- Motor Trend magazine did a truck test in Bridgeport at Toyota's request: "To test out the new Tacoma TRD Pro, Toyota attempted to create a mini Baja in its backyard at a former limestone quarry known as Northwest OHV Park in Bridgeport, Texas."
- This guy is on the ballot for the Texas Supreme Court. Any guy who puts Chico on that list should have the vote of every Wise Countian.
- It looks like Mark Cuban's ruse, in light of the Mavs' culture of sexual harrassment, of hiring interim CEO Cynthia "Cyn" Marshall and having an "independent investigation", was indeed a fraud. The Dallas Morning News reports his long time friend and Mav's photographer was part of the problem, and everyone in a position of authority just somehow forgot to mention him.
- A famous security expert warns of that Presidential Alert you received. Then again, you might want to watch Gringo, The Dangerous Life of John McAfee where "Filmmaker Nanette Burstein tries to unravel the strange behaviour of John McAfee, who left his life as a software mogul to become a recluse in the jungles of Belize." (Really good documentary, by the way. I haven't given up my Costa Rica dream.)
- I had no idea of the history of A Star is Born. The original was in 1937, it came out as a musical with Judy Garland in 1954, a remake in 1976 (Streisand and Kristofferson ) and now today's release. Trivia: The first one starred Janet Gaynor who 10 years earlier won the first ever Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in three films.
- In addition to Cornyn not being able to think of a false sexual assault allegation other than in a decades old work of fiction, Tom Robinson would like to raise an objection to this tortured analogy:
- And the best baby Halloween outfit goes to . . .
- I would mention a 3.7% unemployment rate but long-time commentator Wordkyle told me for eight years that the number is a fraud.
- He was 17 years old at the time and road a bus to high school the next day:
- I'm a day late on the anniversary of Michael Morton's release. A day when unethical Texas prosecutors were exposed forever, and a "lock 'em up" state would take measures to force prosecutors to turn over all evidence -- even that stuff that *gasp* indicates the defendant is not guilty.
- The Kavanaugh vote, led by these men, is coming to a head. I'm not sure they represent a cross-section of America.
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| 83, 64, 74, 82 |
- I won't mention that Trump walked up the steps of Air Force One with toilet paper dangling from his foot.
- It was a first yesterday: We had a former Supreme Court Justice say a nominee was unfit for the court while the nominee took the unprecedented step of writing an opinion piece for Murdoch's Wall Street Journal saying, "Yes I am!"
- The Alvord Arson story in the Update seems to be missing a "how" and "why". (Unless you have a confession, arson case are notoriously hard to prove. Maybe they have one.)
- This trailer for a movie about Dick Cheney looks great if only for the cast alone. Christian Bale (Cheney) and Sam Rockwell (Bush) look and sound fantastic. And then you throw in Steve Carell as Donald Rumsfeld and we have us a winner. (Although I am a little distracted by Bale sounding like he is using his Batman voice while playing Richard Dreyfus.)
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- "In the ’99 Red River Showdown, OU offensive coordinator Mike Leach planted a decoy play script during pregame warmups. The Longhorns found it, used it and fell behind 17-0 before realizing they’d been duped." Link.
- John Nolley was exonerated in Tarrant County yesterday after 19 years in prison. Who were the Tarrant County assistant DAs who prosecuted the case in 1998? There's no indication they did anything ethically wrong, but I'd like to know. It was cause number 0665622D in the 213th Judicial District Court. Online records yield nothing.
- Whenever someone tells me something is "hilarious" I'm automatically inclined to find that it is not.
- It's been a while since I've gone on a "disguised ad" rant, but I noticed The Ticket referencing "Pro Football Focus dot com" during a generic sports talk segment here a lot lately and it sure seems shoehorned in. Paid embedded ad? A part of my conspiracy theory the Ticket's Gordon Keith, when talking about all great scary movies yesterday, said "I'm getting these from a list on a website but since they aren't a sponsor I won't mention them." That seemed like a shot of being forced to shoehorn in paid website plugs.
- Answer: "I need a phone charger" followed by my GPS coordinates.
- When Trump mocked Ford he said she didn't know if the assault occurred upstairs or downstairs. She was very specific. Once again, facts mean nothing to him. (Funny caption on the CNN screenshot below.)
- Actual screenshot when Trump mocked a female reporter at the White House on Monday with an actual screenshot of Biff and his boys. That's good stuff.
- The loudest I've ever heard a stadium while in attendance: When OU's Roy Williams hit Texas' Chris Simms in the end zone to cause a pick six and seal a victory.
- I did NOT get a Presidential Alert yesterday. I'm hurt.
- What a world we live in.
- Williamson County makes the news yet again:
- Ted Cruz and Donald Jr. had a rally in Wichita Falls yesterday. I'll admit that's a funny shirt. (Hey, is Junior's daddy still coming to Texas for Cruz to rally in "the biggest stadium we can find" like he promised? Time is running out.)
- We've got a teacher/student sex case in Lubbock. Question: Why is this a federal prosecution? The feds normally leave these cases to local DAs.
- Prediction: Kavanaugh is confirmed.
- If Mrs. LL has the TV clicker during a football game, I can guarantee I'm going to be forced to watch a replay of a "spin move." Girl still loves the spin move.
- Jimmy Johnson has cut back on this Fox game day in-studio job. He is now leaving mid-afternoon to get back to the Florida Keys. Why show up at all?
- After being very measured about Dr. Ford earlier this week, Trump openly mocked her at his third "rally" this week as old white men from Mississippi laughed in the background. I'm sure that will go over with Kavanaugh's swing voters, and Sen. Flake was not pleased.
- Trump must have been angry at a year and a half investigation into his taxes and "fortune" by the New York Times which, once again, shows him to be nothing more than a lying and cheating con man. It's eight pages long. And it won't make one iota of difference to his base. He can shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and steal $400 million from the U.S. at the same time and it won't matter.
- Trump called the story "old and boring" this morning. Interestingly, he didn't call it "fake."
- Speaking of Kavanaugh, a letter he wrote in preparation for "Beach Week" has been found. Man, they sound insufferable. (Georgetown Prep sounds to be full of the guys who go on to college and hang out in a bar like the one in Good Will Hunting but who can't quote "Vickers, Work in Essex County, Page 98, right?")
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- You'll get a text from Trump at 1:18 today. Pray that no pictures are accidentally attached. (But I would like to be in a crowd at that moment when everyone instantaneously looks down at their phones -- assuming that they aren't already looking at their phones.)
- Lindsey Graham dropping an S Bomb during a CNN interview.
- I love the crazy looking new wild-eyed mascot "Gritty" who has been an Internet sensation, but look how different he looks when one guy photoshopped in some eyelids.
- My movie watching has diminished lately but Bad Times at the El Royale looks really good.
- There's an obvious clue how you know this is an old photo:
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- The former head of Baylor's Board of Regents is being investigated for making racial slurs. But this sentence got my attention more than others: "Baylor’s counsel has traveled to France to speak with a witness to the conversation . . . . " The lawyer went to France for a simple interview? I want that job.
- Is there a list somewhere of athletes who have been cut and unemployed but are collecting large checks because of guaranteed contracts? For example, Prince Fielder got $24 million in 2017.
- I'm not sure about this lede. The DA "says there's a high risk that most victims of [of domestic violence] will wind up dead." Look at these terms: "High risk" and "most" and "wind up dead." What's that even mean? Even if you get past that everyone "winds up" dead, that sentence would cause a the head to explode of a student of Statistics 101.
- Messenger: Above The Fold
- Police at Penn State decided to use low flying helicopters to disperse tailgaters. That was dumb. Fortunately, just minor injuries were reported but the cops are taking heat about it. (Videos in the link.)
- Voting: Straight ticket ends in Texas after the mid-terms.
- Longtime readers will recall that I once named ex-Texas Ranger Chris Davis the "Official Major League Ball Player of Liberally Lean." Uh, he's not doing so well (other than his bank account.) He finished the year with a 1 for 37 slump bringing is average to .168.
- Ever thought about how you have a disadvantage or an advantage because of these simple things you had no control over: Birthplace, skin color, birth parents, birth gender, birth language, birth name, and ethnicity.
- I've always considered public "mosquito spraying" to be the equivalent of a can of Raid strapped onto the back of a Tonka truck going around the field at Jerry World.
- I'm forever thankful I've never had to go into this guy's court. In the late 1990s, the Fifth Circuit found McBryde engaged in "intemperate, abusive and intimidating" courtroom conduct and suspended him from hearing any new civil or criminal cases for one year and disqualified him for three years from presiding over cases involving attorneys who had testified against him during the investigation.
- I've been reading a book about LBJ and came across this photo last night which got my interest. It is LBJ and Bobby Kennedy (who hated Johnson) in Brooklyn in October, 1964. An open car parade that quickly after JFK's assassination was pretty gutsy. (And I love looking at all the secret service guys - especially the one pointing at the camera and the one squatting right in the middle of the front seat.)
- A Bridgeport officer took a spill during a "demonstration" yesterday. He's fine. Remember kids, always wear a helmet.
- Proof that we are living in a bizarre world: Last night there were headlines that Brett Kavanaugh got into a disturbance at a bar when he was in college because he mistook a guy as as the lead singer of UB40. UB40?! Side notes: (1) I guess it's only fitting their biggest hit had a title about alcohol, and (2) I really don't care about the incident.
- Remember when a phone company was called Cingular?
- Everyone is going gaga, as they should, over Pat Mahomes with the Chiefs. Flashback: Look at his numbers against OU in 2016.
- That massive Amazon warehouse in the Halset area employees a lot of Wise County folks. They just boosted their minimum pay to $15 an hour.
- Up to 2,200 homes have been announced for an area bordering Wise County north of the Saginaw cutoff and east of Rhome. There will be a new road to access it from 287.
- Is state rep. Konni Burton the female version of Jonathan Stickland? Seems like it.
- Troy Aikman was on The Ticket this morning for another boring segment. At one point he said, "I had some buddies over to watch the game last night . . . . " The interview would be interesting if they asked him who is buddies are and how he knows them.
- J. E. Carson, the namesake of one of Decatur's elementary schools, passed away early this morning.
- Los Angeles airport announces it won't bust people for weed. (Here's a dirty little not-so-secret: Any airport in a state that legally sells weed isn't going to mess with you either. They just won't say it on the record like LAX.)
- Speaking of, Gov. Abbott over the weekend announced he would push for reducing the punishment for possession of personal amounts of marijuana to a Class C misdemeanor -- the equivalent of a traffic ticket.
- I didn't even know there was one. (From the official Texas prosecutors site):
- This writer from Dave Campbell's Texas Football noted something bizarre on Friday night. How it occurred is here in the comments.
- The State doesn't have to prove a motive but I'm certainly curious if there was one.
- "I was really being tough and so was he. And we would go back and forth. And then we fell in love. No really. He wrote me beautiful letters. They were great letters. And then we fell in love." - President Trump at one his "rallies" on Saturday night. (That would make the front page of every paper if the U.S. was in a constant state of chaos.)
- The doctor who looked at Tavon Austin was either the ghost of LBJ or Jim Leavelle.
- It's the first week of October with the temperatures in the 80s and high humidity. Why do we live her again?
- I think this guy, who was labeled "creepy old man", at the Florida game got a bad rap. It looks like he is in the row behind her and not speaking to her at all.
- A Georgia high school football player died yesterday from a head injury he received in a game on Friday. A Tennessee State player underwent emergency surgery on Saturday after a head injury. He is still in critical condition.
- Good and Evil? Really? Can we please pull the FBC of Dallas' tax exempt status.
- Messenger: Above The Fold.
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