Somebody Must Hate Me

They just gave me a Nancy Grace bookmarker. (Thanks, Dana)

It's St. Patrick's Day and Time For The Greatest Video Ever

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• Fox 4 always has a "job of the day" segment and this morning's was one for someone with "2 years of aerospace job shop estimating" experience. Let me see a show of hands.
• Be sure to scroll down for your last chance to enter the Liberally Lean NCAA Tourney Pick 'Em Contest sponsored by Stagecoach Steakhouse. (That sounds really official.)
• Craziest news story yesterday was the lady who became paralyzed after being stabbed by a nutcase stranger in a park in Stephenville while she watched her two kids play.
• When did computer graphics get projected behind someone (like weathermen) on a "green screen" instead of a "blue screen"? That prevented weather guys from wearing green today.
• On Thursday, Channel 11 will be forced to show the UNT tourney game instead of the Baylor basketball game.
• I had forgotten that auto inspections used to require your cars headlights to be projected into some kind of device. That was stopped because too many people were getting ripped off for unneeded headlight adjustment charges.
• The Decatur soccer team made the playoffs this week, but they did so by going 3-6-1 in district play and finishing fourth. And they get a bye for the first round. What's up with that?
• Gov. Perry has unleashed a "secret plan" which utilizes "Trooper Strike Teams" to control border violence. Really? Sounds like a bad movie.
• I still remember the preamble to the Constitution because of "Schoolhouse Rock". I can still sing it.
• Fox News had a bogus poll this morning that said 46.3% of physicians feel health care reform will force them out of, or make them want to leave, the profession. Riiiiiiiight.

We've Got Us A $150 Sponsor For Our Basketball Tournament!!!!

We're going big time! We've got a sponsor for the Liberally Lean NCAA Tournament Pick 'Em Contest!: The Stagecoach Steakhouse in Bridgeport is donating a $150 Gift Certificate to the winner. Yahooty. (And they've got a "St. Patrick's Day party tomorrow with complimentary Green Beer, Irish Nachos & other leprechaun delights. The Green Fuzz is coming to hang out with us and will arrive around 5:00 pm.") Enter contest here. (For those needing a little help, ESPN's "experts' picks" are here.) Fine print: Gift certificate expires in 90 days after final game, and must be used all at one time and only on one ticket (regardless of size of party - so bring friends if you can't eat $150 worth). Valid Wed - Sat 5 pm to 9 pm. May not be combined with other gift certificates, discount or free offers.

Even The Star-Telegram Makes Mistakes

(From its home page which is most certainly corrected by now.)

Republican Vampire, 45, Who Has 19 Year Old Fiancee Who He Met Online, To Run For President

Ok, I just wanted to write the headline.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• Don't forget to sign up for the Liberally Lean Not Double Fake NCAA Tourney Challenge. And I've got a couple of proposals for a pretty big gift certificate for the winner. Developing . . .
• If you like chatroulette humor, you'll love this: Piano Improv Guy. (Occasional language warning.) Very funny.
• Of the many things David Beckham and I share in common, we've now got another one: Torn Achilles.
• Hearing rumors of an alleged sexual assault by a juvenile who might be connected to local public officials in the western part of the county.
• Heard Mark Cuban spoke at a tech panel at SXSW and was insufferable. No surprise there. I've never liked that guy.
• If Madonna were young today, she'd trick herself up like Lady GaGa.
• While you were sleeping: A 4.4 earthquake shook Southern California. I bet that state sees the "big one" sometime in the next 20 years.
• It's defeating when you don't know how to spell a word, give it a shot so you can see optional spellings in spell-check, but you did such a poor job that even that doesn't help you out.
• The hottest girls from each of the teams making the NCAA Women's Basketball Tourney.
• Another jogging death: Guy gets killed while running on a beach in Hilton Head when a plane makes an emergency landing.
• I got my Census form yesterday with the ominous warning on the letter: "Your response is required by law."
• A job I would not want: Census worker. You want to spend you day knocking on strange doors?
• A young Decatur guy ran into former Tech coach Mike Leach in Key West yesterday. I saw the pic and am trying to get permission to reprint it.
• Freak Spring Break Accidents: A 13 year old girl from Coppell is brain dead after a skiing accident in Colorado while another Coppell student is hurt in a hiking accident in Arkansas that killed two others.

A Little Decatur History? Anybody?

Saw a thread on Facebook today over the passing of Benigno Pena, 81. I had no idea who he was. Or so I thought. Many of the comments were posted that he was the past owner of Whispering Wheels Skating Rink in Decatur where some of my best child hood memories were created. What really got my attention were comments like "Everybody Skate", "Couples Only", and "Progressive skate. Girls on one end, boys on the other." For those few of you that went to that skating rink in the 70s, those words, which boomed over the PA system, are happily burned into your brain. So, my question, was he the owner of place during the 70s? Or did someone else take over the place and keep the traditions going.

Brick Fun

Fun Fact I Just Learned From Time Magazine

So you thought Texans loved their guns? Not so fast. Texas is only one of three states that does not allow openly carried handguns. (And look at all those blue states that allow it even without a license.)

Liberally Lean NCAA Bracket Contest

Ok, I think I've set up a public league here. Edit: Yep, it's up and running. Don't Let The Terrorists Win: Sign up now. Edit: It looks like we are going to have quite a few players in this thing, and I feel bad there's no prize (because I'm too cheap.) But I wonder if any business out there wouldn't mind throwing the winner a gift certificate? I'd plug the business every time I mention the standings (and in business school, I learned this would be a form of "advertising".) Let me know if you're interested: blog2[at]wisecounty.com .

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• Other than days in the Fall, days like yesterday are my favorite of the year.
• Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edward's girlfriend has posed in GQ. Hey, now. But if the book Game Change is correct, that lady is crazy.
• I'm recording, but haven't watched, the new series The Pacific on HBO.
• I probably would not have seen Remember Me (starring that Twilight guy), but the ending of it was spoiled by various newscasts over the weekend that discussed its "controversial ending."
• Seven teams from Texas made the NCAA tournament with the highest seeded one being Baylor at #3. I hope they don't screw up the first round game against Sam Houston State.
• Had someone email me pics from Greenville Avenue on Saturday. That looks like a scene.
• I think I'll put up a Yahoo based Tournament Pick 'Em later today for the Liberally Lean crowd. Grand prize: Probably nothing.
• Had a cop try to convince me that weight loss and health is tied to anaerobic, not aerobic, training. I've got to look into that since I'm not exactly sure what that means.
• Peter Graves died over the weekend. The heck with Mission Impossible (which was on every week in my childhood home), his greatest role was Captain Over from Airplane.
• 96.7 FM, which is oddly now broadcasting WBAP, ran back to back Ronald Reagan speeches all weekend, and most of them were pretty good. I had forgotten how Tea Party like he was: Big of defense, criticizing the size of the federal government, and even threw in some State's Rights.
• I stayed out too late on Saturday night.
• The luck of corresponding Daylight Savings Time with Spring Break is a good deal for kids. But it's still a beating for adults.
• More and more devices are automatically changing the time. And I think that just makes it more confusing.

I Want This Lamb

Well That Kind Of Stops Me Down

• He was 32 and died after running the half marathon -- my race of choice.
• From the comments below the story, he was a former Texas Tech baseball player
• And his name was Mark Austry which is very close to Wise County JP Mark Autry.
• And if this following image is him (taken from a Facebook page of someone with that name who graduated from Tech in 2000), doesn't that break your heart?

Story.

Just A Truck Trimmed In Pink Flowers In Decatur

(Thanks, Melissa.)

When You Know Your Life Has Gone Horribly Wrong

Story. Edit: Fox 4 News was already dogging this guy. He and his daughter had been to the Taylor Swift concert in Dallas.

Breaking: This Morning The Texas Supreme Court Reverses Huge Wise County Jury Award

It was originally a $23 million dollar verdict arising out of a multi-death traffic accident in Paradise. The Texas Supreme Court reversed the verdict and is sending the case back for a new trial because evidence that the other driver was an illegal immigrant should not have been heard by the jury:

  The record indicates that Hughes sought to hedge his theory by calling attention to Rodriguez’s illegal immigration status whenever he could. Such appeals to racial and ethnic prejudices, whether “explicit and brazen” or “veiled and subtle,” cannot be tolerated because they undermine the very basis of our judicial process. Tex. Employers’ Ins. Ass’n v. Guerrero, 800 S.W.2d 859, 864 (Tex. App.—San Antonio 1990, writ denied); see also Moss v. Sanger, 12 S.W. 619, 620 (Tex. 1889) (“Cases ought to be tried in a court of justice upon the facts proved; and whether a party be Jew or gentile, white or black, is a matter of indifference.”); Penate v. Berry, 348 S.W.2d 167, 168-69 (Tex. Civ. App.—El Paso 1961, writ ref’d n.r.e.) (reversing judgment against illegal alien in vehicle collision case because of “numerous remarks” about alien status). We conclude that the trial court erred by admitting evidence impugning Rodriguez’s character on the basis of his immigration status. Such error was harmful, not only because its prejudice far outweighed any probative value, but also because it fostered the impression that Rodriguez’s employer should be held liable because it hired an illegal immigrant.

 Court's opinion.

The lawsuit was the subject of a huge article in the Dallas Morning News. Coverage of the case by the Austin American Statesman as it was argued before the court is here. 


Edit: In response, the local Plaintiffs' lawyers have issued a press release.

What's Going On With The Local Restaurant From The Orient?

I noticed lots of construction and/or remodeling going on around it.