GIF Of The Day

From Friday.

The guys in the background have apparently been planning this fake punch for quite some time.

Knew the cameras would be on them.

Random Monday Afternoon Photos

That Olympian girl with the smirk face:

People that float in the Trinity River:

I'm not sure I understand "Juggalos":

Boop?

Quick Thought About The Book "Empire Of The Summer Moon"

Man, this book is fantastic. It's a history lesson of the 1800s in Texas told alongside the story of Cynthia Ann Parker who was kidnapped by the Comanches and then "rescued" many, many years later after having become an Indian bride and mother. The book is great for those who grew up or reside in North Texas. She is a "Parker" which begat Parker County, and her Indian husband was Peta Nocona which I can only assume is the namesake of the town north of Decatur.

What I've learned, well, relearned, from this book is how we are all a product of our environment. She was taken by the Comanches as a child and, by all accounts, assimilated into their life wholeheartedly. She became an Indian. She forgot English and spoke Comanche. She didn't want to leave.  After being returned to the white man, she quickly died a sad and heartbroken woman. But beforehand she became somewhat of a freak show as people would gather around to gawk at her whenever she was in town.

Look at those eyes.

And the photo? This is directly from the book as it described her life after being taken from the Indians:

"It was around this time that a photograph was taken of Cynthia Ann and Prairie Flower [her daughter] that would become famous on the frontier and beyond  They [her caretakers] had gone 'visiting' in Fort Worth . . . and landed in the photography studio of a man named A. F Corning. The result was an exceptional and luminous portrait of mother and daughter  In it, Cynthia Ann wears a plain cotton blouse with a kerchief tied loosely at the neck. He broad-straight , medium  brown hair is cropped short . . . . Her eyes are light and transparent. Her gaze disarmingly direct. Again we see the large, muscular hands and thick wrists  What is most extraordinary about the portrait, however, is Cynthia Ann's exposed right breast  at which the black-haired swaddled, and obviously quite pretty Prairie Flower is nursing. There is probably no precedent for this sort of photography on the Texas frontier in 1862. White women were not photographed with their breasts exposed. And even if a photographer had taken such a photo, no newspaper would have published it. This one was different. It became the picture of Cynthia Ann that generations of schoolchildren knew. It is still in wide circulation. The only explanation is that because Cynthia Ann was seen, and treated, as a savage, even though she was as white as any Scots-Irish settler in the South." 

(And thank you to Mark Fitzgerald who gave me the book and left a note buried within it.)

And He Wasn't Even Pointing The Camera In The Right Direction

Stumbled On The Mike Huckabee Show This Weekend

It's the antithesis of the old Sesame Street song of "One of these things is not like the other."

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• The "speaks volumes" commenter on here has to be in elementary school, right?
• How the NFL gets away with charging for preseason games is one of life's great mysteries. How the TV ratings for those things are high is another one. 
• Snake Eyes, a fairly old movie with Nicholas Cage, is equally great and horrible. (I stumbled upon it on cable this weekend and couldn't get away from it.)
• "The Justice Department plans to change how it prosecutes some non-violent drug offenders, so they would no longer face mandatory minimum prison sentences." Say what you will about AG Eric Holder, he is progressive.
• Mrs. LL put up hooks in the garage for three bicycles and it ended up looking like some crazy project for a modern art museam. Then I came home and found she had completely redone it. 
• After four episodes into The Bridge, I'm about to abandon it. Concept good. Writing bad.
• The beginning of the "Say Me Name" episode of Breaking Bad makes every guy want to be Walter White. 
• It wouldn't surprise me if Breaking Bad ends with something shocking, then a pause, and then the playing of the Ozymandias poem.
• I didn't watch a second of it, but I did see an interview of Kyle Busch who won the NASCAR race this weekend. I wish I had the clip because it was soooooo Ricky Bobby. He thanked six sponsors in fifteen seconds. 
• The Ticket's George DiGianni has a commercial for a "30 day fat loss accelerator". That makes me think he's a fraud. (He also drops the names of Mark Cuban, Michael Dell and Dennis Rodman in the ad, and I bet he didn't pay for the permission to do so.)
• I'm hearing more about Brian Cuban's book that I mentioned on Friday. That drives me insane. You can make money by writing  a book about being undisciplined simply because your last name is Cuban?
•  A 21 year old Bridgeport man was killed in a single vehicle accident over the weekend. A quick search of the Sheriff's office records reveals he had two DUI arrests and one DWI arrest. 

You Would Think It Is Photoshopped. Nope.

A perfect photo? Usain Bolt winning 100m at World Championships while a bolt of lightning strikes.

Source: ESPN

Awkward Separated At Birth

The lady found in the freezer in Mineral Wells:

And Catherine O'Hara whom I loved in Best In Show:

Former Cowboys Defensive Coordinator . . .

. . . Rob Ryan had lap band surgery last year.

The man oozes discipline, restraint, and commitment.

Story.

Above The Fold

Rita Rusic Taking You Into The Weekend

I'm not real sure who she is but Wiki tells me she is 53 years old. 

Those Birthers Have A Stick To It Quality

A Twitter Shot At The Aggies

(1 of 2) Meet the Bears is tomorrow. Student-athlete's will not be accepting payment for their autograph. #sicemwithvigilance
— Baylor Compliance (@SicEmCompliance) August 9, 2013

I'm not sure I expected that from "The Official Twitter Account of Baylor Athletics Compliance".

Edit: Hey, we've got a Separated At Birth! Manziel's new lawyer and the sports guy from Anchorman.

The Decatur Beggar Spotted In Metroplex With New Lady Friend

(Thanks, Patrick.)

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• A woman's body was found in a freezer in Mineral Wells. Police Chief Dean Sullivan said, “We’re treating this as a possible homicide.” I now picture the chief from The Simpsons.
• Johnny Manziel has hired a couple of lawyers out of Lubbock El Paso and, although their reputation is outstanding, they sure project "country" by their photos. 
• "Public tribute for Kidd Kraddick set for August 15th at 5:30 p.m. on the AT&T Plaza outside the American Airlines Center." Outside? In this heat?
• Mark Cuban's brother, "a non-practicing lawyer", has written a book about how wheel off his life was.  "I became what I thought I had to be in order to fit in to that crowd — a drug-using, drinking, obnoxious club-hopping douche bag." 
• I had no idea that Bryan Cranston of Breaking Bad also had the recurring role of the dentist on Seinfeld.
• Fernando Cantu of Bridgeport was found guilty of a lesser charge of negligent injury to a child yesterday in Decatur. Make no mistake, that's a huge defense victory. I've heard the guy has a ton of support from west of the Big Sandy.
• NBC is going hard into soccer by obtaining the rights to broadcast the English Premiere League. Its sports channel is basically running informational shows right now on what it is and who you might want to cheer for. I got a little sucked in last night. (But from what I can tell, that twenty team league has only four teams that are capable of winning it.)
• Randy Galloway will retire from radio at the end of the year. I've found him nearly unbearable to listen to for the past decade. 
• A couple of days ago I made a reference to Take It Easy by The Eagles. Yesterday, the Fort Worth Court of Appeals issued an opinion in a civil case that had this line in the beginning: "On November 10, 2008, Wipff was the conductor for a train traveling from Winslow, Arizona, to Seligman, Arizona." 
• Here's the crazy Facebook story on the cover of the New York Post.

2013 Texas School Accountability Ratings Released

If I'm reading it correctly, for Wise County, only the high school in Boyd failed to pass. Eighty-four percent of all schools across the state qualified as "Met Standard".

Release.

How'd I Miss This?

The "Girls On Fox News".

(Thanks, Julie.)