10.21.2020

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

 

  • Texas Hospitalizations: +269. Look out. (The Update says the last available data from local Wise Regional indicates it has an all time high of 16 COVID patients.)

  • Doesn't Big 10 football start up this week? How are the Wolverines going to navigate through this? 

  • Trump walked out of a 60 Minutes interview yesterday because he didn't like Leslie Stahl's "tone."  It sounds like the interview had gone on for about 45 minutes when he just finally got frustrated by the questions. The only question now is whether we will have to wait until Sunday before CBS releases the segment. Note: His Chief of Staff this morning denied Trump "walked out." 

  • NBC Dateline was in Decatur yesterday filming about the unsolved murder of Lauren Whitener. Multiple interviews were done at Veteran's Park in Decatur. 
    • Man, they have been all over this case from the start, even before it entered the Innocence Project stage. The producer assigned to the segment first paid a visit to town to see all the major players on December 20, 2019. 
    • These were just "moment in time" interviews. They intend to come back for much more. 
    • Remember when I bragged about my CBS 11 interview on how I knew how to pull my jacket down in the back just like in Broadcast News? This time I completely forgot and the Dateline cameraman -- and I'm not making this up -- came over to me in the beginning and told me to "raise up" as he jerked my jacket down from behind.
  • This story was in the Washington Post yesterday. Soon -- and I mean very soon -- we won't have any confidence that any video or photo we see is actually real. 

  • I had completely forgot Trump refused to commit to this four years ago: 

  • Best photo from the Cowboy game Monday night.

  • I'm constantly hearing from people who should know that the amount of "Human Trafficking" might be more hype than reality. There's now some data to support it: In 2019, there were only 79 arrests made in all of Texas for that offense. Additionally, for the underlying offense of prostitution, there were only 7 arrests of people under 17 years of age. Yes, any one case is bad but those are pretty small numbers for the state. 
  • If the NFL season ended today, Dallas (2-4) would host a playoff game against Green Bay.
    Photo posted because I like it. (Before you get good-ol'-day syndrome, you
    should know Dallas lost, 54-13, on 10/18/70)

  • Let me hit you with pop culture overload: The lead singer for The Outfield has died which led to the following discovery. (And I wasn't familiar as I should have been with all of the fine work of David Fincher.)

  • My nephew always raves about The West Wing, and wanted me to watch it.  I've slowly made my through the first two seasons (which is 40+ episodes.)  Yep, it's really, really good, but do I dare make this observation: It is incredibly educational. And I'm dead serious about that. But at the same time, if you watch it now you'll also feel like you are watching something that no longer exists. 
  • Let me give another thumbs up to a TV series which I really enjoyed: Rectify. DNA exonerates (kind of) a man and he then returns to his family in a small Southern town. A sheriff, a prosecutor, an Innocence Project lawyer, religion, and small town gossip all have big roles. 

  • The Justice Department sued Google yesterday over alleged anti-trust violations. Who do you want to bet on? Google's team of lawyers or Justice Department lawyers (who all might have a new boss in three months.)
  • Messenger: Above the fold