That Sound You Heard Was The Death Star Exploding

Baylor 76 Evil Empire 70 The Bears hit 12 of their last 13 free throws.

Math Question

Just thought about this and need some help from The Big Brains on Brad out there. Baylor and Texas play tonight. Baylor has lost 24 straight times. Let's assume that in each of those games Texas entered the contest with a 90% chance of winning. With that being said: What were the odds that Texas would win 24 in a row? My guess is the equation would be 90/100 to the 24th power. But I have no idea what I'm saying. Edit: Thanks, guys. I chose the 90% assumption for each game in order to see how incredible it is to win 24 in a row (even if one team is an overwhelming favorite each time.)

Say What

From The Today Show this morning.

The last person to see a 5-year-old Florida girl before she went missing — who is also the new teenage bride of the child’s father — acknowledged that there are inconsistencies in the stories she’s told investigators, but was unable to say why her account has changed.

Link and video here.

This Made Me Laugh. Not Really Sure Why.

The Messenger's "Tree v. Jeep" Video From Yesterday

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• Convenience stores in the metroplex seem to feel more dangerous these days.
• Had this discussion yesterday: Most, if not all, sin is based in selfishness.
• For some odd reason, it is the Chicago Tribune that reported on a story that is gaining legs: Cops in a small Texas town seizing a ton of property and money from motorists and then taking it, via the state's forfeiture laws, in exchange for not charging them with a crime.
• This happened to 140 people over a two year period which is a shocking number. I bet less than 10, maybe less than 5, forfeiture actions are filed in Wise County every year.
• The Dow is up three days in a row? Economy. Solved.
• Saw a lawyer in a driver's license hearing yesterday in Fort Worth that did not have a clue what he was doing. It's always uncomfortable when that happens because every lawyer in the audience starts looking at one other with cocked eyebrows.
• That Geico stack-of-bills-with-eyeballs is weird.
• I think I saw a story about Texas considering paying students for good grades. ($20 for an A, $10 for a B, etc.) Anybody else ready to give up?
• Update: Forgetting Sarah Marshal didn't do much for me.
• I always expect a convenience store clerk to become overly excited when I pay with exact change. Rarely happens.
• I'm not sure what I think about the overly pillowed bed.
• Lawyer news: A huge firm in Texas has canceled next summer's associate program. I've never heard of such a thing.
• I TIVO'd the Travel Channel's "Bridget's Sexiest Beaches" with Bridget Marquardt last night. It looked like a "Hey, Now" kind of show based upon the previews.
• NFL Draft thought: Everyone always says "Take the best player available." Um, ok. The tricky part is figuring out who that is.
• I really like today's pic.
• Drives me nuts: Driving down the highway in the rain and having someone pass me on the left only to immediately get right in front of me and spraying me with gunk.
• Finally heard a radio interview with the Dallas Mavericks' coach. Sheesh. That guy is a tremendous jerk.
• St. Patrick's Day is coming up. I hope I remember to post my favorite video of "I wanna know where da gold at!"

And You Know What This Means?

It means the Evil Empire is now in the cross-hairs of the Basketball Playing Baptists. Austin, you're on notice. Tomorrow evening in the Big 12 Semi-Finals, we're going to walk all over you like you're a pebble on the Road to Damascus. Get behind me, Satan, indeed! (And you think Baylor is intimidated by having lost 24 in a row to UT? Well, think agai.......woah........24?........Sheesh.....Nevermind.)

Random Golf Post

Rumor Mill

Someone just wrote that 36 people just got laid off at POCO in Decatur? Anybody confirm?

Dallas Morning News: March 11, 2009

Larger.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• "A Baghdad court has sentenced an Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at former U.S. President George W. Bush to three years in prison for assaulting a foreign leader." I hope they don't suffocate from all that new found freedom over there.
• A commenter is now furiously typing, "But Saddam Hussein would have put him to death!!!" I call that the, "Oh, yeah? What about you?" argument: The method of distracting criticism by comparing the criticized conduct to something worse. I bet there's a technical name for that.
• I made it halfway through Forgetting Sarah Marshall last night. Pretty funny, but it's no The Heartbreak Kid - a movie that I like 100% more than anyone else.
• Forbes has released it's list of World's Richest People. Hey, there's a drug lord on there.
• This obituary of a teenager goes with this shocking crime out of Graham. (Credit.)
• My junior high basketball coach once told our team, "If you can't beat a man one on one, you don't need to be on this court." That's always bugged me.
• An irate caller on KLIF this morning said our country is "fat, lazy and stupid" and it wouldn't hurt for us to have to learn what it is like to "sacrifice and suffer." Probably right.
• He also added that sometimes he thinks it would be a good idea to let the country implode in order to see if the current generation, when faced with the crisis, is "worthy of America." I think I agree with that, too.
• As a long time Baylor supporter who is a fan of Hall of Fame linebacker "Mike Singletary" it's weird to watch a Texas Tech basketball game who has a pretty good player named "Mike Singletary."
• For Ticket Fans only: The Fake Billy Tubbs and the Ed Carter Sports Reports may be my favorite bits.
• As I still consider my trip across the South, I found a tour of mansions in Natchez, Mississippi. Ten years ago I wouldn't have been remotely interested in such a thing.
• I've started watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart again. His monologue is always funny, but something has happened to his "chit chat with our correspondent" segment.
• Random thing heard on the news this morning: Do people still wear galoshes?
• There's a K&G commercial disguised as a news 911 call. I hate it.
• If I were in charge of commercial/ad design as my job, I'm pretty sure after my presentation to sell it to the client I would hear, "That's just weird" a lot.

That "Family Values" Thing Can Be Tricky

It's easy to say now, but when I saw her interview a couple of weeks ago it seemed like something was up with the boyfriend. Story. (Thanks for the quick tip, Steve.)

And Just When I Bad Mouthed MySpace

This playa gets national attention for his. (It's very wheels off and worth the click.)

Wednesday Afternoon Pick Me Up

Paris and Britney have been swimming. Spring Break for everybody!

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• Chalk drawings on a sidewalk can't help but make you smile.
• Channel 8 News covered the Jackie Murphree fundraiser yesterday in Decatur and there's footage of Jackie who made an appearance. You can watch it here. Keep a Kleenex handy.
• I had someone printout this pic of a news anchor and give it to me yesterday at the courthouse for no reason other than she thought I'd like it.
• How in the world did the ankle-monitor-for-truants story become such a big deal when not a single kid has ever been outfitted with the device?
• How could anyone possibly have a "Git R Done" sticker on their car?
• Everyone sure has become an economics expert all of a sudden.
• Triple death in North Richland Hills last night off Rufe Snow. The ages of the dead are 17, 38, and 55.
• The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders performed at Bass Hall? Pictures to prove it.
• So many people who have a problem waste time explaining that problem to someone who cannot help them.
• I'm almost at the end of 1776. I had thought it would be about the Revolutionary War and its people as a whole but it was only about the year 1776 (go figure). Sound boring? Not even close. It was riveting.
• I think the far right wing is getting nuttier.
• One of these years I'm going to the St. Patrick Day's parade on Greenville Avenue. But not this year: The forecast is for rain and temperatures in the 40s.
• "Woman Injured In Sex Toy Mishap." How can you not click on that?
• Every two years in the legislature, there's a bill to require all consents to search to be in writing. Every year it gets shot down despite there being no legitimate reason for it to die.
• I've spent exactly one night in a hospital. Well, two. One night was sitting in a chair beside a sick girlfriend. I felt pretty good about myself after that.

"First (!!!!!) On Fox 4 News"

This has to be the slowest news day in the history of ever.

AT&T's 1993 "You Will" Ads

They were pretty much dead on.

Pit Crew Member Chases Tires -- Delays NASCAR

I post this simply because I wanted to steal someone else's line about it: "He must have thought it was a possum."

Hello, New Mrs. Green

PORTSMOUTH — When Britta Osberg’s ex-boyfriend asked her to return a ring, she punched him in the face twice, leaving the ring’s imprint on his cheek, police allege, reports the Portsmouth Herald. Based on those allegations, Osberg, 19, of 110 Perkins Road, Rye, is scheduled to be arraigned in Portsmouth District Court Monday on two class A misdemeanor counts of simple assault.

She would be perfect for me. For years I've been posting pics of scantily clad women and not showing the females of Wise County the respect they deserve (or so I'm told). This girl would not put up with that and, she'd have me on the straight and narrow so fast my head would spin. I mean, if I posted a Tuesday After Noon Pick Me Up, I know I had have the business end of a frying pan waiting on me when I walked through the door that night. That's love. Baby, I've waited a long time for you. And you've got to like any chick babe lady* who will post her own mugshot on her Myspace page. She's got spunk. My pastor is gonna love her. (All of her Myspace pictures and, man, there are a ton of them, can be found here.) But her myspace home page is here. And, if I may, please let me go on a rant even though I'm all a flutter having found the true love of my life who, as a bonus, is less than half my age. How in the world did Myspace ever become a hit? I mean, look at her page. It's a mess. You can't read crap. You can't see crap. And her's is better than most because I don't have some gawd awful song blaring out of my speakers. I hate MySpace. I hope that's not a deal killer with her. _________- *New respectful terminology.

Random Confusing Picture

• Basset hound cap
• "Got basset hound?" t-shirt
• Big old belly
• Is that Dorothy's face on the couch cushion?
• Creepy guy smile
• Creepy guy short sleeve shirt with t-shirt underneath
• Creepy guy with short sleeve shirt with crazy slick red tie
• Creepy guy holding DVD of "Lolita"
• Two guys perfectly positioned under "101 Dalmatians" wall art.

Edit: Ok, Ok, you can stop with the acronym definition.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• Old clips of Janis Joplin singing = Power Down.
• I once slept walked out of a hotel in San Francisco while on vacation as a boy with my family. When I made it back to the hotel room in the middle of the night (I was gone for probably 10 minutes), they were scared to open the door because I was banging on it so hard and they had no idea what was going on.
• I remember realizing where I was when I tried to open a newspaper rack in the hotel parking lot.
• Greatest. Photoshop. Ever. (Thanks, Keith.) And everyone tells me that's the worst picture of me they've ever seen.
• Vacation thought: I might drive across the South by myself. Stopping often to see stuff that guide books tell me I should see. Hole in the wall restaurants. Small towns. Louisiana. Alabama. Mississippi. And then into Florida down to the Keys (which would probably turn a pleasant trip into a long one).
• But with my luck I'd probably end up tied to a tree ala Deliverance.
• The stem cell debate broke out yesterday which caused the abortion debate to break out which, in turn, caused the "every life is precious" comments to flow. Except those uttering "every life is precious" will later say that a life, who can't find work and seeks government assistance, is a leach on society.
• Shannon Tweed is 52 today.
• Two things that would be horrible to experience: The church shooting and the child being run over in a driveway. And both have made the news in the last couple of days.
• Brit Brit in a bikini. (And, yes, I saw the concert video that was all over the Internets yesterday.)
• Channel 8 now runs a brief spot during its newscasts which simply says, "It's 10:00 o'clock. Do you know where your children are?" That was a mainstay of the channel back when I was growing up. It's amazing how it still applies all these years later.
• Criminal charges against teenagers in Plano who faked the kidnapping in a parking lot? Not a chance. There is no applicable law. But I'm sure the Texas Legislature will immediately spring into action to remedy this problem that we've never heard of before this weekend.
• Description of new Dallas Cowboys luxury suite: "The suite was filled with Brazilian granite, Canadian marble, leather-clad walls and walnut trim. The front of the bar was wrapped in crocodile leather and stocked with Woodford Reserve bourbon, Patrón Silver tequila and other premium liquor" Recession?
• The use of ankle monitors on truant students by a local JP has made the Messenger and today the Star Telegram. But I noticed this sentence: "No students have been sanctioned with the monitor yet . . . ." Edit: Good grief. I just hear about this on WBAP.
• In other news, local officials are considering freezing the bodies of probation violators. No probationers have been sanctioned with the freezing device yet.
• And another (hot kindergarten teacher.)

And Another

Link

Jessica Biel On SNL As Jessica Rabbit

That is everything I know.

Slow News Day

So I'll reach and post a picture of Pedro Martinez and a girl on a boat. I've heard baseball season is around the corner. Ergo, the relevance.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• With a public that make Mall Cop the #1 movie in America, how does 60 Minutes consistently rank in the top ten?
• I'd like to be a criminal law professor. And I think I'd be great at it. (Most cocky statement ever?)
• Trial judges who are simply following orders from above to release a prisoner based on DNA results do a lot of showboating for the cameras.
• I went back to short hair this weekend.
• I watched The Great Gatsby this weekend after having read the book last year. The movie didn't have a lot to offer.
• I can't tell you how much "the blues" played on the guitar beats me down.
• A high of 45 degrees on Thursday?
• Jackie Murphree's proposed stem cell treatment is fascinating.
• I actually saw Aaron Tippin on TV yesterday. I'm pretty sure I would have never thought of him ever again.
• The Today Show on Sunday dedicated a segment to a new fiction book. Is there any chance the publisher pays NBC for that?
• If I take a nap, I feel drunk for the first hour after I wake up.
• I watched Alexandra Pelosi's documentary, "Right America: Feeling Wronged" on HBO over the weekend. It was great. And scary.
• We can't agree on anything, but we all abide by Daylight Saving Time.
• The Wise County Messenger's Update has turned into a community announcement sheet.