11.23.2018

It's Friday. Let's Get Out Of Here.





















Random Friday Morning Thoughts



  • Hardest Working Man In Show Business.™
  • This pay-per-view at $20 a pop for Tiger vs. Phil has to be a ratings disaster, right? 
  • I'm just now hearing about "anxiety blankets" or "weighted blankets". Do they work? In theory, they are for people who never sleep soundly because their mind is racing oftentimes with constant dreams of worrisome situations. 
  • Keller High School's band was in the parade yesterday in New York City. Look at the temperature noted on the building (upper left hand corner) as they headed towards Macy's. With the wind, that had to be a beating. A neat experience, but a a beating.
  • Flashback: When handlers had to murder the Barney float during the parade as onlookers eventually booed and yelled, "Barney! Barney".
  • Then the kids went back to playing Red Dead Redemption 2.
  • A Messenger reporter was on the road yesterday and had an observation.
  • Trump, who called the troops yesterday, decided (after thinking it would be a good idea to rail on the Ninth Circuit on Thanksgiving) for some unknown reason to push "steam" as the preferred method of launching planes off aircraft carriers. 
  • We all ate too much yesterday so I guess world hunger doesn't exist. 
  • One more Trump thing: His answer to the question of what he is thankful for. Short answer is "Me!"
  • After being warned not to go, an American decided, without authorization, to try to enter an island populated by an isolated tribe in order to spread Christianity. Verdict: Their Department of Homeland Security doesn't mess around against illegal aliens.
  • We are all Isabella's parents shaking our collective heads from time to time.
  • We went out to eat in the Metroplex yesterday and we ran into former Wise County Sheriff Phil Ryan at the same place.
  • For some reason I end up watching North Dallas Forty for the first time. Verdict: It's horrible.  I guess it was a shocking revelation about the NFL at the time, but it was cartoonish in its attempt.



11.22.2018

That Time Again


It's that time of year again, so here's the annual photo. Long time readers understand it and appreciate it.

Happy Thanksgiving.

11.21.2018

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts


  • So let me get this straight. Fifty people in our country of over 325 million get sick and the CDC says romaine lettuce "is a likely source" of the illness (their words) so the agency tells everyone in America to throw out their romaine lettuce no matter where they bought it. Let me tell you something. The Liberally Lean Crack Research Team Of Award Winning Scientists and Mathematicians From Western Wise County has crunched the numbers and has issued a report that says: You romaine lettuce lovin' people out there should take your chances. #RomaineLettuceMatters
  • Trump's bizarre, error-ridden, and heavy exclamation point filled written statement yesterday  voicing his support for Saudi Arabia (despite the CIA's report that the Crown Prince ordered the murder a U.S. Resident and journalist) is a new low. "May he did and maybe he didn't!", Trump wrote in the prose of a grade school child. But the fact the Saudis buy arms from us is enough to excuse his bone saw murder in Trump's estimation. Incredible.
  • For those who won't read Trump's statement, here is a summary:

  • Here's another summary: 
  • To wrap this subject up, this week Trump has attacked the the Navy SEAL whose team got bin Laden and praised the country that produced the vast majority of the hijackers on 9/11. Everything is fine. 
  • Here we go again: Skeleton crews working around the Thanksgiving holidays will report the next three days are the busiest of the year at airports. I will have a blockbuster report on Friday (maybe Monday) proving my theory that we get lied to every year. 
  • It's still amazing that smart phones don't get viruses. (Or if the do, I've never heard of it.)
  • I don't have a dog in this hunt, but as soon as I saw the headline I could identify the cartoon/crying-for-attention sports writer who was the author. (It's Mac Engel, and no link for you, sir.)

  • Police are opening an "administrative" investigation into the death of Casey Kasem four years after he died of Alzheimers?  I'm sure his wife and three children from a prior marriage who are fighting over an $80 million estate has nothing to do with it. (I didn't know the widow once played the "ditzy wife of Nick Tortelli" on Cheers.)
  • A guy this week was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for "igniting several Molotov cocktails inside two department stores in Fort Worth’s Hulen Mall." That seems like a reach to make it a federal crime.  (That led my brain to recall that in 1999 I wrote about how the feds took control over a case involving a Molotov cocktail thrown into a private residence. I thought it was wrong. Later the Supreme Court would say the same thing.)
  • I just had to check on him before I hit "Publish". He's losing it. The first came shortly before midnight and he's up and at it this morning. (And for all you folks relying on the oil boom in West Texas, enjoy his madness.)
  • Messenger: Above The Fold

11.20.2018

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts



  • I watched the beginning of Monday Night Football last night and they opened with footage of Chief's coach Andy Reid competing as a 13 year old in the Punt, Pass & Kick competition in that stadium. 13? (Side note: I should have stuck with the game.) 
  •  A 15 year old Abilene High School student was found dead in a bathroom hotel in Grapevine. From his obituary, he sounds like he was a really good kid. Autopsy results are pending. 
  • Two Arkansas Razorbacks were suspended for flirting with the dance team before last week's game with Missouri, and it's a crying shame there aren't pictures.
  • About time. I've been classifying them as that for two years.
  • This will interest political junkies only: Here is a site of every campaign logo for every person who ran for Congress this year. If you ever think about running for office, it is a treasure trove of designs, colors, and fonts. Example: Some guy in Oklahoma decided to use burnt orange. It must work. He won (again.):
  • The Rolling Stones will be in Houston in April next year. In 1982, when they rolled through Dallas, I had buddies tell me, "This might be the last chance we ever get to see them." 
  • During the press conference where Les Miles was introduced as the head coach of Kansas, there was a very bizarre moment where he lost his train of thought for a long time. (Quick video.)
  • Another day in America: A gunman kills three at a Chicago hospital.
  • The 5,800 troops deployed to the border because of Trump's failed campaign stunt are preparing to leave. 
  • I wonder if she is simply trying to get in front of something:
  • I made fun of the pig-tailed Longhorn Breckyn Hager yesterday, and later in the day he had to issue an apology for saying "OU sucks." Yep, a formal and very lengthy apology. This isn't the Evil Empire I used to know. 
  • Look out. "The oil and gas sector worldwide lost about $1 trillion in value during a 40-day period that began in early early October and culminated last week with a record 12th straight day of oil price declines — including the worst single-day drop in three years."
  • From the Update: There was a police pursuit in Wise County last night. It never left the county. It took two hours. (It looks like the guy had about 10 cases pending at the courthouse -- none higher than a State Jail Felony.)


11.19.2018

Random Monday Morning Thoughts



  • Decatur had a big weekend: (1) The varsity girls won state in volleyball, (2) the football team won bi-district in a game played, oddly, in Oklahoma, and (3) Former Decatur alum Grayson Muehlstein game off the bench to lead TCU over Baylor as QB.
  • Oh, my.
  • Let's quick hit the Trump embarrassments this weekend: (1) Went to California and said the forest fires could have been prevented if we had "raked" the forest "floors", (2) Insulted retired Admiral and former Navy SEAL, ex-UT Chancellor, and mastermind of catching Osama bin Laden, (3) Doesn't believe the CIA report that the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia ordered the murder of Khashoggi, and (4) Intentionally misspelled Congressman's Adam Schiff's name in a tweet proving he has a sense of humor and intellect of a fifth grader. #MAGA
  • Say what?
  • The most Out Of Touch Award goes to this Arkansas state rep:
  • We've got a big firearms and drug bust!
  • A few weeks ago I thought there was no way Texas could win the Big 12, now I think it is probable. The winner of WVU/OU's game on Friday, who will be exhausted after an emotional night game in Morgantown, will face UT (assuming they beat Kansas) in Jerry World for the title.  Then again, Texas could screw it all up because of the karma of an overrated defensive player who thinks it is a good look to accent his pigtails with sunglasses and a cowboy hat:
  • Redskins quarterback Alex Smith suffered a gruesome broken leg yesterday. The most famous broken leg ever in the NFL was the one received by former Redskins' QB Joe Theisman. Here is some Twilight Zone stuff: (1) The injuries occurred 33 days apart to the day, (2) the injuries were both a  right broken fibula and tibula (3) the Redskins lost both games by a score of 23-21, and (4) both injuries occurred at the 40 yard line.  
  • A Channel 8 tweet has a weird way of promoting their story on the horrific rhinoplasty gone wrong in Mexico that has left a lady in a coma. Not only is the title abruptly odd, the accompanying graphic appears to be a photo of a monitor taken in a room with bright lights.
  • I'm guessing the Editor in Chief of the Tarlton State newspaper doesn't have a career in writing:
  • It's not been a good week for the Parker County and/or its Sheriff. First a deputy shoots himself in the foot giving rise to a possible cover-up, and now the Dallas Morning News goes after their jail. Jails in Texas are almost always run by the local sheriff but, for some reason, is contracted out in Parker County to some outfit named LaSalle Corrections.
  • Messenger: Above The Fold