Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• The kid who didn't lace the cookies with marijuana and LSD is now free. But all the reports are that he was delivering the cookies as part of his community service as a part of a probation. That's community service? I've heard of Toys for Tots but Cookies for Cops?
• WBAP interviewed a kid from Decatur yesterday who was camping outside the Apple Store in Southlake to get a new iPhone. But I didn't catch his name.
• Edit: A reader sends along this KXAS video of five teens from Decatur trying to snag the iPhone. (Thanks Joe.)
  
• John McCain campaigned in the town of South Park yesterday. Really.
• I don't trust kids on skateboards
• Terry Everett, branch manager of DATCU in Decatur, and her family were once on the Family Feud when it was hosted by Richard Dawson.
• I was once a "a man on the street" interview when the old 4 Country Reporter came to Bridgeport in the 1970s. I was a kid. The question was something about speeding rock trucks. Not much changes, does it?
  
• I used to have a boss in a bank that would say, "No, make it good day" whenever anyone wished him a good day. Beating.
• I remember when highway 380 ran right past the courthouse in Decatur (there was no bypass so if you drove from Denton to Bridgeport you'd be funneled to downtown Decatur.)
• For the life of me, I don't understand why Chesapeake Energy Corporation is spending krillions of dollars on a PR campaign about the Barnett Shale. First Tommy Lee Jones, and now they are starting something called www.shale.tv and have hired longtime DFW anchor Tracy Rowlett to run it.
• And does anything sound more exciting than an Internet TV station run by an energy company promoting the Barnett Shale? Can I reserve season one on Netflix?
• Horrific stop down title of a news story: "Parents Plan Funerals for Twins after Pharmacy Mistake"
• That kind of brought down the room, didn't it?
• I liked my briefly running Friday Dance Off feature but it was almost impossible to find two good dance videos on youtube. You'd think it would be easy, but it wasn't.
• I just did a search for my past Friday Dance Off and I think all of them can be found here. That was good stuff.
• Prepare for withdrawal symptoms. I won't be here next week.
• I've downloaded a few songs by N.E.R.D. and really like them. (First heard of the group when their song "Lapdance" was played as exist music on Entourage.) And their new album was reviewed in People magazine last week.
• I get irritated when I hear that an album "drops" on a certain date.
  
• The Bridgeport City park had this rocket in it when I was a kid. Well, maybe not that rocket but a rocket that looked like it.
  
• The hotel out by the Gaylord Texan that has a waterpark inside of it looks cool. And they are already adding on a new wing after being open for less than a year.
• That Genghis Grill that opened up off Western Center Boulevard is really good. But you'll get Confused Head trying to order.
• And I think the Bridgeport City Council naming buildings after residents is probably a road they don't want to go down. I'd at least like a dumpster named after me.
• WBAP just reported that they were watching a police chase in South Dallas right now. I loves me some police chases.
  

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• India's richest man has built a new home. He's a regular Purebred Billionaire. (rimshot . . . groan).
• One of the two Baylor players caught with weed (after falling asleep in a Taco Bell drive through) has been kicked off the team. One of them? Yep. Cause he got arrested again for weed. Sheesh. He's worse than Jay and Silent Bob.
• Should a high tone Dallas restaurant turn away a handful of World War II vets if they want to dine in baseball caps and shorts? I guess the answer is "no" based upon the uproar.
• I've seen several news stories refer to the Chilean miners as "heros." Uh, no. We throw that term around way too easily.
• The Bill O'Reilly/The View/Walk Off drama yesterday beat me down. 
• That pic looks familiar.
• There's too much stuff on TV that I want to watch. There are too many books that I want to read. There are too many places that I want to see.
• Good news for Ranger fans: I'm picking the Yankees in 5.
• Whatever happened to Helen Hunt?
• There's a 10 minute video of an openly gay Fort Worth city councilman addressing teenagers about bullying and being different. I haven't watched it but it's apparently gone viral. I did click right in the middle of it only to hear him tear up and say, "It will get better." Looked pretty good. 
• Of all the Yankees I dislike, Mark Teixeira is at the top of the list. I think he's as dumb as a box of rocks.
• A day in the life of the Internet commenter.
• Mrs. LL is convinced she can train the family pooch to ring a hanging bell with her nose to alert us that she needs to go do her business. 
• Blog favorite Christina Aguilera has filed for divorce. Ugh. And right after I get married. 
• Try solving a 7th grade Algebra problem when you haven't picked up an Algebra book in decades. 
• Another dumb segment on Fox and Friends this morning: They had some math genius on to suggest ways to trim the $1 trillion federal deficit. After 5 minutes, he had pointed out $7 billion in waste so everyone was patting him on the back like he was Einstein. Uh, what about the other $993 billion?
• If I still hand my Friday Morning Dance Off I would enter this lady at some church. Wait, what? 

Friday Morning One Video Dance Off

Ok, I promise to do better in the future to have a true Dance Off. For today, please enjoy these guys giving it the What For with the briefest appearance by a toddler.

Friday Dance Off With Only One Competitor

I looked everywhere to find a video to go up against these Packer fans partying "like a rock star" but without decent results. So we'll crown them champions on this special Friday which really isn't that special.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• Arkansas is underrated -- especially in the fall when the leaves are changing. 
• Awkward moment this weekend when I met the neighbor of the Arkansas residents that we were visiting. "And you must be [insert name of Mrs. LL's ex-husband]."  Our host jumped in at break neck speed from across the room to get that train back on track. (I laughed and kidded the neighbor.) 
• How could Ron Washington, when addressing the crowd on Friday night, not fire off a "That's the way baseball go!"
• Maybe the best picture from the Rangers' win on Friday.
• The shark attack that killed a man last Friday off the coast of California might be the closest thing to Jaws I've ever seen. (Link includes a picture of his wakeboard with a chunk taken out of it.)
• Remember that cute little girl who became famous a couple of years ago because she couldn't stop hiccuping (even made an appearance on the Today show)? Well, she's been charged with murder. Wait, what?
• From the Update: "Chico Midget Cheerleaders will host a Father/Daughter dance 7-9 p.m. Friday in the elementary school gym."
• Made the 400  mile trip yesterday with just one stop to eat and get gas. And not a peep of complaining from the kids in the back or the spouse to the side. Then again, there was a lot of sleeping going on. 
• I drove right through the thunderstorms that tore up East Texas yesterday. It was the same storm that pounded Greenville with hail (although we met it after it had gone through Greenville and had somehow lost all its hail making capacity.)
• A Lamborghini crashed at the "Texas Mile." Uh, what/where is the Texas Mile?
• Stubhub link for tickets to Saturday's World Series game in Arlington.
• Crazy situation in Southern part of the county: Rhome's police chief is hired on Thursday night as the part time Chief of Newark and then on Friday morning Rhome places him on administrative leave. I think it was because of taking on the additional responsibilities but the Messenger story was unclear.
• Edit: Someone tricked up the sign in front of Newark City Hall!
• All the sports shows are trying to rank the Rangers making it to the World Series in the list of metroplex sporting events. Some folks bring up the Stars winning the Stanley Cup when composing their Top 5. That wouldn't make my Top 20. 

Friday Dance Off: The White Man Cometh

Granbury white boys recreate a famous video: Probably popular white boys do that Soulja thing: As for the top video, if you want to see a side by side comparison with the original, go here.

Muriel's Wedding

Another film someone told me I should watch which I finally got around to.

Verdict: I think I like it, but I'm not sure. Quirky. Odd. Yeah, I guess I did.

Fun to see Rachel Griffiths in a role before she became somewhat famous in "Six Feet Under." And the Abba music, which is the core of the movie, is pretty funny especially in light of the Friday Dance Off video I posted a couple of weeks ago at the Neiman Marcus party.

And I have an odd habit: I turn the subtitles on whenever a movie has a dialect which is anything other than Native Texan.

Friday Dance Off

Entry #1: ABBA's "Dancing Queen" + Neiman Marcus 100th anniversary shindig in downtown Dallas + free alcohol + rented tuxedos + white people "dancing" = exactly what you'd expect. (Source) Entry #2: Memphis Black Pride Festival and"The Cupid Shuffle"

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• Best role of judge in any movie:Fred Gwynne in My Cousin Vinny
• I finally got my fence/gate repaired. There's quite a bit of satisfaction in doing something like that.
• I'm back to watching The Wire and I'm up to Season 3. It's still great.
• Idiocracy #1: Transformers 2 opens up the weekend with $201 million in box office receipts.
• Idiocracy #2: The Oxygen Channel has a new "reality" show for fat people who dance called "Dance You Ass Off."
• Any high school girl that thinks getting pregnant would be romantic needs to check out MTV's "16 and Pregnant."
• Cops raided a gay club in Fort Worth on Saturday night and arrested a few folks for public intoxication. The clubs in downtown and at Northside must have been drunk-free that night.
• I was not familiar with "I Survived" on The Biography Channel but a faithful reader told me that Episode 5 was about Fort Worth lawyer Jerry Wood who ran off a road in Palo Pinto County in 2006. He had been in Decatur earlier that day.
• I continue to be suspicious of anyone who brags about their marriage. (I'm seeing more and more of it.)
• I missed this last week: A Texas lawyer gets arrested on his way to a murder trial.
• I tried to watch the USA/Brazil soccer final but decided that it had the excitement level of baseball.
• I won't be upset if swindler Bernard Madoff gets 50 years today.
• Michael Jackson's full time physician is probably sweating right now. And his lawyer out of Houston was on Fox, CNN, and The Today Show this morning.
• I had forgotten how much Janet Jackson sounds like Michael.
• And I rarely listen to Kidd Kraddick, but I caught him this morning doing a pretty good defense of Jackson against the pedophile allegations.
• I've already registered for the White Rock Half Marathon and Fort Worth Half Marathon. (Last year I waited too late for the White Rock and now Fort Worth is going to put limits in place for the first time.)
• Fox News is all up in arms over an energy bill that was narrowly passed in the House on Friday.
• Billy Mays dies over the weekend. I'll be honest. I watch a lot of TV. Way too much. But I can't say I've ever seen a Billy Mays infomercial.
• Weekend shocking news: One wreck in Oklahoma claims 10 lives.
• Ran by the NFL Channel last night and they were replaying the last game in Texas Stadium. Who scored the last Cowboys' touchdown? Terrell Owens.
• And I got to see Wade Phillips look confused on the sideline. So we've got that to look forward to this year.

Friday Afternoon Dancing To Take Our Minds Off Race Relations

So many questions.

Is that a bar or a run down K-Bobs?  Daytime? People dance in the daytime? And what's that dance Mr. Sleeveless is doing there? Some modified line dance? And then there's the the wannabe Vanilla Ice guy. It looks like a karaoke screen in the background but he doesn't even glance at it. Man knows those lyrics like he does that every day.  And what's up with Miss Boom Boom who comes dancing in? Is she with the guy?

The world is a mysterious place.

Random Thoughts

- No Friday Morning Dance Off. My bad. - I saw a big "Bridgeport Discount liquor " sign on the back of a truck this morning heading to be installed - I saw that TABC ran a sting last night on Wise County liquor stores. Thank gawd we are not letting the terrorists win. - Microsoft intends to by Yahoo! for $44 billion which is a big deal but I'm not exactly sure why. - Someone told me I missed a doozy on one of the local news stations covering the Paradise fires. Apparently there was the sign on a door that read, "Excepting Donations." - Did you know it has been since 1976 that either "Bush" or "Clinton" did not appear somewhere on the presidential ticket? - The NFL is cracking down on churches having Super Bowl parties due to copyright issues. How are we supposed to worship without debating if that was pass interference? - Today is the 5 year anniversary of the Shuttle Columbia disaster over Texas. It was one of the most surreal moments of my life. Not knowing anything had happened, I woke up and stumbled downstairs and turned on the TV. The screen immediately showed a cameras looking skyward with no graphics on the screen. The reporter was saying things like, "People have reported seeing streaks of light. Others said it looked like four or five streaks of smoke. But there appears to be nothing in the sky right now." For thirty to sixty seconds, I thought there had been an alien spaceship sighting.

Friday Morning Dance Off: Cha Cha Slide

Entry #1: Entry #2:

Friday Morning Dance Off: Soulja Boy

Entry #1 Entry #2 Bonus entry: Young white kids in a controlled environment.

Friday Morning Dance Off: FloRida's "Low"

Entry #1: Entry #2: White Girl giving it the what-for: Honorable Mention: Little Kid & Cheerleader Routine

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• I'm willing to bet that the "White" and "Power" signs at the Flower Mound basketball game was just the result of happenstance instead of a concerted effort.
• I posted yesterday that I thought the Cowboys would put the franchise tag on Dez Bryant. Then hours later Stephen Jones said, "Right now we're probably leaning that way." Well, it looks like I've got my Sports Genius mojo back.
• Caught my attention in the Update today: "A suspected drunk driver who ran into the back of a Wise County Sheriff’s Department patrol car early Monday morning was arrested and charged with intoxicated assault causing serious bodily injury of a peace officer. . . .[The deputy,] who was diverting traffic onto an access road at Pioneer Road due to an earlier accident, was not seriously injured." (Emphasis added)
• In "The American Sniper" trial, prosecutors "entered drug paraphernalia as evidence on Friday, saying that a hookah, pipes, leafy substance and vials of a clear liquid were all found at Routh’s home." What does that have to with whether he killed Chris Kyle? Isn't that clearly "extraneous offenses" which almost all the time are inadmissible?  (Amazingly, we later learned the vials weren't found in Routh's home despite the testimony of the Texas Ranger. In the long run, the error won't make a difference but that's a major screw up.) 
• Cops shot a guy in the parking lot of Buck's Cabaret last night in north Fort Worth.  I always say, "Nothing good happens at a strip club at 2:30 a.m. on a Tuesday night in mid-February."
• Had the greatest joy last week when a BMW blew past me on 287 and a couple of minutes later a trooper zoomed past me as well on his was to stop them. (As the BMW passed me, I remember thinking, "Buddy, you're on 287. In Wise County. This will not end well.")
• Man, there are a lot of DPS troopers in Wise County who have been assigned to long stints on the border for immigration enforcement. They hate that, right? 
• Do large oil field companies have to give 60 days notice before they lay someone off? "In Dallas, attorney Allen Vaught has amassed hundreds of clients among the laid-off ranks and has filed lawsuits against companies including Patterson-UTI and smaller firms GoFrac in Fort Worth and Brazos Rock in Weatherford." Is that former Bridgeport resident Allen Vaught?
• My favorite radio show told me this morning that we just missed the date that Marty McFly programmed the Delorean to travel to in Back To The Future II. Nope. That actual date is October 21, 2015. There are so many doctored photos from the movie on the Internet that the mistake is common. 
• When "Dance Moms" came on last night, I went to bed and told Mrs. LL to please tell me later if anyone yelled at each other on the show. 
• Is this 1960s program for Cubs/Astros real? (Hint: A baby cub drinking LSD?)

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• "Learn how much pecan pie will cost you this year!" - A tease from Channel 8 news last night
• I had someone once tell me that I dance like Morrissey. I have no idea what that means.  Edit: Jarhead sent me this example of Morrissey dancing. No way. Not me! Not me!
• I told you the Cowboys will never be successful so long as Wade Phillips is coach. Fear is the greatest motivator. He projects absoultely no fear.
• I ate Friday night at Oyster Ranch and Seafood Grill off of Western Center. It was a raucous crowd with the Ranger game ongoing and pretty fun. But the food was somewhat marginal. 
• A Rutgers player was paralyzed during a game, and the NFL had three vicious head to head hits this weekend (video of one of them). I've said it before: Someone is going to die. 
• Denton County book-in photo for aggravated assault. Ouch.
• Before noon on Saturday I had jogged, washed two cars, edged the yard, trimmed the bushes, and I think something else. 
• June Cleaver has died.
• Annalynne McCord is hot.
• The video of the Trooper in Austin being an absolute jerk to a passenger is shocking (and it probably shouldn't be since he's been in trouble before.)
• Funny: Dallas' final play to the Benny Hill theme.
• Odd: A County Attorney makes some phone calls to an Assistant DA in an effort to get a case against the County Attorney's aunt dismissed and gets convicted for it. (Not Wise County.)
• That was a crazy motorcycle crash in Wise County on Friday.

Random Friday Morning (Barely) Thoughts

• I have no idea why this site was down for almost a day. Google acknowledged they were “working on the problem”, but didn’t really say what it was. I want a refund on this free service! (Yeah, yeah: Try wordpress. Try wordpress.)
• And Google posted this message: “To get Blogger back to normal, all posts since 7:37am PDT on Weds, 5/11 have been temporarily removed. We expect everything to be back to normal soon. Sorry for the delay.”
• There probably won’t be another guy-rams-police-car story for the rest of the year. What you say? There was ANOTHER one last night in Dallas? (No link yet. Saw it on Fox 4 this morning.)
• Man, Mrs. LL has gone “start from scratch” on the flowerbeds. I think I uttered, “I hope you know what you’re doing” yesterday.  And the look on my face must have concerned her because she asked if I had some “sentimental” issues with the bushes that were gone.
• Saw my first interview with Tony Romo’s fiancee yesterday. She’s hot but, man, I bet she’s annoying. Anyway, here’s a pic of her ring.
• More craziness from the Fox affiliate in L.A.where Megan Henderson went: Pole dancing in studio with a crash.
• For a guy who thought Fox News’ treatment of the President for having Common at the White House was silly, Jon Stewart’s segment on the issue was a piece of gold. (Referenced President Bush inviting Johnny Cash to the White House even though he had lyrics of shooting a woman while high on cocaine, and Sean Hannity embracing Ted Nugent even after he told President Obama to “suck on my machine gun.”)
• Enjoy the 70s this weekend (the temps, not the decade), you won’t see them again until October.
• I previously wrote about some Western Hills baseball players sacrificing a chicken on the field. Last night, the team visited Crowley and were met with the “Chicken Dance” song being played over the speakers.
• Man denies he took purse on Judge Judy. He also might be the dumbest man in the world.
• The Granbury double murder trial saw the jury go home for a second night without reaching a verdict. Hung jury? Edit: Looks like there might be one holdout.
• Small south Texas town’s police chief found shot to death in his cruiser.
• The Star-Telegram is laying off people left and right but is also the second fastest growing newspaper in the U.S.? They need to put a reporter on that story.
• Ron Springs, former Cowboy great, died yesterday after four years in a coma. Note to all of you: If I’m in a coma for over six months, grab my pillow and make sure it’s not six months and one day.
• And I was going to mention a great play Springs made in a fantastic Cowboy game in 1979. Then it dawned on me that it would be the equivalent of someone in 1979 telling me about a game in 1947. Wow. Just wow.
• Completely random Cowboy highlight taking you into the weekend: Million pound lineman Larry Allen running down a Saints linebacker who had picked off Aikman. Still amazing.
• San Diego Charger cheerleader tryouts almost caused my “Hey, Now” radar to explode.

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• Never again will I ignore, "Your seat cushion can also be used as a flotation device."
• Of all the amazing things about the plane crash yesterday, I think the fact that no one panicked may be at the top of the list. Even after the plane came to a peaceful rest on the water, I would think everyone would be of the belief the plane would sink within one minute.
• They had another capital murder acquittal in Tarrant County yesterday. Fifteen years ago that would have been unheard of. No more. (And attorney Jim Shaw was involved in it -- the same guy involved in the Wise County "head for the hills" case last week.)
• President Bush just kind of limps off into the sunset.
• People can't handle four way stops. It's not that hard people.
• And I hate the four way dance of "You go. No, you go. Ok, I'll go. Move forward. But he moves forward. Both hit brakes."
• Random Colorado high school basketball score: 94-1.
• Heard a traffic reporter refer to the "outerskirts" of the metroplex this morning. Is that a word?
• I haven't been to a high school basketball game since the Decatur and Bridgeport girls met in the playoffs in Denton in the mid 1990s. Decatur won.
• Whenever I hear someone spin their tires, I'm 100% sure there is a dumb person behind the wheel.
• All the sports shows/writers have been referring to the Rangers' Michael Young as the "Face of The Franchise." Sheesh. He's a face you couldn't pick out of a lineup.
• While you were sleeping: Bank of America gets $20 billion more of your money. (I'm still waiting for the whole system to collapse.)
• I jammed a chip into the roof of my mouth a couple of days ago and it still hurts like a sonofagun.
• I always forget about Channel 11 news.
• Anyone remember when Channel 4 was CBS and Channel 11 was a place where you could find Slam Bang Theater (which, uh, was a kid's show.)
• There was a stranded 18 wheeler sitting on the 51 exit ramp off of 287 this morning before sunrise. Dangerous. But the Decatur cops were there with their lights on.
• Edit: The Ticket just announced that it is becoming the home station of the Dallas Stars. Kill me. Hockey? They'll be using valuable air time for hockey?

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• When anyone is forced to submit to "diversity training", I don't have much hope that it will take.
• Chris Berman Applebee's commercial = Beating.
• My ranking of scariest movies: (1) The Exorcist, (2) Halloween, (3) The Blair Witch Project, (4) Rosemary's Baby.
• I don't get too excited about the NFL, but I'm interested in watching Brett Farvvvrrraaaa return to Green Bay on Sunday. I love tension.
• "Prominent" Houston plaintiff's attorney John O'Quinn died yesterday in a traffic accident. He made most of his money off of breast implant litigation (which one of my close lawyer friends involved in that litigation called "more like extortion than practicing law.")
• O'Quinn was also involved in the bizarre "what to do with Anna Nicole Smith's body" case before the goofy judge in Florida. I was so horrified by his performance at the time that I wrote about it here.
• And O'Quinn was one of five hand picked lawyers to split the $3.3 billion fee in Texas' litigation against tobacco companies. That whole thing was so seedy that former Texas Attorney General Dan Morales went to federal prison for his wrongdoing.
• But I have no idea if he was a good guy or not.
• Allen High School has 638 members in its high school band, and it takes 18 buses and three trucks to transport them?
• This is hard to explain, but I stumbled upon a metroplex high school game on TV last night (Channel 21 or 27?). It was halftime, they were promoting - on the sideline - some radio station at 93-point-something, and then they cut to a shocking dance competition of hot girls of a local club. Did I mention this was a high school game telecast?
• I wouldn't mind going to some church's "Hell House" because I'd like to see how Wheels Off it has become.
• I think Cowboys WR Roy Williams is a complete bust. And his attitude drives me insane.
• A 20 something Fort Worth teacher received probation from a jury for sex with an 18 year old student (an act that is only illegal because of the teacher-parent student relationship.) But the judge, who I've always thought was extremely uptight, gave the guy 180 days in jail as a condition of the probation.
• A baseball player gets killed when struck by a ball and his parents sue. Well, they just won almost a million dollars from the obvious culprit: The aluminum bat manufacturer.

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• Fox 4 had a video of a truck crossing the median and crashing on the tollway yesterday. I'm fascinated by the car going in the opposite direction that missed death by a fraction of a second. (Still looking for video on the Internet which makes this bullet point completely useless until I find it.)
• 73 now dead in the Jamaica police-gonna-get-drug-lord fight. That's a book or movie waiting to happen.
• I used to love going to the Colonial golf tournament. Now I'm not sure I'll ever have the desire to go again.
• The remake of the Karate Kid opens today. You know, that first was sappy yet pretty darn good.
• A Mercedes, a cop shooting a gun, a passerby firing his weapon as well, an alley, the Stockyards, drugs, middle of the night? Sheesh, not a bad story.
• Violent crowd fight at baseball game. The big guy with the fro needs to learn how to block a punch.
• Wise County's Newark seems to have its wheels flying off as the city council will meet on a rare Friday night to "deliberat[e] in closed session regarding the city secretary, police chief, city police officer position and court clerk."
• Had a buddy tell me he tried to start his own Random Thoughts but gave up after five days. "I don't know how in the world you do that," he told me. It ain't easy brother.
• The creators of "Words With Friends" (which I've never played) were on The Ticket yesterday. It sounds like they are drowning in cash.
• Weird that the Messenger never gave the name of the lady hit by a car while on her bicycle in Alvord yesterday.
• The Los Angeles Times reporting yesterday that the hole in the gulf had been plugged was horrible journalism.
• Anybody else see Fox 4's Fiona Gorostiza doing a So You Think You Can Dance audition last night on the news? Mercy.