Onward Through the Fog, Investment Bankers!

The other day I suggested a theme (and probably a headline) for an article I'm writing to an editor of mine about the state of the financial markets: Onward Through the Fog. Naturally, I didn't make up such a fine headline, I had inspiration:

It's a bumper sticker I picked up during one of a number of visits I made to Austin in the '80s. In case it isn't legible, the person depicted on the left is Stephen Austin. The copyright says 1985, so it could have been any time between then and 1990. I learned later that sideoats grama is a short prairie grass that's the state grass of Texas. (Which has a state grass? So do other states.)

"Onward Thru the Fog" is motto is associated with Oat Willie's, a famed head shop in Austin. In fact, it seems to be a trademark of Oat Willie's Ltd. Inc. Which would lead me to think that Side Oats Grama was a branch of Oat Willie's that hasn't lasted to our time. Or maybe it has, but I can't find any trace of it, and it's too late to call my friends in Austin to ask. Oat Willie's, however, is definitely still around.

The odd thing is, I'm fairly sure I never visited either Oat Willie's or Side Oats Grama at any time, so I'm hard pressed to say exactly where I got the bumper sticker. And yet I still have it more than 20 years later. It isn't stuck to anything: it's merely propped up by a row of books.

I do remember buying bells (that I still own) on a couple of occasions in '80s Austin at a Wicca-Lesbian crystal shop. Of course, it wasn't called that, but that's how I remember it. One can find the most interesting retail deep in the heart of Texas. Anyway, one of them is a Noah bell, which is still around the house somewhere, though it lost its wooden clapper years ago. That probably makes it less effective in one of its purposes, scaring away evil spirits.