• A lot of teenage boys and young men of the Eighties had a huge crush on  Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles. Especially when she gave her side-eye. I recently read a couple of old articles about their hit Eternal Flame and will never listen to the song the same way again. And they have Elvis to thank for it. Per Hoffs:

  • I went over to Billy’s house and was telling him about a Bangles trip to Graceland, in Memphis. When we got to Elvis’s grave, we started recreating Spinal Tap singing Heartbreak Hotel there when we noticed that the eternal flame by the grave was out because it was raining. Billy said: “Wait, eternal flame? That is a great name for a song.” Within about an hour we had the lyrics. – Irish Times

  • Davitt had recently produced Olivia Newton-John and pranked me by telling me she did her best vocals in the nude. I imagined it would feel like skinny dipping –vulnerable yet freeing – and I decided to try it. Nobody could see me; there was a baffle in front of me and it was dark. After the first song went so well, I became superstitious about it, like in sports where you have to have your rabbit’s foot, and ended up compelled to skinny dip my way through most of the album, including Eternal Flame. – The Guardian
  • And here she is, recreating the side-eye two years ago with the original.
    

    @susannahoffsofficial I’ll never stop. Let’s side-eye together. #jojo #jojoreference #sideeye #walklikeanegyptian #thebangles #the80s #retrospectiva #nowandthen #rockergirl ♬ Walk Like an Egyptian – The Bangles

• “I never thought it was such a bad little tree. It’s not bad at all, really. Maybe it just needs a little love.”
• I think everyone in corporate America has decided to put things in low gear since Thursday, which will last until the new year.
• Yesterday, it occurred to me how much Elon Musk is like William Randolf Hearst and the lead character in Citizen Kane, who was modeled after Hearst. Both realize the way to ultimate power was to control the conversation. Hearst and Kane did it with newspapers and a media empire; Musk is doing it with what was called Twitter. I wonder what his Rosebud is. Longtime readers will know I sometimes compare Trump to Kane.
  
• Orson should be a more common name. I think it’s cool and distinguished.
• Bible removed from Texas school district due to law banning ‘sexually explicit’ content – Parent calls it ‘absurd’ to throw out ‘Good Book with bad books‘
  • Flusche’s statement cited the law’s section defining “sexually explicit material” as “any communication, language, or material” that describes or depicts sexual conduct in a manner that is “patently offensive” under the Texas Penal Code.Noting that there are 30 titles available in the library at Canyon Jr. High that are “Bible stories or portions of the Bible,” Flusche also cited the school’s “strong connections with local churches that [would be] happy to donate a Bible upon request.
• Windchime owners have no idea how inconsiderate they are.
• Pregnant Kentucky woman cited for street camping while in labor
  • Once in the police vehicle, Stewart narrated to himself as his body camera recorded his comments.“So I don’t for a second believe that this woman is going into labor,” he said.He returned to find the woman sitting on the ground, with legs askew and labored breathing, waiting for the ambulance. Stewart hands her a citation, and she balls it up and tosses it aside as the ambulance arrives to take her to the hospital.
• I finally made the jump to Bluesky, and it made me realize how much I miss the old Twitter. It’s so pleasing to click on a post and see relevant replies to it rather than videos that relate nothing to what was posted. And the vibe is much more chill. One random post that stood out was from Amanda Knox:

  • You think you have bad luck? I once got my bike stolen while I was volunteering at the public library to record audio books for blind people.

    — Amanda Knox (@amandaknox.com) December 18, 2024 at 10:15 PM

• Gov. Abbott unveils new billboards meant to deter possible migrants south of the border – “How much did you pay to have your daughter raped?”
  Abbott said the messaging on the billboards is a dose of “tough medicine” to hopefully prevent people who might be on their way to the Texas-Mexico border.“They inform potential illegal immigrants about the reality of what will happen to them if they try to enter Texas illegally,” Gov. Abbott said during a news conference. “How much did you pay to have your daughter raped?”
• Prestonwood Baptist Church is unapologetically back with the Christmas theatrics.
  

  So apparently the mega churches in Texas put on some insane Christmas shows and that’s cool but can we at least get them to pay some taxes for crying out loud….who needs these monstrosities

  [image or embed]

  — WuTangIsForTheChildren (@wutangforchildren.bsky.social) December 18, 2024 at 7:41 PM

• AMERICA’S TEAM: THE GAMBLER AND HIS COWBOYS — the definitive story of Jerry Jones, his Dallas Cowboys, and the twists and turns on the road to becoming the most valuable sports franchise in the world.

  Coming to Netflix in 2025. pic.twitter.com/usmOiUE2uJ

  — Netflix (@netflix) December 19, 2024

• I logged into Twitter last night and saw their AI engine, Grok, is now open to everyone. I asked if Donald Trump would be a good or bad president, and I thought it provided an informative, neutral answer.
• How the mighty have fallen. My father loved USAA, and he could be a hard man to please.
  • ‘A minefield of its own making’: New investigation of USAA reveals ‘fundamental breakdown’ with repeat compliance issues as profits vanish
• You may not have access to view this, but this is a heck of a headline from the  Washington Post – The ‘perfect’ predator | How a police chief groomed a Texas town
  

• TCU and SMU both made the College Football Playoff before Texas A&M. Don’t let the Aggies live that down.
• Lewisville’s own ‘Jeopardy!’ Champ Ashley Chan streak came to an end yesterday. She says the Buzzer is the ‘Hardest’ part of Jeopardy! I didn’t know there was a rehearsal or a chance for them to get to have practice rounds.

“As soon as Ken Jennings is done reading the clue, these lights go up on either side of the screen. If you buzz in before the lights, it locks you out for about a fifth of a second,” she told Hoftra. “That’s not that long, but it’s enough time for someone else to buzz in once the lights go up. So, you have to listen to the clue, watch the lights, wait for it, buzz, and then hope that you got it. And there are lights that come on in front of your podium if you did it first, and then Ken would call on you.”

She also explained that each contestant gets to “rehearse the buzzer” before filming begins. “You get up. You’re at the podium. You’re playing with the buzzer. We did two rounds of rehearsal, which was great, very much needed,” Chan stated.

• In other Lewisville news: A Texas teacher asked a 16-year-old boy to move in with her, and sexually assaulted him
• I went down a YouTube rabbit hole yesterday researching the Kennedy assassination. It’s also fun finding something new. This time, I learned that the Secret Service agent driving Kennedy’s convertible was overwhelmed with guilt in the immediate aftermath. But Jackie’s act of grace provided some comfort. She requested that he be the hearse’s driver when they returned to DC.
• In his book, he wrote about Kennedy’s body lying in state at the White House. RFK asked the honor guard to leave the room. He then looked at his brother for the first time after his death and stated there was no way the public should see him this way. He then asked a few close friends nearby to take a look. They thought he looked too made up, waxy, and appalling. Close friend William Walton said, “You mustn’t keep it open. It has no resemblance to the President. It’s a wax dummy.” It was opened for Jackie and Robert in the morning for the final time. She asked Clint Hill, the Secret Service agent who dove onto the trunk after the shots rang out, to grab a pair of scissors, and she cut a lock of his hair. I know it’s morbid, but I wonder where that lock of hair is now.
• Vice President Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird, were in a car at the back of the parade. Here, she is describing what happened. It seems the agents guarded Johnson pretty well, forcing him down.
  

• I like Amazon’s My Garage feature. You enter the make and model of your car, so when you look for parts and accessories, it guarantees it’ll be the correct part and have the proper fit.
• New federal rule bans “junk fees” on hotels and live event tickets
  • Ever booked a hotel room for $200 only to be surprised by an extra $40 “resort fee” at checkout? A new Federal Trade Commission rule aims to put a stop to such surprise charges by banning so-called junk fees on short-term lodging as well as on tickets to live events.
• How reliable is CarFax? I will say only as reliable as the person inputting the data. Here’s a real-life example that happened to me. One of the cars I was looking at seemed almost new and had low miles. The photos looked great. CarFax said it was in a minor accident, and the airbags didn’t deploy. What does “minor accident” mean? Per CarFax, you’ll see below it says, “Minor damage is usually cosmetic, including dents or scratches to the vehicle body.” OK. I’m reasonably led to believe nothing big.Curious, I checked out the details of the damage reported. Minor damage, per CarFax, makes me think it was nothing but a fender bender. No biggie, right?

  

  For the heck of it, I decided to search Google using the VIN. Interestingly, the results are from several Ukrainian car auction websites. Per CarFax, the car was assembled in the U.S. and has never left the country. Chrome translates the page, and it’s just a place for Ukranians to buy wrecked American cars to ship and sell there. But here are the photos of the car with “minor damage.” A picture is worth a thousand words. But I get to find out what the dealer paid for it at auction.

  

  Here’s their buyback guarantee. I bought the car but only found those websites and photos two days after my purchase. I wonder if I qualify for their Buyback Guarantee? Any lawyers out there? Was I misled by the CarFax report?

  What is the CARFAX Buyback Guarantee?

  The CARFAX Buyback Guarantee helps protect consumers from unknowingly buying a vehicle with a DMV-issued title brand, such as Salvage, Junk, Rebuilt, Fire, Flood, Hail, Lemon/Manufacturer Buyback, Not Actual Mileage, or Exceeds Mechanical Limits. If you find that any of these title problems were reported by a DMV and not included in a report, you may qualify.

• One of my kids asked for this shirt for Christmas. Interesting, considering my place in life. I thought it would be something simple to buy, but it’s sold out and hard to find at any reputable company. Unfamiliar with it, research tells me The National is a band comprising two sets of brothers from Cincinnati, where my father was born and grew up, and my adopted sports city. Per AI:
  • The National, an American rock band, is often referred to as “Sad Dad” music, which can be a term of endearment and a bit of a dig. The band’s music is known for its brooding tone and personal lyrics about love, loss, and depression. Some say that the band’s members were older when they found success, which is part of the reason for the “Sad Dad” label.
    
• Trading in a car you’ve owned for a long time and buying another without consulting anyone is one of those big post-divorce stages that make you realize you have moved on.
• Y’all know I like my presidential history. I found this nugget when I went down my last rabbit hole and found it hard to believe until I found multiple sources.
  • On the night of October 14, 1990, Delta Force conducted a successful mock attack on the President by HALO jumping onto the White House lawn.Lew Merletti, the Special Agent in Charge of Presidential protection secretly flew to Fort Bragg and presented Delta with a challenge to come up with the most devastating small-footprint ambush they could think of targeting the President at the White House, the Delta commander accepted the challenge.

    Some ground rules were set; the Delta operators could not use their clearances or classified information to devise the ambush; they had to use recon and publicly available information only. Figure out the weak point in the system and break it.

    Delta trained for 8 weeks and, on the night of October 14, 1990, conducted a HALO jump onto the White House lawn. Secret Service special agents on duty were not notified of what was going to happen beforehand, but live ammunition was collected from them just before the mock attack, giving an indication that something might be going on.

    One of the special agents on duty that night, a sniper on the White House roof, recalled what happened. “All of a sudden, there were these Delta guys on the lawn. It was that fast. It was a ‘holy shit’ moment for everybody involved.”

    After the mock attack, the Delta Force commander gave Lew Merletti an infrared photograph of one of the Delta operators, in harness, as he was landing on the White House lawn. Merletti taped the photo to a wall in his office with the words “No comment” written underneath.

    A microwave Doppler radar system was installed on the White House roof as a result of this mock attack.

    Source: Chapter 18, pages 274-276 of Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, and Assassins by Annie Jacobsen

    Here’s a PDF of the whole book, but some of you may feel uncomfortable downloading it or accessing a website with an iffy URL and totally written in Russian.

• After this guy did the first-ever front flip (summersault) during a long jump competition. It was banned the following year.