Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• That really did look like snow "dust" (as in "dusting") when it first started falling this morning. (Fox 4 was doing live shots from Decatur again this morning.)
• The traffic sounds crazy at the entrance to Decatur High School -- one of the worst designed entrances and entry ways ever. 
• Edit: Alvord ISD and Poolville ISD now closed.
• Tragic fire in Chico last night but how do they not know by now whether a 14 year old boy was trapped in the house?
• Rangers Ballpark renaming: (1) An insurance company based in McKinney? Something not very big time about that. (2) I don't mind the name being changed, I just hate the $2 graphics that they hauled out. (3) Memories of when Ameriquest held the naming rights -- yet another mortgage company which, despite rants to the contrary, was not forced to provide mortgages by the government. (4) Snow Globe Life Park?
• I finally ate at Babe's in Roanoke. Yes, it was good. But your choices are only fried chicken or chicken fried steak? Kind of surprised they can get away with that. But I've always heard it is crowded.
• And somehow I also ended up at Ricky Bobby's in North Fort Worth. How in the world can that place not be officially associated with (or pay a licensing fee) to the studio which own Talladega Nights? 
• In 1977, a lady escaped a Michigan prison after serving eight months of an 18- to 24-month sentence for attempting to steal clothes from a Detroit-area store. Now 60, she has been "captured" in San Diego and is going back to prison. 
• Texas, the nation's busiest death-penalty state, has now executed five women and 505 men. (A woman was added to the list last night.)
• The city of Dallas is paying its new city manager $405,000 -- That's more than any other city manager in the country. And that seems insane. 
• Channel 5 said Ethan Couch, the so-called affluenza kid, has been in detention since December 12th. Is that right? 
• The Star-Telegram and Fox 4 are really bent out of shape of Judge Jean Boyd closing the juvenile courtroom in Tarrant County to the public over the last couple of months. You can't do that for adult trials or hearings, but that's just not that unusual for juvenile cases. 
• A little known NBA rule was invoked last night that allowed a player who would normally have "fouled out" but remain in the game. 
• "All-Female College Terrified by Creepy Underwear Man Statue" Don't blame 'em. 
• The Aggies have a helicopter they used for recruiting (called, amusingly, a Swagcopter.) When UT's new coach was asked about it yesterday, he said,  “We don’t need gadgets. We’re not going to be a gadget program.” Delicious.