Baylor v. The Ags Tonight

Once again, I don't have a good feel about this.

Edit: Crazy first half at the Good Ags have THREE touchdowns called back for penalties.

Edit: Oh, my. As time expires in the second half, the Ags block a Baylor field goal and return it to .... oh.....no...wait ... he's going to score!!.....no .... stopped ..the six inch line. Time expires. Heart. Beating.

Still One Of The Messenger's Best Bits: Crime Report

Playoffs? You're Talking About Playoffs?

Thursday, Nov. 11 at Burleson
Boyd	12
Maypearl	21
	FINAL
Friday, Nov. 12 at Saginaw
Decatur	13
Kennedale	63
	FINAL
Friday, Nov. 12 at Boswell
Alvord	32
Hico	14
	FINAL
Friday, Nov. 12 at Desoto
Bridgeport	43
West	6
	FINAL

And as for Bridgeport, looking at the scores of their next opponent is not a promising sign. The game will be at Stephenville.

Alvord, whose trials and tribulations were featured on Fox 4 last night (no link yet), face Idalou (7-3) at a site to be determined.

From The First Warn Double Fake Storm Tracker Center

I'd say that front blew in at, oh, I don't know, about 1:30 p.m.

Link.

Edit: And here are some pics of snow in Amarillo today. Edit: Oops - the link.

Garfield Cartoon That Ran On Veteran's Day Got The Author In Trouble

Story.

Meet Harvey Westmoreland

Just listening to the guy as they cut away to the book-in photos makes me think "Southern Style" indeed.

Completely Missed This Before I Headed Off To Doctor This Morning

Awful.

Star-Telegram story.
Denton Record Chronicle story.
Dallas Morning News story (same as DRC but has comments.)

Edit: Wow. Someone already has put together a tribute to the girls.



Edit: Wow again. That Delaney Mancil was seriously injured when hit by a train earlier this year. (Past blog post about it here.)

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• Our school sent out an info sheet saying that the kids might be screened for depression to prevent suicide. The 7th grader handed it to me because she did "really understand it."  I simply said they might check the kids for "depression" (without mentioning the suicide thing). "What's that?" she said. "Uh," I replied. "That's when you're really, really sad all the time and you can't pull out of it."  "Oh," she said. "That's the complete opposite of me!"  Now that made my smile. 
• I thought the wheels-off-book-in-photo-DWI-defendant might get life in prison. He did. 
• A graphic on Thursday Night Football last night showed that the Cowboy's Danny White started out at 18-1 at home. Man, he's underrated.
• I'm waiting at a doctor's office this morning. 
• It looks like the cold front with thunderstorms might roll in at the same time as all the playoff games tonight. 
• I watched the first have of 30 for 30's documentary on former OU recruit Marcus Dupree. It is absolutely fantastic.
• Mrs. LL got a new phone which has the additional video camera facting her which allows video telephone calls.  She successfully executed one yesterday -- closest thing to the Jetson's that I've seen so far.
• Try explaining what Peter Gabriel's Shock The Monkey is about to kids. I doubt if Peter Gabriel knows what it is about. 
• The guy that jumped on the back of the JFK limousine right after the gun shots was on Fox and Friends this morning him. See him.
• Speaking of that show, Cloris Leachman was on this morning. That lady is certifiable crazy. 
• If you watched all the video that was uploaded to YouTube today only, it would take you over five years. 
• 60 Minutes will do a segment on Sunday on folks that have become millionaires by allowing drilling on their property within the Barnett Shale. Any Wise County folks going to make an appearance. 

That Didn't Go Well

I saw the headline this morning and was hoping the video would be put up. This was in Ohio yesterday -- no one was injured but the broken power lines left thousands without electricity for a while.

Video of Decatur Football Fight?

I've got word that Fox 4 is thinking about doing a story on the Decatur football brawl but is searching for a video  of it.

Anyone?

Obviously the two schools do because the coaches had to be rolling game footage. Don't make Fox 4 do an Open Records Request.

Veteran's Day Worthy Repost

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Pulp Fiction fans: Tarantino stole something. (Hey, that's Wordkyle's blog!)
• Baylor's Robert Griffin is officially on the Heisman ballot.Yes, I know I'm the only one who cares about that but I wanted to put "Baylor" and "Heisman" in the same sentence. 
• We lost the Family Kitty for a moment last night which caused a mini-dragnet recovery project to be formed outside. Unfortunately, we found her. (That thing is driving me crazy because of that "suckling issue" I mentioned a couple of weeks back. Get off me!!!) 
• Amazon.com is selling a how-to guide on pedophilia. Wait. What? Edit: It was pulled overnight.
• Gwyneth Paltrow sang at the CMA Awards (redundant, I know) last night and received a standing ovation? (And did Brooks and Dunn win Duo of the Year for the sixtieth consecutive time or are they dead?)
• I always remember high school football games being freezing when I was a kid. That doesn't seem to be the case anymore.
• Wrong way driver on I-30 in Mesquite this morning led to a horrendous head on crash. The freeway was shutdown causing traffic chaos (and that looks like one beat down of a drive when everything is perfect.) They were also having trouble prying the vehicles apart. 
• Mrs. LL is still in pain with her wrists. If I had to bet, I'd bet she's having surgery. Did I mention she can't even drive? 
• Also watched a mental commitment hearing yesterday in the Wise County Court at Law.  There may be nothing sadder than to listen to an allegedly mentally disturbed individual ramble on and on at one of those things. 
• Russian kids walk on beam 900 foot above the ground. (This even made NBC Nightly News last night.)
• The "missle controversy" again: The Pentagon now says it was a plane. Hey, we track every plane for every second. So tell us the airline and the flight number. 
• It would be moving to watch people visit the Vietnam Memorial and the relatively new World War II Memorial in D.C. this morning. (And the one time I visited, I was surprised to find a rarely talked about Korean War Memorial which is really fascinating. Pics.)

Decatur Football Fight Makes The Star-Telegram

Not much of a story but it is here.

Odd Moment In County Court At Law A Second Ago

Some guy is charged with, I think, "Terroristic Threat"* which isn't nearly as bad as it sounds. It basically means threatening someone with imminent bodily injury which pretty much happens every day in this county. Most of those cases are worthless and the charge really isn't filed very often.

But for some reason a guy is charged in Wise County with making a threat over a the ownership of a piano. Also, from the sounds of it, it looks like he's on a felony probation for DWI and he couldn't take a plea bargain because it could get him revoked (for violating the term on "commit no offense against the State of Texas.")  Or it may be because he thinks he's not guilty. Or it may be because he's just stubborn.

But it didn't help his case when a light hearted moment ocurred between the prosecutor and the defendant's wife when she was testifying. Something caused the prosecutor to laugh a little bit which prompted the Defendant to snap in open court, "It's not funny!! Don't laugh at her!!"

Tense.

Advice: If you on trial for basically being a hothead, it might be a good idea not to act like a hothead.
___________
Edit: It was a Class C (the lowest level) offense of "Assault by Threat". It was appealed from a JP court or municipal court where the case has to start all over again.

Jerry

Listen To Me On This One

Trust me: There is only one way to watch this video --- grab a buddy and you two place a bet. One of you has to take the girl who is the focus of the video (the camera zooms in on her right away) and the other one has to bet on the girl in the red hoodie who is in the middle.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• George W's publicity tour has perfect timing with the local sports news. He's like Wade Phillips -- a good guy who had no business being in a leadership position.
• And on the Rush Limbaugh show yesterday, he said he had "just signed" 2,400 books (he had been at a bookstore in Dallas for his first official book signing,)  I looked at the clock and it was shortly after noon. I'd believe there were WMD's before I'd believe that. 
• Mrs. LL's company's human resource department finally told her to go home and rest her wrists for three days. She's going to see the ortho on Friday.  Ugh. 
• A person in my office calls her "Trinabelle." Kind of like that.
• Overheard in the courthouse yesterday: "I was in Walmart and somehow they accused me of trying to steal a tire." 
• I'm not sure what happened, but based upon the shrieks coming from my living room, Glee might have jumped the shark this week. (Two guys kissing?)
• College football fans: Man, there is a dog pile to try and derail Auburn's Cam Newton. (It involves allegations of his father shopping him to schools for big bucks.)  That's big news for TCU which is one Auburn team away from a National Championship game birth.
• Some are saying the mysterious "missile launch" a couple of days ago off the coast of California is just an optical illusion of an airliner's jet stream. But, then again, no one can tell us the exact plane it was -- something which should be easy to do.
• Abilene Wylie beat the Decatur girls in volleyball last night. It is bizarre how many times Wylie has brought an end to Decatur post-season hopes regardless of the sport. 
• I was going to dog Justin Northwest for making the football playoffs with a 4-6 records then I saw that two other teams made it with a 2-8 record (Tyler Lee, Lubbock Monterey.) Let's give everybody a trophy!!!
• On Monday a guy jumped from the High Five, and yesterday a guy hung himself from the Houston Street Viaduct. 
• GM posted a $3 billion third quarter profit. Maybe that government bailout thing wasn't such a bad idea after all. 
• The Cowboys could send a strong message by cutting Tight End Martellus Bennett. From the first time you saw him on Hard Knocks refusing to listen to a coach, you knew he had the kind of attitude that winners don't have. 
• What's a Kei$ha?
• You think News Corp (Fox News parent) regrets paying $600 million for MySpace?  And if you're Facebook, don't you sell the dang thing right now?  Nothing can become yesterday's news faster than a web site. 

Headline Chaos In The Messenger's Sports Section Tomorrow

First up, the story about Boyd making the playoffs had a reference to the Alvord Bulldogs.

And on the story about Alvord, there's a reference to the "Bulls" (presumably of Bridgeport) in the headline.

So it only makes sense that on the story about Bridgeport is headlined by a reference to the Boyd Yellow Jackets.

Hide yo wives, hide you children, hide yo husbands, because there's going to be some yellin' goin' on over there!!!

An Inside Look At Wise County Check Writing

I really didn't know it was available (but should be), but this looks like a report of every check the government of Wise County wrote in either September or the last two weeks of September, 2010. It even includes court appointed attorney fee payments as well as run of the mill items. Payroll seems to be lumped together but individual reimbursements are listed. Hey, somebody stayed at the Doubletree in Austin! Other notable: The Messenger got over $25,000 and that's for non-advertising billing.

Edit: Heck, they are all online.

It's Like A Fine Work Of Art

The more I watch this video, the more little pieces of gold I find. The premise: Kids are told they are on their way to Disney World, and the kids don't like it. They want to go to "Dick's House."

• What's up with that middle kid's haircut? Did he lose a bet?
• Are they in the smoking section? It feels like it's a rolling RV or something.
• And when the middle kid replies that he wants to go to "Dick's House", this screeching Chicago accented voice fires off a "I told ya!!!" like everyone should have known that Dick's place is better than Disney World.
• And what is up with the creepy kid on right?  When the two brats start crying he has this expression like he's just discovered that a couple of howler monkeys were sitting beside him.  And when he speaks, you can hardly hear him or see his mouth move. Until he silently says he wants to go to "Dick's House." 

I'd turn that RV around and head back home. 

Fire Up the "X Files" Theme

This is really bizarre.  Everyone seems to agree that a missile - a pretty big missile at that - was fired about 30 miles off the coast of Los Angeles last night.

Now we just need to know who and why. More.

The Guy Responsible For The Most Famous DWI Book In Photo In Recent History

. . . pled guilty yesterday to Murder and other charges related to his intoxicated crash earlier this year that left a mother and her teenage daughter dead.. He was scheduled to go to trial that day but instead the jury will only be called upon to assess punishment.

As I've mentioned here before, the State gets to charge him with murder by being very creative. He had at least two prior misdemeanor DWI convictions so the act of driving drunk again means he was committing a felony. And since he was committing a felony, there's a little used portion of the Penal Code that kicks in which allows someone to be charged with Murder if, stay with me here, during the commission of a felony act he "commits . . . an act clearly dangerous to human life that causes the death of another individual." See Texas Penal Code § 19.02(b)(3).  The key to that provision is that it does not require a defendant to INTEND to kill another -- which is typically required in murder prosecutions.

He faces up to life in prison. He might get it.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• A T-shirt slogan that the Evil Empire might want to rethink. 
• I was the good hubby yesterday -- took Mrs. LL to the doctor because of her wrists, picked up a kid in Roanoke, bought birthday gifts, attended a birthday party, and made a mad dash to the pharmacist to pick up meds for Mrs. LL (that I had to pay out of pocket until workman's comp gets straightened out -- man, do we need health care reform!!!!) And I dropped the 7th grader off at school today at 6:30 a.m.  for some tryout and the 2nd grader has a school play tonight. To all of you that have done stuff like that for years, Sirs  and Ma'ams, I salute you. But there's some weird satisfaction to it, isn't there?
• The Messenger did make reference to the fight that broke out in the Decatur Eagle football game on Friday night. It referred to it as a third quarter "ugly brawl" that caused "several" players to be ejected and delayed the game for 10 minutes.  That sounds like quite the melee.
• A Carnival Cruise Liner with about 3,300 passengers is dead in the water off the coast of Mexico. 
• Wow, AnObiter turned on MzChief.  Hey, her Scorched Earth Policy is always welcomed here. 
• For the record, the local CBS TV affiliate was the first one to break the Wade Phillips firing news. ESPN waited a full hour and then credited it's own reporter Ed Werder. 
• Pregnant lady bikini contest. My eyes!!! They're burning!!!
• Sorry I screwed up the link to the Bush's-Momma-Put-What-In-A-Jar yesterday. Court all morning and then winning the Husband of the Year Award. Here it is if you haven't heard yet.  
• The Family Kitty is a crazy sock thief. Every time I look up that little thing is sprinting across the floor with a sock in his mouth that she's stolen from a bedroom. Dress socks, athletic socks, kid socks, women socks. I'm taking her to counseling. 
• The George W interviews to promote his new book are pretty interesting. But now he's entering Softball Question City: Hannity, Rush, and some other Fox News talking heads. 
• And there are a ton of people and a few protesters at his book signing this morning in Dallas. (Link to updated photos including a mildly hot Jane McGarry.)
• Wade Phillips was scheduled to attend a charity event at Cowboys Stadium last night. He still showed up. 
• Big girl rides a mechanical bull. Funny.
• It dawned on me this morning that I no longer feel uncomfortable when some kid refers to me as "sir". I'm officially old. 

Done

How Does This Happen?

What they think he was going to do?

Ok, our day isn't so bad after all

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• New biggest statue of Jesus -- Even bigger than the one down in Rio.
• Do we  have to hand the winner of the NASCAR race in Fort Worth a pair of six shooters? That's a little stereotypical. 
• I've always been skeptical about carpal tunnel syndrome, but Mrs. LL's wrists hurt so badly that she can hardly grip anything. She's miserable. 
• George Bush's mom put what in a jar and showed it to him?
• I like the weekends even more than I used to. And jogging on cool fall mornings makes me very reflective. 
• Ended up taking three girls grocery shopping because they wanted to cook dinner. I thinks it's ok to warn them "not to start acting like a fool" before we went in. (Hey, I say it in a nice way.) 
• And they made up some song on the way back with the lyrics, "You can cook my bacon, you can cook my bacon."  That was followed by some catchy lyrics that I think Katy Perry could turn into a hit. 
• If I saw the stories correctly, Dallas police shot and killed two separate men this weekend. 
• I'm not sure if Wade Phillips makes it through the day.  Firing him might be the only humane thing to do in order to put him out of his misery. 
• The confrontation in the Update that left the New Fairview man dead - any chance alcohol was involved? 
• I finally watched all of ESPN's 30 for 30 series about "The Two Escobars." Fantastic. (And for those that remember him, the next one is going to be about OU recruit and flameout Marcus Dupree.)
• Jeff Gordan and Jeff Burton fighting at the NASCAR race was like those two jockeys at the Breeder's Cup fighting. 

Did This Really Happen?

My College Football Thoughts

• Baylor returned to being Baylor as Oklahoma State killed them. That was depressing, and it wasn't even noon on Saturday before I went into a fetal position.
• That being said, Texas is worse as they were annihilated by a bad Kansas State team. It's so bizarre in Austin that I almost feel bad for them. Almost.
• And the Aggies beat Oklahoma? If Baylor had won, it would have been delicious for next week when the Aggies come to Waco. Instead it might just be a beat down. But I've always like the Ags.
• TCU?  You are closer to being in the National Championship game than last year. I predict Auburn will be beaten by Alabama in the "Iron Bowl" (whatever that means) and you'll finally get your shot. How that's possible borders on the surreal.
• Did you see Iowa State go for two and the big win against Nebraska? If the place holder didn't throw like a second grade girl - scratch that - a second grade girl with no athletic ability, they would have won. 
• LSU is ridiculously lucky/crazy/good.
• I've always thought the Sagarin Rankings were the most accurate.

Homicide In New Fairview?

Heard about it but have absolutely no details.

That's what makes me the most trusted source in Wise County news.

Edit: I beat the Messenger with the news, but they actually have some facts.