Gold

The head coach for Converse Judson is a calm man. (Taken today during the 5A Big Division Championship Game.)

I Love Lists

Top grossing movies for 2007. I saw two of the top ten (300 and The Simpson Movie), and for regrettable reasons I'm currently watching #98.

Developing . . .

Just learned the deceased has a Boyd address. No name yet. Story (with no reference to Boyd, though.)

Edit: Dwayne White, 44?

www.ruinromo.com

If this happens on Saturday night, It will be funny.

Sheesh

The online edition of The Update appears to be overtaken with ads. Especially that big one smack dab in the middle. Either that's an HTML screwup or the next thing you know we'll be hit with those pop ups that the Dallas Morning News wants to abuse you with.

Friday Morning Dance Off: Cha Cha Slide

Entry #1: Entry #2:

Horrific

Crazy accident in Dallas today - look at the whole hole in the windshield caused by a piece of concrete. Here.

Crazy Afternoon

Never saw a seizure before. Until today. More later. Edit: So I'm in the County Attorney's office around 2:00 p.m. doing nothing else other than wasting time. An employee of the office ("J"), who is normally very calm, rushes through the door and yells, "Call 911. A man is having a seizure." Another gal in the office ("T") dialed 911 and handed J the phone and went out the door to check it out. T is a former EMT. I don't know anything about CPR or emergency health care so I stayed put - probably too calmly and, sadly, apathetically - and I kind of wanted to listen to the 911 call to see how calm (or not) J handled it. All went well. After about a minute, I went outside the door and into the Jury Room/Grand Jury Room/Commissioner's Meeting Room to check out the scene. I saw a guy on the floor face down. Things changed then. It was a friend of mine. A close friend. A friend of 20 years. T was by his head, and I got on my knees to help - although I didn't know what to do. The scene was horrifying. His eyes were open but he was completely unresponsive. A small amount of blood was dripping from his mouth. And, horrifically, his body was shaking uncontrollably. All I could do was say his name over and over and rub his back. "It's OK. It's OK," I said. But it was anything other than "OK." The shaking wouldn't stop. All I wanted was for the shaking to stop. T told me to roll him on his side, and I did. But nothing about his condition changed. I was scared. And I was totally frustrated in the realization that I didn't know what to do to help my friend nor did I understand exactly what I was witnessing. And then his left arm began to shake even more violently than before. My dumb brain remembered that your left arm hurts when a you are having heart attack. I just knew his left arm was now out of control. "Is he having a heart attack?" I asked T. "No," she said matter of factly. My mind raced on. "Is he breathing?" (Lord. I'd been in there three minutes watching this horror and it just dawned on me that I hadn't thought about his breathing.) "Yes." T said. "I'm on it. He's breathing." He was sweating profusely and she told me to take his tie off. Finally, I was useful: I knew how to undo a tie and unbutton a top button. The seizure went on for about five minutes and ended about the same time as the paramedics arrived. I had never been so happy to see people arrive that knew what they were doing. My friend finally stopped shaking and slowly came to. He was completely disoriented and responded to questions only after much delay. He didn't know where he was. I sat in front of him for 10 minutes and not once did he acknowledge I was there. He looked bewildered and exhausted. Fast forward. He was taken to the Decatur Hospital (yeah, I know it has a different name) where he was treated quickly and efficiently. The doctors were great. The nurses were great. The facility was great. And, most importantly, all test results were great. It was decided later in the day that he should be transferred to Harris in Fort Worth so that he could be evaluated by a neurologist. He's there now. All looks good. The only concern is why it happened to a guy that has no history of seizures. That's scary. But I contemplate tonight a conversation with another friend of mine who came out to the hospital this afternoon. While we waited for the CATscan to be completed, he said in a serious tone - especially for a guy who is rarely serious: "We are all hanging on this earth by a thread." Long pause. "That's my joyous Christmas thought," he added with a small smile. You're right my friend. But my Christmas gift arrived early today. He's alive and well in Harris Hospital tonight.

Greg "The Hammer" Williams . . .

. . . update. As we bid farewell to The Ticket's only Wise County connection, I'm reminded of when his show had The Fake Ricky Lee Green call in moments before his execution. That probably crossed the line.

Thursday Afternoon Pick Me Up

I've got a Christmas tree ornament shaped like this.

Unstable

Edit: Source

Kinda Funny

The news today has the story of the rescue of the guy and his three kids who had been missing for three days after going off into the forest to find a Christmas tree.

The normally unfunny WBAP had a bit today with the Fake Andy Rooney who began, "Let me get this straight. We spent a million dollars of taxpayer money to find you all because you wanted to act like The Waltons?"

Decatur in SI

A faithful reader tells me his newly arrived issue of Sports Illustrated has a two page photo of cowboy Trevor Brazile in it with a reference to Decatur.

Edit: From the "Kind Of Related Photo" Department



Edit #2: Here is the pic sent in by a faithful reader (who adds, "My scanner sux.")

Doggin' Delayed Is Doggin' Denied

So what if it took me until tonight to read the Opinion section of the Sunday edition of the Dallas Morning News. But the always boring editorial section decided to dog our State Rep. Phil King. It's worth repeating. Why? Because it's Christmas.

Quotes Of The Year

1. "Don't Tase Me, Bro!" -- plea made by University of Florida student Andrew Meyer. 2. "I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don't have maps and I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and Iraq and everywhere like such as and I believe that they should our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for us." -- Lauren Upton 3. "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country." -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 4. "That's some nappy-headed hos there." -- Don Imus 5. "I don't recall." -- Former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' repeated response to questioning at a congressional hearing about the firing of U.S. attorneys. 6. "There's only three things he (Rudy Giuliani) mentions in a sentence: a noun and a verb and 9/11." -- Sen. Joseph Biden, speaking at a Democratic presidential debate. 7. "I'm not going to get into a name-calling match with somebody (Vice President Dick Cheney) who has a 9 percent approval rating." -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat. 8. "(I have) a wide stance when going to the bathroom." -- Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig's explanation of why his foot touched that of an undercover policeman in a men's room. 9. "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man." -- Biden describing rival Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. 10. "I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history." -- Former President Jimmy Carter in an interview in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper. Source.

A Merry Christmas . . .

. . . to the gal that almost got kicked off the Southwest Airlines flight. Almost worthy of The Blog's Hall of Fame (if I had one.)

Edit: Older pic.

And Another

Story

(Credit: Emailer)

Edit: The Denton Record Chronicle has a pretty good story on the guy.

Wednesday Morning Chaos

A Democrat wins a Texas House Seat in a Republican strong hold in Fort Worth, the 16 year old sister of Britney Spears is pregnant, and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is grilled on The Today Show about the bookcase in his video (posted below) looking like a floating cross.

There Better Be Somthing To This

Or Matt Drudge becomes nothing more than a political hack (assuming he's not reached that status already.)

He always follows up the "Developing . . . " headline (which I normally love) to a story he writes himself - something that is very rare. But if he throws out crap like this, he better be right.

Channel 8 Gets Video Of General Lee Chase

Uh, accuracy regarding the status of the Evil Doers in the car? Not so much. As earlier reported here today, in what is certain to result in my first Pulitzer Prize, the occupants were captured this morning.

Uh, I Predict A Firestorm

Story.

Hurricane Harbor tried to pull this off about 10 years ago but backed down.

Music, Death, Love and Grocery Stores

I've thought a little more about Dan Fogelberg's death this week and, although a lot of his work was corny, I always loved a Same Old Lang Syne. The lyrics are here. It's about old lovers that run into each other in the grocery store. They miss each other but realize the flame isn't quite the same.

Met my old lover in the grocery store
The snow was falling Christmas Eve
I stole behind her in the frozen foods
And I touched her on the sleeve
She didn't recognize the face at first
But then her eyes flew open wide
She went to hug me and she spilled her purse
And we laughed until we cried.

Of all the break ups I've had in my life (and Lord knows they are too many to count), I remember listening to those lyrics shortly after high school when my relationship with a (relatively speaking) long term girlfriend ended.

Oddly, for me at least, a similar song came out a few years ago. John Mayer's Comfortable. I remember embracing the song as I entered into yet another soon to be failed, yet important, relationship:

I just remembered that time at the market
you snuck up behind me and jumped on my shopping cart
And rode down . . . aisle five
you looked behind you and smile back at me
crashed into a rack full of magazines
they asked us . . . if we could leave.
Can't remember . . . what went wrong last September
though I'm sure you'd remind me, if you had to
Our love was . . . comfortable and . . . so broken in.

I'm not sure this has a point other than I just realized that a couple of my important past relationships are tied to songs that involve grocery stores.

I'm never going for food again.

Santa, Baby

Muriel's Wedding

Another film someone told me I should watch which I finally got around to.

Verdict: I think I like it, but I'm not sure. Quirky. Odd. Yeah, I guess I did.

Fun to see Rachel Griffiths in a role before she became somewhat famous in "Six Feet Under." And the Abba music, which is the core of the movie, is pretty funny especially in light of the Friday Dance Off video I posted a couple of weeks ago at the Neiman Marcus party.

And I have an odd habit: I turn the subtitles on whenever a movie has a dialect which is anything other than Native Texan.

"Hello, I'm Making $175 Dollars"

In 1956, Johnny Cash performed in the Sportatorium in Dallas (where they used to 'rassle before they tore it down) for $175.00 You can get the signed contract on Ebay for substantially more than that.

General Lee Update

The two guys and one girl who evaded the PO-lice yesterday were arrested early this morning after checking into a hotel in Decatur. In a scene out of a movie, the original driver of the General Lee walked out of the elevator as officers with Decatur PD were talking to the manager at the front desk. It was kind of like when Butch was at the red light in Pulp Fiction and saw Marsellus Wallace standing in front of him.

He Said "Christ!"

But, man, the Republican establishment sure isn't embracing this guy. Sean Hannity can't go a single day without bashing him. Somethings up!

Questions

- Is there just one set of "Rhome apartments"?
- Who complained?
- And the complaint was made to whom?
- Who is responsible for fixing the problem
- Why is there no heat?
- Should Pete Rose be in the Hall of Fame?

The Female Readership Holds Its Collective Breath

Link.

The following from Seinfeld comes to mind.

ELAINE: did something happened?

GEORGE: Well, Tony.. took a bit of a tumble

ELAINE: his face, did something happen to his face?

KRAMER: well it all depends on what you mean by.. happen

GEORGE: he..he's alive

KRAMER: yeah

ELAINE: what happened to his face, tell me, what happened to his face

GEORGE: Well you see he slipped, and he landed on a kinda of a..

KRAMER: rock

Very Random Thought

I ate at the Cheesecake Factory in Southlake tonight - The place is almost "opulent" in appearance with a little bit of a Vegas feel to it.

The menu is huge (probably 12 pages but with 6 pages being advertisements - what's up with that?). Someone told me today "they have a ton of things on the menu which means that none of it is good." Hmmmm. Not sure about that. I went with the Jambalaya which was a little bland. Good. But bland.

And the portions are ridiculously huge.

Oh, and here's the random restaurant thought: Does Steak and Ale exist anymore?

From The Mail Box

From an actual letter I received today from an inmate who I do not represent: I wold like to talk to you and need legal advice and I want to file a lawsuit against Wise County for being in violation with USA Jail Standards and Health Codes for one million dollars. Also I want to file a lawsuit in rank from [the] Health Department to the President of the United States of America for one hundred thousand dollars for not doing their job . . . . That's right W, I'm coming for you.

Monday Afternoon Pick Me Up

The General Lee Was On The Run

Looks like we had a police chase this morning that ended up with a car plowing into the LBJ Grasslands and catching fire. Three occupants, two male and one female, then hot footed it away. They are still on the run.

Developing . . .

Edit: We're bringing in a helicopter with an infrared camera. Good times.

Edit: The pic is a little generic, but that is an actual DPS vehicle getting involved in the action this morning.

Random Thoughts

- I had to go to Denton this morning. I don't think I've done that in a very long while.
- About a 1/4 mile from the old courthouse I saw about 40 guys that appeared to be Hispanic standing around waiting anxiously. There was no question that it was a spot for employers to drive by to get day labor. But it was kind of sad seeing so many people that wanted to work but didn't have a job
- At the driver's license hearing, I saw a lawyer who absolutely no idea what he was doing. (For you criminal lawyers out there, he asked openly what "HGN" stood for.) He even had his client there to testify which is an absolute no-no at the hearing. Felt sorry for the kid/client.
- On the way back an 18 wheeler drifted into my lane by about two feet before he looked up and jerked it back. I have robbed death yet again.
- Speaking of . . . Dan Fogelberg has died. I liked Dan Fogelberg
- The Today Show's Ann Curry was going to bungee jump this morning. I promise I did not have negative thoughts.
- Brian Westbrook downing the ball on the one yard line yesterday was the smartest and most anti-ego move in the history of ever in the NFL

I've Seen That . . .

. . .pink #9 jersey for sale in an Albertson's in Fort Worth. Really.

"I've Been Everywhere, Man"

I can't say that its the greatest video in the history of ever, but it does mention Bridgeport and Jacksboro which is enough to get posted.

(Thanks to Paul by email.)