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• During the first week of school, we noticed it was taking our kids what seemed like forever to get in the car line at the end of the school day. The school has a nice process. A teacher is outside and reads the car tag hanging on the rearview window and talks into a walkie-talkie so another teacher can retrieve a child from the waiting area. Well, it turns out the teacher was calling for “GReeding” and the kids didn’t budge because that isn’t their last name. It wasn’t a defiant thing, just a “well, that’s not my name so I didn’t respond” sort of thing. I chuckled because it’s a common problem which has plagued all Geedings. I simply told the kids they need to be aware sometimes people will make a mistake with a name and if they ever hear anything which sounds close to it, they should check to see if they actually meant Geeding.
• Teen Sworn In As Council Member In Rowlett
  • That article reminds me of when I was a sophomore in college. A classmate from Arkansas decided he was going to run for a spot on the Abilene City Council and even called a press conference. I remember seeing the television news segment and being a bit awestruck. It was big news around campus, but it was even bigger news the next day when it was revealed that while he met the residency requirement, he didn’t meet the age requirement. He then decided to campaign to change the age requirement in the city charter. I don’t remember if he was successful.
• I can’t name a lot of 75-year-old women, but I’m just going to proclaim Lesley Stahl the most attractive of them.
• First Baptist Dallas must have a large advertising budget as they air a lot of television commercials.
• After the ’30 for 30′ episode on the 1987 NFL strike, the next show was about how the U.S. Marshals set up a sting by luring in fugitives thinking they won Redskins tickets.
• Cassini’s swan song: 13-year Saturn mission ends Friday – In the early morning hours of September 15, NASA’s 13-year mission exploring Saturn and its moons will come to an end as the spacecraft deliberately dives into Saturn’s atmosphere and plunges itself into the planet.
  • I thought this phrasing was beautifully decadent. It’s like knowing someone died and then waiting for 90-minutes to hear their final words.
    • “The spacecraft’s final signal will be like an echo,” said Earl Maize, Cassini project manager. “It will radiate across the solar system for nearly an hour and a half after Cassini itself has gone.”
• The town of Mustang, Texas is for sale for $4 million
• He’s an odd ball – Martin Shkreli, the former pharmaceutical executive who is awaiting sentencing for a fraud conviction, was sent to jail on Wednesday after a federal judge revoked his bail because he had offered $5,000 for a strand of Hillary Clinton’s hair.
• Yesterday President Trump met with Senator Tim Scott. I don’t write for GQ or anything, but the blue jacket and black pants isn’t a good look.
  
• A few more thoughts and tidbits from my book about the relationships amongst presidents:
  • When George H.W. Bush left office, he had a funny email address. The local-part, that is, the part before the @, was FormerLeaderOfTheFreeWorld.
  • This is what George. H.W. Bush wrote in his diary the day he lost re-election.
    
  • Some of you may recall my rant about presidents saluting uniformed military personnel. But I’m going to put that aside for a moment for all you Reagan fans. When Clinton was president-elect he visited Ronald Reagan who gave him two pieces of advice. The first, go to Camp David often and take in nature and get some alone time. The second, work on the salute. Reagan told him “…the trick was pacing. Soldiers like to bring the hand up slowly as if dripping with honey and then Shake It Off briskly as if it was covered with something less pleasant.” And then there was this tender moment.
    
• Reddit has a favorite meteorologist thanks to his professional skills in this video and not because of some bit or mishap. He did an Ask Me Anything the other day and I provided some highlights below. I thought it was some good stuff, like how does a “chief meteorologist” differ from a regular meteorologist. To my surprise, Pete Delkus is even mentioned and there’s some TICKET humor included.
  • What things other than presenting does your job entail? I thought TV meteorologist was just in-and-out kind of job
    • WKRG_AlanSealls – Aside from TV, we have radio and Facebook. As a chief I coordinate all operations of the weather department- scheduling, computer maintenance and updates and purchasing, graphics, training, while working with our sales and promotions and news departments. Then we all have community outreach. I do actually forecast the weather so I’m always trying to study to get the latest.
  • So, if I understand correctly are you actually interpreting raw data to make your own forecast? Or are you presenting a forecast which is made by either computer simulations or a trained analyst? If it is the latter case, are you managing said software and/or analysts or is that an external service which you share with other weather services?
    • KRG_AlanSealls – Good question- I make my own forecast from plotted upper air charts, wind profiles, satellite and radar depictions and then computer model forecasts and numerical output. We share it within WKRG but not outside of the station. I’m trained as all government meteorologists are. I make my own forecast because that makes me comfortable with what I’m saying. It is, however, rarely that far different from what the National Weather Service would say for my area.
  • What is a cool meteorological fact few know?
    • WKRG_AlanSealls – There’s really no new water on Earth. It just cycles and recycles through the ground, oceans, air, and our bodies.
  • I hate that I have to say this, but the following is an honest question. Please, reddit, don’t hate me for asking an honest question. Since this is a perfect opportunity, and a lot of the early discussion was about the word… what was/is your own personal reaction to being called “articulate” as an African-American?
    • WKRG_AlanSealls – I chuckled when I was called articulate since most broadcasters are. It’s possible that some of the people meant I articulated a thought well, more than my presentation was articulate? Either way, I don’t think it was ill-intentioned but some people of all races are surprised when they see or hear someone who is not the stereotype of what they expect. I was raised and trained to be articulate and intelligent. All of my African American friends and family are so it’s nothing unusual to me. I’ve been lucky to grow up, go to school with, and work with a diverse group of people. Everybody holds biases from personal experiences but I start my day as a human being.
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• If you are annoyed at my grammar, spelling errors, and my poor writing style, I have a feeling today’s post will really annoy you since I hastily threw this together while on Ambien.
• WifeGeeding picked the kids up from school the other day and the first words out of BoyGeeding’s mouth when he got in the car was, “Mom, I got bad news. My teacher talked to me and my girlfriend and said we can’t be boyfriend and girlfriend anymore. We have to wait until high school.” I don’t know the backstory on this but I’m entertained.
• I wonder how many men have played for every NFC East team. The only guy that easily comes to mind is Herschel Walker. And I guarantee you, as you are reading this, he’s either doing pushups or situps.
• The evening news reported Apple has a revealed a new iPhone.  This makes me think the LiberallyLean.com guy getting upset that it’s all nothing but a hidden paid advertisement. I can’t tell if he’s doing a bit or actually upset when the news reports a new product from a company. For instance, he was annoyed the local news reported Blue Bell announced a new flavor not long ago. I do think many viral videos of a product or company are produced by them one way or another and the news just falls for the trap. But when it comes to press releases the news just likes to report on something more lighthearted than another murder. But I think the ones that really ticks him off are Twitter mentions.
• Bill Simmons has a good story about the time his cousin Sal and Jimmy Kimmel visiting Tony Romo and watching him play Madden and how it somewhat helped him prepare for broadcasting. He’s pretty good at the game as he was beating many of the top 50 Madden players in the world. Here’s a snippet:
  • Simmons: So Romo is just going to the line in Madden, seeing what the defense was, and every time audibling for 13 yards.
    Sal: Yeah, he’s like, “He’s not smart enough to cheat the safety here so I’m going to come back with this.” It was spectacular.
• I caught ESPN’s ’30 for 30′ on the NFL strike last night:
  • All I remember from my youth was there was a strike but I had no idea why, so it was neat to actually get the details. In short, the players wanted the chance to be free agents and not be attached to one team their entire career. I also had no idea
  • The show mainly focused on the Redskins. The organization had a feeling a strike was coming and had a strategy to get the best scab players before other teams. For instance, they arranged for one player, Tony Robinson, to get released from prison on condition he turn himself in after the strike. He ended up coming into the game to quarterback the scab Redskins team against the real Cowboys after the starting quarterback was injured on Monday Night Football, and it was the last game played by the scabs.
  • The Redskins ended up winning the Super Bowl that year. Robinson watched the game from prison.
  • Watching highlights of that game brought back memories of how annoyed I’d get at seeing water spots on the Texas Stadium field.
    
  • That season was Tom Landry’s last winning season. I guess when you have your full squad and get beat by a team full of replacement players the writing is basically on the wall. I do faintly recall my father being annoyed at Landry for using a phone on the sidelines and not coaching. You saw this several times in this special and I have vague memories of him using a corded phone on the sidelines.
    
  • Another faint memory I have of my father is watching one of the Monday Night Football games with the replacement players. Most of the focus by the announcers wasn’t on the game but news on the strike. I think there was an interview during the game and the screen was showing two pictures, a smaller one of the game and a larger one with someone being interviewed. Dad was upset and started to make phone calls. I asked who he was trying to call and he told me, Frank Gifford. Thinking he was joking I said something and he angrily told me he wasn’t kidding, he wanted to watch football, not some interview. Eventually, he reached someone and I heard him say something like, “If I can’t talk to Frank Gifford then you tell him . . .”
  • Tex Schram was a major player during the strike, I had no idea.
  • No Super Bowl rings for the replacement players who were active for the four games of the season, despite secretaries, equipment managers, and other staff receiving one.
• I saw something about the city of Weatherford trying to annex Zion Hills but the residents didn’t like the idea. I would have thought they would have liked it, but I’ll need to find more details.
• Back in the day, I think televangelists used to use sign-language interpreters and they were placed in the corner of the screen inside an oval. I wonder if the Joel Osteens and Robert Jeffresses of the world do that. I guess closed captioning eliminates that need.
• ‘Fight Church’ pastor charged with forcible touching
  • Paul Burress, a charismatic, in-your-face pastor who gained fame for operating a fight club in his house of worship, has been accused of forcibly touching two women.
• Kobe Bryant wore two different numbers and both will be retired. I was surprised how close his stats were wearing both numbers.
  
• I heard a great tip the other day. Update your voicemail to relay important information if you are in an emergency or disaster situation. That way, if someone can’t call you because you are conserving power or the network is down, at least they will know your status and location.
• For those of you who have seen the movie Contact and wondered if Hitler will be the first human aliens would see, here’s your answer.
• The GOP’s Twitter account likes the new Trump Presidential Coin.
• I saw part of a documentary about the world’s first geosynchronous communication satellites, the kind which spins on an axis. The idea to keep it in orbit came about from watching a football game and observing how a spiral is thrown.
  • To keep the satellite in orbit, Rosen was inspired by the way a football travels in a straight path when spun, and thus Syncom was stabilized by its own spin, which allowed it to dispense with a bulky three-axis stabilization system.
• While looking for additional Cal Ripken stats I found this this factoid: Killer whales (Orcinus orca) are the moose’s only known marine predator as they have been known to prey on moose swimming between islands out of North America’s Northwest Coast
• The SMU coach is wearing 1984 clothing and sporting a “Make SMU Great Again” hat.

https://twitter.com/SMU_Football/status/907709585665949696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsportsday.dallasnews.com%2Fcollege-sports%2Fsmumustangs%2F2017%2F09%2F12%2Fchad-morris-taking-smu-back-1984-tries-get-mustangs-accustomed-hot-start