A Sea Of Red

The Texas Historical Commission agreed to pay $550,000 for a Davy Crockett letter that might not be genuine, making it potentially one of the poorest purchasing decisions since I bought a Betamax videotape player in 1986.

State officials initially said they were "99.9 percent" certain the letter, purported to be Crockett's last written correspondence in 1836, was authentic. But they backed off after skeptics pointed out disparities, such as repeated use of the word "schnizzle" and a reference to Crockett wanting to "get my drink on."