Sad Decatur News

Former Decatur resident Andy Mattison passed away last night. He apparently collapsed on a softball field in North Richland Hills. No other details were readily available. I noted that he was on the 1997 Decatur Eagle Football Roster.

Skeptisicm 101

I'm not sure what is more disconcerting: (1) the fact that stuff like this happens, or (2) the story is so strange that part of me thinks the alleged victim made it up. Story.

I'm Not Impressed

I've been seeing this video everywhere, and I don't get the fascination with it. Was it "amazing"? Well, if the kid had one chance to do it during a contest with a ton of money riding on it, or if he were to pull it off in the state playoffs, yeah, it would be. But there are kids jacking around in gyms every day across the nation doing crazy shots time and time again. Heck, in Bridgeport Middle School, I hit a full court shot once after chunking the basketball at the goal every day for three months. That didn't make me special or good, it made me lucky. Heck, it had to go in eventually. But today catch a crazy shot on video and this guy becomes national news. Well, not on this blog. We have a set of standards, albeit murky at times, that will not be compromised. So, kid, go back to your Playstation and quit jumping around like Christian Laettner. And, by the way, don't even think about getting on my lawn.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• Channel surfing this morning and saw a couple from the U.S. being interviewed on Fox who had sent back video from the Iran protests. Why were they there? "We were on a six week vacation traveling through the Middle East." Six weeks? Iran?
• Is it easy to get a job as a cook at Dennys? What about Chili's? The Olive Garden? Del Frisco's?
• New this morning: Ed McMahon dead of death.
• And, perhaps oddly, I thought it was sad that McMahon was peddling his own book a couple of years ago entitled, "Here's Johnny." It just kind of came across as "you won't buy a book about my life but you might if I write about my relationship with someone else."
• UT lost the first game of the World Series last night in 11 innings. And guess what ESPN told me the Longhorn's relief pitcher, Brandon Workman, was from? Bowie.
• I fell asleep in the 10th inning.
• Isn't it odd that you can't buy sushi in Wise County but you can by marijuana.
• I might have forgotten that I had a sprinkler running last night. Ugh.
• I want to go into Flip's, the new restaurant off of Western Center Boulevard, but haven't yet.
• The prosecutor in our County Court at Law was forced to dismiss a case in the middle of a trial yesterday when clear evidence came forth that the key witness had lied.
• The Southern Baptist Executive Committee has voted to kick out Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth due to it openly accepting homosexual members. They then sang about agape love.
• I'd rather walk into a room full of strangers than into a room where everyone knows me.
• Motorcycle death yesterday when I guy flies off an overpass and lands on I-20 in south Arlington. (That's the fourth motorcycle death involving falling from an overpass in the last year and half --- the other three were at 183 and the George Bush Freeway in Irving.)
• Blogger Anobiter is taking the month (or half a year) off and is in New Hampshire. But some detective work reveals this: Compare the third pic of her's that she posted here with this pic posted on a random sports blog. Coincidence?

The "Sucker Punch" Kid

As I mentioned today, the kid who allegedly sucker punched the UCLA tennis player after the Rascal Flatts concert needed to turn himself in. And he did. His lawyer released this letter today on the Internet and, I've got to tell you, that's not a bad way to get his message across. Although it could have been written with a little more compassion and a lot more persuasiveness, it's not bad. (Click on the icon in the upper right hand corner to enlarge.)

There's Already More Lawyers Than You Can Shake A Stick At

Link. And we need more lawyers to file lawsuits like this.

Monday Afternoon Pick Me Up

Singer Jewel who is married to some country singer (I think) and lives near Stephenville (I think.) And that's either Eagle Mountain Lake or the Caribbean Sea in the background.

Ugh. The Evil Empire Still Reigns

For some reason, as I waited for my Friday night to kickoff, I had the UT baseball game on the television while watching The Wire season 3 DVD on my laptop with ear phones. I find baseball too boring to watch by itself, so this laptop/TV multitasking was working well since I could casually glance at the TV to keep up to date. If Texas won, they head to the World Series Final. They were down two one run in the bottom of the 9th so I was happy. Giddy, in fact. Then I glanced up a couple of minutes later to see the score tied. Huh? I hit the TIVO rewind and see they hit a home run with no one on. Sheesh. Well, maybe they'll lose it in extra innings. Back to The Wire and Stringer Bell. But then I glanced up a minute later and see the Longhorns celebrating on the field. That the? Here's the video of what I saw on replay (with the always over the top Craig Way doing the play by play from the Longhorn Radio Network.) I'll have to admit, that's pretty exciting. But you'll have a chance to root against the residents of the Death Star tonight when Game One is played against LSU.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• Yet another accident on the Tollway in Dallas caused by a car going the wrong direction.
• Watched Tropic Thunder over the weekend: Very, very funny. (And I was looking for the Tom Cruise performance since everyone said, "you won't recognize him." He was on screen for five minutes before I recognized him.)
• Wasn't the first internet service provider in Wise County called Webfire? (Yep. And when I signed up with them in the Fall of 1996, they handed me a stack of about three 3 1/2 disks with the Netscape browser on it and told me to go home and install it. And they told me to bring it back after I was done.)
• Good grief: The weather forecast for the week is near 100 each day with little wind?
• Three men alleged to have been involved in a murder in Wichita Falls are stopped on 287 in Wise County on Saturday. From the sound of it, every cop in the county got involved.
• There a handful of college football games at the new Cowboys' Stadium this Fall but there's one twist: The only game where beer won't be served at the general concession stands is Texas Tech v. Baylor per the Baylor contract.
• Not sure if dancing will be allowed.
• I'm distracted by the guy in the background in the above pic.
• I'm still laughing at the "Don't Call Me Liz" post from a couple of days ago. Keith Olbermann did a funny reenactment of the email exchange on his great show on MSNBC. (Skip to the 1:30 mark to avoid the set-up.)
• Why is it that we all cherish life but most of us wouldn't want to go back and do it all again?
• If I ran a movie studio, I'd focus on animated kids' movies. Up, which I'm sure I'll never see, has made $224 million in just four weeks. That's already second place for the year. And can you imagine the number of DVD sales (plus merchandise)?
• Odd death: Southlake teenager dies at the the Omni Hotel swimming pool in downtown Fort Worth.
• From the Turn-Yourself-In-Already-Department: Chancellor Jay Hutcheson, 18, who graduated from Plano West and allegedly sucker punched a UCLA tennis player after a Rascal Flats concert in Dallas over a week ago. The victim remains in a medically induced coma.
• But that's a tough case for the prosecution: A normal misdemeanor assault gets ramped up when the victim falls and hits his head on the concrete causing for more damage than ever expected or intended. (Former TCU player Ryan Tucker ran into the same legal problem after a fight in downtown Fort Worth bar.)
• George Will on the criticism that Obama has not been strong enough to condemn the Iranian fraud of an election: "It seems to me to be foolish criticism. The people on the streets over there know what the American position is."
• Sometimes I feel like I'm posting news links of stuff you've probably already heard of. But as soon as I omit one, I'll get a comment of "I can't believe you didn't mention . . . . "
• A bumper sticker that has outlived its funny factor: "My [son/daughter] and my money go to the University of . . . . "

Denton PD Book-In Photo Of The Day

I Can't Believe I'm Posting This

I wouldn't recognize a Jonas Brothers song if I heard one. I'm not sure I'd recognize one of Jonas Brothers if I saw one of them. But I know they are this half decade's teen sensation as evidenced by their appearance on the Today Show on Friday with a crowd outside that went on for blocks. And they performed last night at the new Cowboys' Stadium in front of a krillion screaming kids. But what do you think it sounded like when Miley Cyrus made a unannounced guest appearance for the final encore? Above, someone was rolling tape on the hi-def screen. And you know that at least one mom demanded that her group of kids skip the encore to get a head start in traffic -- resulting in a very uncomfortable Sunday around the home. Once again, I apologize for the post. Edit: One of the comments was correct. I had to rewrite this thing to have it make any sense. I was sleepy.

Oh, My

There appeared to be a couple of vehicles not playing nice with each other on 287 when they clipped each other causing both to wreck. (Around 407, southbound). No serious injuries. And three miles to the north on 287 traffic was down to one lane while every cop in the southwest proper was involved in (reportedly) the arrest of individual(s) involved in robbery and/or homicide in Wichita Falls and Sanger earlier today. (Thanks, Trina.)

Seen In Bridgeport

They've become speed obsessed. Thanks, emailer.

74,283

That's the number of people sent to prison (and that does not include local county jails for misdemeanor offenses) in Texas in FY 2008. Yep, that's in one single year. And 35% of those were for drug offenses. Incredible. Full pdf report.

Who Is The Hot Girl . . .

. . . in the Owner's Suite with W last night at the Ballpark? Edit: Man, you people are brutal.

Why I Wouldn't Want To Be In Congress

How would you like to have most of your Saturday dedicated to a speaking engagement at an Alvord Ranch about a subject like that? And I wonder how many people will show up. (Editor's note: I want to go on record as being offended by the word "retarding" - we're better than that. ) This reminded me of a very bizarre experience in the mid-1990s when Senator Phil Gramm made an appearance in Wise County to speak about some new federal sexual registration program. It was to be at the Sheriff's office conference room but for one reason or another it wasn't highly advertised. (I showed up because I was DA at the time, and it seemed like something I should do.) I bet there weren't more than ten people in the audience. I remember thinking, "This is going to be the Phil Gramm, right?" So her comes Gramm, a freakin' United States Senator, walking into the room and looking around like there has to be some mistake. He speaks for maybe ten minutes. Fielded one question. And then made a beeline for the door looking at his aide like, "I came all the way out here for this?"

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• Have we seen this girl before? I can't remember.
• It's surprising the protests are still going on in Iran. I thought they would have been squashed by now.
• Fox News is all anti-Obama all the time. And Steve Doocey on the horrible Fox and Friends this morning says, "Remember here at Fox we still do journalism - unlike the other guys."
• The pilot of a Continental flight into Newark (not ours, the one in NJ) died mid-flight yesterday but it landed safely by the co-pilots. It was the lead story on World News Tonight but hardly got mentioned in the local newscasts.
• And I saw one passenger interviewed who somehow managed to work in, "I was in first class." Thank you, sir. I wanted to know that.
• I don't think there's a single sit-com I've followed on TV since Seinfeld.
• On Sunday, I normally choose one thing to eat for dinner all week long. This week it was grilled chicken. The week before it was sandwiches. Why? 80% of my food would go to waste if I didn't continue to eat it every night.
• North Korea threatening to launch a missile towards Hawaii on the 4th of July? They couldn't launch a missile that would reach across town.
• Uh oh: Kaufman County DA gets arrested for DWI. Shocker: He was convicted of DWI in the 1990s. How'd he get elected in the first place?
• And you know it's a bad sign when the county web site misspells his name. (It's "Harrison").
• Coaches are like politicians except they have a scoreboard.
• I think we are all turning on Tony Romo. (And I was just watching an episode of last year's Hard Knocks where he said something to the effect of, "We could fast forward to the playoffs, or even further, but I want to enjoy the journey of the season." As if the playoffs were a foregone conclusion.)
• The 15 Most Disturbing Movies Ever Made. And I've got a buddy at the courthouse who will be putting every one he hasn't seen on his Netflix queue today. (Link requires some discretion.) And #9 is disturbing and great.
• I had the craziest dream that I was trying to sneak out of a developed cove on an unknown lake on my old boat. As I was packing, an acquaintance whirled me around and stuck a gun in my chest. He then told me he was just kidding. I then woke up.
• Maybe I should keep away from disturbing movies.
• I get this weird pleasure in watching traffic jams in Dallas on TV in the morning.

My Third Wife Is Not Happy

"Was it too much to ask for you to take me to Taco Bell once a month?"

(From a huge compilation of book-in photos from the City of Denton Jail from the guy who normally posts them individually but took a break for a while.)