I think this is really just a Texas sorta thing, so if you aren’t a local reader, just know during homecoming football games boyfriends or parents buy their girls a mum to wear. The mums aren’t made out of flowers, but usually a bunch of ribbons and glitter and stuff. In my hometown small cowbells were actually attached which made the hallways between classes sound like a cattle calls.
They look something like this:
What’s crazy is that they get even bigger and more elaborate.
Anywho, on to the story . . .
The Southlake Journal may not be a big newspaper, but a recent article has caused some Texas-sized controversy.
It started with a Nov. 4 column from Dr. Cindy Ryan, a pastor and writer, who tackled the issue of oversized mums and the exorbitant amount of money people are paying for them.
Ryan suggested instead of paying massive sums for those massive mums, the school kids and their parents put the money toward programs that feed the hungry.
Ryan went on to point out, ”Each outrageous mum represented to me 33 hungry children who could be fed for a month.”
And as if she knew what was coming, Ryan tried to head off those florists and mum business owners by suggesting instead of sending an angry letter or e-mail they “get busy designing the cool ribbon or button everyone could wear instead which says, ‘I banned a mum and fed 33 children.’”
Well that very Christian idea lead to some not very Christian responses from readers printed in a Nov. 18 column.
The TCU Horned Frogs will be wearing a specially designed Nike uniform when they take on Utah Saturday in Fort Worth.
The Nike Pro Combat uniform is a new uniform designed to address changes in the game including faster and stronger players.
Nike says it worked with coaches and administators to develop a state-of-the-art unform as the sport becomes faster, more violent and explosive.
The uniform is 25 percent lighter than current designs (23.7 ounces vs. 37.4 ounces), the lightest Nike has ever created. Nike utilized a four-way stretch twill that does not hold sweat or water and as a result, the new uniforms are 46 percent lighter than the current designs when wet. In addition to keeping the players dry, the fabric is also supposed to help keep players cool.
There is more padding in the thighs, hips and tailbone. The padding zones are composed of dual-density foam cells that absorb, deflect and disperse the impact of on-field collisions.
Former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin will do a book signing from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dec. 4 at in Plano, according to Kyle Hall, the store’s director of marketing and events.
It’ll be strictly a signing (Palin won’t be speaking), with no personalization. No memorabilia will be signed; books only. Books must be bought at Legacy, either in advance (bring your receipt) or that day. As with all Legacy events, if a patron can’t come but wants a signed book, Legacy can arrange that over the phone.
First Baptist Church of Dallas today announced a $130 million capital campaign to build a 3,000-seat worship center, a religious education building and parking lot, a glass concourse, and a sky bridge.
“The finest facility in this area should be one that glorifies almighty God,” said the Rev. Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Dallas.
Five older buildings on the church campus will come down, but the 1890 sanctuary – where the congregation has long worshipped – will remain for weddings, funerals and other special events.
Jeffress said an independent church fundraising consultant, Doug Turner, had determined that this is the largest church building program in modern history.
Many people in the area have told me it was only a matter of time before FBC Dallas became insignificant because of dwindling numbers and the trouble of getting people to actually go to downtown Dallas since everyone now lives in the subards, where all the local mega-churches are located. All that to say, this news came to me as a surprise. I’m not saying I’m wishing for a demise or anything, it’s just what I heard.
But I will say I don’t know how I feel about it being the largest church building plan in modern history. Job creation is a good thing, but I don’t know anything about their financial planning or their current or projected attendance numbers. I will admit I felt that after I watched the last video on the projects website (titled “Overview”) it seemed a bit self gratifying and seemed to stretch scripture a little bit.
No matter the case, I hope they keep their focus and that everything is filled with substance.
The Rev. Kathryn Ransdell recently left the staff of First United Methodist Church of Dallas and moved to Canada. Her husband had found a new job there.
But before she left, Ransdell preached a sermon on health care, and it won first place in a new “health justice” sermon contest put on by Texas Impact.
The Rev. Mary Spradlin of St. Stephen United Methodist Church in Arlington finished second (with an Austin pastor) in a “health justice” sermon contest put on by Texas Impact. She graciously provided a text of the sermon, which you’ll find here.
I’m wayyyy too tired to give a review right now, but here are some random thoughts and some pictures I took to hold you over.
RedZone tickets are the bomb. I never had to wait in a line to enter the stadium and we had our own concession and restroom area just outside of our standing area. Worth. Every. Penny.
Muse was the opening act, and they were OK.
WifeGeeding was too sick to go, which made me very, very sad. And since all my in-town friends already had tickets, I was left scrambling trying to find someone that would appreciate this event.
Bono gave a shout out to Tony Romo, Jason Witten, and George W. Bush. But I don’t think Dubya was in attendance. Heck, Bono even gave a shout out to a lot of the surrounding cities like Plano, but he never made it around to Lewisville or Mineral Wells.
I saw an old college friend, the one that just happen to introduce me to U2 and their greatness.
One dude was dragged away from the area, it took four men to pull him away.
The special effects and use of technology was amazing.
Which metropolis has the most intelligent residents? The Daily Beast crunched the data on the brainpower of America’s 55 largest cities, from first-to-worst.
Dawn Rizos didn’t need any formal recognition that The Lodge, one of the best-known gentlemen’s clubs in Dallas, was a successful small business.
But when former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s conservative group named her an “Entrepreneur of the Year,” she was thrilled by the opportunity to accept the award in Washington and speak about ways to help small businesses.
That all changed, however, when Gingrich realized that The Lodge was a topless bar, not some other business in Virginia. He rescinded Rizos’ invitation to a private dinner and returned the $5,000 donation she made to his group, American Solutions for Winning the Future.
The question of whether a romantic relationship between a judge and prosecutor is unfair won’t be decided by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
The issue in the capital murder case of Charles Dean Hood roiled the legal community last summer, but the Court ruled Wednesday it would not consider the issue because defense attorneys did not raise it initially.
Defense attorney David Dow called the decision by Texas’ highest criminal court “gutless.”
“Let’s open our Bibles,” the veteran Plano ISD teacher tells students daily at two public high schools in the district. And it’s legal for her to do it. A new state law requires that Texas public schools incorporate Bible literacy into the curriculum.
But the law provides no specific guidelines, funding for materials or teacher training. So high schools are left scrambling to figure out what to teach and how to teach it. A handful of North Texas districts are offering an elective class, but most are choosing instead to embed Old and New Testament teachings into current classes.
Such broad parameters leave one of the most controversial topics in public schools virtually unregulated, say religious scholars and confused educators. They warn that the nebulous law may have thwarted its purpose – to examine the Bible’s influence in history and literature.
“Asking a school district to teach a course or include material in a course without providing them any guidance or resources is like sending a teacher into a minefield without a map,” said Mark Chancey, an associate professor of religious studies at Southern Methodist University and author of the report “Teaching the Bible in Texas Public Schools.”
A groundswell of parent opposition to President Barack Obama’s speech next week to students on the importance of education has forced many North Texas school districts to question whether to air it live in classrooms.
Obama announced the speech weeks ago, but opposition and concerns spread rapidly Wednesday morning through conservative social networking Web sites and radio talk shows.
By midday, local school districts say, they were inundated with hundreds of phone calls from parents urging them to not show Obama’s speech at school.
Some parents threatened to keep their children home from school if the video was aired.
AUSTIN – Dallas leads the nation in the percentage of teen births that aren’t the mother’s first delivery, a nonpartisan national research group finds in a new report.
Dallas had the highest percentage of teen births that are repeat births – 28 percent – among 73 major U.S. cities in 2006, the latest year for which city-level data are available.
Texas has the highest repeat rate of any state – 23 percent of teen births. And five of the 15 worst-ranked cities are in Texas, according to the group Child Trends, in a report to be released Wednesday.
Hey Jerry, were was the blue star in the middle of the field?
Before the game the news showed a man walking down every row with a laptop with three cell phones strapped to the computer to test cell phone coverage. The laptop was GPS enabled, and if there was a weak area, the GPS marked the location.
Nothing like the Cowboys opening the stadium with a play that resulted in a penalty.
It’s amazing that the first Cowboys game in Texas Stadium wasn’t a preseason game, but a mid-season regular season game. That’s right, the Cowboys opened the season in the Cotton Bowl and them moved to Texas Stadium.
I can’t stand that damn Fox robot.
The players seemed genuinely excited about playing in the new place, and a lot of them actually seemed to car even though it was just the second preseason game of the season.
I noticed that some of the numbers on the field looked different. The 20 isn’t as curvy and the new 40 is skinnier. It’s like the numbers worked out, lost weight, and toned up.
There are hints of Texas Stadium in the new place. Other than the hole in the roof, you can see some stars on the walls around the field, but only in the endzone.
This time lapse is pretty cool. From tearing down all the Paul McCartney stage and equipment to laying down the field.
FORT WORTH — Onstage before thousands of believers weighed down by debt and economic insecurity, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland and their all-star lineup of “prosperity gospel” preachers delighted the crowd with anecdotes about the luxurious lives they had attained by following the Word of God.
Private airplanes and boats. A motorcycle sent by an anonymous supporter. Vacations in Hawaii and cruises in Alaska. Designer handbags. A ring of emeralds and diamonds.
“God knows where the money is, and he knows how to get the money to you,” preached Mrs. Copeland, dressed in a crisp pants ensemble like those worn by C.E.O.’s.
Even in an economic downturn, preachers in the “prosperity gospel” movement are drawing sizable, adoring audiences. Their message — that if you have sufficient faith in God and the Bible and donate generously, God will multiply your offerings a hundredfold — is reassuring to many in hard times.
