Living on the edge

I’m one of those drivers where if I look to see what’s on my left, I’ll slowly start veering that way, which means I could never drive on that “road”.

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Bag of Randomness

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  • I caught the Bob Schieffer  ’48 Hours’ special on JFK on Saturday night.  He interviewed Jim Lehrer who was a reporter for the Dallas Times-Herald at the time.  Lehrer station it was a rainy morning that day in Dallas but the skies cleared up.  He noticed the presidential limo had the protective bubble on it and casually asked a Secret Service ask if they were going to keep the top on the car.  The agent looked up at the sky and then told his crew to remove the top.
  • Schieffer was a reporter for the Star Telegram and was working in the office during the assignation.  A woman called and asked for a ride to the Dallas police station and he told her this wasn’t a taxi service and then she informed him that she was the mother of Oswald.  Man, what an amazing catalyst of an event to start a young reporter’s career.
  • I’ve seen a lot of JFK assassination material over the years, but I never saw the film of Air Force One arriving at Andrews Air Force Base.  You see RFK running up the steps running past and not evening recognizing or acknowledging LBJ, the new President of the United States, to get to Jackie.
  • I guess I never thought it about it before, but as JFK’s coffin was being transported into the ambulance at Andrews it wasn’t at all ceremonial, today you would expect to see a ceremonial military unit transfer the body just like you do when soldiers killed in action come home.
  • I guess LBJ’s best speech was his first as President at Andrews.  It was brilliant in it’s brevity and poignancy.  He handled everything exceptionally well that day, taking into context the imagery and message that the Constitution lives on, that they killed out president, but not our country.
  • There always seems to be new technology introduced to test if Oswald was the lone gunman.  In that show, the technology used was enough for me to believe that Oswald at least connected on one of the shots, the “magic bullet”.
  • I hope we never lose a president by assassination again, actually I hope a president doesn’t die in office.  In today’s world with Twitter, Facebook, blogs and comments on news articles, the ugliness would be unbearable.
  • It’s amazing when you think about it, how the Texas Schoolbook Depository build is still standing all these years.  Some say one reason it still stands is that democracy demand an accurate history, not one to erase and create on our own.
  • As a fan of presidential history and the like, I do find it interesting that when a person becomes president-elect and before the swearing in, they and their spouse take part in preparing their funeral, just in case.  After all that time of campaigning and the anticipation and planning of leading a nation, that has to be pretty sobering.
  • In an interview in his twilight years Gerald Ford showed a reporter two stacks of letters.  The small stack were letters about his presidency, the huge stack were letters about his role on the Warren Commission.
  • A lot of us gripe about how the news is reported today, that when something happens, a crew is sent out and then just states the obvious without any real reporting.  That got me to thinking about how Cronkite reported the death of Kennedy and how the Oswald death was filmed live and reported, it’s really not that much different, just on a grander scale.  How much confidence could Cronkite have telling the audience accounts from reporters who got their stories from “eye-witnesses”?  When you listen to the reporters when Oswald shot it just reminded me of the crap we see today, but it was the first time we were exposed to such a thing so I guess that’s important.
  • SNL had a great skit about starting the Christmas season too early, and the opening segment b-slapped ’60 Minutes’.  That Lady Gaga is certainly out there, but she’s talented, a visionary, and one heck of an SNL host.
  • I’m not sure how I’m going to cook the turkey this year.
  • I didn’t think Johnny Manziel could keep it together this football season, that something off the field would happen or he would totally lose his cool, good for him for staying focused.  I have a feeling he’ll be the third Aggie drafted in the next NFL Draft, behind one of his linemen and WR Mike Evans.
  • I hardly caught any of the Baylor/Tech game but I did see that with thirteen minutes left in the game, Baylor leading 56-41 on Tech’s 21, and instead of kicking a field goal they decided to go for it.  Unless Baylor’s kicker was hurt, that’s just typical classless Art Briles.
  • This years Baylor team reminds me of June Jones’ 2007 Hawaii team.
  • Fox moved away from the Washington/Philadelphia game to the Detroit/Pittsburgh game in which the Lions were winning 27-20, but the Pittsburgh home stadium looked almost empty in the third quarter.  I thought the Steelers had a loyal fanbase, at least that’s what the sportscasters like to say.
  • One of the announcers for the game mentioned he had the best chicken-fried steak ever at a place called . . . Luby’s.  Luby’s!?!?!  That man has an extremely low bar for chicken-fried steaks.
  • Speaking of chicken-friend, there’s a mushroom that tastes like fried chicken.
  • Jon Oliver is leaving ‘The Daily Show’ for HBO, it’s all because HBO liked what they saw when he filled in for Stewart.
  • A spruce stove is one for those that like to cut down trees but not into logs.
  • ToiletFinder.com is shelling out cash for witty reviews of public restrooms.
  • Double Down: Game Change 2012
    • A quote in the book that has stuck with me – Don’t die on a small cross.
    • When vetting Gov Chris Christie as a potential VP, the Romney team felt Christie had such a bad past or too many skeletons in the closet that if he was running against Romney for the nomination, they would have creamed him.  From the items listed in the book, personally I don’t think they are that bad and I don’t see any reason why Christie couldn’t be the next Republican nominee.
    • When Romney became the Republican nominee he started to receive National Security briefings which made me wonder if there is any reason why a nominee would need to receive National Security briefings?  I can understand why a president-elect would, but not a nominee.
  • In Drew Carry’s Reddit Ask Me Anything he stated his big goal was to forgive everybody in advance.
  • Warren Buffet had an interesting quote about his charitable giving.  He was asked about philanthropy that didn’t work effectively and said, “If you are batting a thousand, then you are in the minor leagues.”  In other words, it’s important to challenge yourself.
  • I haven’t received my mail in my GMail account as of late and then yesterday afternoon I was flooded with email that was sent to me at least a week ago.
  • Self driving car technology has advanced almost beyond imagination.  I bet within the next ten years self-driving will be an option on a car and will replace cruise control.  I’ll go even a step further, I bet the car will be advanced enough to recognize when the driver is texting or on a call and will automatically convert to self-driving.
  • World-famous Swedish ice hotel is ordered to install smoke alarms
  • DFW’s Five Weirdest Barbecue Joints
  • The Original Sonny Bryan’s versus Mike Anderson’s in a Brisket Showdown
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Breaking Bad Season 5 – Alternate Ending – Newhart Hat-tip

At first I thought this was going to be some sort of fan made stuff used from old material from ‘Breaking Bad’ and ‘Malcolm in the Middle’ but it’s actually new footage except for the short clip at the beginning.

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