BagOfNothing.com

I feel like a bonafide dummy after discovering my latest mistake. I use GMail to check my GMail (go figure) and my BagOfNothing.com email address. You may faintly recall that back in October, my website content was transferred to an upgraded server. I thought everything transferred correctly, and I guess it did, but I didn’t realize until this week I needed to update my email settings in order to keep receiving emails sent to my BagOfNothing.com email. Because I was using GMail as my interface, I was still receiving all mail sent to my GMail address but have been unaware I haven’t received any email sent to the other address. Oddly, I was still able to send mail from my BagOfNothing email. I thought a lot of friends simply weren’t replying because the holiday season kicked in and was simply busy. I “fixed the glitch” yesterday and found I missed somewhere around a hundred and thirty emails. So, my apologies to anyone who has tried to contact me and I haven’t gotten back with you.

This video has been around since the summer but I just discovered it. The dog is so steady at Jenga you think the video froze.

I’ve never seen the president wear glasses. It’s not a sign of weakness or anything, but I can’t recall ever seeing it before. But he has worn them in public before and a few other times. He does squint a lot. I couldn’t find any pictures of the previous president wearing glasses though I’m sure I’ve seen him with readers on before. Here are pictures of W. and Clinton wearing specks.

Springfield, MA Woman Films 911 Call Chasing Kidnapper Miguel Rodriguez With 11-Year-Old Girl Driving 100 MPH Through City

Amanda Disley and her husband were driving around Springfield when she noticed someone being pushed down in the backseat of a blue Honda Civic, thought it was suspicious, followed the car and called the police. Although it’s probably not advised to lead a vigilante high-speed chase through an urban area like that if she hadn’t made that phone call Charlotte could be dead right now.

The Best and Worst Airlines in 2019, Ranked

Somehow, ranking below even low cost-carriers like Frontier and Spirit, WSJ named American Airlines the single worst airline in 2019—which may or may not come as a surprise. In three of the last five years, AA has also ranked last.

Delta earned its spot, in part, by canceling the fewest flights and bumping the fewest passengers in 2019 of all major U.S. airlines. (Delta also ranked number one in both 2017 and 2018.) Alaska and Southwest followed Delta in the rankings, coming in second and third, respectively.

New York Public Library Releases Their Top 10 Most Checked Out Books Of All Time

The most-wanted book? The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.

The Caldecott Medal-winning tale of a young boy’s encounter with snow has been checked out 485,583 times from the NYPL since it was published in 1962.

It shares qualities with many of the other most-borrowed titles: The beautifully illustrated book has been around a long time, it’s well-known and well-loved, and it’s available in numerous languages.

1. The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats: 485,583 checkouts
2. The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss: 469,650 checkouts
3. 1984 by George Orwell: 441,770 checkouts
4. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak: 436,016 checkouts
5. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: 422,912 checkouts
6. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White: 337,948 checkouts
7. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury: 316,404 checkouts
8. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie: 284,524 checkouts
9. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling: 231,022 checkouts
10. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle: 189,550 checkouts

The library also awarded an “honorable mention” to Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. That book might have been a contender for the all-time top spot, but NYPL children’s librarian Anne Carroll Moore so disliked the 1947 book that the library didn’t carry it until 1972. That late entry kept the book off the top 10 list — for now.

While praising Jimmy Johnson on Instagram, “I’ve learned though in [sic] life is we remember those who make us better.” I agree with that, but one would also have to realize those who make us better are not always our friends or cohorts, often they are those we loath or fight against.

One major reason college football has an attendance problem is that their games are too damn long. Not only are the games too damn long, but their season is too damn on. The first FBS team kicked had their first game on Aug 24, 142 days ago. That’s pretty demanding for a ‘student-athlete’. You might as well tack on another 23 days since most of the SEC had players reporting to fall camp on Aug first. And to think there was a time when no student had to miss any school because any bowl game or championship was played during winter break.

ABC pays $1.1 billion annually for Monday Night Football. The GOAT Jeopardy! broadcasts beat out every MNF game this year except one (Data from @ApexMarketing) pic.twitter.com/DB8wug7Lqv

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) January 10, 2020

Governor Abbott Says Texas Is Finished Building Highways

“The bottom line is this: The way people get around, the way people live is going to change,” Abbott said, according to the Rivard Report. “As a result, this generation of roads that [Texas Transportation Commission Chairman] Bruce Bugg is in charge of building is probably the last major buildout of roads we’ll have in the state of Texas, even considering the fact that Texas is the fastest-growing state in America.”

Full DMagazine.com Article

The Most Popular Memes of the Decade (2011 – 2020)

Space Force Bible blessing spurs protest

Here’s an under-rated cartoon character – Hippety Hopper.

In a recent interview, Burt Ward, who portrayed Batman’s sidekick “Robin” in the old television series, stated ABC pointed something out to him.

Apparently, the snug-fitting costume worn by Ward’s Robin — the sidekick of Adam West’s Batman — on the ’60s TV show drew the ire of the Catholic League of Decency. “They thought that Robin had a very large bulge for television,” the actor said in an interview with Page Six. As Ward tells it, the issue became such a concern for ABC that the network had him go see a doctor, who prescribed pills “to shrink me up.”

I’m not one to trust fair rides, the “malfunction” starts at the 1:26 mark.

Never eat alone. pic.twitter.com/ijCz97N0qN

— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) January 13, 2020

Here’s your next internet challenge.

View post on imgur.com

Snowfall doesn’t happen often around these parts so it’s always special to see the excitement in a child’s eyes. It would have been more fun if it was on a school day and seeing their face when Michael Irvin announces no classes. Only fellow TICKET listeners would understand.

I’m happy to hear Jimmy Johnson will be inducted into Pro Football Hall of Fame. It’s impossible to tell the history of pro football without Johnson, so he was always a ‘yes’ for me. Similar to what happened with Bill Cowher on Saturday, Johnson was told live on air that he’d be going in.

The Hall of Fame broke tradition to tell Bill Cowher and Jimmy Johnson they’re in. It was great

Johnson had to know something was up when the president of the hall of fame walked in, since he was on set across the country NYC the day before for Cowher. But unlike the Cowher announcement, we got to see one of his players, Troy Aikman, peek in on the announcement. No, it’s time to get Jimmy in the Ring of Honor.

Incredible moment.

Legendary @dallascowboys coach @JimmyJohnson finds out live on TV he is the newest member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame! pic.twitter.com/GK3jlSlWRz

— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) January 13, 2020

Don’t let the headline fool you, people are interested and devoted, they simply aren’t attending games.

Sports Illustrated – Why Is College Football Attendance Tanking?

From 2014 to ’18, attendance across the FBS fell by 7.6%. Last year, on average, 41,856 fans went to games. That’s the lowest turnout since 1996; even major programs like Ohio State, Virginia Tech and Ole Miss suffered declines of greater than 5%. The NCAA has yet to release its full report on 2019’s numbers, but pictures of nearly-empty stadiums, from big to small programs, popped up every fall weekend on Twitter. During bowl season, as games moved to neutral sites, the stands were so empty it looked more like spring football. Even athletic directors will openly admit it: College football is facing an attendance crisis.

While the pews might be emptying out, devotion is not diminishing. A 2018 Gallup Poll found that Americans care about college football more than any professional sport besides the NFL. And while TV ratings fell in recent years, they’re once again on the rise. People care and people watch. They just aren’t going as they once did.

If she accepts the duties of her role have been rolled back, then perhaps her salary should be cut back twenty to thirty percent.

Press secretary responds to complaints about not holding briefings

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham has rebuffed a recent CNN opinion piece from 13 former White House press secretaries, foreign service and military officials arguing for the return of daily press briefings.

Grisham has yet to hold a single briefing since taking the role of President Donald Trump’s chief spokeswoman in July, deciding instead to participate in interviews with friendly conservative television outlets like Fox News and One America News Network. Scrutiny over the lack of briefings has heightened in recent weeks amid escalating tensions with Iran.

Prior to the Trump administration, regular press briefings were the norm for decades. Under previous administrations, including Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, the White House and State Department held daily or almost daily briefings.

Scientists give cuttlefish 3D glasses and shrimp films for vision study

A team of researchers have strapped a pair of 3D glasses to an unsuspecting cuttlefish and set it loose in an underwater movie theatre to work out how the marine molluscs know how far away their prey is before launching an explosive, tentacled attack

I'm certainly not one to whitewash George W. Bush's legacy, but I stumbled across this video clip from about a decade ago. It's pretty striking as a comparison to Trump. In 2011, Bush warned about — and denounced — everything that Trump stands for. pic.twitter.com/qkn2aCibgX

— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) January 11, 2020

BoingBoing.net – Footage of traumatized moviegoers walking out of The Exorcist in 1973

I’m still battling chronic hiccups and an upper respiratory infection. My apologies for the lack of posts.

I’d like to think one measure of a head football coach’s success is that he left the program better than he found it. With that benchmark in mind, I’m not sure if Jason Garrett passes that test. But man, how lucky was he to coach the team he wanted for a full decade. You shouldn’t feel sorry for the man, he got his chance. When I look at former Baylor coach Matt Rule, he certainly left the program in better shape than he found it. Some fans feel like he’s been looking for a way out since he arrived, but I’d like to respectfully disagree. If I have my facts right, he never sought out any offers, they came to him. He was so well regarded, he didn’t need to look for anything, he just had to entertain offers.

I see a lot of my fellow P1s are concerned about a disturbance in the force, with the retirement of the Old Grey Wolf. Us humans aren’t used to adjusting to things we expect to always be there. I’ll say his announcement didn’t affect me. We all saw it was coming, and his Irish exit wasn’t any surprise. As for me, well, after both with the death of both of my parents far in the rearview mirror, the loss of a few close relationships, seeing death come for several college friends, greats retiring and fade away, sacred buildings collapsed, traditions end (Texas vs. Texas A&M) experiencing what it’s like for the Rangers to be one out from their only World Series title, and 25 years of no new additional Lombardi trophies being added to the Cowboys’ mantle place – man, you just get used to major change, roll with the punches, and learn that time doesn’t care and it easily moves on. Nothing is sacred, you just have to appreciate what you have at the moment and realize it can be gone in a second. What’s true and constant is that things will never be the same, no matter how hard you try to keep it that way. It’s one reason why I think traditions are stupid. Yes, I’ll be bold enough to be blunt enough to state it. So what if they are gone? There’s still oxygen in the air (for now) and life and time carry on. It’s different, but that’s not a bad thing. Cherish what was and what you have, learn to embrace not change, but simply the passing of time. 200 years from now, more than likely, no one is going to remember you even existed and your sacred Christmas tree ornament which has been on every year since you were four has long ago been tossed in the trash pile.

This grandma can get down on the drums. Skip to the 43-second mark if you just to see and hear her playing. I think at the 1:35 mark she starts to feel comfortable and her facial expression starts to slightly change to “concentrate” to “comfortable” to “fun”.

I have one of those “I’m halfway serious” theories. Trump is doing what he can to start a war without looking so obvious but these other countries aren’t falling for it and he vents in his bedroom by bashing his pillow against different things and screaming into it.

This article is about three weeks old but worth sharing.

Alamo Drafthouse Revenues Climb Despite Box Office Downturn

Alamo Drafthouse is capping off 2019 with shine. Ticket sales for the cinema chain are up 5.8% from last year, an especially impressive feat considering the exhibition industry as a whole is pacing over 5% behind 2018.

In a theatrical landscape that’s become particularly challenged by the rise of streaming services, Alamo Drafthouse attributes success to its scope of offerings. That mix includes traditional studio releases, indie and arthouse films and repertory showings. Comparatively, the next highest number of movies offered by an exhibitor chain is 1,142 films.