All Hail Liz

My husband watches a show on the History Channel called Swamp People. This means that I watch the show, too, because our nightly routine is that I sit beside him and read while he flips channels. I generally read through the episodes but I still know what is going on.

Swamp People is about alligator hunting. But as with all of these reality shows, it is the personalities that give the show any semblance of interest.

One of the characters is Liz Cavalier. She turned up in the second season to help King-of-the-Swamp Troy Landry when his other hired hand had something else to do. Landry's "Choot 'em Elitabeth" became one of those lines that you say around the house sometimes, just for a laugh.

In Season 3, Liz went out on her own, and she's the Queen of the Swamp. Last year she took on a young woman named Kristi as a helper, but this year when the show started, Liz, who is in her early 40s, was working with her daughter, Jessica. This was because Kristi was busy taking care of her farm and daughter Jessica didn't want her mom out on the bayou alone.

The reason Mom shouldn't have been alone? Liz had just had her gallbladder removed but she was out there wrestling 800-pound alligators even though the doctor said she shouldn't do that.

Since I just had my gallbladder removed, I know how Liz might have been feeling, and I simply have to salute a woman who could have her belly cut open and then go out and wrestle an alligator.

I'm much too wimpy to do something like that. Heck, I haven't even picked up a full bag of groceries yet.

There were a few times on the show when Liz grabbed her side and howled in pain. I have to wonder if she ripped a stitch or two. I mean, damn, woman.

So anyway, 50-year-old me is no alligator queen. I ain't even a queen of the grocery.