On that same note of country cynicism, mate, I recall the only time I ever went to the Opry in Nashville... it was 1984/5-ish, and as I was working on a music paper I got a backstage pass to the Opryhouse. I got to meet Roy Acuff, who at the time was aged about two hundred, and who as I recall had been given a specially-built house in the Opry complex.

'That's nice', I said, naively.

'No', said the agent who told me about it. 'They're just waiting for him to die, so they can turn it straight into a museum with all his possessions there, ready to show off...'

(As it happens, I met Mr. Monroe there that night - had I thought about it, I could have asked for his tie. Or perhaps his Y-fronts....)

- Ian B