Lightnin' Hopkins Park? Why not?

Houston is soliciting ideas for a name to the new downtown park that is to be built.

Slampo has proposed naming it after the late blues musician Lightnin' Hopkins. We've spent the last 5 minutes trying to think of something better and failed, so we hereby endorse the proposal.

As Slampo explains:

A park would be a fitting tribute to Hopkins, too. A park is for relaxation and recreation, two of the enduring themes of Hopkins’ prodigious recording career, whether he was singing about throwing dice or watching the ponies run or getting drunk last night and the night before or traveling to Louisiana to acquire a mojo hand that would mess up a woman’s mind.

Yes, we can see ourselves throwing a Frisbee and listening to "Bald-Headed Woman" in Lightnin’ Hopkins Park, right there in the shadow of the George R. Brown Convention Center.

The idea reminds us of the last we time we saw Hopkins, way back in 1976 in Austin.

Playing bass on stage with Hopkins was a University of Texas law student who was about to run for a state House seat in Houston.

That's pretty cool, I thought, so I interviewed him and wrote a column for The Daily Texan, the student newspaper at The University, about this ambitious, charismatic young fellow. Next thing I know, he was elected. And it turns out he clipped the column I wrote and distributed it during the campaign.

So that's how I helped elect Ron Wilson, who turned out to be a bit of a loose cannon (allegedly) in the Texas Legislature, but at least he wasn't dull and provided a lot of good copy for the newspapers.