I Can Smell Fall in the Air

Betting lines for the opening college football season are out: TCU is a 13 1/2 point favorite over Baylor UT is expected to beat North Texas by 40 Source: Go to Betmill's main site and click on College Game on the left-hand side to see all the games.

Big Brain

More Ken Lay talk. Question: Since Lay had been found guilty by a jury but had not yet been sentenced and certainly had not exhausted all of his appeals, what is his legal status? Someone smarter than me says this had Lay died during his appeal: "In a recent Fifth Circuit decision, United States v. Estate of Parsons, 367 F.3d 409 (5th Cir. 2004), the court explained that 'the appeal does not just disappear, and the case is not merely dismissed. Instead, everything associated with the case is extinguished, leaving the defendant as if he had never been indicted or convicted.' In Parsons, the court vacated a forfeiture order, which means that the government's forfeiture claim against Lay for $43.5 million (see earlier post here) will be dismissed. " (Source)

That Didn't Take Long

With Ken Lay's body still warm, the rumors have begun: (1) He didn't die of a heart attack, he killed himself (2) He isn't dead at all - he's faking his death and is going into hiding. #1 doesn't seem that outrageous to me.

Fast Food Chaos

After driving by Taco Bell and seeing ten (count 'em, ten!) cars in a drive through line, I came across a fender bender in front of Dairy Queen (which had the odd dynamic of having an elderly lady standing in the back of a pick-up until the police arrived.) It was chaos. Not really, but it livened up my drive around Decatur.

Sometimes This Thing Writes Itself

From the Star Telegram's web site this morning: FORT WORTH -- A woman believed to be in her 70s was struck and killed Tuesday after she left a west-side bar, police said. Investigators have identified a suspect, whose arrest was imminent, Sgt. Rodney Bangs, supervisor of the traffic investigation unit, said Wednesday. The woman was using a wheelchair when she was hit, Bangs said. her name was not released because her family had not yet been notified. The accident occurred about 2 a.m. Tuesday in the 8900 block of W. Camp Bowie Blvd., Bangs said. ``We believe she had just left the Electric Cowboy bar and was traveling the sidewalk, but the sidewalk dead-ended, so she had to get out on the road to continue westbound,'' Bangs said.

How Big Is Our World?

Click to enlarge. Other pics are here.

News

A DMN letter to the editor writer once wrote that Enron president Ken Lay, even though found guilty of a variety of federal charges, would never spend a day in prison. I made fun of her for that belief. Well, he or she was riight: ABC News just reported that Lay has died of a heart attack.

No Way

"Thousands of country music fans braved the elements at the annual picnic outside Billy Bob's Texas. Many of them arrived long before the music started, about 11:30 a.m., to stake out their territory for Willie's scheduled performance at 10 p.m. " You know, that sounds like a beating.

Lindsay Lohan Has A Brother (Come On, It's Important)

Pic From The Pepsi 400 This Weekend

Handfull of others here.

Immature Time Waste

That I played with for a little bit.

Lots Of Stuff In The Air Today

The U.S. launched the Space Shuttle today (the 115th launch) while North Korea test launched a few missles. Good thing they didn't all collide. (Sidenote: I watched the shuttle launch on ABC and the network put up a NASCAR like graphic showing how high, how fast, and how far "down range" the shuttle was. It was incredible: That thing was traveling about 750 miles per hour after one minute and was cracking 5,000 miles per hour in about five minutes. Very cool.)

The Godfather

Finally Finished: The Godfather Why?: Everyone around me has talked about it for years Coolest Part: Just watching Marlon Brando and a young Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, and James Caan all in the same scene. Craziest Scene: The horse head in a bed is all that it was cracked up to be. Craziest Scene #2: Al Pacino gunning down the two guys in the restaurant. (Although Sonny getting gunned down is close.) Things I Didn't Know: Talia Shire played a big role in this before ever being made famous as Mrs. Rocky Balboa. A Must: I could have never have made it through it without turning on the subtitles. Bottom Line: It's really good, but I'm not sure it falls within the "great" category. (But let me think about it for a few days - which is the only way to judge a movie.)

Cemetery Musings

So I started to think about cemeteries and stumbled upon www.findagrave.com. It's really odd in that it provides pictures and backgrounds regarding famous grave sites in America. Oddly, Moore Memorial Gardens hosts the sad origin of the "Amber Alert" (picture, right) as well as 'Dimebag' Darrell Abbott (which you have to see).

Random Sports Thought

There was some speculation that the Mavs would try and sign Detroit's Ben Wallace. Ben Wallace looks mean. Ben Wallace is mean. Ben Wallace will go to the Chicago Bulls instead.

Keira Knightley Looks Skinny and Sticky

At Peace

I roamed around an old cemetary today (but one that had a few relatively new graves.) There is no place on the world that makes me more reflective. They are holy places.

The History Channel . . .

. . . tonight had a whole hour dedicated to "Texas' Roswell - A mysterious airship crashes in the small town of Aurora, TX". It was filmed in 2005. (They've even put it on a DVD.)