Bag of Randomness for Monday, January 13, 2020

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.

Red teary eyes, I guess the pollen count must have been abnormally high in Green Bay.

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

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

 

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Bag of Randomness for Thursday, January 9, 2019

 

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.

 

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Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, January 7, 2020

I’m trying something new, instead of bullet points I’m using a line for thought/subject separation.

Longtime readers will recall I had a severe case of hiccups which lasted three days. Well, it happened again last week and it was hell. I actually still have them, but they come and go from minutes to several hours at a time. The doctor prescribed a cocktail of medicine but it makes me sleepy which makes it hard to work.

On last night’s Wheel of Fortune, Vanna welcomed Pat Sajak’s daughter who revealed the letters. That was kinda neat. I believe Jeopardy! will air during prime time tonight with the top champion

“It’s not their first rodeo.” – Actually, it will be for the new Dickies Arena. This photo caught my attention. My imagination says it’s all a giant spider web.

Mike Rhyner, the founder of The TICKET, decided to retire. He did it with no fanfare or telling anyone, but did leave a message to the listeners. Robert Wilonsky of the Dallas Morning News (and the station) has the exclusive.

Rhyner was responsible for the return music and would always tweet the list after the show.

Not only was I impressed with the level of detail, but the artistic filming and score is top level.

I prefer eating the edge or outside of a cookie than the center, same for brownies, but not cake.

A friend used the word “schadenfreude” in an email. I had to look it up to learn not only the meaning but how to say it.

We’re doing some remodeling which includes new floors. The kids saw that I used a Sharpie to mark some dimensions of a kitchen island and asked if they could draw on the tile. Since the tile will be scraped up and taken to the dump, I told them to know themselves out.

When I demoed the old kitchen island I found a bunch of bullet casings or shells. Please forgive me if I’m using the wrong terminology, I’m ignorant when it comes to most things weapon-related. Here are some photos if you are interested. Of course, we’ve made up a lot of stories of how they got there.

  

We also found a lot of trash from the builders. For instance, there was a 1996 Pepsi can you could use to get a discount at Sea World in San Antonio. I guess it’s common for home builders to toss trash inside walls and such. I’ve found trash hidden in other places in the house that only the builder could have accessed.

Recently, we watched a movie at the “CUT! by Cinemark” in Frisco. By far, it’s the nicest movie theater I’ve ever been to.

The Ultimate Guide to Hiking in Dallas – A guide for where to find a short hike versus long, how to traverse unmarked territory, what you can expect to see, and more.

It’s quite interesting that the evening and nightly CBS11 newscast didn’t lead with the Dallas Cowboys new head story. I want to say the story was slotted about seven or ten stories down.

A smart running shoe insole detects your gait to offer coaching advice

 

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Bag of Randomness for The First Post of the 2020s

  • Greetings. Happy new year, and to a greater extent, a happy new decade. May the 20s be roaring and not end in an economic depression this time around. There’s some debate when a decade begins and ends when examined from technical, scientific, historic, and pop-culture perspectives. Usually, I’m technically and scientifically minded, but in this case, I lean in the direction of pop-culture.
  • It’s odd for a Cowboys fan watching the Saints and Vikings play in a playoff game. The Saints are coached by a former Cowboys offense assistant and the Vikes by a former Cowboys defense assistant. Either way, the Cowboys don’t play as much after the regular season as their former assistants do.
  • Note: The following was posted before I learned Jason Garrett would not return as the Cowboys head coach.
    I’m a bit puzzled as to why football fans are questioning the way Jerry Jones is handling the head coaching position. Jason Garrett is under contract until mid-January. Simply, an employee’s contract is about to expire and the employer is weighing his options to renew/extend the existing employment contract or let it expire. Part of this process includes exploring other options and interviewing potential candidates and considering what they have to offer. It’s not dissimilar to my line of work. The government awards a contract to a company for work to be performed. As the contract nears its expiration, the company will decide if it wants to continue the work and make their case to the government. The government will also decide if they want to continue the working relationship but will also explore other offers.
  • I believe humans are born with 20 baby teeth. DaughterGeeding lost her 20th yesterday, so I guess she’s all done.
  • This video (qued for you at a particular spot) of voice actress scamming a scammer was popular yesterday, she sounds exactly like the automated voice operator.
  • Robin Williams’s Daughter Gets Sweet Surprise From Disney Character Filter On Instagram
  • Rural America set to lose political power after 2020 census
  • When I ran across that pic at the top of this post a flood of memories, and I mean a flood of memories, rushed through me.
  • Bosch’s virtual visor eliminates sun glare without blocking your view – It uses facial recognition AI to identify when the sun is in your eyes.
  • A moment of tenderness from the Australian wildfires.
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