Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• Elba Garcia, Mayor Pro Tem of Dallas, is hot (not 'smoking hot' but 'hot') and sounds like Salma Hayek. (Saw her on Fox 4 last night.)
• While driving home, I was passed by a new white Corvette with the customized license plate of "GOD IOU". Think that powered me down?
• I can't tell you how crazy that made me.
• I had the weirdest dream that I had bought a commercial trailer that came unhooked from my vehicle on a bridge -- blocking traffic for miles. I spent the entire night trying to find the title for the tow truck guy. And then I woke up exhausted.
• And I think that's all because I watched 10 minutes of a civil trial yesterday that revolved around the connection between the front and back of a dump trunk.
• Nothing wrong with the take-a-pic-of-yourself-in-the-mirror trick.
• I bet the Mavs get destroyed tonight in Denver. And I think I might watch a little of it for the first time.
• I should make this a whole post, but a guy was convicted yesterday in Tarrant County on a charge of "Terroristic Threat" for, after being led away in a courtroom for contempt, looking at the judge and saying, "Let's do it [Judge] Nekhom. It's you and me now." Please. (And the guy has already spent 90 days in jail over the charge.)
• I said about three weeks ago that Miss California shouldn't shy away from the "controversy" but instead embrace it because of the publicity she'd get. Sheesh, did she ever do that. But she was a little over the top yesterday.
• And it was so odd to see her on Sean Hannity last night as they shrugged off her topless pics as if it is no big deal for the normal holier-than-thou Fox Empire.
• Some private citizens act like politicians in public. I distance from those folks. I mean really distance.
• I'm now refrigerating my gummy bears.
• From an Ann Curry tweet this morning: "As Oprah once told me about changing the world, 'We can only do what we can do, and that is what we should do.'" I'm. Losing. Consciousness.

Wise County Signage

Grandy's in Rhome: Church in Newark: (Thanks emailer)

"He Got Weed! He Got Weed!"

We just had a spirited debate at the ol' courthouse about this subject: If you had to sentence a person to the local county jail for the first time possession of what you kids call "a joint", how many days, if any, do your realistically think is fair? The current Texas law says "up to 180 days." Consider the defendant to have no criminal record and that there is no question that he possessed the small amount of marijuana. And, if you want to get specific, he has two days credit from the time he was arrested until the time he bonded out of jail. I'll probably put a poll up later if there's enough interest.

Google Ramps It Up

Just a quick educational video here, folks. Just when you thought The Google couldn't get any better, it has. This video shows how the company has just expanded its results page to give you a variety of options to further refine the search. Sound boring? It really isn't. And check out when he talks about the Wonder Wheel option. (And an unrelated trick: If you add the word "wiki" to your search, the Wikipedia entry will be the first one returned by Google.)

Midday Courthouse Mind Bursts

• There's some civil trial going on in the district courtroom, and I'm about to check it out. There aren't many civil cases that actually go to trial anymore.
• A Fort Worth lawyer delivered a fancy cake to the courthouse this morning. You don't see that very often.
• When it is busy, there is absolutely no room where you can get any privacy. An annex is coming one of these days.
• And it was so humid in the hallways that I felt like Matthew McConaughey in A Time To Kill. (All offices are have a/c but not the common areas.)
• Saw this exchange: Defendant: "Have you watched my video?" Lawyer: "You gotta pay me first, bud."
• It's really rare to hear a cell phone go off even in the hallway.
• I remember when DPS used to office in the basement. That's where I went to take my new driver's test.
• There used to be an old wheelchair in a dark corner of the basement. Creepy.
• There are now surveillance cameras everywhere.
• Even though it's small, most people get lost trying to get down the stairs if it is their first visit.

Edit: The civil trial is a bit odd. It's a personal injury case based upon an accident in College Station in 2006. (Yeah, I'm not sure what the Wise County connection is yet.) Looks like it is a guy in his 60s who broke a couple of bones when his vehicle (motorcycle?) hit some hydraulic fluid that allegedly leaked out of a TxDOT vehicle. I think TxDOT is the actual defendant.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

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• Decatur fire truck sirens at 7:46 a.m. With all that fog out there, that's probably not good.
• A kid from a private Christian school was suspended for attending a secular prom with his girlfriend at a different school? I have no problem with that. Private institutions bossing people around who have voluntarily decide to associate with them seems reasonable. Government bossing you around, on the other hand, would be a different story.
• Isn't it weird how some people consider you to be the equivalent of the Plague yet others light up when you enter the room?
• I think I observe the world for 95% of the time and live in it for the remainder. I need to work on that.
• Whenever you see something that symbolizes the dumbing down of America, it is referred to as "Idiocracy" (after the movie.) I saw a bit of it last night at the grocery store.
• Karl Rove gave the commencement address at Texas Tech School of Law a couple of days ago. Really.
• Crazy sight: A huge runway baggage container was sucked into one of the jumbo jet's engines at LAX yesterday.
• I'm headed down to Baylor this weekend for my niece's graduation.
• With changes in the law regarding court appointment of attorneys and Wise County's skyrocketing criminal cases, I'd love to know the amount the county spent on indigent legal representation fees last year. It has to be exploding.
• Note to Wise County Messenger: That would be a good story.
• And we don't have a skyrocketing criminal docket because of more crime, it's because you will get arrested for the slightest of transgressions these days.
• A soldier in Iraq flipped out yesterday and killed five other soldiers. The Drudge Report had a great yet disturbing headline for the story: "Full Metal Jacket."
• Limited interest: I saw Margaret Hoover ("Republican Strategist") and Gretchen Carlson (co-host of "Fox and Friends") in a debate on Bill O'Reilly last night. Dumbest. Women. Ever?
• Mark Cuban rant: (1) He tells one of the Nugget's player's mom on Saturday that her son is a "thug", (2) the mom is at the AAC last night and taunted by fans, (3) Cuban finally apologizes to her on his blog last night at 1:30 a.m. You couldn't just have walked over to her last night and said you're sorry? That guy is classless.
• And Cuban won' be in Denver tomorrow night for Game 5 citing a prior engagement. Riiiight.

Little Did We Know

The movie Hannibal, the gawd awful sequel to the brilliant Silence Of The Lambs, included this scene/screenshot when a detective was trying to track down the famous killer. The film was released in 2001 but before 9/11. And, yep, that's "Usama." (Photo of poor quality since it's of my TV.)

Can We Throttle Back On "Breaking News"?

In other news, I had a headache earlier. Then I recovered. That was the 105th case of Headache Head in the county that was confirmed today. (From the Update.)

For The Sweet, Clean Ticket Listener

Link. And for the non-Ticket folks, Williams was raised in Boyd.

Wreck News

Looks like we've got a big one in Decatur and the "JP has been called." Never a good sign. Anyone know anything? Edit: Might have been someone pulling out of McMaster New Holland to go northbound on 287. But that's uncomfirmed.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• There was a special on the History Channel last night about Angels and Demons. Now I want to go to Rome. Not Rhome. Rome.
• And the movie looks about as bad as the Da Vinci Code. It's just impossible to transfer those books into movies because it requires the characters to walk around and give history lessons every step of the way. It's interesting, but not natural.
• Welcome to Dallas where we run over you and then go through your pockets.
• Crazy Texas Mom. I'm not sure how I found that blog but she is brutally honest. She'll make you laugh. She'll make you cry. She could be a professional writer.
• I feel weird walking outside in a robe.
• I can't tell you how much I despise Mark Cuban. Classless.
• I think, in the end, Lebron James will be considered to be better than Michael Jordan.
• Wanda Sykes was funny at the White House Correspondent's Dinner this weekend. (Either you already now about it or you could couldn't care less.)
• Channel 5 had a story on LeaseTrader.com which allows you to "have someone else assume your car lease." First, I wonder if that's a paid commercial disguised as a news story. Second, if I'm the company leasing you the car, I'm not letting you shift the responsibility of paying to some third party.
• I'm insane now: The Simpsons' theme song done a capella.
• 44 cents for a stamp? And how can I feel that it is both ripoff and a bargain at the same time?
• Somebody plowed into a guardrail on 287 south of Decatur over the weekend. Amazingly, the always confusing "Guardrail Damage Ahead" signs are already out.
• Star Trek's opening weekend was a whopping $72.5 million. I like the original Star Trek even though I detest all science fiction (including any subsequent Star Trek tv series.)
• Remember when Channel 11 was an independent channel?
• Some guy had his tenant's rent check bounce and then complained to everyone except the United Nations that our local DA won't prosecute. Note to guy: Don't use a prosecutor as your own private collection agency.

Screenshot Of Mav's Coach Being Interviewed

Saw it tonight on Fox 4. I'm sooo getting me one of those hats.

Random Family Photo

I just couldn't stop staring at it. (From awkwardfamilyphotos.com. Thanks, Keith.)

Premature Election Count?

OK, the numbers may very well hold up. But still seems a little close to say it has "apparently failed."

Random Mavs Thoughts

I didn't watch any of the game which makes me an expert. Mark Cuban shoved a reporter after the game? How Cuban got rich is beyond me. The NBA admitted that a critical foul was not called. There were 89 free throw attempts? Sheesh. Bring on college football season.

Star-Telegram Story

Photos of the casket in the boat soon found their way to a popular Wise County blog — Liberally Lean from the Land of Dairy Queen — with the headline "How you bury a Baptist deacon who loved fishing." Curious folks wanted to know the story behind the photos.

Here it is.

Link.

(And the paper credits local attorney Mark Howell for one photo.)

Prime (Time) Real Estate

In case you've been needing a little more space around the home, Deion Sanders is selling his little fixer upper in Prosper. Let's see, his jersey number was 21 so take a guess what the asking price is. Listing is here.

Dirk's Girlfriend

In the front in black. Girl, I'm sorry I ever said anything negative.