bizarre_injury_inflicted_by_an_ostrich epitome of incomprehensibility This was on the Genius lyrics site. I was looking up "johnny cash fulsom prison" to see if I spelled it right (I didn't; it's Folsom Prison - Folsom Prison Blues, even). Anyway, there was a little Q&A bit under the main article, and one answer said that Johnny Cash came clean of his drug addiction in the sixties...except for getting hooked on prescription painkillers in 1983 after "a bizarre injury inflicted by an ostrich." And that exact phrase is a link to an article. 240222 ... e_o_i The article it links to is more interesting and comprehensive - but alas, does not have this exact phrase: https://web.archive.org/web/20050426225724/http://www.exclaim.ca/index.asp?layid=22&csid=1&csid1=439 240222 ... raze apparently johnny wrote about this experience in his memoir. seems he had a lot of animals on his property by the early eighties. one of them was an ostrich named waldo. he was taking a walk when he heard waldo start hissing at him. johnny figured he was upset because his mate had recently passed away. he found a stick that was as long as he was tall. he picked it up. he said once that his arms were too short to box with god. he wasn't about to let an ostrich gore him before he met his maker on his own terms. "when he started moving toward me," he wrote, "i went on the offensive, taking a good hard swipe at him. i missed. he wasn't there. he was in the air, and a split second later he was on his way down again, with that big toe of his, larger than my size-thirteen shoe, extended toward my stomach. he made contact — i'm sure there was never any question he wouldn't — and frankly, i got off lightly. all he did was break my two lower ribs and rip my stomach open down to my belt. if the belt hadn't been good and strong, with a solid buckle, he'd have spilled my guts exactly the way he meant to." he managed to hit waldo in the leg with the stick. that was enough to back him off. the ostrich felt he'd made his point. johnny was hesitant to confirm the tale's veracity when it was leaked to the press. he was sure people would think it was some drug-fuelled hallucination. but sometimes what sounds apocryphal is just a case of the truth wearing some very strange clothes. even after his injuries drove him to self-medicate, johnny allowed waldo to live in peace on the grounds until he decided he'd be happier elsewhere. i kind of want to read that book now. 240223 ... e_o_i Thanks for fleshing that out - what was at first an odd set of words together turned into a fascinating story. I don't know what it's like to be attacked by an ostrich (don't want to know!) but I've had an animal unexpectedly turn on me because of a misunderstanding. Still have the scar on my left hand to prove it. And even that little bite was an emotional shock as well as a physical one. All I can say is Cash was brave to keep that ostrich around. 240224 what's it to you? who go blather from