Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, August 17, 2022

  • This blog is best viewed using Netscape Navigator.
  • One of last night’s trivia team names was Olivia Newton Gone.
  • McGriddles have been out since 2003. I’ve always refused to order one because it seemed to be everything wrong with America. This is how the sausage, egg, and cheese version is described on their website, “Sausage, Egg & Cheese McGriddles feature soft, warm griddle cakes—with the sweet taste of maple—that hold a fluffy folded egg, savory sausage, and melty American cheese“. Well, yesterday after my doctor’s appointment, I ordered an Egg McMuffin, but instead a McGriddle was in my bag. What the heck, I gave it a try, and it was glorious. I couldn’t even finish all of it because it would have just felt wrong. Heck, I think I experienced the seven deadly sins upon first bite. I doubt I’d ever order one again,
  • Longtime Dallas Cowboys radio announcer Brad Sham turned 74 yesterday. America recently lost Vin Scully. There’s no telling how much longer Sham will be with the Dallas Cowboys Radio Network. He seems to be in good health and enjoys doing the good, but I’m just saying we should appreciate what we have while we still can.
  • In this article about 38-year-old L.A. Rams Super Bowl winning coach Sean McVay, it states his alma mater, Miami University in Ohio, will announce that it’s going to build a statue of him. First off, I always get a kick about an announcement about a future announcement. Just go ahead and make the announcement. There’s no need for a pre-announcement or warm-up announcement. Second, here we go again with statues. Nowadays, there are too many life-size or larger statues of people, who in this reporter’s eyes, shouldn’t get until later in life. A statue should be reserved for someone who’s in or about to retire, or their achievement happened a significant amount of time ago. It’s silly Heisman Trophy winners are getting life-size statues within a handful of years of winning the trophy. Here’s an example of an organization doing something too soon. Tampa Bay not only made a life-size statue of John Gruden, but put him in their ring of honor At the time, he was the youngest head coach to win a Super Bowl (McVay took that honor last year) and won the organization their first championship. Gruden got run out of coaching after the NFL revealed he made racist, misogynistic, and homophobic slurs. Tampa Bay removed him from their ring of honor, but I can’t find anything about the statue, which is/was inside their team headquarters.
  • Gillespie County loses all elections department staff
  • Texas teachers top the nation for out-of-pocket spending, new report shows

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Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, August 16, 2022

  • I recall an old Johnny Carson joke about the fatwa on Salman Rushdie. Something about him having the unfortunate last name, Rush-die.
  • Alfred Hitchcock Refused To Meet Steven Spielberg When He Was Alive
    • But this failure to get together was not from want of trying on Spielberg’s behalf. In his audio book Tales of Hollywood, storyteller Stephen Schochet explains that Hitchcock’s morning routine was once “upset by an uninvited young man hovering around the movie set” of his last film Family Plot’, released in 1976. The infamous director of Psycho and The Birds” is said to have called a crew member to have the trespasser removed. According to Schochet, that intruder was Spielberg, buoyed by the success of Jaws and anxious to meet his idol.Throughout his later life, Hitchcock repeatedly refused to meet Spielberg. The reason for his reluctance was only revealed when American actor Bruce Dern, who appeared in two of Hitchcock’s films including psychological thriller Marnie, released his autobiography. Dern says that he tried to convince Hitchcock to finally introduce himself to Spielberg: “I said, ‘You’re his idol. He just [wants] to sit at your feet for five minutes and chat with you’,” but Hitchcock refused, writes Dern. “He said, ‘Isn’t that the boy who made the fish movie?… I could never sit down and talk to him… because I look at him and feel like such a whore’.”
  • Maybe it’s because I’m from this area, but I was surprised to know some people thought Half-Priced Books started in Austin. Either way, she turns 50.
  • In keeping with the squirrel theme this week (I bet Texas squirrels make fun of NYC squirrels who complain about the heat just like us human Texans) – City tells New Yorkers: don’t panic about ‘splooting’ squirrels – Yes, it’s a real word. Here’s the science (and etymology) behind
    • This week, with temperatures reaching 95F (35C), the city’s parks department urged residents not to worry about the health of squirrels seen sprawling on the ground, legs extended behind them like a person whose arms gave out halfway through a yoga class. “On hot days, squirrels keep cool by splooting (stretching out) on cool surfaces to reduce body heat,” the department tweeted.
  • Primary care doctors would need more than 24 hours in a day to provide recommended care – If they followed national recommendation guidelines for preventive care, chronic disease care and acute care, it would take a primary care physician 26.7 hours per day to see an average number of patients, a new study finds.
  • The windshield wipers on this RV fascinate me.
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Bag of Randomness for Monday, August 15, 2022

  • Yesterday was the blessing of the backpacks at our church. Parents were asked to walk with their children to the front of the church. I chose to stay seated, even though I wanted to go up and stand next to my son and daughter. But I feared my ex may claim I’m not being respectful of her space and boundaries.
  • Today would have been my mother’s 75th birthday. When she died, she didn’t have a single gray or white strand of hair. Today is also the birthday of this blog. She turns 17.
  • It’s hatch chili pepper season. I forgot how spicey those things can get, even in a bowl of queso.
  • I didn’t know Emmitt Smith and his wife divorced a little while back.
  • In Utah, no child support, no hunting or fishing
  • Texas congressman swears off ‘eating a whole plate of dog penis’ again 
    • Jackson explained that he first tried the dish in South Korea, so he could potentially be referring to “Gaebul,” the word for a phallic-shaped fish eaten in South Korea that translates to “penis fish,” according to Travel Food Atlas.

  • https://twitter.com/TheFigen/status/1558793513122275329

  • I spoke to a few friends about the following Mark Rober squirrel YouTube video. If you aren’t familiar with Rober, he quit his job at NASA to make YouTube videos like this full time. He’s done well, as a matter of fact, he guest-hosted for Jimmy Kimmel last week. 

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Bag of Randomness for Friday, August 12, 2022

  • John Smoltz’s father died yesterday and John still announced the Field of Dreams game on Fox last night. There’s no way I could do that without crying.
  • I met a lady through a dating app for dinner last night. We decided to start a friendship. She’s pretty darn interesting.
  • One thing I’m starting to notice in recent Beto town hall photos are the spectators have gray or white hair. His demographic used to be much younger.
  • A Granbury mom’s campaign to ban library books divided her town — and her family
  • Google to stop giving answers to silly questions
    • Google will stop giving snappy answers to stupid questions, the company has announced, as it seeks to improve its search engine’s “featured snippets” service. That means users should see fewer answers to questions such as “When did Snoopy assassinate Abraham Lincoln?”, to which the service would once merrily respond with “1865” – the right date, but very much the wrong assassin.
  • Sad if this is true.

  • This should help explain flash flood season.

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