25 Years Ago Today . . .

. . . Reagan won the presidential election over Jimmy Carter.

A Quiet Passing Into The Night

With little note, this appeared in the Update this week: "GRAVESIDE service for Claude Caraway, 55" . Anyone who works around the courthouse square remembers Claude. He was the little guy that walked around (and I do mean walked around) the entire town handing out Messenger Updates every morning. I can't tell you the number of times he saw me and came walking across the street to hand me an Update. I always took one regardless of whether I had already read it or not.

I Need Them Around to Fix My Car

Dallas Morning News columnist Jacquielynn Floyd did a story today on Decatur High School's all girl tractor repair team

47 Year Old Madonna At The MTV Europe Music Awards Last Night

Learn About Yourself

Here.

Mystic River

I really like the movie, but Sean Penn scares me.

Geraldo At Large?

What the heck is this show? And how long has it been on Channel 4 at 10:30? I hate this guy.

The Guy Never Played Football

The local news tonight is all over a Royse City school bus carrying the JV team that turned over on its side on FM 1777. It looks like most of the injuries are minor. In watching my most prized possession, TIVO, tonight, I caught Channel 8 breaking into ABC News at 5:30 to bring us the "breaking news"of the bus accident. This is what Roger Brown, the pilot of the WFAA helicopter, said as he was hovering over the crash scene: "I think a lot of them were protected by their uniforms that they had on." Uh......no.

Random Music Thought

Carlos Santana has a new album out featuring present day artists who can actually sing. I'm tired of hearing Carlos Santana's guitar.

Random Music Chart Thoughts

In looking at the music charts today in the Dallas Morning News, I noticed:

• Depeche Mode has a new song on the charts called "Precious". I haven't heard it but I'm immediately taken back to a time when the hit "Personal Jesus" made me very uncomfortable.
• Bette Midler is on the charts with an album called "Bette Midler Sings the Peggy Lee Songbook". Midler is in my Top Five chart of most irritating women on the planet.
• Gretchen Wilson is back with "All Jacked Up". I think she might dip snuff.
• Oddest artist on the rap chart: "Three 6 Mafia featuring Young Buck and 8Ball and MJG."

In Cold Blood

I remember watching the end of In Cold Blood on TV late one night when I was a teenager. It was so shocking. I described the movie to my dad the following morning: "two guys with shotguns kill this family". He knew what I was talking about in a second. And the fact that it stars Robert Blake makes it even creepier now. (The true story, upon which the movie and book are based, is described here in Wikipedia).

Abercrombie & Fitch . . .

. . . is in hot water again for these new T-shirts. But this is mild compared to the trouble the company normally gets into.

Haven't Had Much Time To Post Today

. . . but this is not the reason why.

Random Picture Taken While Driving Through Tennessee

I'm A Big Fan

Random Book Thought

I read the Da Vinci Code in the last year (because there was so much hubbub about it). I'm not a big book reader (I'm not patient enough) and I was very underwhelmed by this bestseller.

Bill Maher

You know, I like the liberal comics (Al Franken is at the top of my list), but Bill Maher just irritates me. He seems so angry that there is nothing funny about him.

If This Is True, It's Huge

CNN's Lead Story Tonight: "DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CNN) -- Days before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Saddam Hussein agreed in principle to accept an offer of exile from the United Arab Emirates, but the deal fell through, a UAE government senior official told CNN."