And The Day After The Rangers Were Melting Down, Wise County Kids . . .

Nocona at	0
Alvord	27
	FINAL
Boyd at	20
Howe	47
	FINAL
Mineral Wells at	26
Bridgeport	17
	FINAL
Chico at	0
Muenster	63
	FINAL
Decatur at	47
Lake Worth	20
	FINAL
Northwest at	TBA
Keller	TBA
Callisburg at	21
Paradise	35
	FINAL

The Bridgeport players were told they didn't have to attend the pep rally? Surely, you jest.

A fireable offense in any school district. 

I'm So Ready To Move On To Football Saturday

It's enlargeable.

That's The Way A Meltdown Go

Ranger fans will be talking about that epic meltdown for twenty years. And the top of the 8th inning will forever go down as the worst half inning in Ranger history --- and it's not even close.

Mrs. LL and I were sitting in a seafood restaurant/bar when I told her "We need six outs." When that goofy play allowed the Yankee to reach first, I said to her, "That's the way bad things start." But I had no idea.

Wise County Appearance of Big Brother 12 Folks

Too much camera cutaways. Not enough of the hot girl.

Want To Jump Out Of A Plane Into Michigan Stadium?

This thing sucked me in for the whole ride.

NBC 5's Kim Fisher Gives It The What For At A High School

After her "sign off" is when she really thinks she's in a club. (Thanks, David.)

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• India's richest man has built a new home. He's a regular Purebred Billionaire. (rimshot . . . groan).
• One of the two Baylor players caught with weed (after falling asleep in a Taco Bell drive through) has been kicked off the team. One of them? Yep. Cause he got arrested again for weed. Sheesh. He's worse than Jay and Silent Bob.
• Should a high tone Dallas restaurant turn away a handful of World War II vets if they want to dine in baseball caps and shorts? I guess the answer is "no" based upon the uproar.
• I've seen several news stories refer to the Chilean miners as "heros." Uh, no. We throw that term around way too easily.
• The Bill O'Reilly/The View/Walk Off drama yesterday beat me down. 
• That pic looks familiar.
• There's too much stuff on TV that I want to watch. There are too many books that I want to read. There are too many places that I want to see.
• Good news for Ranger fans: I'm picking the Yankees in 5.
• Whatever happened to Helen Hunt?
• There's a 10 minute video of an openly gay Fort Worth city councilman addressing teenagers about bullying and being different. I haven't watched it but it's apparently gone viral. I did click right in the middle of it only to hear him tear up and say, "It will get better." Looked pretty good. 
• Of all the Yankees I dislike, Mark Teixeira is at the top of the list. I think he's as dumb as a box of rocks.
• A day in the life of the Internet commenter.
• Mrs. LL is convinced she can train the family pooch to ring a hanging bell with her nose to alert us that she needs to go do her business. 
• Blog favorite Christina Aguilera has filed for divorce. Ugh. And right after I get married. 
• Try solving a 7th grade Algebra problem when you haven't picked up an Algebra book in decades. 
• Another dumb segment on Fox and Friends this morning: They had some math genius on to suggest ways to trim the $1 trillion federal deficit. After 5 minutes, he had pointed out $7 billion in waste so everyone was patting him on the back like he was Einstein. Uh, what about the other $993 billion?
• If I still hand my Friday Morning Dance Off I would enter this lady at some church. Wait, what? 

Put Those Miners Back Down That Hole!!!!!!

But a pretty funny graphic, eh?

A second ago, I was watching NBC Nightly News which led with a follow-up story on the Chilean miners.

"So far, they are not talking," said the reporter as he stood outside the hospital where the rescued were being treated. "They collectively have made a pact not to talk until they get paid."

Power. Down.

Get Ready For Fine Dining!!!!

The new Wendy's in Decatur is opening! The new Wendy's in Decatur is opening!

(Either today or tomorrow at 10:00. I don't know which one.)

It'll be a fat gram explosion!!

Thursday Afternoon Pick Me Up

Stay Classy, America

A Grand Junction billboard depicting President Barack Obama as a terrorist, a gangster, a Mexican bandit and a gay man is getting national attention.

The billboard, erected along the I-70 Business Loop between 28 1/2 and 29 roads sometime Monday, depicts the four “Obamas” sitting around a table with playing cards showing only sixes bunched in groups of three.

Also on the table is a copy of the Declaration of Independence, a liberty bell, a toy soldier and a statue of Justice holding a balance.

Beneath the Obama caricatures are numerous rats, some of which are labeled as the IRS, trial lawyers, the EPA and the Fed. Sitting above all that is a line, “Vote DemocRAT. Join the game,” which is positioned between two vultures, one of which is labeled the U.N. and the other with the name Soros, a reference to George Soros, a major national Democratic financial supporter.

More.

The Dallas Morning News Decides Its . . .

"Am I sexy?"

. . . 2008 "Texas Of The Year" is now not worthy of getting the paper's endorsement in the upcoming election.

I'm with them. That guy gets under my skin.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Gov. Perry proposed yesterday that if you weren't a high school graduate or trying to become one, you couldn't get a driver's license. That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Let's cripple someone who already is guaranteed to struggle.
• Then Fox 4 tells me that's the law already. (I've never heard of that, and it must be the least enforced laws in the State.)
• Obscure humor: You have to be a Ticket Fan who is familiar with the Fake Nolan Ryan to laugh at this (and you will.)
• After this Rangers season, I hope every abandons this claw and antlers silliness.
• I've got to drive to Arkansas next weekend. Ugh. Suppressing a "I did not sign up for this!" proclamation. But I guess I kind of did. 
• Hey old timers: Remember the radio duo Stevens and Pruett who, I think, ruled the DFW  airwaves in the 1980s? Well, Mark Stevens has died. (I think they moved onto Houston after Dallas.)
• Motorcycle death in Arlington.
• Drug War death in Plano.
• Here's a fight in the stands at the FSU/Miami game last weekend if you like that sort of thing.
• Hmmm. Those last three bullet points contain things that will never go away in America. 
• Yesterday the federal 5th Circuit upheld a lower court's ruling allowing "under God" to stay in the Texas pledge yesterday. Man, it would have been a firestorm today if it had gone the other way. 
• I finally mailed off my taxes yesterday (but I had filed for an extension.)
• A criminal court docket call (I've got one this morning) is always full of at least one person scared to death and another person with a "screw this" attitude. 
• Either the cat got to my laptop last night or it is possessed since there were about 30 tabs opened up on my Internet browser this morning. Or maybe the cat's possessed. (She also made me fall on the stairs this morning after I lost my balance by stepping on her. That "cat scream" is a universal sound, isn't it?)

A Little Wise County Love

On a back road between Decatur and Paradise.

(Thanks Will.)

We're Doomed

He's in the military?

Earthquake?

People are telling me they just felt an earthquake around 9:00 a.m.

Reports?

Edit @ 9:25 a.m.: Wow. A 4.5 near Norman, Oklahoma at 9:08 a.m. that was felt a long way away. There are reports on Twitter of homes shaking in Dallas.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• Baseball is fantastic when a game is an elimination game. Every pitch matters. That's what makes college football so great -- every game is like an elimination game.
• Just as the Rangers were winning, Mrs. LL came running in yelling from off the treadmill. She's a baseball fan? Nope.  "It was Rapunzel! It was Rapunzel!" she said. (It seems like her and the girls couldn't place a character they met at Disney World and a commercial had just triggered her memory.) *Head Shake*
• The lead Mexican investigator in the border lake shooting case was found beheaded? [Fixed]
• One last thing about Cliff Lee in this Tampa Bay series: 16 innings, 21 Strikeouts, 0 Walks.
• Be sure to watch a little of the Chilean miners being rescued this morning. Pretty moving.
• I'm surprised someone hasn't tracked down Baby Jessica to interview.
• But back to Chile, at 6:00 a.m. I was wondering how it was daylight on the western side of South American. Then I remembered that below-the-equator-tilted-Earth thing.
• Tell me this screenshot of the miner coverage is fake.
• Our new cat is driving me crazy when I sit with the laptop. All he wants to do is set on the keyboard and swat at the screen when it scrolls. 
• Bridgeport is considering banning K2. Hey, you've got worse problems over there.
• While you were sleeping: Triple murder in Haltom City (assuming no murder suicide.) Here's Google Streetview of the street -- seems kind of desolate.
• One story getting little press: Gamestop is a huge DFW employer but a federal court has ruled they basically can't do what they do: Buy and resell video games. (Half Priced Books? Apparently they are OK. I honestly don't understand it since it has something to do with licensing and intellectual property. But it would apply to you reselling Madden '09 at garage sale or Ebay.)
• Baylor's basketball team is under investigation by the NCAA. It's not been a good couple of weeks down there.
• Edit: Man, I had a bad linking day. 

Glorious: I've Said It For Thirty Years . . .

 . . .  it's all about pitching.

Cliff Lee was fantastic. Only the fourth pitcher in the last 20 years to pitch a complete game in a winner-take-all game. That's money, baby.

That the way baseball go!!!! Just like I predicted! (Wait, what?)

Anyone Watch Big Brother 12?

Well, apparently this chick is on it and tomorrow she'll be at "Nutrition Wise" in Decatur from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. So far all I know is that her name is Britney.

Tuesday Afternoon Pick Me Up

USC Song Girls searched before football game.

Is This The New Trend?

I've seen two or three times where a mentally handicapped kid has been allowed to score and it's touching because you know the kid, smiling from ear to ear, believes he has accomplished something.

But I'm not sure I've ever seen an injured (albeit extremely injured) player score by consent. I can't decide if this is odd or great.

(Wait. Wasn't there some female basketball player a few years back who was allowed to score a lay up so she could keep some personal record intact?)

Idiocracy: Anyone Want To Go To A Game?

"This fight happened on Sunday in the upper deck at the San Francisco 49ers-Philadelphia Eagles game. Some highlights — at the :16 mark, watch the cop pull Joe Montana down two rows and then at the :25 mark watch the girl clock the long haired gentleman IN THE FACE."


I stopped watching after that.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• Today is the biggest day in Ranger baseball history. Failure? (And to reminisce, here's a pic of the old stadium scoreboard for the now gone Arlington Stadium.)
• Man, there was a missing kid in my neighborhood yesterday evening that brought out the cops and people searching everywhere. What was odd was that he was always on his little scooter and there it sat in his open garage. Everything turned out fine (he went to a new friends house without telling), but for thirty minutes the overwhelming feeling of everyone was "there is something very horrible that has happened here." I was shook up all evening
• Police ambush in Mexico. 8 dead. It has turned into Columbia. 
• Former Empire great Colt McCoy, because everyone else is injured, should make his first start this Sunday. Unfortunately, it's against Pittsburgh. That's a sports "something very horrible will happen" feeling. 
• The link wouldn't be safe for work, but Kim Kardashian photos came out of her recent photo shoot for W Magazine. Oh, my. Cue Sir-Mix-A-Lot.
• The Rangers are cutting loose TV play by play man Josh Lewin. I thought he was great. And isn't it the weirdest timing to announce that yesterday? (Note: WBAP's Steve Lamb at 7:43 a.m. this morning said he "was just handed this note from the Texas Rangers" about this news. Sheesh. The news came out yesterday afternoon.)
• Holy, cow: A collection of Fiona "Hey, Nows!"
• Fox 4 spent a full 10 minutes last night leading with the North Dallas High transgendered homecoming queen wannabe story including a live interview. Puuhhlleeeze. 
• Deborah Foreman, who was the cutest thing in the history of ever in Valley Girl and My Chauffeur turns 48 today. 
• Colleyville Heritage High School girls will go without make-up on Tuesdays. This uprising must be stopped before it grows!
• This church is straight out of the Blues Brothers.
• If you've ever been to City Streets night club in downtown Fort Worth, you soon won't recognize it.

From Texas Ghosthunter Site

Link.

I've never heard of that place in my life.

Let's See . . .

We've got a governor who bad mouths the federal government at every turn, and tried to show up President Obama with the "immigration letter" he tried to hand to him at the airport. I wonder why Texas could possibly be turned down?

Story.

Crazy Students. Crazy Teacher.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A teacher was removed from McGavock High School after a bizarre incident in a classroom that forced the principal to call parents and explain what happened. (More.)

The Bridgeport/Decatur Helicopter Pic

(Thanks, Will)

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• What's this about a helicopter at the Bridgeport/Decatur game?
• My "Sports Genius" label is still intact: Told you the Rangers would go out in the first round. (And there were people calling up sports radio stations hoping they would lose on Saturday because they had tickets for Sunday's game and wanted to see them win then.)
• What a fine sports weekend for me: Baylor, Cowboys, Rangers all lose. Sheesh.
• Yesterday, due to an old-man-nap and other things, I had to TIVO Cowboys and Rangers and didn't get to watch them until after 6:00 p.m. You truly have to "go off the grid" to avoid finding out the scores  until you watch them.
• Mrs. LL managed to lock the the family kitty in the refrigerator this weekend (not or long and the kitty didn't mind.)
• New releases for books, movies, and albums? WhenItDrops.com.
• Couple in Fort Worth fall asleep in pickup while sitting on railroad tracks. Gets struck by train. And survive. 
• Funny and sad moment yesterday: Wade Phillips trying to high fine Dez Bryant after he was injured only to be ignored. Wade standing hopelessly with his hand in the air epitomizes his leadership skills.
• Fox 4's made fun of people getting married at The Little White Chapel on 10/10/10. I'm trying to convince Mrs. LL to call in with a country voice to "Tell It To Tim."
• Mind Blowing: California governor candidate Meg Whitman has spent $140 million of her own money trying to get elected.
• Anybody else sick of seeing pink in NFL games?
• And kids are wearing "I love boobies" bracelets in support of breast cancer research?
• I'm told I talk in my sleep.
• Went back to that Mexican restaurant across from the 7-11 on Western Center Boulevard on Friday night. Sadly I can't remember the name but the food and the service is fantastic.
• I want the governor's race to be over so I can stop hearing the commercials. 
• I still plan to go on an extreme rant about the horrible service at Fogata's a little further down Western Center. I've gone there twice and walked out both times before being seated. Wheels. Off. 

Crime Report Of The Week

"I'm Not A Racist" Gold