OUR BELIEVE IT OR DON’T DEPT.: The...

OUR BELIEVE IT OR DON’T DEPT.: The Texas House of Representatives has just made rock’s bearded wonders, ZZ Top, one of the official Heroes of the State of Texas. This puts the band in pretty good company, considering that previous honorees include such Lone Star legends as Davy Crockett, John Wayne and former Houston Oiler Earl Campbell. What did the band do to deserve such an honor--surely it wasn’t just for the way bassist Dusty Hill gave himself a Texas-size hot-foot when he shot himself in the toe when he was taking his boots off last year. According to Houston-based Rep. Ron Wilson, a former musician himself who once played bass for Lightning Hopkins, the band “has carried on the rich tradition of Southern blues right up into the high-tech ‘80s.” . . . And what’s the most expensive postcard we’ve bought this year? The one that comes inside every copy of the new UB-40 album, “Rat in the Kitchen.” It’s addressed to P. W. Botha, president of South Africa, where thousands of black South Africans have been jailed for protesting the official government policy of apartheid. Noting that Botha has presided over a “grave situation” that includes killing of unarmed demonstrators, torture of detainees and imprisonment of prisoners of conscience, it urges the South African leader to “take all necessary steps to ensure respect for basic human rights in South Africa.”