7.26.2021

Random Monday Morning Thoughts




Another nearby mass shooting I had completely forgotten about. 

  •  I told you no one would get arrested. 

  • I can't tell if Dak Prescott is vaccinated or not. He wouldn't answer that question on Friday saying, "I think that's HIPAA." Sheesh.  Then Jerry Jones, when asked about the comment, said that Dak was doing "everything he can to win games" adding "if you know what I mean."  He also said only five Cowboys weren't vaccinated. 

  • This reporter posted a clip of what she has to put up with when trying to do a live shot. Language warning. Even a local DFW female reporter chimed in about how this type of harassment happens all the time. 


  • Trump's White Delta Variant Super Spreader event on Saturday.

  • Just a U.S. Attorney being sloppy in it's official twitter feed but still leaving the post up all weekend.

  • "Solicitation of prostitution" becomes a felony in Texas on September 1st. That, the mere uttering of the words to an undercover cop becomes a felony. 

  • I took this in Bridgeport because it got my attention. I'll admit I wasn't familiar with the "Texas Military Department." 

  • The Cleveland Indians name change brought this response. Funny.

  • The U.S. basketball team lost to the French. The French? It's the first time the U.S. team had lost a game in the Olympics since 2004.  

  • The official University of Maryland twitter account got sassy on Friday. 

  • Big 12 Break-Up: Kevin Sherrington of the Dallas Morning News made this point about Baylor to the PAC-10 which I've heard more than once.  In the end, I bet TCU, Tech, and Baylor all end up in the AAC where Houston and SMU already reside. 

  • Random "fight" video: Watch this smaller guy take two incredible punches and not be fazed. 

  • Ticket fans: Junior Miller announced this morning that he should become a father this week at age 57. Oh, my. (He's married to Fox 4's Natalie Solis who I could have sworn I saw on TV this weekend and showed no signs of being pregnant.)

  • The longest losing streak in Texas Rangers history is 15 games in 1972. The current one now stands at 12.  Let's do this. 

  • In any Olympic event, there should be an extra lane for the average cocky athletic guy who thinks he could compete. Not only would he get his comeuppance, but we would have a good gauge as to how good the Olympians really are. 
  • Documentary review: Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage on HBO is wild. And great. 



at 8:31 AM

7.23.2021

It's Friday -- Let's Get Out Of Here

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




The Wise County Reunion is next week. The above is my memory of it when I was a teenager.  I remember a Bridgeport man from my church betting $20 a throw. 

  • The AG of Florida tested positive for COVID and news reports quickly pointed out that she hung out with Texas officials a couple of days beforehand. But the pictures associated with her visit had me asking: Who is that guy?!

  • Regarding the house explosion in Plano, this news from yesterday morning should provide you with absolutely no confidence that authorities know what they are doing. He has about as much chance of finding the cause with his little shovel and camera as would Inspector Clouseau.

  • I want to know what all inclusive resort this occurred at.  "KTVT-TV reported that the couple had a few drinks at the hotel bar and decided to head back to their room, but Elijah Snow stopped and went back to the bar while his wife went to their room and fell asleep. Jamie Snow woke up at 4 a.m., only to find her husband never returned." He was found dead along the property line of next to an adjacent resort.

  • About time. And the forfeit includes no pay for any of the players. Anti-vaxxer Cole Beasley has been put on notice. 

  • It's your choice. (And this Texas chart hasn't been updated with the latest numbers of 3,692 from July 21st.)

  • Are you beginning to get the feeling the Earth is tired of us and has just simply decided to eliminate humans? 

  • I bet you didn't even hear about a quadruple murder on Tuesday in the small east Texas town of New Summerfield. An 18 year old meets a guy on Grindr, and that guy says he has a friend who wants to buy a gun. The meeting takes place but it's an ambush which leaves the 18 year old dead along with three people who were in a nearby trailer. (That link from tiny station KETK is fantastic in its coverage of this really crazy case.)


  • I was looking for pictures from the Opening Ceremonies this morning at the Tokyo Olympics, but I haven't seen anything which has caught my eye other than these pretty hip jackets worn by the team from Aruba. It's a little slow.

  • I think the most memorable Opening Ceremonies for me occurred in 2008 from China. Those drummers. Oh, man, those drummers. Even through their smiles, China was able to send a message of intimidation. If interested, I've got it cued up for you here. 

  • Divorce update this morning: 

  • Funny.

  • Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 749 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold


at 8:32 AM

7.22.2021

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




Timely.  

  • That escalated quickly: The Houston Chronicle rocked the college football world yesterday afternoon by reporting that OU and Texas had "reached out" to the SEC about joining the conference. 

    • I was skeptical at first until I heard that both schools had issued similar statements saying they "wouldn't address" the "rumors." Uh, oh. 
    • By last night, Orangebloods.com said it was a done deal as did WFAA.  
    • This is horrible. 
    • Other than money, I don't know why the want to do that. But it's a lot of money. 
    • Heck, I care about Baylor, Tech, TCU, and Oklahoma State. And West Virginia has to be thinking that recent marriage to the Big 12 didn't work out too well. 
    • It would take a 75% vote of SEC schools to accept the Evil Empire and OU which means four schools could block the move.  The Aggies have already said "no way", and I bet Missouri, which also fled the Big 12, would vote no as well.  I also suspect Arkansas wouldn't want the new competition.  Not sure about another. But the SEC always moves as one big cohesive unit, so I think they'll get together behind closed doors and take them with the Aggies being the lone vocal holdout. 
    • A few moments ago, a "conservative" Republican Texas lawmaker weighed in. He's not nearly as important as he thinks he is:

  • Intentional? The cryptic statement by the Plano PD is flat out weird. That was a natural gas explosion, right? So did someone turn an appliance on and was able to ignite the escaping gas? Wait, could Plano PD be implying this was a suicide? 

  • I wasn't familiar with the disappearance of this boy in Montague County. It happened in 2015 and a Nocona man became a "person of interest" (I hate that term) because he was the last person to see the boy alive. Cops then took his computer and shockingly found photos of the man allegedly molesting the boy years earlier. That man was then placed on trial this week in federal court in Fort Worth where a mistrial was just declared when a juror "injured" himself. The man has now agreed to plead guilty. 

  • I'm not sure I understand this. You send nude photos to someone and the recipient can be arrested for merely "threatening" to let others see them? It happened in Wichita Falls.

  • Jerry Jones was great yesterday in the "State of the Team" address.  His voice cracked several times as if he was coming to the realization that his reign will, sadly, come to a natural end in the future. But his profane laden story about what Barry Switzer said was comedic gold. The uncensored version of it is here.

     
  • My favorite Jerry line, as he teared up, was "I've had a lot of people tell me, 'You're naive,' or say, 'He's naive.' [Pause.] Well, it's a beautiful world.  It's a better world to be naive than to be skeptical and be negative all the time." Video.
  • So how high will this go? There's nothing to put the brakes on it this time (no mandated masks or social distancing) other than the fact that 40% of the population is vaccinated. Will it break last Spring's peak? Last Winter's peak? I don't have a clue. 

  • My paternal great grandfather came to Texas from Arkansas in 1905. Does that make me a fourth generation Texan or third? That is, does the "first generation" begin at the moment of crossing the state lines, or does it begin later when my grandfather was born? And you get to count your own birth as one of the "generations", right?  
  • How in the world does the OU/Texas story not make the front page of the Austin American Statesman?

at 8:31 AM

7.21.2021

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




Despite all the coverage over the last few days of "space" travel, I'm not sure I've heard anyone mention that this is the ten year anniversary of Space Shuttle program being shut down. 

  • Let them eat cake space?


  • From the Maybe The Vaccine Isn't Such A Bad Idea Department:


  • And one right wing leader who is anti-vax may not understand HIPAA but, by not answering the question, has definitely been vaccinated. Video.

  • I forgot to mention yesterday that the Official Liberally Lean Girl shouldn't be acting like a nutcase online when everyone has been urging her to be released from her conservatorship because she's not a nutcase. She went on a rant last weekend: 

  • Let's check in on women's soccer this morning.  Oops. First loss in 44 straight matches. We are off to a bang up start. 

  • Oh, my. This is now the site of the Surfside condo collapse. Photos taken yesterday.

  • Woah. Story. (Includes video.)

  • This story won't interest most of you, but I actually had a Houston lawyer a couple of months back reach out to me and tell me to watch this judge on Youtube as he held court. I did. You could tell something wasn't right. He wasn't mean or a bully, he was just "out there." 

  • I wonder if Nick Saban is telling the truth here. I bet he is, and I bet all of this paying of players is only going to get crazier. (Young, a sophomore, has 13 career completions at Alabama.) 

  • The NBA Draft is a crapshoot. (The peach background indicates a player who has appeared in at least one All-Star game.) But I suppose Mark Cuban wasn't in the room when this draft went down. 
    2013

  • Happy 81st birthday to Verne Lundquist. Before there was Dale Hansen, there was Verne at WFAA. He also was also on the Cowboys' radio broadcasts with Brad Sham. His line of, “Bless his heart, he's got to be the sickest man in America” for this dropped pass in Super Bowl XIII became famous despite most of us watching the game on TV instead of listening to the radio. 

  • Messenger: Above the Fold


at 8:31 AM
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