Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• Del Frisco's Restaurant Group reported a quarterly loss of $2.3 million. That can't be good.
• That's awful (and strange) that they can't find the body of the kid at Possum Kingdom Lake. 
• A deputy shot a guy near Krum  yesterday but for some reason we don't know the names of either the shooter or shootee.
• I finally watched the end of the Cowboy game after everyone was yelling about the time management. Holy, cow. I see why.
• But someone came up with this Flavor Flav idea to help Jason Garrett with time management. 
• I watched Bernie over the weekend. If you grew up a protestant in a small Texas town, it is a must see.
• If you looked up and saw that the Chargers led the Broncos last night by a score of 24-0 and went to bed, you'll be very surprised by the result.
• Do some people get ill so gradually that they don't realize it?
• For some reason, I'm not particularly interested in the presidential debate tonight.
• The Family Pup got a high tone haircut. She almost pulled a John Edwards yesterday. 
• The Mavericks suspended a player for going haywire in the locker room during a preseason game? That had to have been bad.
• I heard once that if a helicopter lost power that it could still be landed safely. I wonder if that is true? Not all the time of course, but that it could be done.
• Just how many people attended those Wise County Fossil, Rock and Mineral Society meetings?
• Last week a couple of kids were mauled by some Rottweilers in Fort Worth. The headlines the next day were that the dogs "might" be put down. Might? Is there any question.
• This so called "Libya-gate" just won't get any traction and deservedly so.  I bet every embassy everywhere routinely asks for more security. 

Police Brutality?

This a tough one. Starting at 24 seconds.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• I actually drove on the service road of the extended portion of the George Bush freeway that goes through Grand Prairie a couple of weeks ago. (It opened yesterday.)  No one was around me. Who is going to use the freeway?
• I've recorded, but have not watched, the Cowboy game. I miss the days when it was important to me. 
• I slept straight through the storms on Saturday night.
• Mrs. LL and the Fourth Grader In The House left at 6:00 a.m. on Sunday to go to a softball game only to learn it was cancelled once they got there. (Cancelled 15 minutes before they got there.) Talk about a beat down. 
• If you win a Nobel prize, is there a trophy?
• RG3 became the first player in NFL history to have a pass and a run over 75 yards in the same season. I wanted him back at Baylor on Saturday night. 
• I thinks Mrs. LL finally looked around yesterday and saw contented kids and sleeping pets and had a feeling of tranquility.
• I've been a "follow the rules" person all my life. I'm beginning to want to change that.
• That crazy guy who planned to jump out of a hot air balloon and break the sound barrier actually tried it yesterday. I know he lived. I don't know if he broke the sound barrier. Edit: He dropped 24 miles at a top speed of 834 miles per hour. (Was this on TV?)
• As a kid, I heard sonic booms all the time. Loved it.
• Mack Brown's first huge blowout loss to OU led to a Ticket drop of "I'd like to apologize to all Texas fans out there." That's been so long ago, I'm not sure a lot of people remember it
• I kind of get depressed after the Texas/OU game. The Fair will end soon and, although I won't go to it, it's a signal that Fall is coming to an end and the Holiday Season of joy/beatdown/hecticness is upon us.
• Mrs. LL put up a a family of tiny scarecrows in the front flower bed (the one that took me weeks to build with handcrafted stonewall making skills). The momma scarecrow, I noticed, was taller than the daddy scarecrow. 
• I dropped off three teenage girls at a Quinceañera this weekend. Seconds later, I tweeted that "I don't know who I am anymore."  But I felt very adult-like as I gave them some last second advice: "Be respectful. Don't do anything stupid."  Edit: There used to a book, I think, called Things I Learned in Kindergarten. If that advice is not in it, it should be. 
• There's a 17 year old missing after "cliff diving" at Eagle Mountain Lake. 
• New Order played in Dallas over the weekend. I always picture them as eternally young and eternally hip. And Bizarre Love Triangle may be favorite song. "I feel so extraordinary . . . "
• There was a picture in the Messenger this weekend of the guy who was convicted of Attempted Capital Murder and his lawyer. The guy was smiling. The lawyer (a friend of mine) had a look on his face of I'm-Stressed-I-Care-I'm-Worried-I'm-Hopeful-This-Is-Not-Just-A-Job.
• The Rolling Stones announced a concert tour over the weekend. In 1982 I was on a college campus where guys were telling me, after they had just purchased tickets to a Dallas show, "This will probably be the last time to ever see them live."
• Mrs. LL pondered what we would think if we "swapped places for a week".  That truly is a fascinating question. 

Random College Football Thoughts (Sports Intensive)

• UT fans and I share a common bond this morning: We are truly suffering from Beat Down Syndrome.
• For those unaware, it was OU 63 UT 21 and TCU 49 and Baylor 21.
• It's like mutual Blackjack, only different. 
• OU/Texas thoughts first . . . 
• The 95 yard run by Damien Williams was absurd. How does that happen. I took this picture off the television invention before he put on the after-burners. But how did he get out of that?
• You have to see OU's Trey Milliard hurdle a Longhorn while simultaneously knocking another Texas player to the ground. That was demoralizing. 
• I've always believed a National Championship will buy a coach five years regardless of what happens. Mack Brown earned some more credit by getting back to the National Championship game but losing against Alabama. Some UT folks are rumbling about him retiring, but I bet he can stay there another five years regardless of what happens to the program. I like the guy.
• I also like it when UT is really good. (Did I just say that?)
• The television coverage implied that UT fans were leaving the Cotton Bowl at halftime. I don't thing that's true. They may have bailed in the 4th but that half of the stadium looked pretty full in the 3rd.
• Now Baylor and TCU . . . 
• What a beat down of epic proportions. Baylor scores on the second play of the game and it was all downhill from there.
• Baylor turned the ball over six times which means there is no way you can win. But I believe Baylor would have lost with no turnovers. 
• The new TCU quarterback looked fantastic. Really fantastic. TCU might want to think about implementing the spread offense. Put him in the option read and they are scary.
• The TCU defense is already scary. I forgot the name of their freshman defensive lineman, but that guy is a beast. 
• Other thoughts . . .
• Texas Tech just kills West Virginia? I laughed earlier in the week about WVU only being a four point favorite. How does Vegas know what they know?
• How the Big 12 perceptions changed in just one weekend. OU, KSU, Texas Tech, and TCU are the major players. Baylor, UT, and WVU are average at best.
• Baylor plays Texas this weekend. I've not looked at the line, but I'll guess Texas by 7.5.
• They will win by more than that.
• I've never seen a game in Lubbock but I need to. I'm beginning to agree with everyone who says, "That's just a weird place to go into."
• The most important Big 12 game may have already been played: Kansas State over OU.

Messenger Above The Fold

College Football Taking You Into The Weekend

OU v. Texas:

TCU v. Baylor:

The heckler video still burns me up.

Local Man Killed In Helicopter Crash

More.

Facebook of Rusty Aaron.

Pink Bandits

Story.

From the Cowboys "pink" section at NFL.com:

I Stumbled Upon Something. Now I'm Numb.

Ran into this on Facebook:

Which led me to this:

Breaking: Sentencing In Wise County Tractor Attempted Murder Case

He got 20 years in prison and will have to serve at least half before becoming eligible for parole.  Defendant is 22 years old.

Breaking: Mom Who Super-Glued Child's Hands To A Wall . . .

. . . was just sentenced to 99 years.  Mrs. LL asked me last night what I thought about this case. I told her I was trying really hard to find compassion for the defendant but was having little success.

Edit: I forgot that the prosecutors had asked for "only" 45 years.

(But I thought the "liar" screen created by the prosecutor was unprofessional.  It was a sentencing hearing before a judge, not a jury. I'm surprised the judge didn't slap her down.)

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• Motorcycle death in Hood County yesterday. He was a young guy with a wife and five kids.
• The University of Texas announced a game with Ohio State in 2023. Yep, 2023.
• A metroplex cheerleader set a record for backflips which earned her a trip to the Today Show. The record was set during a game between between St. Mark’s School of Texas and The Oakridge School --- both high tone all-boys private schools. But the record setter was from Hockaday -- a high tone all-girls school. That's apparently what all-boys schools do: Borrow high tone all-girl school for cheerleaders. (Not sure why I found that interesting.)
• Mrs. LL was an extra in the filming of a Dallas episode yesterday and was a foot from Patrick Duffy. 
• When she told me that all I could think about was Cartman from Southpark yelling the name of Patrick Duffy.  I looked it up and that came from the third episode ever which aired in 1997. My mind works very oddly. 
• Content warning and racism warning: A bus driver in Cleveland  gives a mouthy girl an uppercut  which is one of the most violent things I've ever seen. I was curious if the Cleveland media had jumped on this story and it appears this morning they are aware of it. I bet it goes national. 
• Texas/OU is upon us. I wouldn't bet on this game for anything. And I love the 11:00 a.m. start. 
• Natalie Portman is in Austin shooting some movie and she is looking very "Texany Hey, Now."
• I'd take the far right far more seriously if they didn't say things like "our country's survival depends on this election."  Hyperbole much?
• The best I can tell, "Crazy Texas Mom" over on the blogroll over there attends Krum high school games. Bridgeport plays there tonight. Be on the lookout for her. (I think she'll have a glass of wine in one hand, a bottle of Paxil in the other, and shouting very unlady like things.)
• I was watching Nancy Grace last night just to get wound up and heard the phrase "tertiary crime scene". I'll admit that I had never heard of that. 
• Ben Affleck has a new movie called Argo about how the CIA snuck some Americans out of Iran during the Hostage Crisis. I had never heard that story before. 

The VP Debates Tonight

Pretty entertaining.

Nelly! Read The Paper With Your Country Grammar!

Willie Nelson got busted at that checkpoint. Snoop Dog (Lion?) was arrested there. And Fiona Apple ran into County Law there just a couple of weeks ago.  Sheesh, people, find a different route! Story

Telephone Pole Carnage

The Messenger is reporting that we've got a wreck at FM 51 and Thompson which has caused a telephone pole to go down.  Hey, Joe Duty, quit trying to sell your photos off the Internet and get out there!!!!

I Told You To Remember Beano Cook

I am very sorry to tell you that Beano Cook died in his sleep. He was 81. If you love college football, you will miss him.
— Ivan Maisel (@Ivan_Maisel) October 11, 2012

I mentioned the other day that I thought Beano Cook was gravely ill and, unfortunately, I was not wrong.

For a guy I've never met, his passing is significant to me.  You see, it was probably fifteen years ago when a group of guys I was part of met for a fantasy football draft at Cowboys Country Club in Grapevine. Afterwards, we were in the dining area with ESPN on the TV when Beano's face popped up for some pre-TCU game commentary. The guys exploded with laughter because, on that day, Beano Cook truly had a face for radio only.  His cheeks were sagging and he looked like an old bulldog. I laughed along with them.  It wasn't long after that when you would never see him on television again.  He was relegated to radio and then retirement.

Then about five years ago I started listening to a college football podcast from ESPN where Beano would join Ivan Maisel on Wednesdays for about thirty to forty-five minutes.  Unlike the guy on the TV from years before, Beano was now like a grandfather who would relate stories about Notre Dame in the 1950s or old great Army or Navy teams.  He was a college football historian, and I began to care about the stories he would tell. I can't tell you the number of times I heard his voice coming from my iPod on my weekly jogs -- and he always called into Ivan from his home in Pittsburgh. He never traveled.

But over the last couple of years, his mind would wander somewhat on the podcast, and I would also hear an occasional grown or cough coming from his end of the line. Ivan would sometimes have a hard time even getting a word in as Beano would go on long dissertations about one subject or another. Simply put, you could tell he was fading.

Then he disappeared from the podcast completely about five weeks ago. It was the first time I can recall that he missed a show. Ivan would only say that "Beano is not feeling well, and can't be with us. We hope he'll be back next week."  You knew something was wrong.

He died last night, and I can't tell you how badly I feel about taking part in a little laughing and mocking session many years ago. As I got to know him on my jogs, I learned he didn't deserve it. And it's a lesson that I should not have needed to learn.

Edit: On a lighter note, Beano despised baseball. I read today that while he was at CBS in 1981, he learned that baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn had just given the newly released Iranian hostages lifetime passes to MLB games. Beano's response: 'Haven't they suffered enough?'"  A man after my own heart.

Edit: Ivan's thoughts.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• It's kind of weird that Pilot Point has "Bonnie and Clyde Days". I think Bud Kennedy went after the event a couple of years ago, but it's back. 
• A Wise County jury convicted the guy of Attempted Capital Murder late last night but found him not guilty of Aggravated Assault against the landowner. It sounds like some people were expecting the verdict to be exactly the opposite.
• Another date rape at SMU. What's going on there?
• I wonder why sports radio shows think interview segments are interesting. It's a huge punch out for me whenever the "Jason Witten Show", "Elvis Andrus Show", or "Troy Aikman Show" comes on. You never learn a thing. 
• "Fort Worth woman accused of bashing boyfriend with crystal ball." I wonder if he saw that in his future?
• I saw a shampoo bottle in the house with "mane" and "tail" in the name of it. Huh?
• I watched 9.79* - the documentary about the doping scandal of Ben Johnson. Verdict: Really, really good. But is sounds like everyone in the business knew he was doping.
• And Carl Lewis made a fortune in track and field? Funny line from his trainer/agent. "I never answer a question about how much Carl made from a single a meet. But throw out a number and I'll tell you yes or no." Off camera voice: "A half million?"  Response: "Not even close."  
• The 17 year old missing Ennis girl I mentioned yesterday was found when she, uh, showed up for school. I've got a self-proclaimed "junior Liberally Lean reporter" on the case. 
• I'm a little skeptical of those Wendy Davis ads where she boasts of going to community college and then with the "help" of some scholarships, she went on to TCU and Harvard Law School.  
• I had a dream last night I lost my iPhone but was tracking with the "Find My iPhone" app (like a GPS map in a car) from a different device.  I could see it as a dot  going down various roads. Then I'd wake up, go back to sleep, and see that dot moving on a map again. It seemed to go on forever.
• The suspected shooter in the North Richland Hills Chinese restaurant murder is named  Shee Wong. Really. 
• I actually turned on the TV as I laid down last night and caught the bottom of the 12th of the Yankees game. One swing.

That Ride Looks Unstable

(See implosion of Six Flags ride here.)

Edit: Another one . . .