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.)

Sign Of The Apocalypse?

At this moment we are being threatened by storms that do not understand the concept of a high pressure system.

Facebook Big Sandy Wars

Unfortunate Photograph

If you can't read it, it's about two ladies investigating a "death" in a citizen's police academy.

Credit: Bud Kennedy.

Edit: Photo being placed to the two headlines is what makes the placement unfortunate. (Did I really have to explain that?)

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Mark Davis said this morning that no Republican candidate could beat Hillary Clinton in the next presidential election other than maybe a Ted Cruz/Chris Christie ticket.  That man take up drinking?
• The Fifth Grader In The House told me she felt sorry for me for having to dress up all the time. Tell me about it, child. 
• Sports: (1) TCU coach Gary Patterson chastised LSU for reinstating a player yesterday which might lead to an LSU throttling of the Frogs in a couple of weeks, (2) the NCAA will either suspend Johnny Football which will ultimately lead to the organization's demise, or it won't suspend him which will also ultimately lead to the organization's demise, and (3) There's a new Ticket app which everyone is going crazy about -- all the podcasts are there and you can pause and rewind the live radio feed. 
• A group of us at the courthouse, including men and women,  had "Testosterone Talk" yesterday at the courthouse. It was pretty fascinating. Females afraid to broach the subject with their husbands and men admitting why they might want to take it. 
• The "Double Fake Chris Davis" comments on here every time he hits a home run. That's a funny bit. And the real official Liberally Lean MLB player is up to 40 home runs for the season. 
• And some commenter for years has blamed the mortgage crisis on Clinton because he "forced banks" to lend to poor people.  You, sir, are clueless.  Ask companies like Bear Stearns if they went out of business because they were "forced" to do anything.  
• A Mavs Maniac dancer (a group of fat men who perform at Dallas Maverick games to keep the crowd interested) allegedly shot and killed four people last night. 
• The alleged Saginaw killer of a little girl (who was from Decatur but we don't talk about that) had his book-in photo released yesterday. Wheels. Off. 
• Over the last twenty years, government jobs -- even in Texas -- are becoming more attractive than private sector jobs. The wages are equal or better and the benefits exceed the private sector by a mile. 
• George Dunham of The Ticket said this morning that We're The Millers is funnier than The Hangover or Bridesmaids. I'm not sure that's possible. 
• My three favorite Muppets: (1) Grover, (2) Animal, and (3) Beaker.  Edit: A commentor said that I should double up on the Testosterone after reading this. Pay the man, Shirley.
• We had about 15 spare bricks and 20 decorative bricks that we needed to get rid of. Mrs. LL put an ad on Craigslist to "come get them for free" and she received a landslide of responses. 

Not sure the story behind this Decatur funeral

What I've learned from a faithful reader:

J. M. Brooks . . . built the casket himself. I can send you pictures or give you any information you wish to know about it.

He gave us . . . explicit instructions that he was not to ride in a hearse. We had intended to load him in the back of [our] pickup when one of his dear friends offered the use of this Peterbuilt.

He was a great, self-made man . . . .  Anyone that knew him, knows how much the casket, service, and marker are him.

Edit: Other photos

Miss Redneck Alabama 2013 Contest

I hope Neil Young will remember.

Link.

And Another: New Jersey

Boom!  2013 making a strong second half charge.

Story.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• I'm always on the lookout for ads disguised as news story and there is no question this article about movie and record rankings in the Dallas Morning News is actually an ad for some outfit named "CD Source".  The tip off? This quote from the owner in the article: “Besides music we have a large selection and variety of used and new movies.”
• This isn't breaking news, but if you want to see a map of the massive electrical lines which have destroyed the landscape over the past couple of years in North Texas, and especially Wise County,  here ya go. 
• Funny new nickname I heard this morning for Johnny Manziel: "The Money Badger."
• If I'm the Aggies, I'd have my backup QB taking lots of snaps, but I still don't know if the NCAA will take action and declared Manziel ineligible.  A few weeks back there was huge saber rattling by the biggest five football conferences about breaking off from all other teams and the NCAA altogether. The NCAA is scared to death about that and now they've got to deal with this Johnny Football mess. 
• I'm a third of the way through Empire of the Summer Moon and am still loving it. Yesterday a came across a passage about Bianca Babb, a young girl living "near Decatur" who was kidnapped by the Comanches but ultimately returned after a ransom was paid. (I learned there's a historical marker about her two miles east of Chico on FM 1810). Any of her relatives still in the area?
• And the book is sympathetic to the Comanches but even the author can't candy coat it: They were truly bloodthirsty savages. 
• Lake Bridgeport is becoming infamous. The Star-Telegram has an article today entitled "Part of Lake Bridgeport nearly dry enough to ‘drive across’"
• The Paradise/Bridgeport model is in another Maxim contest.
• The U.S. hit Yemen again last night with another drone strike -- this time killing at least six. We truly are entering the era of the robot war. I mean, if the invasion of  Normandy were to occur today,  it would be ton with 5,000 drones, right? 
• Placed in my "to be read later" file (and I do have one), this New Yorker article about how police and prosecutors abuse forfeiture laws. The author's lead "example takes place 176 miles east of here, outside of Longview, in the little town of Tenaha, Texas.' (Credit: Frontburner)
• If I come across a long article I want to read later, I email it to myself in gMail, put a personalized label on it named "To Be Read Later", and then archive it. When I have time, I go back and look in that folder of stuff to read. 
• The Fifth Grader in the House was eating some kind of candy out of a box yesterday that were formed in a combination of Angry Birds and Star Wars characters. Idiocracy.