabaret and Broadway to film and TV. Of her best-known TV role she says, “We really worked very hard to give the shows quality and not go into things like sex as a sport, or things that are very misleading to young people. We had a social responsibility and we kept to it, which made me very happy.” Her first TV role came as Sylvia Schnauser on the 1961-63 sitcom “Car 54, Where Are You?” That show’s first season was recently released on DVD, and it is hilarious. 

Dear Ken: Now starring in the new series “Body of Proof,” what other TV shows has Dana Delany starred in?
Delaney, 55, was a regular on “Desperate Housewives,” “Kidnapped,” “Presidio Med,” “Pasadena,” “China Beach” and “Sweet Surrender.” She also has provided the voice of Lois Lane in a couple of animated series. Several weeks back, she placed ninth in “People” magazine’s annual 100 Most Beautiful list. 

Dear Ken: Who did the original voices of Fred, Wilma, Barney and Betty on “The Flintstones”?
Yabba-dabba-do! So glad you asked. Alan Reed was Fred Flintstone, and Jean Vander Pyle was Wilma and Pebbles. Mel Blanc did Barney Rubble, and Bea Benaderet was Betty Rubble. As for Dino, that was Blanc again.

If you have a trivia question about actors, singers, movies, TV shows or pop culture, e-mail your query to Ken Beck at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Dear Ken: I just saw the movie “Water for Elephants.” Tell me about the handsome but villainous dude who played August, the owner of the circus who beat the elephant?
That would be Austrian actor Christoph Waltz, 54, who was born into a theater family. He had a very workmanlike career for 30 years in German film and television, and then director Quentin Tarantino cast him as Col. Hans Landa in “Inglourious B……s,” which made him an international superstar and won him a best supporting actor Oscar. The divorced father of four children speaks German, French and English. He next stars as Cardinal Richelieu in “The Three Musketeers.” Regarding “Water for Elephants,” the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga provided a vintage steam locomotive and a three-mile track for the production, which filmed in Chattanooga last July and August. Lookout Mountain also appears in the movie.

By JOHN L. SLOAN
I got plum hot the other day and that made me think of this. We were on the Tres Sombreros Ranch in the southeast corner of New Mexico and it was around the first of September. I reckon it was about 110 for an average midday temperature. We were shooting a hunting video and it was hot enough to drive me and the one of the camera girls crazy. We got so crazy we jumped into a windmill fed water tank not realizing it was 12 feet deep.

Good thing we could swim. See, we were living in teepees. Not air-conditioned wikiups, teepees. They were comfortable but at night, when it cooled off to about 95, they did tend to still be hot. I think that may be the first time I ever saw a cholla just get up and leave. See, plants, they aint supposed to walk. But thisun just walked away looking for some shade, I reckon.

Dear Ken: I used to love watching “The Red Skelton Show” with my grandparents when I was a child. What can you tell me about Skelton?

The comic was born Richard Bernard Skelton in Vincennes, Ind., and he proved entertaining in vaudeville and on radio and Broadway as well as in movies and TV. While he made more than 30 films, it his “Red Skelton Hour” TV show, which ran from 1951 to 1971, for which he was best known and where he portrayed such characters as Clem Kadiddlehopper, Freddie the Freeloader, Junior the Mean Widdle Kid, Sheriff Dead Eye and told his jokes about two cross-eyed seagulls named Gertrude and Heathcliffe. The comedian was also quite a painter and love painting images of clowns which were sold for thousands of dollars. Married three times, he had two children. Skelton died of pneumonia in 1997 at age 84. His closing line at the end of each TV show was, “Good night, and may God bless.”     

Dear Ken: I saw rock singer Rod Stewart doing a TV interview recently and he looked great. How old is he? What were his biggest hits?

Roderick David Stewart, who has sold more than 100 million records, looks fabulous for 66 years of age. He dropped out of school at 15 hoping to become a professional soccer player and eventually got into music, singing in a variety of bands, but his big break came in 1967 when he became lead singer of the Jeff Beck Group. It was 1971 when he struck gold as a solo singer with his huge hit “Maggie May.” His other top tunes include “Reason to Believe,” “You Wear It Well,” “Sailing,” “Tonight’s the Night,” “I Don’t Want To Talk About It, “The First Cut Is the Deepest,”  “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy,“ “Baby Jane” and “All for Love.” The singer has eight children, including a 3-month-old.  

By JOHN L. SLOAN,
The Wilson Post
It was just about as perfect as you could ask for. The nights were cooling, on their way to frosty and the days warmed up to high sixties and maybe a seventy thrown in for good measure. My doe was skinned, quartered and on ice. Well mostly she was. The tenderloins and a piece of back strap had gone the way all good deer meat should go -- supper.

BY JOHN L. SLOAN
One of my favorite outdoor writers is Gene Hill. One of my favorite archers is Howard Hill. One of my favorite smallmouth lakes is Center Hill. What is it about Hills that attracts me? I guess some of it may be mystery. You never know what a particular Hill may hit you with. It may be a trick shot, a surprise phrase or a fish that you did not expect. Some too, may well be sheer beauty. An arrow etched just perfectly against a blue sky or a “set” of words that become a picture or fog, low on the water that suddenly becomes a rock bluff.