If you are a Jeopardy fan, I've found the greatest site in the world.
It has a list of every question and every answer of every episode. (Click on a season, then a show, and you will see the board that pretty much resembles the Jeopardy screen. Hover your mouse over the dollar amount for the answer to appear.)
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7.22.2006
I'll Take "Tired Head" For A Thousand
If you are a Jeopardy fan, I've found the greatest site in the world.
It has a list of every question and every answer of every episode. (Click on a season, then a show, and you will see the board that pretty much resembles the Jeopardy screen. Hover your mouse over the dollar amount for the answer to appear.)
Banned Commercial
From Yahoo's Most Viewed News:
WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Japanese carmaker Nissan said Friday it has pulled a raunchy commercial starring "Sex and the City" actress Kim Cattrall from New Zealand television after complaints over its content. (more)
And, of course, you can see it on youtube.com. (It's suggestive, but far from "shocking")
7.21.2006
Valuing Life
From the (normally) boring Morning News blog:
The DMN Web site is lighting up with reader comments about this morning's story on Sarah Anne Walker [who is pretty and white] and why she has gotten so much more media attention than other women who were murdered in July [one pictured to the right]. Basic question is whether society values the life of attractive people or white people more than average-looking people or various people of color.
We couldn't be that shallow, could we?
Car Washes
The Messenger's Update promoted four different fund raising car washes this weekend. Four!
And not one of them was the car wash at the Beer Barn up on 287 in Decatur where I have heard sometimes has scantily clad women wash your car.
But What If I'm Jewish And Have Some Termites?
You can't see it all, but this exterminating truck had a logo of "Integrity Pest Control" where the "t" in "Integrity" had the font of a cross (like a religious cross). And the web site of the truck was www.bugrapture.com.
And The Guys In The Background Are Pretty Funny
I'm not a fan of "crank calls" but this one involving a guy who claims to be, of all people, Christopher 7.20.2006
Big 12 Media Pre-Season Prediction
South Division (points)
1. Oklahoma 163
2. Texas 144
3. Texas Tech 106
4. Texas A&M 81
5. Oklahoma State 49
6. Baylor 46
North Division (points)
1. Nebraska 160
2. Iowa State 128
3. Colorado 93
4. Kansas 85
5. Missouri 82
6. Kansas State 40
(Source)
Great Question
The Texas Public Utility Commission had a hearing today (or maybe yesterday) about whether the non-payment of an electric bill should lead to the disconnection of electricity at a home during the hot summer months.
It's expected to be rejected.
Heaven forbid a poor person's electricity to be cut off in this blazing heat causing the rest of us to bear the cost. We've got satellite TV bills to pay!
I Didn't Even Know Wise County Had An Entry
"Francisco and Bradley Erickson of New York perform a 'Broke Back Mountain' inspired piece during Figure Skating pairs competition during Gay Games VII in Chicago, Illinois, July 19, 2006. REUTERS/John Gress."
If You Are A . . .
. . . Nancy Grace hater, you'll appreciate this blog entry about former kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart's appearance on Grace's very bad TV show.
Edit: This is a very friendly request for everyone to try and tone down the language in the comments. I let 99% of everything slide because I don't want to be in the business of censoring posts. But I finally removed one comment. Self monitor, please. Carry on.
Ashlee Simpson . . .
. . . doesn't look like Ashlee Simpson since she had her nose done.
(More pics).
Very Odd Sports Note
"Duke quarterback Zack Asack was suspended for the season for plagiarism."
I'm not sure I've ever heard of such a thing.
That's all I got.
7.19.2006
Makes You Pause
"Elsewhere, a Hezbollah rocket slammed into a building today in the mainly Arab town of Nazareth, killing two children and wounding at least two other people, Israeli authorities said." (Source)
"Lady In the Water" . . .
. . . looks like it might be pretty good.
It's directed by M. Night Shyamalan.
I wish my first two names were "M. Night".
When I'm Stupid, I'm Stupid
As I was reading Newsweek, I came across a graphic posting Billboard's Top DVD Rentals. Of note:
#2 Tyler Perry: Madea's Family Reunion
#4 Tyler Perry: Madea Goes to Jail
#7 Tyler Perry: Why Did I Get Married?
Boy, I feel dumb. I had never heard of Tyler Perry. I looked him up on Wikipedia and it still doesn't help.
Am I missing something?
I Thought It Was Just A Monty Python Bit
From Newsweek:
"With 300 years of hindsight, we all certainly can agree that trial by water is an injustice." - Virginia Gov Tim Kaine, in a letter informally pardoning Grace Sherwood, who, in 1706, was declared a witch after she was cast into a river and floated. Had she sunk and drowned, she would have been found innocent.
(Story)
I Was Here In 1980
"Recall the summer of 1980, when 69 days – 42 of them in a row – hit 100 degrees or more. Two of those were a record 113 degrees. " - Dallas Morning News
And the average maximum temperature for July was 105.3 degrees.
What a beating. And, boy, was it.
But My Name Is Ezekiel!!!!
For $1.99 you can buy a Jessica Simpson MP3 from Yahoo and she'll include your name in the song. And it's available immediately.
That crazy internet.
Link.
Kellen Winslow is a Soldier (You know, the kind that has no chance of being killed)
I'm always looking for guys to cheer against, and Kellen Winslow is one of them. This clip was from his final year of college before he was drafted in the first round of the NFL draft. Year One went badly because he broke his leg after a couple of games. Year Two was worse since the nutcase blew out an ACL during a motorcycle accident before the season got started.
Bring on Year Three.
And I love his first line, "I don't give a hell."
We Have The First Bush Presidential Veto
Story. Yep, it's his first one ever.
But I'm not convinced he understands stem cells, either.
Oil Dipped Below $73 A Barrel Today
Since Israel and Hebollah began raining missiles down upon one another, the cost of oil has gone down.
Remember that the next time you hear some Talking Head say that oil prices have risen "due to fears about tension in the Middle East."
From The Window To The Wall
As the great Craig Miller of The Ticket explained this morning (in light of the accusations that a hip hop song led to the death of two guys in downtown Dallas this weekend?):
Can music influence a person? Yeah! A sentimental song makes us feel sappy. A dance song makes us once to dance (I break out into the cabbage patch). An angry song of rage makes us feel, well, rage. But that doesn't mean a song caused the death of those two guys. It's not all black and white - 100% of the cause or 0% of the cause. Mix in some alcohol, drugs, adrenalin, testosterone, rivalries, girls, and "Put Yo Hood Up" and then you might have something.
(And I laughed when co-host Gordon Keith said, "You think they would have spell checked the title to that song.")
News
Senate approves embryo stem cell bill.
I'll be honest, I don't understand stem cell research - I had trouble with chemistry and biology in school.
But the word "stem" in "stem cell" reminds everyone of "brain stem" - that contributes to the controversy.
7.18.2006
How You Doin'?
I received another "Nigerian letter" tonight offering me 25% to help them transfer funds to my bank account.
I always respond with an email that says, "I'm so excited! Do you need my bank account number or anything?"
A portion:
"My mother died when I was just 4 years old, and since then my father took me so special. Before his death on Febuary 12 2003 he called me and disclose to me that he had a sum of the Twelve million, Five hundred thousand United State Dollars.(USD$12.500,000) deposited in a suspense account with one of the local banks here in Abidjan, IvoryCoast. He also said he used my name to Deposit the fund with the bank as his only daughter, as well as the next of kin to the fund. He also explained to me that it was because of this wealth that he was poisoned by his business associates, That I should seek for a foreign partner in a country of my choice where I will transfer this money to and use it for investment purposes."
Oh My!
I noticed on the news this morning that Airport Freeway had been completely shut down due to a car hitting a pedestrian. (For those that know the area, if you drive east on 820 past Northeast Mall you'll eventually come to the exit for Grapevine/North Entrance of DFW Airport -that's the area of the accident). Anyway, like I said, all lanes were shut down.
Now we know why:
It is not clear how long Elna Kitchens may have waited for a ride after her treatment at Harris Methodist HEB Hospital in Bedford. After being discharged at 4:40 a.m. Tuesday, the 77-year-old Haltom City woman was apparently trying to get home when she walked away from the hospital, police said. Less than an hour later, Mrs. Kitchens wandered into busy traffic in the 2400 block of Airport Freeway.
She was struck and killed by a car around 5:30 a.m.
"We are not sure how she got where she was, but she was walking northbound across the westbound lanes of [State Highway] 183," said Bedford police Lt. Kirk Roberts.
(Full Story)
Woody Hayes Career Ender
I was Jonesin' for some college football when I came across the punch that ended coach Woody Hayes' career at Ohio State. There is not play by play to this clip but I saw it on ESPN Classic a couple of years ago. Commentator Keith Jackson never, not once, acknowledged to the audience that Hayes had struck the player (which comes at the 12th second).
This Is Boring
But it's possibly a great story for the Messenger.
There is a great, infuriating, and very long story in today's Washington Post. It's about drought relief the feds gave out to ranchers who didn't need it, some of whom live in North Texas. An excerpt:
No state did better than Texas. In the end, all 254 of its counties qualified. Ranchers in counties without droughts collected $45 million in 2003, on top of the $67 million that had flowed to the state in 2002. In northern Texas, Cooke County ranchers qualified for $906,000 in 2003 on the basis of an ice storm that hit the area more than two years earlier. Tim Gilbert, former head of the USDA county office, recalled that "there was no damage in Cooke County to the crops or livestock. Maybe a few pine trees got knocked down."
I wonder how Wise County did? Skip, get after it.
Makes You Want To Buy A Condo In Downtown Dallas
From another blog:
Many of you no doubt know about the shooting outside a club this past weekend [in downtown Dallas]. You may have even read in the DMN, that Lil' Jon's 'Put Yo Hood Up' was to blame. Or, as Steve Blow writes, "This time the link between the music and the dead is irrefutable."
It's quite refutable, says Michael Davis. He says the song was on after the fight."
And if you want to see the lyrics to "Put Yo Hood Up", just click here. But don't if you are easily offended.
(Photo is from the Morning News)
For some reason, Baylor Bear football has begun an ad campaign featuring a player catching a fish in a river with his bare hands. (7.17.2006
Drives Me Insane
I've noticed a weird advertising trend. Instead of just creating a web site, companies are directing people to a myspace.com page.
Folks, it's the same thing. A web page is a web page and hosting it at myspace.com doesn't change that fact.
(This was prompted by a TV ad I just saw for a movie called "John Tucker Must Die." You can learn about it (as the ad told me) at www.myspace.com/JohnTucker. In the old world, www.johntucker.com or www.johntucker-themovie.com was good enough.)
Ok, I've found one thing I'm passionate about.
Hmmm
The Ticket posed this question this weekend: "Name three things you are passionate about."
The general consenus was that most people can't name three things.
I'll admit I'm one of them. Where is that bag of Paxils I smuggled in from Canada?
And We Wonder Why Kids Are So Screwed Up
If you want to see an old New Mickey Mouse Club skit (does that make sense?) that featured Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, and Christina Aguiler, click here.
Come on, you know you want to.
We Have A Record
Channel 8 News' first two stories tonight featured Wise County. I'm working on the video.
Edit: Got it
"All you want to do is Talk, Talk"
The Dallas Morning News' "Life" section this weekend dedicated itself to the art of conversation.
Here are the tips if you are at a wedding:
Do Say:
- "How do you know the bride and groom?"
- "Wasn't that a lovely ceremony?"
- "Have you tried the shrimp?"
Don't Say:
- "Were you at the bride's last wedding? That one was so much better."
I don't know about you, but the "Do's" would suck the life force out of me. The "Don't" would make me turn to the person and say, "How you dooooin?"
Incredible
The CEO of London's BetOnSports.com was changing planes at D/FW. Or so he thought. U.S. federal authorities detained the CEO as part of their "getting tough on online gambling" thing.
And that is one great site (uh, I mean, so I've heard.)
Our federal government is out of control.
Guaranteed News Item Tonight
One, if not all, of the local stations will tell us tonight to:
- Drink plenty of water
- Avoid strenuous exercise outdoors
- Take plenty of breaks if you must work outside
- Stop immediately if you become light headed or feel faint
And they'll say it as if those words have never been uttered before.
105
That's what my temperature gauge on my car read as I came back from Fort Worth a second ago. I think it's always been pretty accurate but I'm not sure.
Bush Unplugged
You'll be hearing a lot about this today on the news.
youtube.com video clip here. (The news story runs out of steam about half way through).
Armor of God
I loved this part of the story on Dallas Cowboy Keith Davis who was shot around 5:00 a.m. this weekend (The second time he has been shot in three years.):
At the time of the shooting, Mr. Davis said, he was returning home from Shreveport, La., where he had spent the weekend with friends and family.
"I wasn't going to go home, but I had missed church the previous Sunday," said Mr. Davis, "and we've got training camp coming up, and I didn't want to miss another Sunday. We were going to get home in time to change clothes and head to church."
Puppy Love
"FORT WORTH, Texas -- The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) of Texas says it will take temporary custody of more than 200 confined dogs from a suspected animal hoarder in Wise County, who is also an animal control officer." (Story here).
If It's Real, It's Cool
Oops. I accidentally deleted this one.
I'm an idiot. I'll try and find the source tomorrow.
7.16.2006
Check Out . . .
. . . the Dallas Morning News article on slain real estate agent Sarah Anne Walker. Good stuff.