In this Impromptus, I published a letter from Texas Hill Country, or at least about that blessed region. The reader spoke of a house that has three flags flying: the Star-Spangled Banner, the Texas flag, and the Israeli flag. He said, “Every time I’m in the Hill Country and we drive by that house, I think of a Texan I heard who admiringly described the Israelis as ‘bad-ass Hebrews.’”

A reader now writes,

Jay,
That Texan might well have been singer-songwriter James McMurtry (son of the novelist Larry McMurtry, by the way). [Wow.] The phrase “bad-ass Hebrews” comes from his song “Choctaw Bingo,” here.

Glad to know it.

P.S. I also like that, in this song, McMurtry pronounces “Illinois” with a “z” sound at the end.