Since I have an official NFL football, I thought I’d inflate it to required pressure and then deflate it by two pounds to see how soft it would be. My plan ran amuck when I found out a football needle doesn’t properly fit in a tire gauge, my only measuring device of the type.
The NFL can be so stupid sometimes. They have fined Marshawn Lynch for grabbing his crotch after a touchdown and have warned him that doing so in the Super Bowl will not only result in a fine but penalty yardage. However, the NFL is selling a commemorative plaque celebrating the Seahawks’ conference win that displays a picture of Lynch grabbing his crotch.
I caught a few minutes of the Pro Bowl and was actually entertained, but I think it was mostly because the Cowboys coaching staff was coaching one of the teams. In the Pro Bowl coverage you get to listen in to what the coaches radio in to the quarterback’s helmet and get a chance to hear what the coaches say during a timeout. As much as the public dislikes this game, I’m sure coaches and executives love it as a networking opportunity.
Until this weekend, I had no idea that Ernie Banks was a Dallas native. My pastor is a Chicago native and Mr. Cub was one of his childhood heros. He started the sermon by talking about Banks while wearing a Cubs hat. After the Banks acknowledgement, he removed the cap and proceeded with his sermon.
The official state vegetable of Oklahoma is the watermelon, but . . . Sen. Nathan Dahm, R-Broken Arrow, has filed Senate Bill 329 to revoke its designation, saying watermelon is a fruit, not a vegetable.
I watched The Fox and the Hound for the first time, and glad I got to share the experience with my kids. I was surprised that Corey Feldman had a voice credit. He was the young Copper, the dog.
A great grade school memory – peeling off dried Elmer’s glue from my fingers.
I thought the first horse race track in Texas was outside of Weatherford, but while watching the Arlington episode of ‘The Day Tripper’ I found out that there was one in that city called Arlington Downs. The only thing that remains is the water trough, which is basically now a big flower pot. The show also highlighted the international bowling museum which has a development center that will capture your movements and analyze them, kinda like golf. They also have various lanes that are oiled differently to practice on. That reminded me of an old friend who use to make a living bowling. He hated left-handed bowlers because he thought they had a clear advantage as they bowl on the side of the lane which is almost never touched and the predictability of how the oil will affect the ball is high. In college, I bowled with a left-handed bowler and won the intramural bowling team championship, and I have the t-shirt to prove it.
The last episode of ‘Psyche’ I streamed on Netflix was pretty clever. I’m watching the last season of the show, and they made a remake of one they did in their first season, and throughout the show they make fun of remakes along the way.
If you are a fan of Consumer Reports, you’ll like this article. What many folks don’t realize is that you’ll never see an ad in one of their magazines. They believe if they accepted advertising dollars, it may compromise any judgement. So that means they don’t get any free products, they purchase all of them, cars included, on their own.
I have a tendency to explore the macabre, and my latest venture is a book called Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. Part of this might be because I’m fascinated with behind the scenes stuff of all things, but I also use to work in a financial legal heirs department and read the cause of death of every death certificate that passed through my hands. I’m about a quarter of the way though and it’s covered topics of how cadavers are used to teach cosmetic surgery, body snatching and early discention, body decomposition study at in a field at the University of Tennessee, and mortician prep. A few highlights:
At one point the old show Qunicy, M.E. was referenced. I haven’t thought about that show in probably 20 years. I have good memories of watching it in syndication with my father.
In teaching hospitals, hands are often left covered because many feel hands make an emotional connection. In some cases, a memorial service for the body (even though the ID is never known) is held once there’s no more use of the body – students express an appreciation for the chance to learn and can be a form of closure. This reminds me of an obituary for one of the deans at the college I attended. It stated that he was a teacher until the end, donating his body to science for study.
A body snatcher didn’t have to dig up the entire grave, but rather just the top end (about a foot in length) and break it open. The corpse was fished out with a rope around the neck or under the arms. The dirt, which was piled on a tarp, simply be slipped back in.
As of the book’s 2004 printing, sixteen states have enacted necrophilia laws.
A mortician will use something like this to place over the eyes to keep the eyelids closed.
Intestines tend to liquify, so the anus is often sutured. This brings forth an awkward mental picture of my father being prepped for burial (Mom was cremated).
Embalming use to be advertised as having the ability to preserve a body forever. This stopped after a lawyer use to check on his embalmed mother once a month on his lunch break and found her moldy after two years.
Quincy is on weekday mornings at 10 on 21.2 MeTV. They just started showing it the first of the year.
Our nation should be ashamed how many people we have thrown in prison for non-violent offenses. But there's no better way to prove you're the land of the free and home of the brave than to throw people that don't conform to a particular notion of morality behind bars for consensual crimes (sex, drugs, gambling). But then how would politicians get elected without those scary campaign commercials.
Fox and the Hound is fantastic. I watched the last half hour or so with my son this weekend, but it has a permanent place on our DVR and we've watched it multiple times together. It's from a much-maligned era in Disney animation, but man, is it a classic. I'm nearly 40, but that very end scene, with the echoing conversation between the young Tod and Copper ("We'll always be friends forever, won't we? Yeah, forever.") KILLS me. Every. Single. Time. As a kid, that was the first time I remember feeling a bittersweet melancholy, and as I've grown older and seen "best" friends move into and then out of my life, it resonates even more strongly. What a powerful, powerful moment in an under-appreciated film. (Also, the song "Best of Friends" is a phenomenal classic.)
Side note: not only is Corey Feldman a voice actor, but Kurt Russell is the voice of grown-up Copper. Interesting bit of Disney trivia: by most all accounts the last words Walt Disney ever wrote were "Kurt Russell." It's widely known that Disney was actively working while in the hospital, and apparently he was writing a reminder to himself to mention Russell's participation in an upcoming live-action film to one of the studio executives when they visited.
The W. T. Waggoner ranch, south of Vernon, built by the same landowner who built the Arlington Downs facility, is the largest surviving ranch under one fence. It was recently put up for sale. During the heyday of the track, it's said that notables of the day would come to Arlington and bet on the ponies during the day (on the east side), and gamble at the casino at the west end at night.
When my Grandfather died in 2003, his body was donated to a teaching college. Later that year, his cremains were sent to the family, and we scattered his ashes at the old family farm/homestead.
Quincy is on weekday mornings at 10 on 21.2 MeTV. They just started showing it the first of the year.
Our nation should be ashamed how many people we have thrown in prison for non-violent offenses. But there's no better way to prove you're the land of the free and home of the brave than to throw people that don't conform to a particular notion of morality behind bars for consensual crimes (sex, drugs, gambling). But then how would politicians get elected without those scary campaign commercials.
Fox and the Hound is fantastic. I watched the last half hour or so with my son this weekend, but it has a permanent place on our DVR and we've watched it multiple times together. It's from a much-maligned era in Disney animation, but man, is it a classic. I'm nearly 40, but that very end scene, with the echoing conversation between the young Tod and Copper ("We'll always be friends forever, won't we? Yeah, forever.") KILLS me. Every. Single. Time. As a kid, that was the first time I remember feeling a bittersweet melancholy, and as I've grown older and seen "best" friends move into and then out of my life, it resonates even more strongly. What a powerful, powerful moment in an under-appreciated film. (Also, the song "Best of Friends" is a phenomenal classic.)
Side note: not only is Corey Feldman a voice actor, but Kurt Russell is the voice of grown-up Copper. Interesting bit of Disney trivia: by most all accounts the last words Walt Disney ever wrote were "Kurt Russell." It's widely known that Disney was actively working while in the hospital, and apparently he was writing a reminder to himself to mention Russell's participation in an upcoming live-action film to one of the studio executives when they visited.
Stiff is a great book-if you enjoy that style, you should also read Packing for Mars about how space programs got their start.
Today's dose of MURICA!
I see what you did there.
The W. T. Waggoner ranch, south of Vernon, built by the same landowner who built the Arlington Downs facility, is the largest surviving ranch under one fence. It was recently put up for sale. During the heyday of the track, it's said that notables of the day would come to Arlington and bet on the ponies during the day (on the east side), and gamble at the casino at the west end at night.
When my Grandfather died in 2003, his body was donated to a teaching college. Later that year, his cremains were sent to the family, and we scattered his ashes at the old family farm/homestead.