Bag of Randomness
Friday, October, 9, 2026

Well, if Trump is looking for a way to fire up his base, I suppose a livestream death execution is one way to do it.

Speaking of the death penalty, and I’m not even advocating for or aginst it, but I’m trying to imagine what it’s like living the majority of your life with a death sentence hanging over you. Then, the moment comes. I imagine the night before would be horrid. Then, being strapped down on a table, saying your goodbyes, and finally accepting your fate. The emotional turmoil of thinking these are the last seconds of your life, only to wake up outside of prison walls and ultimately contemplating if you’d be forced to go through that again.

Oh, happy Friday, folks!

There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that the Cowboys were going to play awful last night. When everyone is overwhelmingly picking them to blow out a winless team with an undrafted quarterback, it just had the makings of an underperformance. Heck, the game looked like a live stream of an execution of America’s Team.

Despite the outcome last night, it was interesting watching Deak Presco

Likewise, the Longhorns should win tomorrow, but all the makings of a rivalry upset are there. I’ve seen it too many times being on the other side of a rivalry.

Speaking of which, even though this was Vince Young’s first play in the Red River Rivalry, the Longhorns still lost.

Somewhat related, and in some ways more impressive, was Arch Manning’s first play against the Aggies, a 15-yard rushing touchdown on a fourth-and-two. It’s the making of a legend.

Oldie, but a goodie. And, not AI generated.

I’ll be honest, I was totally unfamiliar with the term “receivership.”

Vanderbilt Divinity School is under receivership. No one seems to know why

(RNS) — One of the nation’s most prestigious divinity schools has been placed in receivership, leading to speculation that the school might close or change drastically.

“After careful consideration, including an independent review, we have placed our Divinity School in receivership as a mechanism for renewal,” a spokesperson for Vanderbilt University told RNS in an email. “Over the next two years we will work to position the school for long-term success, investment and growth.”

Details about the receivership have been hard to come by. There has been no public announcement and little comment from the university’s leadership outside of news reports, leading to speculation among alumni that the school would close.

Link

I feel so sorry that most of the nation also has to suffer Texas political ads by the GOP.

Why Ken Paxton, and his wife, were all over your TV on NFL Sunday

Why? In short, it’s actually cheaper to pay for an ad the whole country will see rather than advertising just to Texans.

The cost to air a single 30-second spot in the big four Texas markets (Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin) during Cowboys-Texans was more than *$2M*

I forgot this was the same game that Payton made that beautiful goal-line leap into the end zone with his feet tucked to his chest.

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Friday, October, 9, 2026

Bag of Randomness
Monday, October 5, 2026

I remember playing Tecmo Bowl against one of my brother’s friends late one evening. He made a flippant comment when I decided to go for it on fourth down that has stuck with me ever since: “Landry would have punted.” For the last 40 years, I’ve looked for opportunities to say it. It never applied better than yesterday, when Dallas head coach Brian Schottenheimer chose to kick a field goal late in the first half. The field goal fell short, giving the Texans great field position and allowing them to score before the half.

It’s tough watching Pam Oliver do sideline reporting. Her speech is severely impacted, and my heart goes out to her. As for her condition, the only information I can find online is that she suffers from serious migraines. I’m no doctor, but it seems like it’s gotta be something more than just migraines.

That juke was so good he broke the other guy’s ankles.

Dakota Johnson hosted SNL and turned 37 at midnight. According to this Buzzfeed writer,

In 52 years of SNL history, three celebs started hosting on their actual birthday: Rob Lowe, Calista Flockhart, and Peyton Manning, while another four hosted on their birthday after midnight: Ellen Burstyn, Chevy Chase, Ashton Kutcher, and now Dakota

CBS and Tony Romo have parted ways. His job went to JJ Watt. I thought this was an underrated tweet.

The story behind the tradition:

 

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Monday, October 5, 2026

Bag of Randomness
Friday, October 2, 2026

It feels good to be employed. Today will be two full weeks. It’s challenging, and it’s making me push myself. That’s a good thing, but it’s also scary as hell. It can be hard to prove yourself, especially when your work deals with abstract and subjective stuff.

For the last two weeks, my trivia team has been trying a new venue in a nice area of Trophy Club. During the first week, the restroom sinks didn’t work. Their solution, provide hand sanitizer. Granted, it’s better than nothing, but I didn’t like it. But hey, maybe it was an off night.

One week later, their restroom sinks still didn’t have running water. How the heck can a restaurant in a nice area not have functioning restroom sinks? No hand sanitizer this time, but you’ll love their workaround.

Back in June, I requested my father’s military records from the National Archives. On Wednesday, they finally arrived in the mail. The records of his 28 combined years in the Navy and then the Army measure a bit under three-and-a-half inches.

I couldn’t wait to go through them. But what’s this, The X-Files?!

Speaking of X-Files-type stuff, this story absolutely fascinates me, as I admire this jet like no other.

Keep in mind that bird first flew in 1964. That’s over 60 years ago. There’s no telling what top-secret aircraft look and perform like now.

The big aviation news this week was the FlyDubai flight in which the copilot stabbed the pilot and tried to take down the jet. The plumber who leveled the plane to keep it from crashing gets flights for life, right? Didn’t a pair of off-duty pilots who were passengers land it? They also get something, right? Something better than standby?

On Twitter, Bob Sturm posted these photos from his recent trip to Grapevine Mills Mall after seeing a family rent three of them. It sadly reminded me of Pixar’s WALL-E. The future appears to be a mixture of that and Idiocracy.

I wonder if they have any discretionary income.

Pentagon launches Office of Religious Affairs, will report directly to Hegseth

A slate of Democrats are running for Congress leaning on their Christian bona fides. Republicans are trying to portray them as wolves in sheep’s clothing.

For those keeping track: next Congress likely will have three Democratic pastors:

* Warnock
* Emanuel Cleaver (long-time incumbent)
* Haynes (first-time congressman)

Four other pastors/seminarians are in close races:

* James Talarico
* Sarah Trone Garriott
* Lindsay James
* Adam Hamilton

Exclusive: Texas public schools could lose $227M from voucher exodus, estimate shows

Rural Texas school districts are poised to lose millions of dollars in funding this year after thousands of students reported using vouchers to leave for private or home schools, according to a new analysis of state data.

Across the state, at least 28,200 public school students took a voucher, an estimated loss of at least $227 million in state funding for their public districts.

Large urban-area school districts have seen the most students leave. But the effect could be felt more acutely among hundreds of smaller school districts, where losing a handful of students can have a dramatic effect on the budget.

There’s even an interactive map. Here’s my hometown.

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Friday, October 2, 2026

Bag of Randomness
Monday, September 28, 2028

“Enterance”? Sent from a good friend in Abilene. Have to admit, I missed it at first.

The Cowboys played the Ravens in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil yesterday. CBS showed a graphic that surprised me. It’s farther to fly directly from Dallas to Rio than from Baltimore. I would have thought differently since Dallas is further south. I can’t find the graphic, but a quick Google search states that a direct flight from Dallas is about 5,221 miles, while Baltimore is 4,781 miles.

It’s a complete shock to me that the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders have to wash to own uniforms. I figured the Cowboys would want to do that to ensure nothing is ruined and to keep uniformity.

 

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Don’t think I’ll ever get over the loneliness I feel when there’s football on and nobody to watch it with me. I wish I could forget what it was like to be surrounded by family or friends munching on grub and watching games on Sundays.

The Longhorns might be the number one ranked team in the country, but I don’t think they are a strong number one. However, Bob Sturm made a good point when he tweeted, “Road wins in the SEC – Don’t ask questions. Just get showered and on the plane. Survival is key.”

On Friday, I wrote about Stark stating that when a sitting president is at a game and moves locations, all communications is cut off, and that’s something that the coaching staff has to plan for. During the game, ESPN added to it, stating there should be no communication issues, only for the audio to immediately crap out on them. It’s almost like an SNL skit.

Going into this game, both universities were teasing each other about who the real UT was and the proper shade of orange. After the game, the University of Texas settled the debate on Xitter.

It was a bit of a golden weekend for the Longhorns, with them winning and both Oklahoma and aTm losing. Here are the last times that have happened according to Perplexity, excluding any head-to-head matchups.

 

Aggie Yell Leaders are near the top of the stupidest things in the history of ever. LSU players mocking them with their own antics to their faces is hilarious.

And just to pile on, this made me laugh.

Everyone seemed to appreciate Verlander’s last time walking away from the mound as a professional baseball player.

On U2’s 50th birthday, or the day the band was actually founded, they played random gigs around Dublin. The first stop was at their old school, where it all started with their first performance.

During One, they even got some students playing stringed instruments involved. Pretty cool, pretty, pretty cool.

The audio isn’t great, but they played a full hour at Grafton Street; you can watch it here. The set list was interesting. The Edge honored Glen Hansard with a solo performance.

Bono was interviewed about the experience and said the band felt honored that their homeland still appreciated them, because he understands how annoying he can be over the last 50 years; it’s like winning the World Cup.

Maybe not the most, but it’s up there.

Kyle Chandler’s jacket in Lanterns has caught the eye of a lot of folks. Men’s Health has a write-up about it. It’s an RRL jacket, one of Ralph Lauren’s higher-end brands, and is

named after his ranch. It will also set you back $690 and is out of stock unless you wear XXL.

I’ve been keeping a close eye on this race; I’ve been a big fan of Adam Hamilton for a while.

Link

Former Kansas GOP governor explains why he’s backing Democrat Adam Hamilton for Senate

Emerson College / KSN Poll (September 2018/21, 2026): Shows Hamilton leading narrowly with 45% (or 44.8%) to Marshall’s 43% (or 43.3%), with Libertarian candidate David Graham at 4%. The lead falls within the margin of error.

Karl Rove has had enough of Ken Paxton.

I wasn’t familiar with the license plates he mentioned and had to ask Grok for clarification.

In Texas, specialty State Official plates carry the distinguishing prefix “SO.” They are issued by rank/order of office: Governor (typically SO 1), Lieutenant Governor (SO 2), Speaker of the House (SO 3), then the Attorney General (SO 4 or equivalent in the sequence), followed by other statewide officials and legislators. These plates identify the vehicle as belonging to a state official; they do not grant special driving privileges such as immunity from traffic laws.
Rove referenced them in the context of Ken Paxton’s 2023 impeachment-related scandals. He noted that Paxton drove a vehicle with these official/state plates, which made discreet visits (“assignations”) to one of his alleged mistresses (Laura Olson/Laura Olsen) difficult because the plates made the car easily recognizable as the AG’s. According to Rove (drawing from impeachment materials), a donor/business associate (Nate Paul) arranged a fake Uber account under a false name (“David P.” or “Dave P.”) as a workaround so Paxton could travel more anonymously. The Uber records later surfaced in the impeachment proceedings.
This detail is significant because it underscores the personal and alleged corruption issues Rove cited as baggage for Paxton’s 2026 Senate campaign: extramarital affairs, home renovations paid for by a donor, favors allegedly done in return, and the use of official perks alongside cover-ups involving that donor. Rove presented it as making a normally safe Republican seat in Texas competitive against Democrat James Talarico.
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Monday, September 28, 2028