Purple people everywhere mourn

In Erick, Oklahoma, there's an intersection: Sheb Wooley Avenue and Roger Miller Boulevard.

Roger Miller died in 1992, dang him, and now Sheb Wooley's gone too — leukemia, at age 82.

Wooley's biggest hit under his own name was the 1958 novelty "Purple People Eater", reportedly the answer to a kid's riddle; later, he penned the theme to Hee Haw, and released a number of wacky (and ostensibly inebriated) country-music parodies under the name "Ben Colder". A fulsome Colder couplet:

And Wooley sustained an acting career as well; he was Pete Nolan in the Fifties western Rawhide, which also featured a young fellow named Clint Eastwood.

Still, most people who remember Sheb will remember the one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater who wanted to get a job in a rock and roll band, and I bet that was just fine with him.

Tequila.