Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• A faithful reader quickly advised me yesterday that the RTG was a repeat. My staff regrets that error. I've ordered them to submit TPS reports to explain this error.
• The Ticket's founder Mike Rhyner announced his retirement yesterday causing an earthquake among a few of us. Non-Ticket fans can skip ahead. Heck, I encourage you to skip ahead.
  
• It's really not about Rhyner at all. It's something bigger. 
• Many people say the are a Ticket "day one, P1" but I really am.  Back in the day, The Hardline's Rhyner and Greg Williams (Boyd's own, by the way) might have been the most entertaining sports radio ever. It was ground-breaking as they transformed the format and soon all the other personalities on the station followed suit. 
• The Station didn't talk about a cover two defense and take endless callers telling us who they thought would win the Super Bowl and by what score. Nope. It became a station of bits and comedy and personal stories mixed in with a some sports.
• The station gained a cult following. Just last year I had a new client in my office who noticed a paperback book behind me, "The Ticket - Full Disclosure" and, after he excitedly pointed it out, we went down a 15 minute rabbit trail of Ticket Talk. And we both enjoyed the heck out of it. 
  
• But it is the stability of the station which was shaken yesterday. There are thousands of people out there who have a tremendous comfort level in waking up in the morning and hearing the Musers, catching Norm going on and on about some inane point, and listening to Bob and Dan between noon and 3:00 hoping for another Cornelius, the moron dog, moment,  and the Hardline during drive time. 
• And we love the station in a weird, weird way.  My head is full of "drops" all day long. Heck, Mrs. LL and I talk in drops.  I began to use the jargon so much that one time my elderly mother told me once that I was giving her "Tired Head" -- a term she had only heard from me.  
• The point is: They are always there, and we feel like we know them. In a medium of TV/Radio where turnover is the norm, the station's exact same line-up has been in place for 20 years. That's unheard of. Bu that changed yesterday.
• And although I'll admit Rhyner isn't one of my favorites (that OK to say - he's retired, not dead), he has been the cornerstone. And there's been a weird feeling over the last five years that change is coming to the station. All those guys are getting older. They reference things that an audience of 40 or 50 year olds relate to, but the 20 or 30 something won't. That's not a sustainable business model. So here's why the retirement is significant at the risk of being accused of hyperbole: For many of us, it's about our own mortality. Yep, it's that meaningful.  Everything must change. Everything must end.
• Heck, I kind of want to cue Landslide at this moment. Yep, time does make you bolder  even children get older, and I'm getting older, too. 
  
• John Bolton, who called Trump's withholding aid to Ukraine for personal political gain a "drug deal", has said he will testify before the Senate in Trump's impeachment trial if asked. Why wouldn't you want to hear from this conservative icon if you care about the facts? If they refuse to call him, it truly will be a sham trial.
  
• In case you don't think Iran wasn't going to be pissed that Trump ordered the assassination of Soleimani. The sheer size of the crowd has caused deaths: 
  
• Oh, by the way. The U.S. military sent Iraq a letter telling them that we were withdrawing all troops as they had requested. Then the Pentagon suddenly backtracked and said the letter was only a "draft" and shouldn't have been sent.  Do we have any idea what we are doing? Is your confidence level pretty high? 
  
• Everyone is familiar with Tony Dorsett's 99 yard run, and many also know that the Cowboys only had 10 men on the field on the play. But the famous video clip made me wonder something: Is it a penalty for a player to be in the huddle and then run off the field as the huddle breaks and cross the line of scrimmage?  Watch Ron Springs bolt from the huddle. Something seems illegal about that. 
  
• I had completely forgotten that the U.S. shot down an Iranian civilian airliner in 1988.  (Five years earlier, the Soviets had shot down a civilian South Korean plane - an act which Reagan called "an act of barbarism, born of a society which wantonly disregards individual rights and the value of human life and seeks constantly to expand and dominate other nations.")
  
  
• It has been 302 days since there has been a White House press briefing. Sarah Sanders replacement, Stephanie Grisham, is paid $183,000 of your tax money per year. 
• Missed this last week. 
  
• UT's Sam Ehlinger announced he will return for his senior year. Hey, he's a very good college quarterback, but where else did he think he was going? 
  
• Every four years, one or both of the American political parties choose their presidential nominee in the blink of an eye. The Iowa Caucuses are on February 3rd. Super Tuesday is March 3rd.  By that time, it'll be Biden or Warren. The point is, it gets narrowed down to one person very, very fast.