Major Wreck

Still looking for details, but it looks like we have three dead and two injured from a wreck on 2123 (at CR 3673) this morning.

If anyone knows anything. post away.

Edit: Fox 4 is the first one to cover the story. It seems five teenagers (?) were in one car that went off the road and struck two trees. Three in the front seat died. Two girls in the back seat were careflighted. No names yet.

Edit: Have an unconfirmed report of the dead being two males and one female.

Edit: Some names have appeared in the comments. But nothing has been confirmed.

Edit: A commenter noted that the Star Telegram now has the story up. "The dead were identified as Ryan Lowe, 17, of Boyd, the driver; Michael Fresch, 16, of North Richland Hills; and Morgan Moss, 14, of Boyd."

Edit: The Messenger has a paragraph about it in the Update.

OK, This Isn't That Exciting . . .

. . . but if Wise County appears on the local news, I'll regurgitate it here.

Basic story: These weird little vehicles are being stolen at night. Cops are trying to catch those that do the stealing. Most interesting part of the story: Those little suckers retail for $12,000.

I Don't Have Much To Offer Today

But I noticed that tomorrow's Messenger will not have one single Letter to the Editor.

Somebody call an ambulance to check on Ken Hughes. Something must be horribly wrong.

(How do I know? I get an online PDF version of the paper every day before it is published. Perhaps the greatest invention in the history of ever.)

X-Games Carmage Carnage

This is from ESPN's X-Games that were shown last night. This kid would have had an easier time jumping off the courthouse belltower. And be sure to stick around to the end for the replays. Gold. Edit: Sir, I will not post the comment regarding this guy being "pounded" like someone else last week. Funny. But inappropriate.

Ladies: Don't Steal Time Tim McGraw's Ring

Slight Digression

If you are 40 or older and even remotely know who Tom Snyder is (he died this week), you have to check out this.

When I Was A Child DEA Agent

One of my favorite moments as a junior high kid was when my family was spending the weekend at our trailer on a hill overlooking Lake Bridgeport. (Go ahead, read that again. Yep, I said "trailer".) Anyway, we spent a lot of time in the back yard area underneath shade trees just looking at the lake.

At one point my mom began noticing a car about a quarter of a mile away make its way down to the shore. A couple of guys got out and walked into the woods. They would stay for a while and then leave.

This happened maybe three times over a week at which point my mom made a bold statement: "I bet they're growing dope down there!"

Being a wise guy even back then, I immediately ridiculed her. She was quick to defend her position and suggested that me, her, and my brother walk down into that wooded area and check it out. I jumped at the chance.

We made our way down the hill and along the shore of Lake Bridgeport until we came to the wooded area. We walked in, and, I'll be [expletive deleted], there were four rows of marijuana plants and a bottle of "Miracle Grow". Of course, we didn't know what marijuana plants looked like, but you just don't see a nice little garden of green plants in the middle of no where.

So what did we do? Heck, we couldn't let those boys come back and harvest their marijuana and ruin their lives. So we pulled it up.

I still laugh at the following sight. I've got both arms extended as I held about 20 big uprooted marijuana plants. And I'm just walking along the shore with my my mom. My brother, once we got out in the open, took off running like lightening.

"Where are you going?" we yelled.

I still remember his reply as his voice trailed off in the distance. "You can go to jail for two ounces and you guys are walking along with two pounds!" Genius.

I eventually threw all the plants in the lake, but we kept one. Dad took it into town the next day to show to the chief of police to confirm it was marijuana. (It was.) He brought it back the next day and for some reason we just kept it on the back porch in a small bucket full of water.

Good times.

Blessed Mother Of Acceleration

This has nothing to do with Wise County, but this state senator from the San Antonio area (Republican Jeff Wentworth) has spent $20,308 of campaign funds to lease a Lexus. Why? Because it's "safe" in all that crazy Austin traffic.

Hey, what does Rep. Phil King drive?

Poll Results

What do you think of the Reunion? - Top Notch. Wouldn't Miss It..................11% - Not Bad. Go Every Now and Then ...... 14% - Overrated.................................................34% - Hate It. Would Never Go Back................8% - Never Been...............................................30% Total votes cast: 216 And man, that is the ugliest looking poll in the world. But we'll follow it up with a reader suggestion who was curious about the demographics of The Blog.

The Concept Of Real Breaking News

Random thought time.

All the local TV stations/network affiliates will throw down the "Breaking News" banner at the drop of the hat. Normally, without just cause. But the old school national networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) are the exception. If during the day or prime time, you see programming interrupted for "Breaking News" because the national network has made the decision to do so, you can bet it will be big.

I think I'm an oddity, but once I see those words show up on my television, my heart starts racing. It happened last night when ABC broke in on some stupid sitcom to announce the bridge collapse in Minnesota. (And that, by network standards, is questionable story to stop down a network for. Yeah, it's big, but I'm a little surprised they did it.)

But once I saw the "Breaking News" banner I was standing in front of the TV waiting for the anchor to appear and say, "Good evening, there is breaking news tonight from . . . . " It can be anything. And in this day and time, I mean anything.

Thursday Afternoon Crumb

If I'd watch MTV's "The Hills" I would know that this is Heidi Montag. I still probably wouldn't understand why she has "Girls Gone Wild" across her booty. But somehow I figured this qualifies as breaking news.

Just For The Sports Fans

There's nothing special about this clip (Just Ex-Evil Empire great Vince Young slapping a teammate.) The real news is that ESPN is now creating embeddable video clips. I think the Internet changed dramatically when youtube introduced these flash videos to the masses. Now everyone is doing it.

Mark Teixeira

. . . hit a home run for the Braves last night. Which gives me an excuse to post this.

Dang It

Well, the tattoo bandit has been caught. Just when I was getting entertained by this crazy lady who thought she could walk into any establishment, anywhere, and just demand some money. I don't think she exactly was a fan of those "plan every detail" Ocean's 11 movies.

And, by the way, that's a hard 33.

At Least . . .

, , , she called me "dear" before she tried to infect my computer with The Aid.

The AID?

Fascinating news (from Fox 4) on the triple murder - suicide of the Flower Mound family. The wife/mother who used the gun left two notes: A suicide note and another warning everyone that the family was infected with AIDS.

Holy cow.

A spokesman for the Flower Mound PD said, "We looked into [her] medical history and found out that she had no terminal illness." Whoa. Tap the brakes there, hoss. If he means that the Medical Examiner has already tested her blood for AIDS and it was negative, then I believe him. Other than that, there's just now way you can know from her "records" whether she had AIDS. You simply can't know every doctor or public health clinic that she visited.

But what a crazy story.

The Poll

I used to post a poll every now and then but could never think of any decent questions. But the software on this site just made posting one very easy so I thought I'd give it a shot. I'll probably keep it up for a day or so. Edit: And I realize I need to work on the spacing. Edit #2: That is one ugly looking poll.

Skool Daze

The "new Texas Accountability Ratings" for public schools were released today. You can find your school's performance here.

Oh, So This Is What You Use Flickr For

Don't worry. She didn't jump. Link.

Edit: For a larger picture, be sure to click on the "All Sizes" button at the top of each photo.

Edit: Those pics were actually taken yesterday.

Well, It Is August

I was looking around for some preseason high school football rankings (which are meaningless but fun), but only had limited success. I'm sure Dave Campbell's rankings are out, but didn't see them on its website. It's too early for the AP rankings. Some outfit called TexPrepsFootball.com lists Decatur at #25. Edit: Found out Dave Campbell predicts this order of finish in a local district race:

10-2A 1. Cisco 2. Boyd 3. Paradise

Tara Reid says,

"I loves grabbing me a watermelon from IGA and then getting a bottle of champagne from One Stop before I hit the beaches of Black Creek Lake."

Edit: Everyone thinks this pic looks fake. Found it here (with others.)

Still Laughing At This

Photo from the Morning News - a fan of FC Dallas shows his disgust for David Beckham not playing in Frisco last night.

"Unusual Suspects"

The Smoking Gun has posted a few mug shots under the description of "The Unusual Suspects." Love it. And I think I saw wife #7 in there.

A Little Tense

O.J. Simpson was on a Dallas Internet radio show last night and even took phone calls. I'm looking for the audio but I know this happened:

One caller asked the former football player if he thought it was "a bigger feat to break 2,000 yards in one season or slice two necks in one night."

Oh, my.

Edit: TMZ has the video of a portion of the wild questions here. (The second caller asked him if he killed Bill Walsh - the former 49ers coach who died of cancer two days ago.)

Edit: Someone commented that video was gone, but I think it's still there. Another way to get to it is through here.

Show Him The More Money

I just have a passing interest in baseball, but I've always thought recently traded Mark Teixeira was as dumb as a box of rocks.

Anyway, today Ranger owner Tom Hicks claims he offered Teixeira an 8 year contract worth $140 million to keep him here. Tex said, "What's a word that means 'no'?" (or something like that). I'll assume Hicks is being truthful. Like all contracts in baseball, it was guaranteed money. For those not following the situation, Teixeira becomes a free agent at the end of next season meaning he goes to the highest bidder. Obviously, he thinks he'll get more than $17.5 million a season.

Maybe he's right. Then again, no one will pay sympathy money if some freak career ending injury were to occur over the next 18 months.

Not For Everyone, But I'm Interested

I've only read a couple of paragraphs (and will probably have to print it out to digest all of it) but this long article looks great. The creepily titled "Tonight On Dateline This Man Will Die" is Esquire's look into Dateline's To Catch a Predator and the suicide of assistant DA Bill Conradt. And there's a very tenuous Wise County connection in that the article mentions Walter "Gator" Weiss. My friends at the sheriff's office tell me he used to work there.

Good Grief

Norm Hitzges from The Ticket always refers to "Crime free Flower Mound." Uh, not so much.

Edit: Amazingly, this triple murder/suicide didn't make the lead on Fox 4 News tonight. Instead it appeared at 9:14 (behind stories of a minor flooding, a crazy guy with dead cats in his house, a convenience store murder of one person, the attempted buyout of the DowJones company, gas stations "short changing" us on gas, the tattoo woman robber, the surgery of traffic reporter Julie DeHarty, and a murder for hire arrest.) Good grief, who is producing the news over there?

Belated Hey, Now

This pic is two weeks old, but I've got to do something to acknowledge Lindsay getting busted for DWI and dope last week. Not only are her wheels flying off, but she's rude. How could she possibly have done that while I was out of town? Although I'm suddenly turned on by ankle alcohol detectors and heels. Nice look.

If You See Her, Get Out Of The Store. Fast.

I really don't pay much attention to metroplex robbery stories, but this gal is getting interesting. Police are pretty sure that today she held up an Exxon in Grapevine and a motel in North Richland Hills. And that brings her robbery total to five since Thursday. The woman works harder than people with jobs.

And I love this description: "Witnesses described her as white, in her late 30s or early 40s, about 5 feet 4, 160 pounds with blondish-brown hair. She has missing teeth and a tattoo of a cross on a chain on her left wrist." Hey, now.

Thank You, I'll Be Here All Week

For some reason, I was invited during lunch to speak to a group of teachers at lunch at the Decatur Intermediate School. The subject: This silly blog.

Man, I was nervous. Especially when I discovered that the Superintendent and the Principal of the high school were in the audience. Had I ever offended them? Sheesh. Beads of sweat were forming on my red forehead.

The group is learning about technology over these three days (things like blogging, RSS feeds, twitter, video editing, and more). Heck, they were talking about things I didn't even understand. But I was called in for lunch time entertainment which is a dicey proposition. I'm mildly amusing in print. I'm not particularly funny in person. But it went well - I think.

But an amusing moment came from the audience as I was explaining what criteria I use for posting. "Race, Abortion, Religion, and Homosexuality are always crowd pleasers," I said. "And occasionally I'll post a pic of a hot woman." At that point, a mocking voice came from the audience: "Occasionally?!! It's every other one!" It was a funny moment.

They were all gracious and great fun. But it was weird standing up, with a huge screenshot of The Blog in the background, fielding questions.

Odd

I have no idea why www.pelicanbaypolice.com looks like it does. But it's not the agencies official web site.

Off

Man, I had to have missed this on vacation. I have no idea who "Merry Miller" is but a feel quite comfortable in saying that she is the worst interviewer in the history of ever. Check out this one with Holly Hunter. It starts out with awkward pauses ala "Space Ghost", and ends with her screwing up the preview date of Hunter's new show and saying "NBC" instead of "ABC." Edit: Here's her bio. She's a former "Miss Dallas."

Kind Of Surprising

Anti-abortion protesters are asked, "If abortion were illegal, what should happen to the mother who has the illegal abortion?" I thought the answer would have been a resounding, "Send them to jail!" I was wrong.

How, Can The Messenger Possibly . . .

. . . not begin this Update item with, "ONE TIME, AT BAND CAMP - "?

Another Reason To Look Forward To College Football Season

ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews. Hey, now.

Weird Case

Sometimes the State just won't let go. Crazy story in today's Star-Telegram. Female gay couple have a son. While one parent was unlocking the front door the other parent remained behind the wheel of the car in the driveway. Son is killed in driveway when their vehicle "lurches forward." Alcohol tests reveal alcohol concentration of .06 (below the legal limit of .08). Prosecutors want to prosecute. The non-defendant parent does not want them to. They do anyway. Yesterday, right before jury selection, a plea bargain is struck for three years in prison (max was 20). But I wonder why they wouldn't offer probation in a case like that?

A Little Hyperbole?

It looks like another big pot farm was found in Dallas County yesterday (yawn). But get this statement tonight on Fox 4 News by DEA agent James Capra: "There's an evil group out there that cares not about our community. Just look around us. Look at how close the homes are. How close this was to the schools. I mean these are people that have no regard for human life and no regard for our community. They are a threat!"

No regard for human life? It's marijuana for crying out loud. Anybody die from smoking a joint lately? Sheesh, the local liquor store is more dangerous. But the DEA needs to make sure it can justify its budget so the comments shouldn't surprise you.

Cinemax At Night Breaks Out In San Marcos

Any story that begins "Thirty-three high school cheerleaders from Dallas and Midland were involved in a scuffle at a camp in San Marcos this week" has to be a great story. The heck with Cabo, I'm headed to San Marcos next year.

Weirdest Vacation Moment

Came when a photo shoot occurred on the beach involving the skimpiest of swimwear. The oddity of this local family watching the event got my attention as well.

Random Mexico Trip Thoughts

- The new Terminal D at DFW is the greatest terminal ever. Great restaurants, fancy shops, and flat screen TVs in the area where you wait for your flight.
- When you do automated check-in, it will also ask you to scan your passport.
- And despite all the horror stories about getting a passport, I got mine in three weeks with "expedited service."
- It's only a 2:10 flight to Cabo San Lucas
- You have to exit to the tarmac once you arrive and they had about 20 security forces lined up to watch you. I started sweating like that guy carrying dope in Midnight Express (and, no sir, I was not carrying anything illegal.
- All-inclusive resorts are the only way to go.
- The weather the first three days (until a brief storm blew through) was the greatest I have ever seen. No humidity is the key.
- Playing volleyball with a cross-section of all ages and both sexes is fun. Playing volleyball with a bunch of 20-somethings made me realize I had no business playing with a bunch of 20 somethings.
- There were the strangest looking fish constantly jumping out of the water. They looked like miniature penguins with wings. (That's a bad picture of one above - I had to enlarge it so much it became grainy). Those things would jump some four feet out of the water. It still don't know what they are. Edit: I think those little suckers were "bat rays."

Now That's A Baseball Nugget

The Texas Rangers traded Mark Teixeira to the Atlanta Braves today for 22 year old Jarrod Saltalamacchia (among others.)

I learned on the way back from Fort Worth that Jarrod Saltalamacchia has a 38 year old wife who was a volleyball coach when he was in high school.

(My only source on her age is The Ticket.)

Greatest Trick Play Ever

Although I'm not exactly sure what "value" that teaches at the pee-wee level. But, then again, "trust no one" may not be a bad thing to learn.

Oh, My

That may be worse than the infamous "Megaplex Opening In Chico" story from a few years back.

Channel 4 Helicopter Crash

Nobody was hurt this morning, but the Channel 4 Traffic Helicopter went down in south Dallas. The "engine simply quit". There's video of it and it looks like it hit hard. "We ended up skidding and rolling on our side," said traffic reporter Chip Waggoner.

The pilot, who apparantly did a good job, was not the regular one for the helicopter. He filled in for his normal job as the pilot of the Fort Worth Police Department helicopter.

There were minor injuries to a lady in the helicopter ( I didn't catch her name) who does traffic for KRLD and KVIL.

I'm Back - - But Moving Slow

I'll try and bring it back to full force over the next couple of the days. But my vacation was great - to Cabo San Lucas (pic above.)

But to buy some time, and to refer to something completely unrelated to my vacation, check out this father's rant about the Red Oak ISD. I think it's gold.