Vintage: Fan Almost Falls Out Of Stands

First Lady In Spain

I just got a kick out of spotting the Secret Service agents.

Update On Recent News

You Can't Even Depend On 911 Any Longer

Savings Account Talk: Limit Of Six Transfers?

This came up when I googled "banker" so I'm rolling with it

I was approached yesterday by a young gal (happens all the time) that wanted me to complain about something I had never heard of: There is a limit of the number of times you can transfer money out of your savings account. I thought, "Huh?" But then she told me she had both been charged fees and had a savings account closed (and reopened with a new number) when she exceeded four transfers.

Then she said it was a "federal regulation."

I thought, "Baloney. It's your bank screwing you around."

But, lo and behold, there is a federal regulation that limits the transfers (what is defined as a "transfer" is kind of complicated) to six per month. (It looks like a bank can make the number less and create its own fees for violations, but the reg is silent about that.)

I had no idea.

Friday Morning Pick Me Up

Gemma Merna

Former Wise County Resident

Link.

Random Baseball Call Last Night

It's hard to tell, but it looks like the ball bounces outside the line BEFORE it gets to third base and then lands inside the line AFTER it passes third base. Does it have to go OVER third base?

See the clip here (they finally get around to the replay at the :54 mark,)

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• The bus crash in Missouri yesterday was insane. This link has the story and the picture of the bus which is on top of a truck cab. What you might miss is that there is a crumpled car under the bus.
• Randy Galloway accussed Mark Cuban of taking kickbacks from the lenders in the Rangers auction to drive up the bid which prompted an angry Cuban to call in to Galloway's radio show. Delicious.
• Supposed to hit at least 100 over the next seven days. Kill me.
• Tiger Woods shot a 74 yesterday at a tournament he's owned over the years. Man, if he's lost it, it'll be the biggest Fall From Grace sports story ever.
• Trim painting in the game room and my painting projects are done. Note to self: Remove trim tape shortly after painting next time. Letting it remain on there a couple of days isn't good.
• The First Lady is on a pretty high tone vacation in Spain.
• I didn't even know a red light was going up in front of Devon on 380 until I drove by it this week. If someone had told me as a kid that would happen at "the Pleasant View road on the highway", I would have thought they were crazy.
• Buying carpet from Home Depot is an ordeal. Pick it out, order it (where you learn of a thousand incidental charges), have someone come out and measure, have someone call with a quote, pay for it, and wait for a contractor to call to schedule installation.
• The Petroleum Club in Fort Worth got the go ahead to create a 40th floor balcony. It dawned on me I don't know a single member of that club.
• A Lexus SUV hit a pick-up by my office yesterday. Pick-up guy was not happy.
• Nerdy stuff: Find out how many people you follow on Twitter do not follow you back.
• You'd think by now every kid would have a GPS bracelet on them or something similar.
• The USA Today/Coaches College Football preseason poll has been released.

Kitten Sells It With That Scream. A Born Showman

University Of Georgia Orientation Video 2010

How those good-ole-boys-from-the-South ever allowed this thing to be produced is beyond me. Somebody over there needs to put down his mint julep, get off the veranda and get this thing taken down before the rest of the SEC begins the dog pile.

(But I'll rate it as mildly entertaining on a very slow news day.)

Edit: Not that you want to, but since my embedded video crops out the right side, you can see a full version here.

When Did Hilary Swank Turn Into A "Hey, Now?"

More.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• The boss in the British version of The Office, Ricky Gervais, might possibly replace Steve Carrel who is retiring from the American version of the show. I think he's the only one who could do it.
• Whatever happened to kitchen trash compactors?
• A California federal judge struck down the state's gay marriage ban yesterday. Opponents say the ban was voted in and was the "will of the people." Well, so was black and white water fountains at one point.
• I guess this heat is worth a generally pleasant winter. Maybe.
• Kevin Kolb will start at QB for the Philadelphia Eagles this year. I think he spent a handful of years in Decatur before he graduated high school somewhere else.
• The Ranger auction last night, which the Ryan Group finally won after upping their original bid by about $88 million, was a newspaper's deadline nightmare.
• Sorry individual: After being paid $32 million over the last year, Redskin Albert Haynesworth fails three conditioning tests and then claims a sore knee which has kept him out of practice for eight days.
• ESPN's Erin Andrews has a hot sister?
• Four funerals listed in the Update today and all were in their 50s.
• I completely missed out on the announcement that Decatur was getting a Wendy's. But that's all we need: Another reason for people to clog that area of FM 51.
• I wonder if this family drove through Decatur on their way back from Dallas before being involved in a tragic wreck in near Vernon.

Ranger News

Although no one knows what the heck all of this means, the first round of the auction was finally completed (it took almost all day) with the Mark Cuban group outbidding the Nolan Ryan group by $25 million.

It sounds like the Ryan Group is griping about whether Cuban submitted a "valid bid" and it also kind of seems like they don't have any more funding to raise the bid. Maybe.

This guy has been doing a good job following the proceedings on twitter.

Edit: In the middle of the night, the Ryan Group won the auction.

Wheels are off

Link.

Edit: And today former NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani's daughter was arrested for shoplifting makeup. It's Cosmetic Crazy Day.

Wednesday Morning Pick Me Up: Fox 4's Fiona In Make Up Chair

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• The Ticket had the Whataburger voiceover/commercial guy on the radio the other day. He admitted he had never eaten a Whataburger. Attaboy.
• It's a amazing that eight people can be gunned down in a work place and it barely gets a mention on the news.
• TV reporter ruins ice sculpture. That's so obviously a bit, how could anyone believe it's real. (Trust me, millions do.)
• Brett Favre is a drama queen. Rumors swirled all over the place about his retirement yesterday, and he could have stopped it all by simply issuing a statement saying it's true, it's false, or I have not made a decision. Instead he sits back so he can be the center of attention.
• And Favre's set to make $13 million this year with reports this morning that he's been offered a raise to $20 million? Sheesh. No way he's retiring.
• The Ticket had a segment today about being laid off and the collateral damage it causes on relationships and self-esteem. A few emails read on the air were enough to make all of us rethink that hateful "why don't you just get a job at McDonalds?" attitude.
• The population of my house has increased by 400%. To say it has "become alive" is an understatement.
• But setting an eight year up with a paint brush and a small section of a wall to paint is not a bad way to spend part of an evening.
• Devon announced this morning that it is printing money again.
• It sounds like the oil well is now finally dead. And it's amazing that that almost all of the oil never made it the shore.
• TCU's head coach had a conference call hijacked by a wise guy blogger yesterday. Funny.
• I've always referred to the Texas Longhorns as the Evil Empire -- a reference to Star Wars. But this weekend on the radio I heard someone refer to the current Big 12 as the equivalent of the old "Eastern Bloc" with Texas serving as the Soviet Union and everyone else being satellite countries. I smiled because Ronald Reagan referred to the Soviet Union as "the Evil Empire" during that time in history.
• Emmitt Smith, who goes into the Hall of Fame this weekend, kept every touchdown ball. Where are they? What is he going to do with them?
• Got to play with an iPad briefly on Monday. Pretty, pretty cool.
• Lohan on the cover of Maxim. Hey, now.
• How to prevent date rape in Dallas according to the new police chief: Women should stop drinking. (If this interests you, you'll probably enjoy this discussion and comments here.)
• A favorite line of The Fan's Greg "The Hammer" Williams: There's nothing more fun, or more irritating, than a drunk woman. (I continue to encourage Ticket Fans to check out 105.3 between 11:00 am and 3:00 pm.)
• Before he was famous, actor Paul Rudd was a party DJ (a video of him working a bat mitzvah making the rounds yesterday.)

Those Engagement Wheels Keep Falling Off

Story.

Star-Telegram Reviews Lake Bridgeport For Fishing

Link.

(Credit RPM for finding this.)

Let's Assume That Didn't Hurt Too Badly

Edit: Stop with the N Word comments. I've decided not to publish them since you people are coming out of the woodwork.

I Miss Gambling On Which Hole The Mouse Would Run In

Want to see 258 photos by Joe Duty of last week's Wise County Reunion?

Brett Favre Is Retiring Again

I could see him faking an injury to skip training camp, but I'm really surprised to see him quit again. The Vikings were set.

(Rumors were floating around all morning but SI confirmed it on its web site. Then, as I'm typing this, I can't get the story back up but here's the cached copy. Either their server is overloaded or they are in the middle of an "oops". )

Fort Worth Landmark Closing

I haven't been there in years, but there was a time where it was one of the only places in downtown to hang out in after dark.

I still remember a Conga line of Germans on Thanksgiving Eve. One of the weirdest and funniest moments ever.

Source.

Edit: Stat-Telegram story.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• Six teenagers drown in the Red River in Louisiana. Three each from two families. None knew how to swim.
• Place your bets: Can the Texas Rangers possibly blow an eight game lead down the stretch? I'm a little nervous about that.
• And the "auction" of the Rangers that occurs today is incredibly confusing.
• Obama is sticking to his end of August timeline to get out of Iraq. There were 144,000 troops there when he took office. Soon there will be next to nothing. That's a huge campaign promise that was kept.
• Now get us out of Afghanistan. (I know I say that every week, but I think it more often than that.)
• I was in a Fort Worth post office yesterday. When did every postal worker get so friendly? I mean eerily friendly.
• Sarah Palin was on Fox News Sunday last weekend and uttered the phrase "In Alaska, we know only dead fish go with the flow." Host Chris Wallace acted like he had never heard that line before (even though she famously used it in her governor resignation speech.) How do I know that and he doesn't?
• I got to be checked out by a Walmart gal who acted exactly likely the Asian character "Jodi" who had a minor dope smoking girlfriend role in Knocked Up.
• Falling 500 feet to death with your wife while hiking in Colorado is not a way I want to go. Horrible.
• I woke up late this morning. I'm beginning not to trust my alarm which isn't a good feeling.
• Isn't Deal or No Deal a show that could take place in about five minutes instead of thirty?
• I've heard it's "Shark Week" but it would take me a bit to find that channel.
• I bought TCU/Baylor tickets yesterday.
• I don't know who Sophie Turner is, but she went to the beach. Hey, now.
• Breaking: At least three dead in Connecticut workplace shooting this morning. I fear the workplace shooting. Edit: Body count is up to 9 by noon.
• I think I fixed my computer virus by tinkering in the Registry. Always a dangerous proposition.

Channel 8 Covered Bridgeport Power Outage

Power Outage In Bridgeport?

So says the Messenger?

Any reports from you folks over there looking at your dark computer monitor?

From A Criminal Defense Lawyer Message Board

Rising Star: Antoine Dodson

This came out last week and it didn't really do much for me, but a lot of people get a kick out of it. The star of our show makes an appearance at the 1:03 which is the whole reason for the video's popularity.

Wise County Referenced In Today's NY Times

Link.

(Thanks, commenter.)

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• Bud Kennedy has a pretty good column about the weekend of the crash at DFW in 1985.
• And WBAP played the cockpit tapes from the crash this morning. Wow. I had never heard those. You could hear emergency warnings going up and a computer voice saying "Pull up. Pull up."
• I did "family grocery shopping" for the first time last night. Oh, my.
• Lindsay's free!
• I can't tell you how disappoinged I at at McAfee Security. After buying their virus protection program two weeks ago, I was hit with one yesterday. And a full scan now doesn't even detect it.
• Got to see the inside of an apartment/condo at the converted Montgomery Ward off of 7th Street in Fort Worth. Not bad.
• They are going to try the "static kill" on BP well this week. That could make the temporary fix a permanent one.
• The second story in the Update makes it sound like DPS can't test blood for marijuana. It can, just not at that lab in Garland.
• I haven't heard any updates on the Montague County Judge's death. If it turns out to be a suicide, we are in the midst of an epidemic of them.
• Very funny picture: Dad poses with barracuda and daughter after the barracuda took a piece out of the girl's arm.
• Drove a Uhaul truck this weekend without incident. But the check in line in Fort Worth was ridiculous. After waiting 30 minutes I was reminded that I hadn't filled the big rig up with gas and there would be a $30 refueling fee. But I was given the chance to get out of line, wait for the truck to be pulled back around, fight Saturday traffic to find a gas station and come back and stand in line. Nope. I'll eat the $30.
• All of Weatherford will be without water temporarily this morning.

Why Facebook Is Great

Someone finds an old picture, "tags" you in it, and you discover something you've never seen before. (Even back then I was wearing a suit. Lower left.) (Thanks, Jon.)