Bag of Randomness for Thursday, July 27, 2017

  • We ate at Prohibition Chicken in Lewisville last night. True to the name, they served chicken and had a prohibition theme. If you go into a phone booth there’s a secret door to a speakeasy. But I had some weird taste confusion yesterday as I tried their smoked fried chicken. My taste buds were overwhelmed tasting smoked chicken and fried chicken in one bite.
  • After A Year In Space, The Air Hasn’t Gone Out Of NASA’s Inflated Module
    • What I find most interesting is the company which put that module together, Bigelow Aerospace, was founded by current company president Robert Bigelow. If you have ever seen a Budget Suites, that’s how he made his fortune and the reason why Bigelow Aerospace exists today.
      • In 2013, Bigelow indicated that the reason he went into the commercial real estate business was to obtain the requisite resources to be able to fund a team developing space destinations
  • You can see the new White House Communications Director’s finger prints yesterday at Sarah Huckabee Sander’s first press conference as the new press secretary. I’m certain this was more a Scaramucci thing than a Sander’s thing.
    • Opening her first press briefing as White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders answered questions posed by a nine-year-old named Dylan in a letter to President Donald Trump.
  • Armchair Political Pundit – There’s nothing President Trump can do to scare off his base. It doesn’t matter if he fires Session and panned by conservative pundits and Session supporters. He can always rally the base by doing things they love. He proved that yesterday. Anything to improve their image of what the military should be will bolster him. It’s why I still think he’ll eventually send ground troops somewhere, maybe even North Korea, because spreading freedom and democracy increases political capital.
  • I’ve been thinking about this moment between the former presidents which happened about two weeks ago in Dallas. Trump has been “consistently underestimated” as a candidate and president, and it’s only served him well. 
  • I bet there are a lot of military readiness folks who now have to pay attention to every single tweet from the president like they never did before. There were a lot of reports that the Pentagon was caught off by several of his tweets yesterday.
  • Wouldn’t it be funny if someone like Mark Cuban or Warren Buffet decided to buy Twitter and simply shut it down to keep Trump from tweeting? But I guess President Trump would just use Instaface or Snapgram or whatever to express random unexpected thoughts.
  • I may or may not be stealing a bit from another blog, but this “And Another” took things to great heights – Female physics teacher, 28, banned after drunken sex with pupil in plane toilet
  • All supermarkets should have this.
  • Why Expensive Oil Is A Waste Of Money
    • Blackstone Labs analyzes the contents of used motor oil to check how well engines wear over time. Earlier this month, the lab used its vast database of used oil analyses to study whether certain oil brands tend to contain more metal wear particles; the results might make you think twice before throwing down cash on performance racing oil.
  • Since Jay-Z put out an album called 4:44, Jersey prog band 4:44 put out an album called Jay-Z
  • Jon Stewart’s first stand-up special in 20 years will air on HBO
  • Divorce Rates By Profession
  • Game of Thrones’ Hot Pie Opened a Bakery to Sell Direwolf Bread
Posted in Personal | Comments Off on Bag of Randomness for Thursday, July 27, 2017

Great Idea For A Wrestling Bit


“The Progressive Liberal” turns politics into a contact sport

BOYD COUNTY, Ky. — If the name of the game for an aspiring professional wrestling villain is that fan anger fills the seats, then Dan Richards has it all figured out in the wrestling hotbeds of Appalachia.

“When I go drive through the hills of West Virginia or Kentucky or Tennessee, I wasn’t seeing a bunch of Hillary Clinton campaign banners,” he said. “I was seeing Trump, ‘Make America Great Again.'”

Which is why Richards, actually a 37-year-old real estate agent named Daniel Harnsberger, decided to don some “dump Trump” trunks and a Hillary collage T-shirt and call out the fans.

“I know you use government assistance and then talk bad about the government that provides it for you,” he taunted the crowd with at a recent event.

“You have a signature move, don’t you?” Axelrod asked.

“The Liberal Agenda,” Richards said. “It’s just a variation of a neck breaker, but I like for the announcer to say, ‘He hit ’em with his liberal agenda.'”

Full CBS News Article

Posted in Political, Pop Culture | 1 Comment

Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, July 26, 2017

  • I received a postcard from Cuba yesterday from a faithful reader who knows I have a fondness for the old-fashioned medium. She mailed it the last week of May. So that gives you an idea how long it takes to mail something from Cuba to Texas.
  • WifeGeeding’s mother took all her grandchildren to Great Wolf Lodge and are now spending time with her and her husband in East Texas, which gives me and WifeGeeding a few nights to ourselves.
    • I really didn’t grow up with grandparents or close family around, so the concept of “dumping” your kids off, even to family, is strange to me. I know it’s not “dumping” and it is actually a gift we give to them (and them to us), a chance to spend time with grandchildren you normally wouldn’t get. But it’s just part of my destructive personality which makes me think I’m either burdening someone or skirting responsibilities.
    • For our first night togetherness, we dined at WifeGeeding’s favorite, III Forks. For me, it’s not what it used to be. I saw water stains on the ceiling and some chairs were so beat up they should have been removed. Maybe fine-dining isn’t what it used to be. But maybe my taste buds have evolved where I’d rather have smoked moist brisket than any cut of steak. Oh, and it’s cheaper.
  • While watching No Country For Old Men last night, a thought occurred to me since I know the film was based in Texas. Asking someone to describe a Texas landscape will vary quite a bit, especially the first one to come to mind. Some will think of the tall pines in East Texas, others about the green in the Hill Country, and many will think of the desserts in West and South Texas. I usually think of small rolling hills and mesquite trees scattered around.
  • In the movie, one of the main characters asked a boot salesman, “Yeah, you got a pair of Larry Mahans? Shoulder, size 11?” I’ve certainly heard of the Larry Mahan brand but didn’t know the reference to “shoulder”. I half-hearted Google search tells me the character was wanting a boot made with leather from the shoulder part of the cow or steer.
  • One of the best gifts you can give a college freshman is a compact tool kit. They won’t think much of it at the time, but he or she will become popular during the first few days of moving into a dorm when all little knickknacks and furniture needs assembled.
  • Man, Jerry Jones gets beat up when takes a chance on a player with character issues and then gets beat up when he lets go of someone who possibly had character issues.
  • All Jason Garrett needs to say is that as head coach he has input into the type of players he wants, but it’s the GM who picks them, then it’s up to him to make that player succeed both on and off the field.
  • Props to Dale Hansen for asking such a great question at the Cowboys press conference, and props to him for not having it played during his regular sports segment. I guess he didn’t have to, everyone else was doing it for him.
  • Our former governor – U.S. energy secretary duped into fake interview with Russian comedians
  • 80-year-old Indiana couple nears end of quest to visit every Cracker Barrel
  • Charting the tenure of U.S. Attorneys General – The average tenure has been about 978 days — or roughly 2.5 years.
  • China mall introduces ‘husband storage’ pods for shopping wives
Posted in Personal | Comments Off on Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, July 26, 2017