Topics On "The Ticket" This Morning

- Should "stay at home" moms [grammar corrected] have maids?

- Weren't gym scoreboards interesting as a kid? If we traveled to some big school (Burleson, Azle, etc.) it was always intimidating because they would have a state of the art scoreboard. Then you'd travel to some beaten down school district and find the scoreboard with half its lights burnt out ("is that a 1' or a '7'"?)

- And then the story of a U2 concert where Bono asked the crowd complete silence. He then began clapping his hands in four second intervals and, at the end of a minute, proclaimed, "Every time I clapped my hands, a child died in Africa." Which prompted a lone voice from the audience to yell, "Then stop clapping!" (Probably urban legend, but funny.)

OK, One More Reminiscing Thought

In going through my junior high & high school "stuff", I came across well over a hundred letters from, primarily, girlfriends. They were absolutely fascinating. Most of them said "nothing" (along the lines of "I'm sitting here in second period thinking about you") but many were very passionate and so heartfelt. Most were in response to letters I had written. I even had one from a girl in eighth grade who had written that she had come to the realization that she loved me. If you read it, you would believe her.

Those were the days where email didn't exist, and if you wanted to send a message you had to take out a piece of paper and hand write it out. That, my friends, is one sad casualty of the Internet age.

I even found a letter I wrote to girl while in college that was four pages long but that I backed off and never sent. It was written with so much emotion and angst. It was almost like reading the words of someone I don't know anymore.

Gone

If I'm reading this box score correctly (from the Star-Telegram), the Decatur baseball team dropped two games yesterday to be eliminated from the playoffs. The Eagles couldn't buy a hit.

Wise County Farm?

Video link.

Now Here's . . .

. . . an alleged sexual offense that will surely scar the kid for life.

Has It Been Almost 30 Years?

I finished watching "Jonestown: The Life and Death of the People's Temple" yesterday. I love documentaries especially about recent history and this thing was great.

For you teenage readers out there (and I'm sure there are a ton), the Rev. Jim Jones took his congregation from San Francisco to Guyana - about a thousand in total - in the late 1970s. Then, in 1979, Congressman Leo Ryan, who had gone to check on the church with an NBC film crew, was gunned on a dirt airport runway not far from the camp. Moments later, 909 people died in a mass suicide by engaging in what is now a pop culture phrase: "Drinking the Kool Aid." (Great wikipedia entry here.)

The film is full of footage of Jonestown including some incredible clips from the night before the mass death (you can almost see the "what the hell?" look in the Congressman's eyes after he tells the congregation that, after talking to church members, that it appeared to him that their new home was "the best thing that ever happened to some of you." The place erupted in the craziest wildest applause I have ever seen. All those cheering would be dead the next day.)

And the audio recording of Jim Jones directing the congregation to drink the Kool Aid ("die with dignity!") - complete with screams in the background - is some of the most chilling audio ever.

My New Best Friend

I don't care much for John McCain, one of the many would-be hopefuls for the Republican presidential nomination. If he had his way, he would have half a million troops in Iraq. (But it is kind of sad to see him look like he's lost his best friend every time he appears on TV.)

Anyway, he bioooch-slapped the very spare Texas Senator John Cornyn the other day over the issue of immigration. Hard. F-bomb kind of hard.

On behalf of the State of Texas, thank you Sen. McCain.

Yep, I'm Selling Out

After owning www.wisecounty.com for 10 years and hearing, "Man, you should sell advertising space," I'm finally going to give it a shot. (Although it makes me tremendously uncomfortable.) I'm setting up an E-Bay auction site for the ad space on the right hand column. I'll probably activate it Sunday night/Monday morning. I'll let it run for seven days. It may be a disaster. It may work. But at least the hard line conservatives out there can't fault me for trying to make a buck. (And you'll have the extra entertainment of watch the E-Bay auction for a week to decide if it's a failure or a stroke of genius.)

Uggh

So I have lunch at Taco Cabana in Fort Worth (Basswood and Beach, to be exact). I'm placing my order and some girl comes up from the kitchen area and says something to the manager/cashier who is taking my order.

"Are you OK?" the manager says.

"Yeah, I think so."

At this point, I take a look at the kitchen worker who is holding up her hand which, I am certain, had blood coming from one of her fingers.

Uggh. Just what I needed: Personal Skillet Chicken Fajitas with a side of The AID. Good times.

Ok, My Last Reminiscing Post

These two items are pretty funny. (As I go through scrapbooks as described from the post below.)

The first is a photo which is the only proof I have that I once played football (and make no mistake about it, I was a tremendously average player. I probably gained one yard on that play).

The second is my first ever column as a sports writer for the school paper at Bridgeport High School in 1978. Sadly, it could be written today (but perhaps more artfully - and I have no idea why the apostrophe is after "Decatur".) But, man, did I have a head of hair at age 16. Click to enlarge.

Limited Interest

I realize that this is of limited interest, but today my dad dropped off about four suitcases full of junk from my childhood. I'm going through some of it tonight.

I looked at a 1980 high school graduation issue of The Bridgeport Index and it had an article on "What Concerns Seniors Most." To a person, everyone mentioned "conserving our natural resources." That's kind of ironic considering today's $3.00 gas prices and gas guzzling vehicles. But it's understandable for a group of kids that, after adjusted for inflation, were paying more for gas then than they are today and, at one point, had to wait in lines six cars deep just to buy it. That scared us to death.

But I also found a program from the Optimist Club Pee Wee Football Banquet held in Bridgeport on November 10, 1973. I've scanned in a portion of it above that lists players and cheerleaders. Some of the names will be recognized by Wise County folks, including one that went on to play a decade in the NFL. (And I love that one of the teams was sponsored by the "Corner Drug" which meant, really, the drug store that was on the corner. And I'm pretty sure that "Runaway Bay" sponsored a team not because it was a town but because it was a privately owned resort.)

I've Often Wondered

Is there a book somewhere with all these sayings or is someone in each church in charge of making them up?

Scary Sounding Headline

And it's scarier once you realize that the guy was last seen in Roanoke and 114 and not "north Fort Worth."

Worst Job In The History Of Ever

That would be the usher to the right of the neekid man.

(Story.)

Awful Story . . .

. . . about the two deputies killed in Henderson County. And the accused also wins the award for the most menacing book-in photo.

And did you catch the quote from the neighbor who said, "I'm a Christian man, but some people don't deserve to be on the face of this earth."

(As a side note, the funniest book-in photo I've seen was over in Jack County a couple of weeks ago. A guy decided to shoot the bird while his photo was taken. I don't have a copy of it, but I'm sure someone over there does.)

Random Confusing Photo

I call it, "Scantily Glad Girl In A White Tie Holding a Firearm." Good times.

"Gary From Decatur"

. . . just called into the Mark Davis show on WBAP. "It's almost not worth working any more. All you make just goes to taxes and the government is just gonna give it away. And this immigration thing? There's just no way that is right." Attaboy, Gary. Way to give to The Man and The Mexicans all in three sentences.

Sexier Than Phil King: The Lady That Killed The Nazi Cam

One final nail for the City of Rhome, according to the Star-Telegram. One interesting twist is that an officer that operated the camera for Marble Falls but who was paid by Nestor was questioned about a potential conflict of interest.