Bag of Randomness for Friday, May, 4, 2018

  • The Cowboys all-time false starts leader has retired. It’s a darn shame Jerry could never put together a good enough team for him to win a Super Bowl. Witten was the epitome of what a professional athlete should be. I hope it eats at Jason Garrett that he couldn’t help win a Super Bowl for him.
  • You often hear Cowboys players and coaches, especially when they are leaving the team, thank Gene Jones, Jerry’s wife. Witten did it. When they do it, they sound genuine about it, like it’s not a formality. I always had the impression she’s just in the background and focused on the stadium’s art. I’d like to know how she engages with the players and make such a unique relationship. Does she write them letters, send gift baskets when a baby is born?
  • One “game” I like to play when it comes to Jerry Jones and the Cowboys is to see if I can spot Jerry’s driver, Roosevelt, who is always sporting shades. Well, he too told Witten goodbye. It was pretty cool seeing all players and staff line the atrium as Witten and his family walked into the building.
  • I beat The Dallas Morning News by a full day reporting the firing of the lunchroom coordinator at my kid’s school for theatening to call ICE on a custodian.
  • Conan O’Brien is trimming his show down to just half an hour.
  • My Monday morning habits will be changing – Peter King Leaving Sports Illustrated For NBC
  • The RGIII™ Brand Is Dead, And Here’s The Death Certificate
  • Mystery pooper at N.J. high school’s track turned out to be superintendent, cops say
  • Hysteria over Jade Helm exercise in Texas was fueled by Russians, former CIA director says
    • Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision in 2015 to ask the Texas State Guard to monitor a federal military exercise prompted significant criticism. A former CIA director said Wednesday that the move emboldened Russians to next target elections.
  • A leftover from yesterday:
    • @brianklaas – Kellyanne Conway’s husband, a seasoned lawyer, is subtweeting Trump this morning by providing a link that shows how the payment to Stormy Daniels likely violates the laws of the FEC (the Federal Election Commission).
  • Navy no longer will announce when a commander is fired for misconduct
    • The new practice puts the Navy in line with the other armed services, which do not regularly announce discipline of their senior leaders.
  • This sounds more like a Trump faux pas – Australian first lady Lucy Turnbull ‘flattered’ after French President Emmanuel Macron calls her ‘delicious’
    • The French term “délicieux” means “delicious,” but can also mean “delightful” or “charming” when describing a person.The faux pas showed how difficult and risky it can be to communicate in a foreign language during diplomatic talks.
  • Qipao prom dress that caused a culture furore in the US draws head-scratching in China
    • When the furore reached Asia, though, many seemed to be scratching their heads. Far from being critical of Daum, who is not Chinese, many people in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan proclaimed her choice of the traditional high-necked dress as a victory for Chinese culture.
    • Personally, and I know, but I think the dress looks extra sexy on white women.
  • Watch David Letterman, Buddy Guy Talk Origins of Chicago Blues
  • Means more to me than to you – Microsoft is making it easier to take screenshots in Windows 10
  • If U2 does it, I will follow, here are some thoughts of the opening concert of their new tour:
    • This list of songs that U2 didn’t play in Tulsa is a bit shocking for any U2, fan because some have been played at every one of their concerts:
      • The best example of that is a list of the songs they did not play at the show, which includes “New Year’s Day,” “Bad,” “Mysterious Ways,” “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” “Bullet the Blue Sky,” With or Without You” and, astoundingly, “Where the Streets Have No Name” or anything else from The Joshua Tree.These songs have been the backbone of their live show for decades. Some of them haven’t been skipped a single time since they came out, and yet they dumped them all overboard and built an entirely new set out of what remained. (RollingStone.com Review)
        • That’s a gutsy move on their part. Diehards are going to be ticked they didn’t hear “Streets” but they just had a tour full of old songs, they needed to do something else instead of another nostalgia tour.
      • Yet they did play “Acrobat”, the one song from Achtung Baby that’s never been done in public a single time. And, “Staring at the Sun” was played since 2001 (BoyGeeding was born to that song).
      • A total of 27 songs, that’s getting your money’s worth, me thinks.
      • I link this line from this review, it’s what I think the first time I listen to any of their new albums, “A characteristic of recent U2 albums is that all of the elements might not make complete sense at first, but once you see tracks preformed live, their charms coalesce.”
      • A U2 concert is, like the band, unique. There’s much more to a show than a stage, four lads from Dublin, Ireland, and escapism. The shows have a big-ness and a message to them, but the big-ness is more about pushing the envelope (in both content and eye candy) rather than excess for the sake of excess.
    • U2 interview: ‘What drives us is to try and disprove the naysayers. People don’t hate us enough’
    • “Wisdom is the recovery of innocence at the far end of experience.”
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