1.28.2020

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts



  • The fog lasted a long time yesterday and heard some horror stories. One of them concerned the I-35 tollway near Basswood. And I heard 114 into the metroplex was a white knuckle ride.
  • Here's my expert driving tip: Your automatic headlights very likely don't come on in foggy conditions during the day.  (Actually, Mrs. LL told me that, but I told her I'd steal it.)
  • How right wing darling John Bolton has suddenly become Enemy #1 of State TV is something to behold.
  • Shout out to the boys at Karl Klement's Body Shop. It's always weird to walk into a room of strangers and hear, "Don't put me on that Liberally Lean!" (Seriously, the process of getting an estimate from them was about as smooth as can possibly be imagined.)
  • Hey, do you teachers feel pretty good about those who are running your retirement plan? The Austin American Statesman uncovered that the administrators of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas have leased three floors of a new Austin high rise called Indeed Tower at a cost of at least $326,000 a month.
  • Two a week.
  • I've mentioned before that a Decatur law firm won a $98 million dollar verdict several months back in a Dallas banking/lending case, and it is on appeal. Today, January 28, 2020, oral arguments will be held in the case before the Dallas Court of Appeals.  I don't want to pick on anyone, but just glancing at the documents recently filed in the appeal, I think I see an error from one of the parties.
  • Ken Starr made his presentation against impeachment yesterday while somehow forgotting he was Ken Starr.  And how did he think this was a good look? I actually had that same overcoat in 1989. When I entered a room once at the law firm I was with, one of the firm's partners actually pulled me aside and said, "Lose the coat." I never wore it again. And I've never forgotten the moment.
  • Uh, oh. Trump got mad at CNN's Don Lemon last night once he found out Lemon got tickled by a guest saying that "Donald Trump couldn't find Ukraine on a map if you had the letter 'U' and a picture of an actual physical crane next to it." 
  • I was watching MSNBC moments after the Kobe Bryant news broke. I heard what she is talking about, and it certainly caused me to have a "Whoa!" moment. (Video.) I feel sorry for her for getting tongue-tied, but I'm not sure it was "Nakers" that she said. 
  • An ironic malpractice tip this morning.
  • There's a lot of talk about the utility of the iPad on it's 10 year anniversary. I'm a huge, huge fan. And a few months back I broke down and bought and Apple Pencil. I may never use a legal pad again. 
  • Craig Miller on The Ticket had a segment about Jim Lehrer's quote below. He, like most folks it seems, interprets it to mean "A reporter should never publish information unless he also sites the person from whom he obtained it." I don't think that's what Lehrer meant at all. Confidential sources are a critical aspect of journalism. "Anonymous" means "of unknown name or origin." So isn't he admonishing the reporter about using information from an unknown person to that reporter instead of using information whose source is an unknown person to the reader? (A quick search didn't give me an answer.) And, as support of my position, isn't admonishing about using a "blind quote" mean using a quote that the reporter himself doesn't even know the source of?
  • I think Decatur has an inordinate amount of hotels (many built during the natural gas boom.) And although I'm not sure how all of them are going, the parking lot of the Marriott based hotel out by the Decatur Convention Center is always packed.