Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• One thing I regret while in El Paso was that I didn't have time to see the Bridge of the Americas. I wanted to do it because I could automatically trump anyone in an immigration debate by simply saying, "Let me tell you something. I've personally taken my own human body to the border. I've looked with my own human eyes across the the Rio Grande at Juarez. I may have even seen El Chapo in the distance."  That's all it takes to win, right? 
• I actually wanted to see it because I thought it was the bridge the Josh Brolin used to cross into Mexico in No Country For Old Men -- but I was wrong. But it was the filming location for the short lived FX series named, obviously, The Bridge.
• Does the first item in The Update have viral potential?
• Sports: (1) I finally got to watch the Texas/OSU game including the crazy defensive holding penalty on UT and the subsequent flag on Charlie Strong. The Evil Empire was wronged. But if the Evil Empire was wronged 20 more times over the next few years, they still will be ahead in the Official Wrong/Not Wronged Ledger. (2) As crazy as that TCU play was to win the game, the Tech Crazy Train Play that actually ended the game was 10 yards away from infamy. It started with a throw from the 32 yard line of Tech and ended at TCU's 10 after multiple laterals. That was 10 yards away from replacing California/Stanford's last play as the most insane play in college football history. And it could have happened. Don't get tackled! Launch the ball! You may lose on a fumble recovery but don't get tackled! Watch it here from a fan's video in the stands -- love these things.
• I got duped, right?: The people "camping out" to buy a home in a new development in McKinney have to be doing a bit and a publicity stunt. 
• DMN story from it's "Biz Beat Blog": "Forbes has just announced its annual roll call of the 400 richest Americans — and there are 36 Texans on this year’s list, with Walmart heiress Alice Walton yet again topping all of them with $36 billion. (And that’s before she sells her ranch outside of Fort Worth.)" Hey, I'm an idiot when it comes to business, accounting, and math, but the fact that the ranch hasn't sold yet has nothing to do with her net worth and being "rich".  I love to simplify things: If all a person has is a $150,000 house and is debt free, that person has a net worth $150,000. If he sells that home for the fair market value of $150,000, he now has a net worth of $150,000. 
• Also from the story: Mark Cuban's new worth remains at $3 billion. Exactly how much did he personally get when Yahoo.com ridiculously paid $5.7 billion in 1999 for his company, Broadcast.com, which had never turned a profit?
• I'll never hear the word "SMU" and "Death Penalty" without remembering me and four of my buddies as high-schoolers on the campus of TCU in the summer of 1979 checking out a cheer-leading camp. Out of the blue, we saw 18 year old Eric Dickerson walking around because, we discovered, he was there for a high school THSCA All-Star game. (Box score, anyone?) He was just walking around by himself but had a jersey on that had "Dickerson" across the back. Sport's Illustrated had just written that his college jersey would have "National Championship" on the front and "Heisman Winner" on the back when all was said and done. We had him sign his autograph five times on the back of an envelope and he used my back to do it on. We then carefully tore the envelope up and all took one autograph. I've still got mine. (My buddies, if my memory hasn't failed yet again, have the familiar Wise County names of Bilby, Clifton, McQuiston, and I think Ralls or Lawson. And I promise we listened to a new 8-track tape on the way there by a new group who had just released "My Sharona". We talked about whether The Knack was the second coming of The Beatles.) 
• And I just looked up that "Ralls" and noted that his mother died less than two months ago. 
• Dallas DA Susan Hawk has left treatment and plans to return to work on Thursday. My first reaction was that she needed to come into work at 5:00 a.m. to avoid all cameras. But upon further review, I think I'd tell the media I'm walking in the front doors at 8:00 a.m.  It's time for her to be on the offensive to save her job. 
• I'm often reminded of the line from Harrison Ford, as Jack Ryan, to the president in Clear and Present Danger when the President's long time friend had been found murdered on his yacht by the cartel after he had stolen some laundered drug money: The President was wondering how to respond if the press asks him if they were good friends: Ryan told him to say, "'No, not good friends. We were lifelong friends.' There's no sense defusing a bomb after it's already gone off."