Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• Oh, one thing I forgot to add to my otherwise perfect weather forecast on Friday: "And, I promise you, we will have a freak snow storm on Saturday morning. Huge flakes. Might even be a couple of inches."  I can't believe I left that out. Thanks.
  
  
• You've probably seen the crazy video footage of gunshots ringing out at a south Dallas high school basketball game but, if you haven't, hear ya go. 
  
• Best Picture nominees were just announced. 
  
• It was 70 degrees yesterday in D.C. 
  
• Jimmy Johnson learned he will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame last night. I knew they normally announced the inductees during the Super Bowl week so I wasn't sure what was going on. Here's the deal: This year there will be a Centennial Class of 15 people in addition to five regular inductees. Yep, twenty people will go into the Hall of Fame in 2020.  That kind of cheapens it. (Side note: How is Dan Reeves not in and Jimmy is?)
• Mrs. LL was watching Jimmy's reaction on TV last night more than me, and she blurted out, "Who's that guy with the huge hands!?"  She was referring to the Fake Babe Ruth representing the Hall. 
  
• This headline got my attention because it wouldn't surprise me, but I don't think it's accurate. The story says, "In 1999, the number of death certificates mentioning alcohol was 35,914. That number jumped to nearly 73,000 in 2017."  Yes, that's doubled but that doesn't tell us much, does it? How many more deaths in general did we have in 2017? We need a per capita number before we can say "doubled." 
  
• I'm surprised Trump doesn't build a monument to this guy. He checks all the boxes. 
  
  
  
  
• From the Star-Telegram: "A Tarrant County district judge is putting vulnerable children at risk by reversing a longtime practice of appointing volunteers to advocate for them as they move through the child welfare system, a group that trains the workers alleges."  That may or may not be true. What is true is that a district judge, Alex Kim, is taking a stand about the use of CASA volunteers to be involved in CPS cases. He questions why people who couldn't officially be a party to a lawsuit are allowed access to unredacted CPS reports -- something even parents aren't allowed to see. That's a bold move. And politically unpopular. You don't see judges, who are elected, take stands like that very often.
  
• I've got a lot of questions about this problem a former Fox 4 gal is having.
  
• "Businessman" is the most generic term ever invented. 
• Oh, my. Has their been a documentary about the street performers on the Hollywood Walk of Fame? I don't think this is the first wheels off story. 
  
• Every now and then I think about the crazy Super Conducting Super Collider which is buried in North Texas. 
• Messenger: Above The Fold.

(They are talking about us in that textbook story.)