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The truth is, 'Liar's' tales fun to read
By Richard Nilsen
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 1, 2002
Jim
Cook calls himself the Official State Liar of Arizona. Don't believe
him; it's not true.
But
it is typical of the information that emanates from his Wickenburg
Institute for Factual Diversity. In other words, Cook is a practitioner
of that elegant tradition of the Western tall tale.
Cook
is a former writer and editor at The Arizona Republic and
has forgotten more about Arizona history that any 10 newcomers
ever will remember. His history column was a fixture at The
Republic until his retirement in 1994.
In
his newest book, Arizona Liar's Journal (Cowboy Miner Productions,
$14.95), he combines some questionable autobiography with even
more questionable history, all to the greater entertainment of
the reader.
Cook
is a native Arizonan, born, as he puts it, a long time ago. "When
I was a kid, those trees at the Petrified Forest were still alive.
Montezuma still lived in Montezuma's Castle. The Painted Desert
was still white sand with numbers on it. I helped build the Mogollon
Rim, and I was in Tucson the exciting day that knives and forks
were introduced."
He goes on: "The year I was born, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt
commissioned Del Webb and Frank Lloyd Wright to build Camelback
Mountain near Phoenix. They had a big fight about the design."
If there is a touch of mendacity in his memoirs, he says there
is good reason. "I was privileged to hear the yarns of storytellers
who would lie on credit when they could tell the truth for free.
There was always a strong bull market in Arizona."
Among those prevaricators were Dick Wick Hall, who invented Salome,
Ariz., Cap Hance, famous interpreter of the Grand Canyon, "and
several recent governors."
Cook calls himself a "recovering newspaperman" and relishes the
freedom that retirement has given him from slavish bondage to
mere fact.
Chapters in the book discuss things such as Arizona's Truth in
Lying Law, the Lost Dutchman Sawmill, the Spam Olympics, and Aunt
Tillie's Chili. You'll learn about the Moonshine Saguaro, the
Boogie Bush and the road to Hellanbach. Several of Cook's previous
books are still in print. No recent immigrant from the lawn-covered
states back East should miss his indispensable Arizona 101.
It is, quite seriously, the best introduction to living in the
state. And if you have an interest in what happens in the sky
above the state, you should check out Dry Humor: Tales of Arizona's
Weather. He also has the Arizona Trivia Book.
But
for sustained reading, or something to keep in the smallest fully
useful room in the house, you can't do better than the Liar's
Journal.
You
might actually learn something, if you can separate out the reliable
from the merely improbable.
"From time to time, facts will creep into this book," he writes.
"For that, I apologize."
Reach
the reporter at (602) 444-8823
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