Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• I'm not particularly interested that the new Tarrant DA has hired the head of the civil division, but including a sentence in the press release that "He represented clients in litigation" while in private practice is the most generic thing I've ever read. 
• Sports: (1) My headed exploded last night when Baylor didn't jump TCU, remained at #7, and was jumped by Ohio State. (2) Make no mistake about it: If the committee can keep Baylor and TCU out of the Top 4, they'll do it.  This is beginning to look like an ESPN controlled college football ratings based upon potential TV ratings. Ohio State will bring more eyeballs than a couple of private schools from Texas.  (3)  There's a Dan Jenkins and Tiger Woods war.  I'll catch heck for this from the old-timers, but I've never thought Dan Jenkins was a fraction as clever as people make him out to be. 
• Yesterday I was reading an article (behind a paywall) about the lawsuits prompted by the Aggie Bonfire tragedy that happened 15 years ago. A Fort Worth lawyer was quoted at the end of the story saying that, despite the millions that were collected, the "most important" thing was the agreement that was reached requiring safety precautions which must be followed if the bonfire ever returns. Really? The lawsuit wasn't primarily about money? It was about safety in the future? Seems like that would have been easy to resolve. 
• But the fact that crazy bonfire structure, which was like putting an elephant on stilts, was built on the campus of one of the greatest engineering schools in the land is beyond ironic. 
• I want to be clear about something when I post the old Shootin' Blinds: That was the way it was back then. Hey, when I was born, there were still a few "Black Only" water fountains still in existence. 
• Heard some talk about Happy Days on the radio this morning. I had no idea it ran until 1984. (And almost everyone of them was directed by Jerry Paris, the dentist/neighbor in the old Dick Van Dyke show.) Man, I'm getting old. 
• Wikipedia's entry for Decatur says five "Union supporters" were hung here. Is there an independant source for that? 
• That failed Keystone Pipeline vote in the Senate is bizarre politics. The only reason it was brought to a vote was because the currently Democratic controlled Senate forced the vote to help a Democratic Louisiana Senator who is in political trouble. Democrats generally oppose the pipeline but the Senator is in a runoff and she wanted to vote for the pipeline so she could campaign on how she tried to bring jobs to the state. Republicans, even though it was a political ploy by the Democrats, had to vote unanimously for the pipeline because they are, after all, Republicans. But it didn't pass by one vote. But now: (1) The Louisiana Senator can campaign that she at least tried to get jobs to the state, and (2) The Republicans can easily pass the legislation anyway once the new Senate comes in.  Oh, politics. 
• Had the ol' smoke-detector-battery-is-low-beep go off at about four a.m. 
• I think telephone conversations are shockingly inefficient. They may serve other purposes (bonding, opening a dialogue, creating a relationship), but they are not efficient. 
• It always seems weird that a school district will buy hundreds of Macs when the average person can't afford a Mac. 
• Caught about 30 minutes of Cold War Roadshow last night on PBS which was about the 13-day American tour taken by the Soviet premier, Nikita S. Khrushchev, in September 1959. (I had no idea.) Everything went relatively great. And President Eisenhower was set to return the favor by visiting the USSR until they shot down one of our spy planes which we denied existed. I guess we made it colder. 
• "Bachelor party bungee jumping prank."
• That snow in the Buffalo area coming off the lake is insane. Four to five feet is expected or has already accumulated. Pic. (And we went nuts over our Sunday night "dusting".)