When I was backing out of my garage this morning I heard the loudest and weirdest "beep, beep, beep" sound. I thought either someone was stalking me or my car had magically installed a rear sensor. I got out and looked around, but nothing. It kind of creeped me out.
If I get to the cleaners really early, I'll find a lady alone inside who keeps the door locked despite the "open" sign. She gets up and opens it when she sees me coming. I think she does it for protection.
The governor of Illinois is just cocky enough to make me start to like him.
Heard a guy on WBAP say this morning that "I don't feel like I've eaten a meal unless I'm stuffed." Disgusting.
For the first time in years, I don't have a New Year's Eve party to go to.
Actually, I got invited to one, but I think the hostess secretly hates me.
What a weird incident last night when three guys entered The Gas Pipe in far north Dallas and opened fire, killing one.
I have never understood The Gas Pipe which basically sells drug paraphernalia.
And the Fox 4 broadcast of the Gas Pipe shooting had a wide shot showing a "Psychic" store next door. So why didn't the people inside see the shooting coming? (I actually stole that like from Kris on Facebook.)
Sports Quick Hits: That was a good OSU/Oregon game last night. Charles Barkley got arrested last night for DWI. There are five bowl games today.
The five bowl games reminds me when I was in Las Vegas with my buddy Kevin on this very day a few years back. I chose one team to bet on and he chose their opponent. We placed our bets with the same ticket lady who remarked, "Why didn't you two just bet each other?" (And thereby eliminate the Vegas commission or "juice".)
The Mavericks had their biggest comebackever last night -- eliminating a 29 point deficit. But the head coach didn't get to see it because he was ejected in the first half. I didn't see any of it by choice.
It's weird how at the stroke of midnight all the newly elected county officials suddenly take office.
I became DA at midnight in 1993 in Billy Bob's at Northside. I thought that seemed wrong at the time.
Wade Phillips is on The Ticket right now. He begins every answer with a very weak "well" followed by a two second pause.
. . . sends this pic believing he has found the famous Decatur beggar in an Obama picture.
(That's as big as the pic will get. Somebody use some Internet magic and find a larger one.)
Edit: A tad bigger
Maybe it's just me, but I did a double-take at this story on Yahoo. I mean, could you throw a few more stereotypes in the opening paragraph? Politically correct Yahoo ain't!
Next year I'm going to keep track of the good blog stories and create a local "Top Ten" list. I can't remember yesterday, so I have no clue as to the good stuff. But I kinda remember:
Make next "stadium trip" to Tampa Bay.
There's actually a story about this guy from last weekend but it's not as interesting as that hot chick this photo.
That's a special reader submitted "Random Thought" girl.
Wait there's more: The gal on the left has a myspace page where she goes by "Trish the Dish" covering Dallas nightlife and lists her hometown as . . . wait for it . . . "Bridgeport."
It gets odder: Here she is in a youtubepromotional video for a club where Tony Romo makes an appearance. (It's racy enough that it requires a youtube age confirmation.) She's much hotter in the video than she is in the picture.
I should stop my Random Thoughts right now since everyone has gone away.
The "reader submitted girl for Random Thoughts" is a great idea.
Wade Phillips did not hold a team meeting before the team was dismissed yesterday.
I hate Myspace. I'm beginning to like Facebook.
It looks like Hamas fires homemade rockets into Israel while Israel hits back with jets with missile technology that could hit a car from miles away.
I would think that radio advertising is the least effective. Who doesn't switch to another station during a commercial break?
There's a NyQuil commercial involving guys camping where one of them makes a subtle "hoof and mouth" disease joke. I don't know why I laugh, but I do.
I wouldn't be in Times Square for NYE for, well, less than a ton of money.
A movie which is hitting DVD that is getting belatedly good reviews is Ghost Town. But since it stars Ricky Gervais, it should be very funny.
In case you missed it: Sarah Palin's teenage daughter became a Baby Momma yesterday. It already says "momma" with an irritating accent.
My New Year's Resolutions from last year are here. I accomplished two of them: I got Hi-Def TV and I've had more fires in my fireplace.
I watched some of Jon & Kate Plus 8 last night. It's about a couple raising eight young kids (twins + sextuplets.) It was like a couple being sold into slavery where the kids were the plantation owners. No. Way.
A guy has contacted me yesterday and said the County Treasurer issued me a $1,000 check in 2002 that should have gone to him. He even had a check number. Trust me, I'm scrambling to get to the bottom of this. I still don't believe it.
Edit: OK, everyone start being nice to "Trish". Since we've confirmed she's from Bridgeport, I might put her in the Liberally Lean Hall Of Fame. (As soon as I start the Liberally Lean Hall of Fame.)
Ok, I try to post stories that will give rise to some honest debate whether it be in a Sunday School class or at Big Daddy's (the newest bar in Decatur that the local cops are picking on.) Anyway, I came across this story which I couldn't resist. But, I warn you, I don't think you want to bring the subject matter up when you're discussing with the newest Deacon whether the meek will inherit the earth.
(Warning. Adult content <-----which is the quickest way to make people click on a link.)
And, another thing, this is definitely not the future Mrs. Green #9.
Well my Christmas package finally arrived.
What happened on Wednesday? I just got the lamest explanation from Mr. UPS Guy: "My board went out for about an hour and a half so I had to have a new one delivered and then the businesses were closed after lunch." When notified I was here that afternoon, he said, "Hmmm [looking at pad] that's my signature there. I'm not sure what happened."
Cowboys get "knocked out" of the playoffs. Get it?
I don't know if the Cowboys are a good team that underperformed or a mediocre team that played like a mediocre team.
I don't think Jerry fires Wade -- He just sounds too adamant about it.
But Wade calling for a punt yesterday and Romo telling them to get off the filed may have been one of the more bizarre things I've seen.
The Cowboys have lost the last game of the year for nine years in a row.
Mark Friedman of The Ticket flew back on the Cowboy's chartered jet yesterday and this morning described the atmosphere like "the last day of school."
One final Cowboys/NFL thought: The players are paid per game. The median salary for the Cowboys this year is $1.3 million - that's $81,000 a game. Do you know how much a player would have receive as "extra compensation" for next week's wild card game? $18,000.
I always have a thousand questions whenever I hear the words "Gaza Strip."
One good thing about not putting up a Christmas tree: I don't have to take it down.
Does anyone watch the New Year's Eve parade in downtown Dallas?
Dallas Morning News sports writer Jean-Jacques Taylor, who isn't very imaginative, uses the word "abject" a lot.
I actually prepared a Spin yesterday but forgot to upload it from home. It'll be up tonight.
I got a MalcomGladwell book for Christmas. I can't believe I had not heard of him.
Funny moment on Dale Hansen's Sports Special last night: He began to roll Cowboy highlights but the script didn't match the video. He stopped the tape and went to commercial.
What a failed season. That team read their own press clippings from day one.
Edit: But buried in that mess, was a crazy Tony Romo scramble, throw back to Jason Whitten, and then a Whitten throw to Terrell Owens. Whitten said on the post game show that it wasn't designed -- he just saw Owens open and threw it.
Edit: Last playoff win was on Dec. 28, 1996.
I've got a meaningless bowl game (West Virginia vs. North Carolina) on TV because I sense college football slipping away. But it's pretty good -- 30 to 24 after three quarters.
One of the bands in the game keeps playing the opening theme from Phantom of the Opera.
West Virginia has a running back named Noel Devine that Deion Sanders tried to convince to come live with him in Prosper while he was in high school. But the kid snuck off after about a week and flew back to Florida from DFW Airport.
I wear hooded sweatshirts almost every weekend. Uh, I mean a "hoodie."
Funny animated GIF about a Democratic New Year's Eve party here. (But who is the lady behind Hillary?)
I like Weight Watcher's English Muffins. I almost feel like they are lying to me about the fat content.
I've mentioned it before, but I could spend forever looking at the "Top 10" lists for 2008 from Time magazine. Now they are online.
I could waist a ton of time with Guitar Hero. I refuse to buy one because of it.
I hope the UPS guy goes by my office today to deliver my package. It's closed. I want him to be inconvenienced.
I wonder if I'm sick. When I caught a cold last month, I realized that I could turn the hot water to "full" while in the shower and it felt fine. Normally, I need to back it off about a half of an inch or it will feel like I'm about to be burned. A second ago, in the shower, I noticed that I had the hot water opened to full.
That was too much info.
The new movie, The Spirit, "from the maker of Sin City and 300" is something I'd probably like.
I just saw where a friend of mine in Austin mentioned she was going to "Salt Lick" for dinner. I'm not sure I've ever been there.
I found your Google blog while looking for something that would answer my question. Since you live in Wise County and seem to be in the loop, I thought I’d ask you.
Maybe you can help me figure out something, if you’re so inclined. Today I got a Christmas card from an old buddy who was a highway patrolman in Gainesville back in the mid sixties. He made Sergeant and moved to Mexia where he retired and lives today. I seldom hear from him and he won’t answer his phone. The Christmas card is a first. It had a single sentence that I suppose he thought I should know about. It says, “I hear the phantom driver has moved into Wise County.” --[Name Redacted]
Back when I was a kid and rode around with him, he used to talk about the “Phantom driver from Jack County.” It was claimed by more than a few drunk drivers that they were run off the road by an oncoming big black car with one big headlight right in the middle. Many of the embellishments were suggested to the drunks by the investigating officers, I think.
The only thing I could find is a story about a guy on a crotch rocket who killed himself and a telephone pole a day or so back. Is there any story going around your area that more or less sounds like the “Phantom driver from Jack County?”
Yeah, I don't know if a "high school trainer" who is 23 really qualifies as a legitimate "And Another" entry, but I wasn't going to let this one pass by.
Mercy.
Story.
. . . with the exception that this man committed one of the most horrific crimes I've seen in a while. Dressed as Santa and carrying a gun and a home made flame thrower, eight are now dead and a house was burned to the ground. And three people are still missing.
I'm waiting around for a UPS package to be delivered (I had it sent to my office -- but our office was officially closed so it was just me, an open door, and time) and am a bit frustrated. But I was determined to not let a lost afternoon ruin Christmas Eve. And although I normally spend this day doing things like roaming around a mall (not to shop -- but to watch others and try to soak in a Christmas season that I intentionally deprive myself of), it wasn't a bad experience.
I finally turned off talk radio and browsed around youtube for Christmas videos that are oddly important to me.
"Merry Christmas, Darling" by The Carpenters? I'm kidding, right? Nope. That song was buried on a Christmas 8 track tape that my dad had constantly running at his department store during December years and years ago in Bridgeport. I distinctly remember in high school going down to that place every year late at night and wrapping presents. I'd turn the soundtrack on, turn it up, and have the whole place to myself. It was almost as if some type of magical solitude had transformed the place after hours of being crammed with people during the day.
Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas"? Am I serious? You bet. I remember listening to it as I ran around the old dirt track at the old Bridgeport Middle School when I was home from college one year. I was overcome, after being flooded with memories of that school and that field, with the realization that some times in your life are simply gone forever. Sappy, but true.
This is leading somewhere. I promise.
Let me issue a simple Christmas shout out to you whether you visit this silly blog once a month or a few times a day. I'm not sure how it started or how it has evolved into whatever mess it is now, but I appreciate the visits and the comments --- whether those comments be the incredibly nice ones or those that are so bitingly critical of me that they make me stop and think about whether maybe, just maybe, you might be right.
And one final thing, I'm amazed at how much those bloggers listed on the left (and, of course, others) put themselves "out there" -- revealing their life's pains and blessings to an audience of both friends and strangers. I really don't do that. A good friend told me that I was the ultimate psychiatric experiment for running Liberally Lean while at the same time being the most secretive, reserved, and emotionally guarded individual that he knew. I don't have an explanation for that.
But, on this Christmas Eve, I'll let you know a little.
By choice, I've awakened every Christmas morning of my adult life -- with the exception of one -- with no children in the home. About four years ago I decided that I'd jog outside at the break of dawn on Christmas morn believing it would be an emotional and happy experience --- the sensation of running by home after home and contemplating whether joyous present-opening-chaos was breaking out behind those closed doors and brick walls. It would be fun.
But it wasn't like that at all.
It was the outside that turned out to be overwhelming. Quiet and cold . . . and empty. I haven't done it since.
There's no real moral to the story other than to remind you to enjoy the inside. And although without kids, I've got a niece and nephew that I see every year on Christmas Day. It seems like yesterday they were toddlers and now both of them are in college. "Time flies" is a cliche. But it's a cliche because it's so true.
Oh, and one other secret? Every year when I drive home for Christmas in the late morning, to the same house I grew up in, I listen to the song below. It's the only time during the year that I will do that. It's my personal tradition.
I have no idea who that family is in the video or what country they are from but, I suppose, the message is universal. Merry Christmas.
If "the receiver is on a holiday" means that I wasn't here, you lied. I've been here all day.
It's 5:16.
Edit: As background, last week I ordered a package by "2 day air" using UPS. I paid (and I rarely throw out numbers) probably $65 for this option on the check-out page of the merchant's web site. I chose 2 day air because that gave me a huge cushion to make sure it was here by Christmas. For some reason, I was notified by email it would be delivered on Christmas Eve (make that "six day air"). Ok, fine. I go into the office (the delivery address) and work a bit and everyone goes home at 11:00 a.m. I sit and wait. And wait. And wait. And wait.
I was teased at around 2:00 p.m. when the Fed Ex guy came in and delivered some documents.
At a little after 5:00 p.m., with no package from UPS arriving, I checked the web site and saw the above entry.
I rarely get mad. I let things slide all the time. But I now have a new mission: To dog UPS until my last dying day. Am I petty? You bet. But UPS: You're on notice.
Everybody and their Christmas Dog have told me to read this today.
Let's just say it's by the great Rick Reilly of ESPN Magazine who tells us of a high school football game that happened a couple of weeks ago right down the road. But it's not about football at all.
For Christmas Eve, Santa commands you to click on that link.
Edit: A commenter points out a Wise County connection in that the Kris Hogan mentioned in the story used to coach at Boyd.
The shooting spree (and the back story) of the ex-Utah Trooper on a Dallas freeway borders on the bizarre. But the cop-gone-bad stories always seem to have a mitigating sentence in them. In this case, "Smith's abuse of alcohol and prescription medications started after an on-duty traffic accident."
I journeyed to Northeast Mall yesterday --- not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.
Well, the traffic was horrific.
That R.J. Gators restaurant was basically empty at dinner time. Not-a-good sign.
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas originally had lyrics that included "Have yourself a merry little Christmas / It may be your last / Next year we may all be living in the past" and "Faithful friends who were dear to us / Will be near to us no more"
Tonight we get to Santa's sleigh on the local weather radar which, proportionally, would make it about 200 miles wide. As a kid, I expected to see a flashing dot on the radar.
I'm working a half day today. But, somehow, I managed to have a UPS package delivered to the office today. If I'm sitting here by myself all afternoon long waiting for it, I'll be in pre-Christmas depression. Come on, Brown. Do it for me. (It arrived in Denton at 2:06 a.m. this morning).
TCU defeated a previously undefeated Boise State last night. But I stopped down when they interviewed the Boise State cheerleader who was famously proposed to after Boise State defeated Oklahoma two years ago. That girl was dumb as a box of rocks.
Everyone is now calling it the Poin-ZET-EE-AH Bowl.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button looks like it might be pretty good. (And I just heard a heck of a good review of Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson in Marley & Me -- that's surprising.)
I always intentionally delay getting in the "Christmas spirit" so as not to experience overkill. And then I look up at the last minute and realize I missed it.
A Fort Worth judge ordering a person to post a billboard message as part of his sentence is silly and smells of publicity seeking.
I really am in a good mood.
I feel fat again today. (And, yeah, I know that breaks a "man rule" but everything I'm wearing feels tight all of a sudden.
"The New York Yankees flexed their financial muscles -- again -- Tuesday, stunning the baseball world by snagging first baseman [and former Texas Ranger] Mark Teixeira with an eight-year, $180-million deal." Funny photoshopped pic of him here.
WBAP's Hal Jay and Steve Lamb (the sports guy) asked each other this morning how much of Teixeira's contract was guaranteed. Amazingly (or not), neither one of them knew the answer. As in all major league baseball contracts, the answer is, "all of it."
I got the nicest email from a web producer over at Fox 4 who wanted to be my Facebook friend. She referred to the "boob-centric photos you post thrice daily." Maam, this is a hard hitting news site I'm running here.
OR
30 Year Old Sylvie Françoise Van Der Vaart
(The girls are hanging out on a beach somewhere on the globe this week, and every photographer is just snapping picture after picture. )
The closing of the big car dealership in North Richland Hills after 30 years didn't get enough notice yesterday. That should scare everyone. Big time.
I think my outdoor temperature gauge in my car is messed up. It was raining while it said 31 degrees this morning.
The National Weather Service cancelled the freezing rain advisory around 6:30 this morning. But at 7:45 WBAP was reporting that people were crashing into each other all over the place in southern Tarrant County (Midilothian area in particular.)
Just heard a siren in Decatur right before 8:00 a.m.
I don't like the Cowboys chances against the Eagles this weekend, but it would be just like them to win. And then get killed the next week in the playoffs.
Those "he went to Jared's" commercials bug me. (I think I've said that before.)
I've never understood intentionally loud exhaust pipes on autos.
I think I like Christmas music so long as it is sung by one person and is "passionate."
Everyone dismisses Al Franken, who is now winning a month after the Senate election in Minnesota, as some kind of clown. He's no dummy. I remember seeing him about 15 years ago on Jeopardy where he smoked his opponents on a wide variety of subjects.
It would be hard to put a newspaper together on a daily basis.
See the Fox 4 story last night of the "single mom with eight kids" who had her Christmas presents stolen from underneath her tree? I didn't hear anything after "eight kids."
I'm torn by the show "Momma's Boy." It's sooo staged but half the time the women are in bikinis (so it's kinda of like watching PBS or the History Channel.) But with all that Jewish Mom vs. Black Women controversy, they ought to rename the show Race Wars.
Speaking of newspapers, has anyone seen the Paradise newspaper? I think I've figured it out: Post a picture of as many residents as you can and print as many names as you can.
What might be my favorite book-in photo of the year occurred yesterday in Fort Worth. It's of Angela Smith. (And, so there is no confusion, that's not the Angela Smith married to my law partner.)
That Dale Hansen video below really bugs me for some reason.
Dale Hansen plays his "Thank God For Kids" video every year at this time and he did so last night. And he always follows it with a little message and, normally, it's great. (I still get a little misty when I think of the time he mentioned that his ex-wife lost her battle with cancer one year "because it wasn't a fair fight.")
Anyway, last night was just plain weird. It's obviously scripted but he was all over the place. And, quite shockingly, he threw his two kids under the bus in a bizarre way --- in a burn-down-the-bridge kind of way.
Link. (There's a quick commercial and then the "Thank God" video. His commentary -- which you can slide over to -- starts at 2:42.)
(MzChief mentioned this a second ago in a comment. I promise I was going to post it anyway.)
Edit: Crazy twist --- Eric Hansen, Dale's son, gets a mention in the crazy triple murder (?) case in Dallas that happened on Friday.
Youtube description: Girl sobs in a car about setting off the fire alarm while her friend tries to control her own laughter. Apparently, she wanted to make the hallway appear that it had snow in it, so she decided to use a fire extinguisher (this is something that her dad has successfully done in the past). Instead of there just being a "little poof", the entire hallway filled with chemicals that caused the fire alarm to go off in the middle of the night during finals week. Now this is her in the car upset that everyone at Alpha Chi (the sorority she wants to be in and presumably those who live where the fire alarm went off) hates her. She explains how she isn't a bad person and it was just an accident.
As annoying as that chick is, I'm more infatuated with the girl filming it. She knows she's got some Academy Award winning material, and there is nothing that's going to keep her from rolling tape (and even zooming in.) That's a true professional. And a wise guy. I think I'm in love.
And that crying girl might want to check into transferring schools. That Spring semester is going to be brutal.
It drives me nuts when the names on the card don't match up to the order of the people in the photo. I had a girl send me one like that one time, and I had a heck of a time figuring out the names of her three kids. So, in the spirit of Christmas, I told her that her card was screwed up. The next year she she sent me another card but she had taken a pen and drew arrows from the kid's name to the kid.
If your not going to put the dog in the photo, don't put the dog's name on the card.
"Still [the shoe thrower] may have done Bush a favor. In an ABC News interview the next day, the President concceded for the first time that al Qaeda had no presence in Iraq before the U.S. invasion, adding, 'So what?' In another news cycle, this admission would have dominated the headlines . . . . "
I still believe that triple murder (?) in Dallas on Friday is the craziest story ever. If you're a woman (or a man, for that matter) and you've been kidnapped from you home a couple of days before, do you hang out there by yourself?
The two long runs in the Cowboys game on Friday were surreal.(They were the 3rd and 4th longest TD runs ever given up by the Cowboys.)
How could you leave the Cowboy game on Saturday after the game but before the final ceremony to shut down the old stadium?
Started to head to the mall on Saturday and then suddenly gave up on the idea. The beat down factor overwhelmed me.
Watched some of Midnight Express again last night. Pretty, pretty good.
I'm getting interested in Facebook although I can't say I understand everything that is going on.
Some folks in the office told me "not to eat too much" before I got to work today because there was a "big surprise" awaiting. If I don't see Hooters girls with wings in a second, I'm going to be pretty disappointed.
Bacon.
I wanted to go to the movies this weekend but there was absolutely nothing that I wanted to see.
The older The Beaver got, the less entertaining Leave It To Beaver was.
The AP has released its Top Ten Stories list but I'm always disappointed by it. I mean. This year's has generic entries like "Oil Prices" and "Sarah Palin." I'd like it much more if the list were of events (you know, things that would require a breaking news sounder.)
A Euless Trinity football player has been disciplined for intentionally running over a game official during a playoff game two weeks ago.
"We did conduct an investigation and he is being disciplined according to the student code of conduct," said Judy Ramos, director of communications for the Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD.
Ramos declined to name the player, but internet video of hit shows the player wearing No. 47, who is listed on the Trinity roster as senior linebacker Elikena Fieilo.
Fieilo, a second-team all-state linebacker, was the defensive MVP in Trinity's 2007 Class 5A Division I title game win over Converse Judson.
The University Interscholastic League is also investigating the incident and could levy additional sanctions. Trinity football coach Steve Lineweaver directed all inquiries to Ramos.
The video, taken from two angles, is from the late stages of Allen's 34-21 win over Trinity in the Class 5A Div. I Region I final at Texas Stadium Dec. 6.
At the snap of the ball, the Trinity linebacker immediately runs to his right and knocks the unidentified official to the ground, even though the play is a running play to his left.
Ramos said the student has mailed a formal letter of apology to the official.
A lady and two kids were found dead today in a pretty nice area of Dallas. But the story is weird because she's the daughter of an ex district judge and had reported two crazy assault/kidnappings at the home from the week before. There's speculation that the attacks were because her father was a judge in a "high profile" case.
Story.
All the details are vague because these (presumably) murders just happened. I bet it's going to get pretty nutty. And weirder.
Edit: Ex-judge identified as Mark Tolle by WBAP. Oddly, he died in 2007 and the most "high profile" case he presided over was that of Darlie Routier according to this obituary.
That same obituary listed his only daughter as Jeanmarie Geis. The picture below is a lady by that name who owns a real estate agency in Dallas.
Story.
Sheesh. These are almost the exact same facts of the last one that I couldn't support. These women are making it hard on me as the nationally renowned Champion for Hot Teacher Justice.
I think I would understand quantum physics before I understand the Duggar Family. You see, they are all gathered around momma holding a baby because that baby has just become the 18TH child in that family. 18!!!! For the record, the child has the tricked up name of Jordyn-Grace Makiya
Her siblings:
Joshua
John-David
Jana
Jill
Jessa
Jinger <--- Most tricked up name
Joseph
Josiah
Joy-Anna
Jeremiah
Jedidiah <---- Close second for most tricked up name
The White House will announce its plan at 8:00 a.m. today for auto industry. Let me guess: Throw money at the problem and make it go away.
I feel fat.
I don't know Lanier of the "Lanier Law Firm" in Houston but he's rich enough to hire Hannah Montana to sing at his Christmas party.
There used to be a band called "Buck Naked" that played in a little shack outside of Boyd in the 1990s.
I couldn't afford to hire Buck Naked to play my firm's Christmas party right now.
I'm calling for updates of the Christmas decorations around the Wise County Courthouse. It's looking a little shabby compared to the way the old Denton County Courthouse looks.
I used to go in the district clerk's office and examine every Christmas decoration to make sure there weren't any religious reference while saying stuff like, "I better not find the baby Jesus in here!" I was joking, but I think it always made them uncomfortable.
I don't know how you people afford kids.
It's easier to search for a story in the Star Telegram or the Dallas Morning News by using Google instead of the paper's own search engines.
Kristy Swanson is 39 today. I've been extremely jazzed by her ever since I saw her in a little known movie called The Chase.
Drew Peterson, 54, (who is rumored to be responsible for the fact that his current wife, Lacey Stacy Peterson, is missing) is engaged to a 23 year old. Her picture should be here. Man's a playa. Edit: Yep, I had "Peterfusion"
While looking for something I wrote one time, I stumbled across this gem that I penned on October 12, 2003 about the University of Texas: " . . . how long do you think Head Coach Mack Brown has left?" (Here, last item.) Might have missed on that one.
I'm thinking about going to the last high school game ever in Texas Stadium which is played tonight. It's Celina vs. Carthage For the 3A-II championship. I suppose if Bridgeport had been lucky enough to win out, they would be playing there tonight. That would have been cool.
I had a weird dream last night that I was in a 300 type of battle in a cornfield. Man, there have been some crazy nights in my head this week.
What story out of the Houston Chronicle could possibly prompt that many comments? Hints: Alcohol. DWI. Death. A lawsuit. A judge's daughter.
And you'd still never guess.
Answer.
(Thanks, Keith from bagofnothing.com.)
. . . as I noticed an Asian kid on the cover of "America's Best Popcorn" in my office kitchen.
Now the choice:
A. The "pictures of the year" as brought to you by the Boston Globe.
-OR-
B. Hot girl in her underwear sitting on Santa's lap.
-OR-
C. A Midlothian High School newscast that involves a Santa who may be Larry the Cable Guy and who also busts his arse getting on the set. (Warning: We must have a crisis in education because the web servers at Midlothian ISD require half a day before this video loads -- although it might be worth it to see the production value alone.)
"Jennifer was a homeless, transgendered, former marine who ran for every public office imaginable in Austin and Dallas. " She was found dead yesterday in front of a church in Austin.
I routinely record a rather obscure show on Channel 8, "The Gordon Keith Show" (from the Ticket), and last year I saw Gordon interview her when she ran for the Dallas mayor's job. Yeah, he had her on there as a "bit" but you couldn't help but like her - quirks and all.
But the above video has surfaced which, at least to me, is another Stop Down Moment. It shows her addressing some governmental board in Austin the day before her death. In an odd twist, she begins her remarks by singing "Silent Night."
Sleep in heavenly peace, indeed.
Edit: I found this somewhere else: "She had the courage to choose to be the person she wanted to be, with full knowledge that society would not handle it well. Sadly, most people do not have that amount of courage to pursue his/her true passion in life for one reason or the other. Before you know it we are all saddled with responsibility of adulthood and the trappings of being normal, and even though sometimes miserable, more comforting somehow because it is familiar and secretly you know everyone else suffers in silence with you."
I feel kind of guilty about subjecting you ladies out there to the Hairy Back Guy below but, quite frankly, I never noticed the Hairy Back Guy when I was uploading it. My bad.
So, in the spirit of the Holiday Season, I bring you this pic. For you out there who are thinking that's me, which is certainly understandable, hold on. It's actually baseball player Alex Rodriguez. And, if that's not enough for you, in 2007 he signed a 10-year, $275 million contract, with the New York Yankees. Put that on top of his past earnings:
Mercy.
It was foggy out there this morning. Before 7:00 there was a van upside down along 287 at around 407.
Former TCU and NFL great Sammy Baugh has passed away. I presume he was great because that's what everyone is saying - he was 94 - who knows. (He lived in Roby which, after looking it up, is was out by Abilene. Then I got distracted because Google Street View had been to Roby.) Edit: OK, I'm an idiot. It's "Rotan" not "Roby". And for the life of me I have no idea where "Roby" came from.
I hate waking up hot because I had the heater up too high.
Caroline Kennedy wants the Senate seat that will be vacated by Hillary. I think Kennedy is personality challenged and, after reading her "constitutioanl law book" a few years back, not that bright. It was like "Con Law for Dummies."
Great idea for TV: There needs to be an alternative channel for every sporting event that does nothing but zoom in on people in the crowd.
I use too much salt. I'm not sure why salt is bad for you, but I use too much of it anyway.
Carbonated soft drinks burn my mouth. It's really painful.
HBO is running a documentary on the integration of college football. Sheesh, there's all this footage from the 1960s (which isn't that long ago) where we were a Redneck Nation. Some video from Ole Miss showed a mascot which was a Rebel General in full battle gear, a full sized confederate flag unrolled on the field, and the band spelling out "Dixie."
The weirdest thing about the Price Is Right video below is Drew Carey's lifeless reaction.
I woke up in the middle of the night and saw some movie awards show on TV. I thought it was VH1 or MTV. Then I saw the graphic for the winner in a category that involved an unmentionable body part. It was then I realized it was The Adult Video Movie Awards. (Hey, it was Cinemax or Showtime.)
Not that I watched the aforementioned awards show, but one of the entertainment routines involved very scantily clad women dancing only to be surrounded by other dancers wearing jackets that had "FBI" on the back of them. The singer was ranting about censorship. Pretty good schtick.
Crazy dream last night: I was trying to defend myself by trying to load a gun with mushrooms. (I have no idea.)
"Watership Down" is a cool title. I've never read the book, but it's a cool name. Kind of like "Clockwork Orange."
With the final game in that old place being this Saturday night (how rotten is that? Saturday night and on the NFL Network), I've compiled my list of top things I've seen in person at the stadium.
(The Dallas Observer's Richie Whitt just posted a legitimate Top Ten list on his blog.)
But mine:
I saw the first event in the stadium's history in the early 1970s: A Billy Graham Crusade
In 1989 when Michael Irvin, I think in his second season, blew out his knee and was gone for the season. I'm pretty sure Steve Walsh started over Troy Aikman for some reason. The Cowboys lost because they always lost back then.
Southlake Carroll vs. Euless Trinity epic playoff game (was that crazy fake punt game, played in front of about 50,000 people, last year or the year before?)
A Paul McCartney concert (tickets via scalper in the parking lot.)
A Monday Night Football game in around 1993 or 1994. Not too memorable because I can't remember who they played or who won.
A game in the early 1990s against the Kansas City Chiefs. I just remembered that I had a blind date. I don't think we ever went out again. She wasn't too bad.
The1992 playoff game against the Eagles -- the first season that Jimmy Johnson led the Cowboys to the Superbowl. (Odd event: A group of about 12 of us, without game tickets, rented an RV and bought a parking ticket next two the stadium. My very good looking girlfriend then persuaded an attendant to let the two of us in the stadium during the game. There weren't any seats, but I saw a few minutes of the playoff win.)
Bridgeport High School vs. Niceville, Florida on 9/29/00. Pics.
Edit: Forgot watching Baylor vs. SMU in, I think, 1985.
Edit: Forgot watching Eric Dickerson score for SMU against North Texas in 1981 or 1982.
Edit: It's ridiculous that I left off one of the most amazing things I've ever seen: No. 9 Colorado 39, No. 3 Texas 37 on 12/1/01 (First game tickets I ever bought off Ebay.)
Edit: I just remembered that I went to a Cowboys/Eagles game in 1987 during the NFL strike so the game was played with replacement players. The first Cowboy play was a reverse that I thought was a little cheezy.
I'd be scared to try to pull off a bank robbery because it seems like a lot of things would go wrong.
Funny line from Raising Arizona. Robber: "All right, ya hayseeds, it's a stick-up. Everybody freeze. Everybody down on the ground." Customer: "Well, which is it, young feller? You want I should freeze or get down on the ground? Mean to say, if'n I freeze, I can't rightly drop. And if'n I drop, I'm a-gonna be in motion. You see..."
I'm not sure I've ever heard of "freezing fog" until yesterday.
As much as we get beaten down with "going green", I haven't heard any call to ban Christmas lights.
The Fort Worth ISD Superintendent now makes $328,950. That's insane.
Man, the Obama haters won't even give the man a chance. The man won fair and square (I'm pretty sure the Supreme Court didn't have to declare a winner in a 5-4 decision), but they've can't even wait for him to take office before the bashing starts.
I have no desire to see the Twilight movie about vampires. And I've tried to watch the HBO'sTrue Blood but I've had a little trouble getting into it.
The Ticket spent a segment on why women think vampires are sexy. I'd never really thought about it.
I'm buying a black cloak.
I giggle when I see Santa in the middle of a nativity scene display. Very unstable.
I've never really thought about the meaning of the word "nativity".
There was a big story yesterday about a guy who got arrested after a child relative wrote a letter to Santa complaining of molestation. Before we hang him, would you want to be arrested based upon the facts contained in this affidavit as reproduced by The Smoking Gun? Anybody want to investigate those allegations before making an arrest?
My hot sports opinion: The Cowboys won't reach the NFC Championship game.
That "Real Wives Of [Insert Geographic Area]" is silly.
I've got a pretty big and cool bathtub but I use it only once every two years or so.
Come January 1, I will have worked at the same job for eight years and one day. That's will be a new record for me.
Very random road thought: That merging of traffic from eastbound 380 to southbound 287 (that relatively new exit) is dangerous.
Just got a "are you ok?" phone call. I laughed.
That girl in the top pic reminds me of some celebrity.
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