Presidential Pew

From left to right, you have President John F. Kennedy, then VP and future president Lyndon Johnson, and retired presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Harry S. Truman all sitting in a church pew.

Any guesses to where this photo was taken?

If your guess was somewhere near Washington, then you’re wrong.  And if you guessed somewhere overseas, you’re still wrong.

This photo was taken at First Baptist Church in the tiny North Texas town of Bonham at Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn’s funeral.

Read more about this photo and event in this Dallas Morning News article that I somehow missed when it came out in November 2010.

Posted in Interesting, Political, Pop Culture, Texas | 2 Comments

Bag of Randomness

  • I think it’s clear that President Obama has been too focused on protecting the U.S. and hunting down terrorists like Osama bin Laden and Abu Hafs al-Shahri and not watching out for black artists in the music industry.  Under Obama’s watch we have lost the likes of Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Don Cornelius, Heavy D, Etta James, Clarence Clemons, Nate Dogg, and Teddy Pendergrass.  Who else should we point the blame?  It’s on you, Mr President.
  • Houston’s rendition of the national anthem is rated as one of the best, but many don’t know that she lip-synced the entire thing.  But hey, it still was her voice.
  • A death at a relatively young age is sad for such an icon, but seriously, from everything that has been reported about her over the past five or so years, it wasn’t that much of a surprise.
  • I thought it was interesting that her ex-husband, upon hearing of her death, still decided to perform at his scheduled concert later that night.  It was stated that he didn’t want to let down the fans and that if he didn’t perform, he’d be inconsolable, but part of me wonders if he needed to be with his 19-year-old daughter.  There’s YouTube video of him breaking down on stage.
  • I didn’t catch a lot of the Grammys, but I thought it was pretty cool of the music industry trying to give the Alzheimer stricken Glen Campbell a sendoff.
  • Every year I have to look this up.  Record of the Year is awarded for a single or for one track from an album.  Album of the Year is awarded for a whole album, and the award is presented to the artist, producer, and recording engineer for that album.
  • For the first time in a long time I watched Back to the Future all the way through.  Perhaps my favorite unnoticed bit of trivia about the movie is change of the mall sign.
  • On Saturday night we ate at the Fuddruckers in Grapevine and found that my old team and a bunch of others from Fidelity were having an event there, many of them I haven’t seen since I left about four years ago.  In a weird sort of way, it felt a little like heaven, a bunch of people coming to great me with smiles on their faces telling me how good it was to see me and doing a lot of reconnecting.  I think most of us get to reconnect with people on a one-on-one basis, but I don’t think being able to reconnect with a room full of people happens all that often.
  • As of Friday, and for the second consecutive week, WifeGeeding is still dilated to a three.
  • I’ve been taking a lot of afternoon naps just in case I have to stay up really late like I had to do for the birth of DaughterGeeding.
  • Before WifeGeeding’s appointment on that Friday we decided to eat breakfast at the IHOP at 635/MacArthur and saw former Apprentice contestant Gene Folkes.  You may recall that several years back he actually came to my house as a representative of Edward Jones going door-to-door.
  • Texas Ranger Derek Holland does the weather on WFAA
  • At 5pm my daughter comes home from school and five minutes before … someone is looking at the school bus stop.
  • Wakeboarding with dolphins
  • The 12-year-old who saved his grandmother from foreclosure
  • Local weatherman Ron Jackson was reading weather updates from his iPad.
  • Is Adele this year’s Norah Jones?
  • After what Nicki Minaj did last night at the Grammy’s, that is, her date on the red carpet and her performance, I don’t think she won over the Catholic church.
  • A picture of a non-violent protester being trained not to be provoked, but this one hits me harder for some reason.
  • Shamrock Shakes at McDonalds
  • This underwater perspective photo of a dog jumping into the water makes me laugh.
  • An online petition to have Weird Al perform at the Super Bowl.
  • A Supercut of James Lipton’s Most Absurd Questions
  • I’m not a fan of the double popsicle, they never break apart right and were awkward to eat.
  • In the middle of the word “homeowner” is the word “meow”.
  • Whitney Houston’s isolated vocal on How Will I Know is quite impressive.
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