I told a friend the other day that you are only truly over something if you can understand what you learned from it or describe how it made you stronger. I don’t know where I pulled that from or if it’s true, but it came out of my mouth, so I guess I believe it.
I hear Mineral Wells will become a 4A school. I don’t think it’s been 4A since I graduated in 1994.
I’m not sure what rock I’ve been under, but I knew nothing about the 1980 axe killing of Betty Gore in Wiley, TX, until late last week. And that’s only because, as a Jesse Plemons fan, I saw Love & Death in the top 10 on Netflix and decided to give it a try. Interesting that the series came out in 2023 on HBO Max. Probably more interesting, there was a 2022 Hulu series about it starring Jessica Beil and a 1990 CBS movie about the ordeal, all based on a Texas Monthly article and book.
I don’t know if I’ll watch the Hulu series, but Love & Death really captivated me, and I was impressed by the supporting cast’s acting. In particular, Tom Pelphrey‘s portrayal of Don Crowder, who successfully defended Candy Montgomery’s 41 axe chops on Betty Gore as an act of self-defense despite being a civil lawyer and never being a part of a criminal trial. I was also impressed by Bruce McGill‘s portrayal as the judge. He’s an overlooked character actor, who you might know best as the sheriff in My Cousin Vinny.
Where is Candy Montgomery today? Short story, but she’s now working as a certified family counselor in Georgia. Yeah, go figure.
And you know me, I like to do a deep dive after a movie. I was shocked by how heavy Plemons was in the series and how much weight he lost while promoting it.
I wonder how 99-year-old Mel Brooks is dealing with the news of the murder of the son of his best friend and his wife. Carl Reiner passed away only five years ago.
Carl Reiner gave Rob Reiner a copy of The Princess Bride, and Rob Reiner loved it and its father/son love story so much he turned it into a movie (with a grandfather and grandson). Three days before Carl’s death in 2020, he and Rob reenacted the final scene and “As you wish” pic.twitter.com/kxxYKYRF2r
— Jenna Guillaume (@JennaGuillaume) December 15, 2025
I subscribe to the daily Arnold Schwarzenegger newsletter. It’s short and provides some good tidbits on improving physical and mental health. I thought I’d share this tidbit about the importance of taking at least one 10-15 minute walk a day, especially if you are like me and have trouble getting steps in at all.
How Long You Walk Might Matter More Than Step Count
A study tracking 33,000 adults for nearly 8 years found that walks lasting at least 10-15 minutes significantly reduced heart disease and mortality risk, even when total daily steps stayed the same. For people averaging fewer than 5,000 steps daily, a single 15-minute walk provided stronger cardiovascular protection than multiple shorter bursts, likely because sustained movement activates insulin sensitivity and vascular function that brief walks don’t trigger.
While watching the Army-Navy game, which USAA heavily sponsors, I heard what I thought was the late James Garner (1928-2014) voicing one of their current ads about the upcoming year 2026. It turns out I’m not alone.
A good friend in Canada keeps me informed of some interesting trends.
- Tourism from Canada to Mexico is up 11.3% this year. That is 200,000 people.
- United States tourism from Canada is down 24%.
- Las Vegas is down 50%. New York City is down 46%, Honolulu is down 41%, and Florida is down 22%.
“Since the election of Trump and the insults that he placed on our country, 51st state and all of that garbage, we decided that no, we’re not going to spend money down there,” Birt said.
“We’ve had rumors of people being mistreated, or where they see your licence plate they tell you ‘North is that way.’ We’ve never run into that, but we didn’t want to support an economy and a government situation that was basically cruel and mean to us and wanted to take us over.
I meant to post this remarkable story last week. Talk about a heck of a family secret.
In 1994 Christine Kuehn received a letter that revealed a family history from which her father had tried to shield her: Christine’s grandfather, Otto, was a Nazi spy who was the only person tried and convicted for the bombing of Pearl Harbor. David Martin talks with Kuehn about her German family conducting World War II-era espionage, a tale she recounts in her new book, “Family of Spies.”
And I don’t understand how you go from the firing squad to serving just four years of hard labor and then being deported to your homeland. What the heck was Hoover thinking?
A University Park mansion spanning close to 13,000 square feet recently sold for $30.5 million, the priciest home sale in Texas this year.
Where people moved to (and from) in 2025 (Article and interactive map)
The Mega Marvin instrument is used to create cinematic sounds for horror movies and games. Here’s a short film on the making of the instrument. He named it after his grandfather, mainly because of a hand-me-down welder he gifted him.