7.23.2021

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




The Wise County Reunion is next week. The above is my memory of it when I was a teenager.  I remember a Bridgeport man from my church betting $20 a throw. 

  • The AG of Florida tested positive for COVID and news reports quickly pointed out that she hung out with Texas officials a couple of days beforehand. But the pictures associated with her visit had me asking: Who is that guy?!

  • Regarding the house explosion in Plano, this news from yesterday morning should provide you with absolutely no confidence that authorities know what they are doing. He has about as much chance of finding the cause with his little shovel and camera as would Inspector Clouseau.

  • I want to know what all inclusive resort this occurred at.  "KTVT-TV reported that the couple had a few drinks at the hotel bar and decided to head back to their room, but Elijah Snow stopped and went back to the bar while his wife went to their room and fell asleep. Jamie Snow woke up at 4 a.m., only to find her husband never returned." He was found dead along the property line of next to an adjacent resort.

  • About time. And the forfeit includes no pay for any of the players. Anti-vaxxer Cole Beasley has been put on notice. 

  • It's your choice. (And this Texas chart hasn't been updated with the latest numbers of 3,692 from July 21st.)

  • Are you beginning to get the feeling the Earth is tired of us and has just simply decided to eliminate humans? 

  • I bet you didn't even hear about a quadruple murder on Tuesday in the small east Texas town of New Summerfield. An 18 year old meets a guy on Grindr, and that guy says he has a friend who wants to buy a gun. The meeting takes place but it's an ambush which leaves the 18 year old dead along with three people who were in a nearby trailer. (That link from tiny station KETK is fantastic in its coverage of this really crazy case.)


  • I was looking for pictures from the Opening Ceremonies this morning at the Tokyo Olympics, but I haven't seen anything which has caught my eye other than these pretty hip jackets worn by the team from Aruba. It's a little slow.

  • I think the most memorable Opening Ceremonies for me occurred in 2008 from China. Those drummers. Oh, man, those drummers. Even through their smiles, China was able to send a message of intimidation. If interested, I've got it cued up for you here. 

  • Divorce update this morning: 

  • Funny.

  • Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 749 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold


at 8:32 AM

7.22.2021

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




Timely.  

  • That escalated quickly: The Houston Chronicle rocked the college football world yesterday afternoon by reporting that OU and Texas had "reached out" to the SEC about joining the conference. 

    • I was skeptical at first until I heard that both schools had issued similar statements saying they "wouldn't address" the "rumors." Uh, oh. 
    • By last night, Orangebloods.com said it was a done deal as did WFAA.  
    • This is horrible. 
    • Other than money, I don't know why the want to do that. But it's a lot of money. 
    • Heck, I care about Baylor, Tech, TCU, and Oklahoma State. And West Virginia has to be thinking that recent marriage to the Big 12 didn't work out too well. 
    • It would take a 75% vote of SEC schools to accept the Evil Empire and OU which means four schools could block the move.  The Aggies have already said "no way", and I bet Missouri, which also fled the Big 12, would vote no as well.  I also suspect Arkansas wouldn't want the new competition.  Not sure about another. But the SEC always moves as one big cohesive unit, so I think they'll get together behind closed doors and take them with the Aggies being the lone vocal holdout. 
    • A few moments ago, a "conservative" Republican Texas lawmaker weighed in. He's not nearly as important as he thinks he is:

  • Intentional? The cryptic statement by the Plano PD is flat out weird. That was a natural gas explosion, right? So did someone turn an appliance on and was able to ignite the escaping gas? Wait, could Plano PD be implying this was a suicide? 

  • I wasn't familiar with the disappearance of this boy in Montague County. It happened in 2015 and a Nocona man became a "person of interest" (I hate that term) because he was the last person to see the boy alive. Cops then took his computer and shockingly found photos of the man allegedly molesting the boy years earlier. That man was then placed on trial this week in federal court in Fort Worth where a mistrial was just declared when a juror "injured" himself. The man has now agreed to plead guilty. 

  • I'm not sure I understand this. You send nude photos to someone and the recipient can be arrested for merely "threatening" to let others see them? It happened in Wichita Falls.

  • Jerry Jones was great yesterday in the "State of the Team" address.  His voice cracked several times as if he was coming to the realization that his reign will, sadly, come to a natural end in the future. But his profane laden story about what Barry Switzer said was comedic gold. The uncensored version of it is here.

     
  • My favorite Jerry line, as he teared up, was "I've had a lot of people tell me, 'You're naive,' or say, 'He's naive.' [Pause.] Well, it's a beautiful world.  It's a better world to be naive than to be skeptical and be negative all the time." Video.
  • So how high will this go? There's nothing to put the brakes on it this time (no mandated masks or social distancing) other than the fact that 40% of the population is vaccinated. Will it break last Spring's peak? Last Winter's peak? I don't have a clue. 

  • My paternal great grandfather came to Texas from Arkansas in 1905. Does that make me a fourth generation Texan or third? That is, does the "first generation" begin at the moment of crossing the state lines, or does it begin later when my grandfather was born? And you get to count your own birth as one of the "generations", right?  
  • How in the world does the OU/Texas story not make the front page of the Austin American Statesman?

at 8:31 AM

7.21.2021

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




Despite all the coverage over the last few days of "space" travel, I'm not sure I've heard anyone mention that this is the ten year anniversary of Space Shuttle program being shut down. 

  • Let them eat cake space?


  • From the Maybe The Vaccine Isn't Such A Bad Idea Department:


  • And one right wing leader who is anti-vax may not understand HIPAA but, by not answering the question, has definitely been vaccinated. Video.

  • I forgot to mention yesterday that the Official Liberally Lean Girl shouldn't be acting like a nutcase online when everyone has been urging her to be released from her conservatorship because she's not a nutcase. She went on a rant last weekend: 

  • Let's check in on women's soccer this morning.  Oops. First loss in 44 straight matches. We are off to a bang up start. 

  • Oh, my. This is now the site of the Surfside condo collapse. Photos taken yesterday.

  • Woah. Story. (Includes video.)

  • This story won't interest most of you, but I actually had a Houston lawyer a couple of months back reach out to me and tell me to watch this judge on Youtube as he held court. I did. You could tell something wasn't right. He wasn't mean or a bully, he was just "out there." 

  • I wonder if Nick Saban is telling the truth here. I bet he is, and I bet all of this paying of players is only going to get crazier. (Young, a sophomore, has 13 career completions at Alabama.) 

  • The NBA Draft is a crapshoot. (The peach background indicates a player who has appeared in at least one All-Star game.) But I suppose Mark Cuban wasn't in the room when this draft went down. 
    2013

  • Happy 81st birthday to Verne Lundquist. Before there was Dale Hansen, there was Verne at WFAA. He also was also on the Cowboys' radio broadcasts with Brad Sham. His line of, “Bless his heart, he's got to be the sickest man in America” for this dropped pass in Super Bowl XIII became famous despite most of us watching the game on TV instead of listening to the radio. 

  • Messenger: Above the Fold


at 8:31 AM

7.20.2021

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




It's already been 10 years since Amy Winehouse's death.   She was only 27?

  • Moments ago, Jeff Bezos completed his 10 minute flight into "space" -- around 65 miles up. For comparison, the moon is 238,900 miles away. Color me unimpressed. I'm more amazed that an underwear purchase from Amazon can arrive at my doorstep in less than 24 hours.



  • But that booster being able to land upright will always be amazing. 

  • Meanwhile on Earth, just a house blowing up in Plano. I assume it was natural gas related. 

  • This didn't get much press. The story says it was at West 4th and Houston around 1:30 a.m.  
    Looking north from that intersection towards Worthington Hotel.

  • Texas governor candidate suggests shooting door to door advocates of getting the COVID vaccine. 

  • Joe Barton had to resign from Congress because of texting inappropriate pictures of himself at age 67, and now he endorses the opponent of the widow of the guy who replaced him. Got all that?


  • That a former Bridgeport gal on the right. I've always said that I want her press agent. Story. 

  • It kind of looks like the beginning of the last June/July surge. 

  • We've got us a vaccine passport requirement for college. And that's coming from a Trump judge.

  • I've got a lot of questions about this pastor from First Baptist of Corsicana supposedly "live tweeting" his alleged life threatening battle with COVID.


  • Yep.

  • Rangers last three games: 0-5, 0-10, 0-14


at 8:31 AM
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