It's a quote from Buck Owens. Back in the 1990s there was a brief article about him in the local paper (either the Lake County News-Herald or the Cleveland Plain Dealer; my parents subscribed to both). It had a photo of him with the quote printed in bold beneath it. Here's a reconstruction:
I don't know much about Buck Owens, but I know what I like, and I decided that this -- the highlighting of the content-free quote, the look on his face, the way the guy was dressed -- was just about the best thing the News-Herald (or possibly Plain Dealer) had ever published. Well, except for that even more quotable one about the guy who ate 25 eggs every day "for complex psychological reasons."
"I know [insert vague statement], no doubt. I'm not really sure how I feel about it" became a catchphrase in my family and circle of friends, and a very versatile one. I pioneered that. I'm not really sure how I feel about it.
That was a long time ago. Why was it in my head when I woke up this morning? I know there must have been some reason, no doubt. . . . Anyway, I tried my best to track down the original article on the Internet but, unsurprisingly, failed. I did find the photo, though -- from the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, into which he was inducted in 1996, so I suppose that was the occasion for the article.
Later in the morning, I checked some blogs and found a new post by William Wright: "Sync-fairies and writing again," in which he describes how his syncs have been interfacing with mine (including, most strikingly, a persistent delusion that he himself is literally a drowning boy in an Itladian-type scenario). He introduces these reflections with this:
In that Sync-fest post, the Jaredite-UFO-saucer points he was making weren't the only thing that caught my attention. He devotes significant space to this concept of a 'Drowning Boy'. This stood out to me for reasons I will explain below, before transitioning into some open thoughts on these syncs and how I feel about them (preview: I am not sure how I feel).
Precognition? Telepathy? Synchronicity? Just a very common turn of phrase which may not actually have been pioneered by Buck Owens? I know it must be one of those things, no doubt. . . .
William Wright mentions at one point becoming rather distressed by the invasion of the sync fairies into his life, and that playing a role in his decision to stop blogging. I know of at least two other cases in which readers of this blog have ended up with psychological issues with a little help from my friends. Is it irresponsible of me to share all this stuff so openly? I was bred en bawn in a brier-patch, but for those less accustomed to high strangeness it can be rather shattering.
One of Buck Owens's hit songs, I learned today, was called "Ruby (Are You Mad)." That, combined with the idea of hard-to-articulate feelings, made me think of this famous question posed by the late Charles Manson. Whatever you think of him -- murderer, patsy, spook, or something else -- he was undeniably a gifted orator.
Well? Do you?
