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• I’ve had a lot of friends come and go. Most say they will keep in touch, though hardly any of them do. I bet only eleven-percent of them were sincere about it when they said it.
• I watched Disney’s ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow‘ with the family recently, it was the first for the kids.
  • I remember the first time I saw it in elementary school. It was a Friday and all the second-grade classes gathered in the projector room. There was something great about watching it in the darkness and the small distortion of the audio coming from the projector, which you somewhat get watching this online version.
    • Somewhat related Michigan news – Substitute teacher mistakenly displays porn to sixth-grade class
  • My childhood memory told me most of the film was about the chase between the Headless Horseman and Ichabod Crane, but in reality, it’s maybe just a fifth of the film.
  • Icabod is a cool name.
  • Bing Crosby narrated the flick, it was the only collaboration he had with Disney.
  • There are huge similarities between Brom Bones and Gaston from Beauty and the Beast.
  • My “innocence” as a child never helped me realize that the Headless Horseman was actually Brom Bones.
• DaughterGeeding has an entrepreneur spirit. She keeps coming up with all sorts of business ideas and is enthusiastic about carrying them out, and it’s a little heartbreaking telling her how some of them simply aren’t feasible. To help with that, I spoke to her briefly about a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunity, threats) analysis and how she should go through some sort of similar thought process to see how feasible her idea is before making flyers and going door to door. Later in the day, the family drove to the massive Nebraska Furniture Mart building and she blurted out, “Dad, Rooms To Go is across the street from Nebraska Furniture Mark, that has to be a big threat to them.” We then conversed about how it could possibly fit the other categories as well. It’s amazing how things like that will stick with her but she will still forget to flush the toilet.
• This is eerily similar to the Bryce Dallas Howard episode of ‘Black Mirror’
  • Big data meets Big Brother as China moves to rate its citizens – The Chinese government plans to launch its Social Credit System in 2020. The aim? To judge the trustworthiness – or otherwise – of its 1.3 billion residents
• It would have been even cooler if George W also showed up –  Steph and Seth Curry joined Jordan Spieth for Sunday round at Dallas National. Oh, and President Obama showed up, too
• BBC Future created a composite face of all members of the US Senate and House of Representatives. Here’s what it tells us about US politics in 2017, and how the Democrats and Republicans differ.
  
• Michigan linebacker Alicia Woollcott crowned homecoming queen
• Bombshell Report Reveals DART’s System-Wide Inadequacy
• The Theology Beneath the Trump-Comey Conflict – How the former FBI director’s interest in Reinhold Niebuhr shaped his approach to political power.
• I’m still adjusting to the Trump presidency but I’d like to give the man a compliment. I like the way he isn’t scared to call his own party out on something.
• No joke, Trump’s website is selling MAGA pumpkin hats.
  
• A New World Record Means Super Mario Bros. Speedrunners Are Running Out Of Options
  • The game has a new world record of 4:56.528. Speedrunner Darbian reached it late last Friday night on his 27,474th attempt. It’s a big milestone in an important game, but it also signals the possible beginning of the end for the race to beat Super Mario Bros. as quickly as possible.
• A few more thoughts and tidbits from my book about the relationships amongst presidents:
  • A long time ago when I first started the book I mentioned how JFK gifted a Tiffany silver plated calendar to the key advisors of the Cuban Missile Crisis with those 13-days  standing out in bold, and how the company decided not to charge him. I couldn’t find a picture of the calendar until now.
  • For his inauguration, George W. Bush wore the same cufflinks his father wore for his inauguration.
  • As part-owner of the Texas Rangers he once said, “I want the folks to see me sitting in the same kind of seat they sit in, eating the same popcorn, peeing in the urinal.”
  • That time he was a little too busy to talk to his father, the acting President of the United States (this isn’t a dig, it just shows how comfortable of a relationship they have)
    
  • When Barack Obama was inaugurated and George and Laura were flying home, they watched a special thirty-minute video of staff thanking them and wishing them well in retirement. Bill Clinton also contributed to the video.

• Ever since I took the kids up on the roof to watch the sunrise a few Saturdays ago, they now want to make it a weekly tradition. If you are wondering why the roof, you can’t see the horizon in my hilly neighborhood unless you are up on high.
• Coaching flag football has been about what I thought it would be. I enjoy it and it has its ups and downs and it’s allowing me to work on certain weaknesses. WifeGeeding has been a huge help. My only real complaint is the lack of help from parents whose kids require a lot of attention. These are kids who will cross their arms and refuse to do things, cry and just stare at the ground, or just in their own world. I do my best to connect with them, but it’s a real bummer when their child is doing something which requires special attention and you look at the sideline and they are busy looking down on their phone.
• Our kids were invited to a boy’s birthday party yesterday which was held between 2:00 – 4:00 PM. The Cowboys game had a start time of 3:05 PM. It surprises me anyone would schedule a birthday party during a Cowboys game, especially if the family has lived in the area for a long time and not from another culture. In other words, they are white and Texans. However, the party was at Home Depot, so that was cool.
• Funny, KFC’s Twitter account only follows 11 people – 5 Spice Girls and 6 guys named Herb.
• Who was the last great orator of Congress? I guess it was Ted Kennedy. You can certainly disagree with his politics, but the man could deliver a speech.
• While dipping my toe in Ancestry.com and setting up a family tree, I saw the term “Sealing” in the drop-down selection for “Relationship”.  I never heard of the term, but per Wikipedia:
  • Faithful Latter Day Saints believe civil marriages are dissolved at death, but that a couple who has been sealed in a temple will be married beyond physical death and the resurrection if they remain righteous. This means that in the afterlife they and their family will be together forever.
• When I was driving around D.C. I heard U2’s new song played on the radio, which was the only time I’ve heard it on the radio.
• VOTE – @adamgoodell – The mayor from Jaws is still the mayor in Jaws 2. It is so important to vote in your local elections.
• Streamable.com – High school volleyball player makes an absurd flying save
• One thing I appreciate about ‘CBS Sunday Morning’ is how they will get the “serious” correspondents to do lighter stories. For instance, Jan Crawford is the chief legal correspondent and you really only see her report from and about the Supreme Court. Yesterday her segment was over Darius Rucker and is time with Hootie and the Blowfish and as a country music artist.
• Jay Leno on David Letterman: “Even When He Was Mean to Me, It Was Funny”
  • The former ‘Tonight Show’ host pays tribute to his onetime rival, who’ll accept the 2017 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center on Sunday in Washington, D.C.
• California Restaurant Admits It’s Been Serving Popeyes Chicken for Months – The restaurant’s Yelp page is now a hotbed of one-star reviews. But the owner insists she didn’t do anything wrong.
• Per longtime Dallas Cowboys Radio Network sidelines reporter Kristi Scales
  • Stanford women’s volleyball lineup taller than @dallascowboys defensive line. Cardinal=6’8″, 6’6″,6’6″,6’4″,6’2″,6’2″
• Yesterday Troy Aikman make a “George Michael Sports Machine” reference. Ah, good times.
• Two things I like about this GIF, and you’ll have to watch it at least twice to see it.
  1.  While Clinton is speaking, W cracks a joke that makes Obama laugh.
  2. For a moment, it looks like W put his arms around Clinton.
     
• When the former presidents get together I never feel like anyone can get them to take a good photo together. Sure, they take a nice photo, but they are never positioned well. In this case, they should have moved Carter’s chair closer to Bush41’s, place their hands in the same manner, and they all should have evenly spaced they legs out. Clinton looks like he has to pee. They are all retired, they have nothing but time, but I’m sure it can be intimidating “ordering” them around.
  
• That picture made me think of one of my favorite scenes in Hot Shots! Part Deux, the library dedication scene. I just wish I could have found a better quality version of the clip.

President Tug Benson (Lloyd Bridges) takes down 4 of the 5 living past presidents (Nixon, Bush, Reagan, and Carter), and then Ford just falls down on his own.

• So, where have you been all week? I had to take an unexpected business trip to Washington D.C. and forgot to pack my laptop and phone charger.
  • I loathe flying and it’s bad on the back, even worse when you take the redeye.
  • I flew Virgin America out of Love Field, even though I live a stone throw away from DFW. It felt a bit cheesy. They played dance music as we boarded and the plane has purple accent lights and purple tinted barrier windows between first and peasant class. The seats felt more comfortable than other airlines, the flight crew were okay, and the in-flight entertainment was pretty good. The airline got bought out by Alaska Airlines last year.
  • The security line at Love Field was crazy long compared to any security line I’ve been in at DFW, Austin, La Guardia, Newark, Baltimore, Dulles, Reagan, Orlando, LAX, Vegas, or San Diego.
  • It only costs six bucks a day to park at Love Field if you use their offsite shuttle option.
  • I’ll never understand why humans who will be boarding last stand up and crowd the boarding area.
  • Every time I fly it seems like they ask for volunteers to check in their luggage. This time, they stated they need at least fifteen passengers to check in their luggage. The only benefit they provided was to chance to board after priority boarding, which I found out meant after the first class, gold status, silver status, and some other status boarded first.
  • I sat next to lovely young Irish women on the way to D.C. and she was straight out of central casting with her red hair, light complexion, and dainty accent. I could listen to her speak for hours.
  • At the end of one day, I got politely stuck speaking to a former manager who is now an executive and then got looped into a long conversation with our CEO. I didn’t leave the office until nine that night, I think.  I really like the people I work under, but I always think anyone above me gives me false sincerity. You know, that business politeness where people are always in “sales” mode. Actually, I tend to think anyone I encounter gives me false sincerity, even WifeGeeding, and the kids.
  • I love driving around the D.C. area, maybe it’s the tall trees. Yeah, I’ve driven around East Texas plenty of times with their tall trees, but the trees are prettier in Virginia. But it seems like a lot of their highways have stoplights. I’m too use the concrete jungle of four to six driving lanes in one direction and overpasses of DFW.
  • I grew up without the use of GPS and relied on maps and handwritten directions. There’s no way I’d want to travel the D.C. area without GPS.
  • My rental car, a small Ford of some sort, didn’t have an inside switch to open the gas tank and had no cap for the gas tank. The flap to access the gas was of thick rubber to provide a seal.
  • It felt a bit liberating not being attached to the internet or listening to The Ticket.
• Gordon Keith of The TICKET brought up the idea of no punting in the NFL. I like the idea, but I like the idea of giving each time just two punts per half even better. Imagine a team using both their punts early in a game and then later having to start on the one-yard-line and everyone second guessing the head coach for not saving his punts.
• GIF – A primitive but very effective way to sort lemons by size
• The Dallas Morning News – Why bigger is better when it comes to megachurches in southern Dallas
• Georgia News – Woman says she could face jail time because she can’t afford husband’s cremation
• I liked how my elementary school teachers would use a pencil to check my hair for lice.
• GIF – I had no idea a hydraulic failure on a dump truck could be so powerful.
• The Simpsons’s Classic Baseball Episode Gets the Mockumentary Treatment
• Willow Creek Chooses Co-Ed Pastors to Succeed Bill Hybels – Megachurch becomes biggest in America to appoint a female lead pastor.
• A first look at 8 possible versions of President Donald Trump’s border wall
  • All of the finished prototypes, as well as the one that’s nearly completed, employ concrete as the main construction material. But the designs of some vary greatly. For example, one built by a Maryland company uses concrete at the base with the top two-thirds featuring blue metal panels. Another, built by an Alabama company, has a wide concrete base that gives way to a thinner frame halfway up the structure. Notably, only one of the completed designs incorporates see-through features that would allow Border Patrol agents to monitor activity on the other side of the border.
• ‘Halt and Catch Fire’
  • If there’s one thing I didn’t like about this season it was Bos’ beard.
  • If there was a second thing I didn’t like about this season, I didn’t think the actress who played Donna could pull off the character’s job transition to an executive role.
  • Loved that “Phoenix” scene.
  • Series finales rarely satisfy and are lacking.  I liked this one but didn’t find it fulfilling. However, I liked how it all wrapped up, especially Joe. I’d like to watch the pilot again and compare it to the finale. I bet the finale had a lot of hat-tips to the pilot, specifically the last words spoken by Joe. And it would be nice to be reminded how much Joe’s character has changed. Oh, and he has a great voice.
  • “They’re the thing that gets you to the thing. You were the thing.”
• A Catfishing With a Happy Ending – Emma was deceived by an older man on the internet—and then found love with the model whose photographs he had stolen