11.07.2015

The Meeting Of The Dons





"How did things ever get so far? I don't know. It was so -- unfortunate -- so unnecessary."

Every thing about this scene is spot on except having judges in your "pocket'  -- based upon my  personal experience, that is not possible. But I just do cases in Wise County. What do I know?
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11.06.2015

Halloween Revisited Taking You Into The Weekend. Let's Get Out Of Here.





Greatest holiday in the history of ever?
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Random Friday Morning Thoughts




  • That was a heck of hail storm. How may times can Wise County cars get beaten up? 
  • I'm suspending the "Name That Location" contest for today's RTG pic. 
  • The most awkward/funny moment of my life occurred last night. The Senior In The House had her last band performance and was part of "Senior Night" at the football game where the Seniors were  honored before the game. After walking down the field, Mrs. LL was handed a long stemmed carnation as part of the ceremony. Once it was over, she had to go to the bathroom, and the Senior In The House was going with her because she had to change into a different band uniform as, which I will soon learn, all band members had to do as well. Mrs. LL hands me the carnation to protect* it. I decided to go to the bathroom as well, walked in carrying the carnation (I'm wearing a suit, by the way), and see about 10 half naked (or more) male band members who are also changing clothes. They stop and look up as I walk in. Let me remind you I'm wearing a suit and carrying a carnation. The only thing I could say is, "What's up, guys?"
  • Sports: (1) I was right about my assertion that Baylor's backup quarterback was better than the starter who is out for a year with an injury, (2) K-States Bill Synder is a genius. If you have no offense, the only way to even try to beat Baylor is to run the ball and run the clock. (3) Prediction: TCU loses at OSU tomorrow, (4) Mark Cuban just agreed to pay coach Rick Carlisle $35 million with a contract extension. The Smartest Man In The Room doesn't realize that, without players, a coach can't save you. 
  • I wonder if crazy Dallas DA Susan Hawk and the crazy advertising Law Hawk guy are related.
  • A friend of mine saw me shaking my head as he walked up the stairs at the courthouse yesterday. He asked me why. The answer? There was a spare-out-of-town lawyer telling his client and (his very concerned wife) there was a plea bargain offer on the table. The defendant asked what the other options he had, and the lawyer said he could set if for trial but the offer would be withdrawn. That's a bold face lie or bold face ignorance of how the third floor of the courthouse works. I believe he said it so he wouldn't have to make another trip to Wise County. And I would bet he's never tried a case in front of a jury in his life.
  • Too many cops. Too many prosecutors. Too many lawyers. 
  • They have opened up a golf course at Petco Field (that's the baseball home of the San Diego Padres) and advertise it with a "Hey, now.") That's right out of Something About Mary. 
  • Unemployment rate was just announced: It fell to 5.0%. (Wordkyle in 3, 2, ....)
  • I just thought about this. What does long time faithful reader Wordkyle think about Donald Trump?
  • There is a strange phenomena of people committing suicide by jumping off a cruise ship. I actually had conversation with someone in the last two months as to why. Another one happened this week. 
  • My "Football Will Be Gone" prediction is crazy? News: "A 9-year-old boy in Ohio died shortly after participating in a youth football practice."

_________________
* I may need to pay someone to create a political and cheezy youtube ad of "I'm A Protector Of Flowers". But what do I know about politics? 
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11.05.2015

Random "Alvord News" From 12/27/84



Public service announcements followed by an ad from Trapper's Club for New Year's Eve where they tell you that on Wednesday "Ladies Drink Free".  

And that's a sweet deal for a $10.00 membership "yearly per family."

Where was Trapper's Club? 
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I Just Fired Up The Liberally Lean Weather Center


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Random Thursday Morning Thoughts



  • Background contest: There is now way you guys can identify where that is.
  • CNN: "Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders filed a Senate bill Wednesday that would allow states to decide whether to legalize recreational use of marijuana and decriminalize the drug at the federal level." Ok. legally speaking, I'm confused (and I'll admit I haven't read the bill.) I understand a Congressional law that would repeal the current law that makes it a federal crime to possess marijuana. That makes sense. But you don't need a law that then tells the states they are free to do what they want.  (There is not a single member of the Tea Party that would disagree with what I just said.)
  • If I ever channel surf and see Pulp Fiction I cannot stop watching. And the first time I ever heard about it was from a gal in the Wise County Courthouse who told me the film was really, really weird but that I would absolutely love it. (It scares me that I just realized the film came out in 1994. Time is not our friend.)
  • I've talked for years about the changing demographics of the population and how it will impact politics and elections. I was up at a docket on Wednesday and listened to a judge "call the docket" which means reading names and making sure they are present. The long time white majority which has members who have hatefully referred to Hispanics as "wetbacks" and "beaners" are about to face a harsh reality. Let me throw in my favorite saying, "It ain't so fun when the rabbit got the gun."
  • Sports: Everyone dogs Baylor for "not playing" anyone for the non-conference team but they came in #6 in the first poll. That's a perfect position. So why in the world would you risk a loss by playing a big named team before conference play?
  • "The Texas Railroad Commission agreed Tuesday that two wastewater injection wells northwest of Fort Worth [near Azle] did not cause a rash of earthquakes more than a year ago." I'm shocked. Shocked I tell you. An elected board composed of candidates funded by the oil and gas industry says the oil and gas industry is not at fault. Who saw that coming?
  • There have been eight high school football deaths this year. The Ticket talked about a USA Today opinion piece (that I can't find so someone find me the link). The opinion piece asked the question of: Had high school football not yet been invented, would it be allowed today to start from scratch? I'm paraphrasing what I heard: "Can you imagine a school administrator standing up in front of a group of parents and honestly saying, 'We are proposing a sport where kids might die and many will have leg or shoulder injuries which will require surgery. There is also the issue of concussions and long term brain damage. But the game is really fun and your kids will love it. But I have to tell you that every doctor I've talked to has told me this is not a good idea. And every lawyer I've talked to has told me this idea has many liability issues.'" The sport would not exist. 


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11.04.2015

Hot Australian Gal Pushes Cop



You think that cop is getting razed by his buddies after that?

(Note to woman: Don't do that in America. Note to her mate: Break up with her. She be crazy. Note to self: Put another shrimp on the barbie. )
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How Close Are We To This?


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Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts



  • New contest: Name that location of the RTG!
  • That Godley "let's taze a guy at city hall" case just got crazier. There was a plea bargain on the table for the BS charge of Resisting Arrest but the prosecutor has now "withdrawn" it and set the case for trial. (It sounds like the the defendant finally came to his senses and wouldn't take a plea bargain of probation and the prosecutor got pissy.) Why set it for trial?  Why not dismiss it? That case cannot be won. There is no way the prosecutor has looked up Resisting Arrest in the Penal Code and knows what he has to prove. And to think his job is not to convict but to see that "justice is done".
  • I had my "mind blown" last night when I discovered that in one of my favorite movies, Little Miss Sunshine, that Breaking Bad stars of Bryan Cranston (Walter White) and Dean Norris (Agent Hank Schrader) both make appearances. Here's a quick vine of their characters.
  • I've never seen so many out of town lawyers in the Wise County Courthouse. The current Texas Bar Journal has a feature on the various law schools and added some stats.  Concerning the law school in Fort Worth, it graduated 227 last year with an average school loan of $103,500. In 2014, 20% of them could not find a job by March of 2015 (and that has to be a conservative estimate.) 
  • I finally found the dumbest prosecutor in Texas: District Attorney Stephen Tyler down in Victoria County. He has a "policy" of taking every DWI case to trial and refuses to make any plea bargain even when the defendant wishes to plead guilty. The judges over those cases (I'm assuming they think he is an idiot as well since the policy would crush the docket and cost the county a fortune) went ahead and accepted guilty pleas and imposed sentences without the DA's consent. The judges publicly said that the DA's policy is "nothing more than a sham and a display of pageantry." The DA actually appealed (insert my: "Too many prosecutors" line here as well as the viral video star Sweet Brown's line of, "Ain't nobody got time for that!) An appellate court said, after struggling with some pretty good defense arguments, that a judge cannot legally accept a plea of guilty without the prosecutor's consent. The story, and the opinion, is here. It's a must read for some legal folks.
  • Trump fell out of the lead in the polls but this morning an updated poll shows he is back at the top. Trump!
  • Did you know that the day after Roe v. Wade was decided it wasn't the top headline on the New York Times? Why you ask? LBJ had died. And I had no idea he was only 64 when he died.
  • Every proposition on the Texas state wide ballot passed. Doesn't that almost always happen? Plus, how can you be against lower taxes (Prop 1) and non-toll roll funding (Prop 7)?
  • In Houston, a proposition that would "have banned discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity "was voted down. Our Lt. Governor Dan Patrick tweeted, "On the defeat of Houston Prop 1 ..... Men, stay out of women’s locker rooms and restrooms." That's kind of dumbing down the issue. 
  • Hey, Dennis Prager fan: During the same segment I mentioned yesterday, a caller said that the fear of the oceans rising due to global warming is false because when ice melts in a glass of water the level of the water in the glass doesn't rise. Prager said he didn't know if the theory was right but quickly got excited and said that was a very interesting theory!  He then said his wife (third wife, by the way) immediately texted him to tell him there is a huge flaw to the analogy (duh), and he admitted the two were not comparable.
  • Sports: I was wrong about Baylor being out of the top 4 for the first playoff rankings. I said #5 and the are #6. But, man there is about to be some fun in the Big 12: Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU and Baylor all have to play each other. Throw in the possibility of an upset of one of those teams by someone else, and I'm not sure any of them get through the schedule unscathed.
  • Police are urging a boycott of Quentin Tarantino's upcoming movie after he made some comments about police brutality. I have no problem with that. That is their right. I do have a problem with them making these statements while on duty while being paid by the taxpayer. Do it on your own time.
  • Mrs. LL is always playing video games on her phone as does almost everyone else I know does. Get this: Video game maker Activision will buy the company that made 'Candy Crush' $5.9 billion.
  • Ohio voters refused to legalize recreational marijuana. Mark Davis tweeted: "Thank God. #Ohio voters see idiocy of legal pot 65-35. Imperfect  R vs D model, but the weed vote was all Democrat. Ohio winnable in '16." Ummmkay.
  • I called Grace Kelly the most beautiful woman in the history of ever. Here's a picture proving me right from 1954.
  • Below: Kudos to the headline writer who is a fan of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. This is brilliant, yet perhaps slightly insensitive, reference to a song and a tragedy. The fact that the first three words are one syllable is what sells it:



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11.03.2015

Ladies and Gentlemen, I Present To You: Our Future



How many times have I  mentioned how I want to live in a hut in the jungle of Costa Rica?  I'll let the Faithful Readers come visit from time to time. No charge.

Good lord.
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And In Today's Klan Humor News

Oh, come on! What's up with all this political correctness? It's fun to dress up as a Klan member. It has no secret meaning. People do it all the time.


Edit: And forgot to add that I hate Illinois Nazis.



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Look What Was In My Office Yesterday


A client came in to visit and brought his dog with him. I told him to bring her on back and let her run around.

Hey, you big city and silk suited lawyers. How much fun did you have yesterday?

Her name was Paris.
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Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




  • I'm getting so old that sometimes I'm more curious about the background of the RTG pic than the girl. I wonder where this was taken? 
  • A Frisco mom allegedly got liquored up at a Halloween party in Frisco and drove into a pond. Corby Davidson of the Ticket had a funny line when he said, "I don't know why stuff like that doesn't happen every day. She's probably one of the thousands of women up there married to some contractor who makes a ton of money and sits around drinking Franzia all day." Side note: Kinda Hot. 
  • A guy named Jose Puentes was sentenced for sending one pound of meth in the mail to Fort Worth by a federal judge. He got 30 years in federal prison. Holy cow. How insane is that? Our drug laws don't need reforming, right? (Side note: The prosecutor's office sent out a press release to brag about it.) 
  • The last Waco biker is out of jail over five months after his arrest and after his bond was reduced to $50,000. Uh, lawyer: He was entitled to a PR bond or a bond he could afford 90 days after arrest if he wasn't indicted. And he not been indicted. 
  • The rest of the Family In The House to me: "Can we have a Chinese student stay with us over Thanksgiving?"  I slowly look up, slowly turn my head towards them, and a huge question mark forms in the air. I'll give you an update. (If that happens, I might check with Donald Trump on how to "deal with him".)
  • I'll probably do a separate post about this but the latest Police State video has emerged and it's from Texas. A guy goes to Godley City Hall to complain about a neighbor, a cop comes out and asks for his ID (the guy has no legal obligation to present it) and initially refuses, the cop eventually tells him to stand up, the guy tries to pull out his ID, is then slow to turn around, gets tazed, and then "charged" with resisting arrest (which he didn't do because the law requires the use of force against the officer.) That officer just lost his job. And he needs to.
  • I believe there is a growing number of some young officers, not the veterans, who believe the rules do not apply to them. And that is what happens when those far up the chain don't hold them accountable because they don't care or, shockingly, sanction unethical/illegal actions.
  • I can't stop laughing about Dez Bryant's monkey (named "Dallas Bryant"). But it got better yesterday at Jason Garrett's press conference when someone asked him a tongue in cheek question about whether he knew about the monkey. Garrett seriously replied: "I have not met Dallas. I've heard stories that he has a monkey. There has been visual evidence of that.'' That's golden. 
  • I watched an episode of All In The Family the other day. Verdict: It was very, very funny. But it was funnier because of the shock value of the non-PC things that were in the script that would never be on regular TV today.
  • WBAP's Hal Jay is really named Hal Harbuck?  And I saw a guy joke somewhere that his wheeze laugh sounds like Mutley. (I realize there may be 1% of you who have ever heard of Mutley and less than that have heard of Hal Jay.)
  • Hot Sports Opinions: (1) When the official college playoff rankings come out tonight, Baylor will be #5, (2) TCU's Trevone Boykin is the best player in the country, (3) There is nothing weirder than TCU's coach Gary Patterson asking the West Virginia coach immediately after TCU's win against them, "What are our chances against Baylor?" Uh, coach, you have Oklahoma and Oklahoma State on your schedule before Baylor. 
  • Special note to Dennis Prager fan: I flipped over to him yesterday and he was dogging some politician (Hillary?) and said something along the lines of "if your leaders aren't truthful, it will lead to the downfall of society." (I am certain about the last three words.) Then he read an ad for a cream that cures arthritis pain. 
  • If I see one more story about Blue Blue . . .  oh no . . . 


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11.02.2015

Uber Driver vs. Drunk Passenger: Who Ya Got?



That escalated quickly around the 2:15 mark. (Language warning.)

(Special note to Ticket listeners: He drove bus! And that ride is closed!)
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I'm Officially Concerned About The Media


This was up for at least half the day yesterday. It is the web equivalent of "Above The Fold".  There is a "latest news" graphic at the top. Underneath it are five links which are basically links to ads on the Star-Telegram site.  And then a graphic/link of  More Latest News.  But this is at the top of a news site web page. (I understand the standard newspaper has a real estate section with standard real estate "stories" that are paid ads. That's been going on for forty years). 

But this is the home page of the Star-Telegram. 

The only other story in view is about Blue Bell which seems to get lots of mentions by all the news organizations. But who could pay for that type of glowing media coverage? 
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Breaking Cowboy News: PETA Is Demanding Dez Bryant's Monkey Be Removed From His Custody

(Not the actually monkey and none of these guys are Dez Bryant)

At least I just heard that from David Moore of the Dallas Morning News with "breaking news" on The Ticket.

Link coming.

Edit: Link.
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Random Monday Morning Thoughts


  • Mrs. LL and I had the best time on Halloween night. We wanted to hand out candy to trick or treaters but soon discovered that The Family Pup and Family Rescue Dog go crazy at a doorbell or if we sat on the front porch without them. So we opened the front door on a beautiful night, put up one of those indoor dog fences, and pulled up chairs to the door on the inside of the house. 
  • I sometimes give the impression that my little life is all wonderful, but I am just like you. There can be issues which cause a ton of stress. 
  • How far has the country developed? It took until 1972 before the Supreme Court struck down state laws that made it a crime to provide birth control to unmarried couples. (Yes, you read that correctly.) 
  • That Twittering Judge will be part of the Texas Supreme Court which will hear oral arguments today on this issue: Is a school district liable if it files truancy charges against a parents who home school their children because the school district believes they were "failing to teach their children educational basics." But the parents justify any teaching deficiencies because they "were waiting to be transported to heaven with the second coming of Jesus Christ." This will be great. A far right conservative court having to make a decision regarding devout Christians. 
  • Sports: (1) If a football team can be bi-polar, the Longhorns are Exhibit A. (2) This may be the most dramatic sports weekend ever. College football was bizarre with many crazy finishes and we may have seen the greatest kick return ever. And even I got sucked into the World Series games because of the drama. (2A) I'm worried there may be a guy who is now this generation's Bill Buckner, (2B) ESPN was breaking down the Miami kick return like it was the Zapruder film. There is controversy over whether one of the player's knee was down. He was not called down on the field but they went to replay. You know what the rule is before you can overturn the "non-call"? There must be "irrefutable evidence" to the contrary that convinces the replay official "beyond all doubt." That standard is as high as it can get. The criminal justice system sentences people to death if there is only "no reasonable doubt" they are guilty. (4) I love "Surrender Cobra" photos. 
  • The biggest Republican candidate problem right now is that they have to go over the top to appeal to the far right conservative base to get the nomination. At least they believe that's the only way you win the nomination. Then after one wins it, he (or she) has to back off and appeal to all of the electorate to win the general election.  That hacks off the conservative base and the general electorate has seen you act like a Rush Limbaugh or Dennis Prager. That's a problem. 
  • Candidate Carley Fiorina may have a figurative self inflicted political wound. She was on one of the Sunday morning shows and (once she stopped talking about the "liberal media") she finally admitted she "misspoke" when she said that 92% of the job losses in President Obama’s first term belonged to women. Is "misspoke" a code word for "lie"? 
  • There's news of a woman poisoning her own child in Dallas. That's right out of Sixth Sense if covertly done or Jonestown if overtly done.  
  • There's a TV ad I've seen a couple of times for treatment of "relapsing multiple sclerosis ." I had no idea that was a huge problem. 
  • I mentioned the Aggie Bonfire Memorial yesterday but here's a cool coincidence: There is part of the Memorial which notes that the bonfire did not occur in 1963 because of the Kennedy assassination. A few weeks back I wrote about going to watch the Aggie Band in downtown Fort Worth. Part of my notes were watching the final stage of the band, glancing over and seeing the Kennedy Memorial, and then going over and looking at it. 



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11.01.2015

Halloween Book In Photos Are The Best


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Mrs. LL and I Went To Aggieland


A couple of weeks ago, I received a gift from someone who knows how much I love my silly and stupid college football trips. I received two tickets to Aggieland: It's the South Carolina Gamecocks vs. The Aggies. The game time would later be set for 11:00 a.m. I've got an early morning road trip. Me to Mrs. LL: "You in.?" Mrs. LL: "You kidding me? Oh, yes!"

  • I tell her we leave at a particular time and yesterday we only leave 18 minutes late. My master plan has worked (we didn't have to leave at that particular time.)   I tell her she could sleep all the way down if she wanted to because of the early start. 
  • Things got weird quickly. She doesn't go to sleep. Now that's odd. But not as odd as a vehicle all over the road traveling at a snail's pace in front of us on I-35 after Burleson. I don't say anything and just point. She says, "Yep. I see it." It is 6:35 or so in the morning. Within a minute the guy makes it to the exit and Mrs. LL says, "There you go, buddy. Good job." And then he undershoots the exit and goes into the median which seperates I-35 from the service road. It was a slow roll. Was he drunk? Did he just fall asleep? Was it a medical condition? (Was it even a "he"?) Mrs. LL yells at me, "Go back!" I say, "Just call 911!" She does. We note the exit number to communicate it to dispatch. She hangs up and says, "Go back" again. OK, I will. What if it is a medical issue and we could get there before dispatch and do something? Let's go.  I overshoot the next exit and miss it and have to go down a couple of miles. I want to go over I-35 and head back up. She tells me to take the service road. I take the service road. As we get back there we see flashing lights of an emergency vehicle but the lights go off and the vehicle moves on. The guy is gone. Mrs. LL thinks she might have seen the vehicle at a convenience store we passed on the way. We go to it and it is not there.
  • We head to Aggieland again. That's a weird start.
  • She sleeps the entire way and I pull into a convenience store at College Station. We go in. Uh, it's Halloween and we see this in the checkout line at 10:00 a.m. That's a guy. With a beard. In a dress.  I think. Mrs. LL snaps that  picture and as she does I whisper, "Be cool." As we walk back to the car she says, "You think that guy cares if someone takes his picture?" Good point.
  • I just want to see a football game and experience Kyle Field. This has been an interesting morning. 
  • And we head to the stadium. I was stunned by the lack of traffic for what would be a crowd of 100,000. We park a long way away because that will give us a chance to see the campus. As we walk, we see the memorial for the Aggie Bonfire Tragedy and now we know what we'll stop by after the game.
  • I was at Kyle Field 20 years ago. With the renovations, it looks like a brand new stadium.
  • We get to our seats and they are on the first row at the 40 yard  line. Holy cow. That's not the best seat if you care about the best view of the game (I don't), but it is absolutely the best place in the world if you care about the experience. I am feet away from the South Carolina bench. I get to hear and watch the players and the coaches. I get to watch the media. I tell Mrs. LL this is my greatest football trip ever.
  • I'm so close that I can see the white board when the defensive unit regroups and the coach draws on it. If I were an Aggie secret agent, I could take a picture and immediately send it to the Aggie coaching staff. With as big a business as college football is (and as big of a business as betting is), how does that not happen every week?
  • Funniest/Oddest taunt ever: A young Aggie fan behind me yells at a South Carolina trainer, "Hey, nice cargo pants!"
  • There is a hot sideline reporter walking back and forth and she stops right under us. She is making  notes on a pad. I'm not saying that Mrs. LL covertly took a photo of her notes, but Mrs. LL took a photo of her notes. I haven't looked at them yet because it almost feels illegal. (It's not.)
  • I knew football was intense, but I had no idea the sideline was so intense. There are leaders who will cuss out the younger guys. The coaches will cuss out anyone.
  • Mrs. LL wants to take a "selfie" with me with the great view of the field in the background. I hate selfies and I remind her of that. A lady behind us hears us and asks, "You guys want your picture taken?" No problem. Done. She takes the pic, hands the phone back, smiles at me and says, "It's all about memories."  I smile and reply, "You're right. And you allowed me to keep my dignity by not being involved in a selfie in front of thousands of people." She laughs. 
  • The security was  amazing. There is always someone walking by and scanning the crowd. And it needed to be there. I could jump six feet down in a second and be on the field. Here's my chance to be Will Farrell from Old School and be a streaker! (The thought didn't actually cross my mind. I'm joking. But the vision of doing it and a horrified crowd seeing old me on the big screen does make me laugh.)
  • I had told Mrs. LL about the Aggie band, and I didn't think she understood. She is a huge band fan. At halftime she finally sees it. (I think she is still saying, "Wow.")
  • The Aggie Band and The Corp have a common mindset: Discipline and doing your job right. 
  • Football note: The Aggies started a freshman quarterback who everyone thinks will be a star. The offense was boring in first quarter. Then they went hurry up and took over the game. After two drives I turn to the guy next to me and tell him, "They look exactly like Baylor." And they did.
  • One of the greatest Aggie traditions is that crazy swaying the crowd does as they touch the backs of the person beside them. This happens between the third and fourth quarters. Mrs. LL and I have worn maroon and I tell her to get ready because it is a sight to see. We join in and sway with the crowd. The moment is fantastic.
  • After the game we walk towards the Bonfire Memorial.  I remind her I got lost on the Kansas campus a few weeks back and she says that wouldn't happen to her because she has a tremendous sense of direction. She momentarily gets lost but quickly figures the way back. Funny. 
  • We both notice the craziest number of bicycles in the history of ever. I bet there was one set of bike racks with over 100 bikes locked up on them. (However, I'm still confused about the bike in a tree we see as we were almost off campus.) 
  • I don't care who you are, go see that Memorial.  Everything about the design was done for a reason. The tributes to those kids are beyond moving. I will be honest: I tear up. No. I cry.  I'm not an Aggie, but even I realized I was standing on Aggie Holy Ground.




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