It was surprising to hear about the death of Larry Allen. When he left the Cowboys to play for the Niners, I thought it was a classy move of him to call his Mark Tuinei’s widow and ask permission to wear his number to honor his late teammate. I used to see Allen around Coppell and Lewisville from time to time. He lived directly behind the Ace Hardware in Coppell, which used to be owned by former teammate John Gesek. I only had one interaction with Allen. One Saturday night, we were walking to our cars in a dark Barnes and Noble parking lot. He was wearing an oversized FUBU basketball jersey. We parked directly in front of each other, head to head. As we both opened our car doors, we made eye contact, smiled, and gave each a head nod without saying a word. I’m sure he was thankful I was there to protect him.
I took DogGeedingII and OtherDogGeedingII to the vet for a well-check visit. It was a little embarrassing because they had a lot of flea bites. But the vet was sympathetic, saying they have been really bad this year, and she has a flea problem at her house despite not having any pets. I learned a few things about fleas I didn’t know before, like you can’t just immediately get rid of them because of how they lay eggs. Flea collars don’t work well except for the Serento brand, and the market is flooded with counterfeit collars. And there’s a pill they can take monthly that keeps fleas off them.
Flea collars make me think of one of my favorite Simpsons moments. They take in a lot of dogs and Marge puts flea collars on the kids because it’s just easier that way.
If I were a conspiracy theorist, I would say the WNBA planned for that hard foul on Caitlin Clark to happen just to draw up interest. They are slowly adopting the WWE approach.
Pixverse has a new tool that’s easy for you to play with. You can now take a still image in a photo and make it move in any direction.
I can’t remember who I heard this from over the weekend, but it has stuck with me, “My time here is short. What can I do beautifully?” With that in mind, I think I may have gotten closer to finding my dream job. If you’ve been a long-time reader or know me well, you might wonder why I haven’t thought of it sooner. I need to find a job at the LBJ Library on the University of Texas at Austin campus. Y’all know I love presidential history, that my politics lean left, like to teach, and I’ve always been a fan of UT. I checked their website for jobs, and nothing was open unless I wanted to be a janitor. Maybe that’s where I will spend my retirement years. I suppose I could try to get a job at the George W. Busy Library if I wanted to stay in the Dallas area and beef up the resume.
This week marks the 80th anniversary of D-Day, and I’ve been reading and watching a lot of related material. For instance, this YouTube video shows some never-before-seen footage, and you see how well Band of Brothers got things right. This anniversary is pretty significant because, with major commemorations held every five years, organizers and government officials concede that this year’s event could be the last to involve living veterans. This article pointed out some unique preparations for the event:
Approximately 150 American veterans are expected to travel to Normandy – about two dozen of whom actually fought on D-Day. The youngest is 96.
Most veterans travel with an entire phalanx of medical personnel. US-based charity the Best Defense Foundation is bringing three doctors and 10 nurses. Each veteran will travel with a personal caregiver – typically a family member or a friend.
They have been holding rehearsals and timing wheelchair runs for the French-led international ceremony. They are also considering having veterans enter at the same time as heads of states and other dignitaries to reduce their waiting time.
American and Canadian organizers will seat veterans last at their respective national ceremonies to keep them comfortable. The general public at the American event, for example, may need to be seated about an hour in advance due to security precautions.
With so many heads of state in town, the security measures in place are intense. A massive contingent of 12,000 security personnel will be deployed.
North Korea launched 720 balloons filled with trash, cigarette butts, and other litter across the border with South Korea on Saturday night, just four days after it sent an initial wave of 260 refuse balloons on Tuesday. That brings the total amount of trash balloons—a surprise which Kim Jong Un’s little sister called “sincere presents” for the South— to about 1,000 launched last week. Thankfully, the South Korean military dispelled initial reports that there was poop in the balloons, although some appeared to contain compost.
After the Mavs eliminated the Timberwolves, Luka Doncic offered his MVP trophy to his rookie teammate Dereck Lively II. For what it’s worth, and I don’t think it’s related, but On April 12, the day of the final regular season game, Lively lost his mother, Kathy Drysdale, after a battle with cancer. Lively is only 20 years old, and his mother lived with him to help him adjust to adulthood. She was a star playing basketball at Penn State (more than 1,200 points and 700 rebounds) and later worked for the 76ers for 13 years. At one point, she coached his basketball team. What about his dad? Lively saw heroin claim his father’s life in their living room in 2012 when he was seven years old. From that moment, she decided to be Lively’s mother, father, disciplinarian, and best friend. Her battle with cancer started in 2014. Imagine breaking that to a ten-year-old who already lost his father. She estimated that $2 million was spent on her treatment. When he was in college, he used his Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) to provide for her. So, for all you NIL naysayers who are upset at how it’s going to “ruin” the college game, take something like that into consideration. Here are some random tidbits about Lively I found in this great Washington Post article from last July:
Seeing how his mother and father suffered, he considered himself to be a curse to his parents.
His first love was swimming, though, and his arms were so long that his knuckles would scrape the lane lines when he used the butterfly stroke.
When she was his team’s coach and chewed him out once, she told him, “I’m not Mom, I’m your coach. You can wait for Mom in the car.”
He’s modeled much of his game after former Mavs champion Tyson Chandler, who has worked with him.
Want to see something heartwarming? Check out this moment between Lively and his mother when he was drafted.
And yes, his mother was on his mind (constantly) when the Mavs won the Western Conference Finals, in which he set a record. His 16-16 field-goals is the most without a miss for any player across a series in NBA Playoff history. Not bad for a 20-year-old rookie.
As much as I admire Lively, he does have a major flaw: he’s a Philadelphia Eagles fan. But this is when I officially became a Lively fan. At the end of an interview that lasted almost a half-hour, he could have said nothing and walked away, but he made the most out of this opportunity. And I’ll be honest: when I first heard it, I felt he was talking directly to me at the time. Join me in rooting for this guy.
At the end of every 1-on-1 interview, I ask the person if they have anything else they’d like to say or add.
Over the weekend, I sat down with Mavericks rookie Dereck Lively II.
I’m all for watching every Mavericks playoff game, but I can’t be the only one sick and tired of Wing Stop’s commercial that starts out with, “No flex, zone!”
The Cowboys haven’t made it to the Super Bowl or played in the NFC Championship game since 1996, but the Mavs have made it to their league’s championship series three times. If you told me that in 1996, I would have said you’re nuts.
How crazy is it to buy an NBA franchise in December and for them to go to the Finals that season. Our new owner is the epitome of a spoiled, bratty, rich kid. But that’s harsh, I know nothing about the guy and said all the right things accepting the conference trophy.
I don’t often clip coupons, but I saw some from Arby’s that I thought I should get the scissors out. After clipping a few, a warm childhood memory came to mind. I thought of how the sunlight would hit my mother on Sunday mornings as she clipped coupons, doing what she could to provide for the family.
Well, this was a great idea.
Ok. Absolutely impressed. @DallasStars fans watching right now at @AACenter treated to real time AI tracking of the game as it happens in Edmonton. On the jumbo, and on our home ice. Wow! pic.twitter.com/rD72jZWhWd
Has the media even tried interviewing any Alito neighbors at either property?
DaughterGeeding turns 14 today. She’s your typical teen. Dad is no longer cool. It’s kinda hard.
A father and bride forgo the traditional dance at the wedding reception and instead pull a Ray Kinsella and decide to “have a catch.”
I have a few Canadian readers. I keep in touch with one of them on a normal basis, and we often ask questions about each other’s cultures. Yesterday, after the verdict, he made me laugh by sending this text, “Donald Trump is a convicted felon, so he’s not allowed into Canada.” Later, I saw a tweet state convicted felons are barred from voting in Florida. If true, and if I understand correctly, that would probably mean Trump will be the first presidential candidate not to vote in his election. He probably won’t need his own vote, I just have this feeling we’re gonna get a second (and maybe third, regardless of the Constitution) Trump term.
This meme, or whatever you call it, was popular on Twitter yesterday.
“As it turns out, character DOES matter. You can’t run a family, let alone a country, without it. How foolish to believe that a person who lacks honesty and moral integrity is qualified to lead a nation and the world!”
Those words came from James Dobson of Focus on the Family in September 1998. I wonder if he thinks they still apply to his party’s nominee for president.
I’ve written about my pastor friend and his pastor father losing the matriarch of the family and how impressed I was at how the father was handling the loss of his wife of 51 years. Well, judge isn’t the right word, but I was too quick to judge him from what I saw at her funeral. I was so impressed with his joy and gratitude, but should have known better. He is also human, and the toughest moments come when everyone goes home, and you adjust to the new normal.
I’ve noticed that someone always states the player’s name in every commercial featuring a WNBA player. That’s because they don’t have much celebrity status, and name-dropping is a must if you want the viewer to connect. That makes me question if the company has hired the right spokesperson. That sort of thing doesn’t happen to a LeBron James, Steph Curry, or Serena Williams. Right now, the only Caitlin Clark commercial I’ve seen is of her wearing her Iowa uniform.
I’ve always been that person who will napkin blot the grease from a pizza like nobody’s business.
A friend sent me a YouTube video of a sermon about how if things don’t go right in your life, then you focus on the “next best thing.” One example in the sermon was a divorced parent not getting as much possession time as they’d like. Later in the day, I watched a video on the history of the Batmobile. Stay with me here. In a 1950 comic, Batman wrecked the car he was driving and broke his leg. He couldn’t fight crime with a broken leg, but while recuperating, he did the “next best thing” and designed and made the Batmobile.
It’s nice to see a regular Joe get a moment in the spotlight. The music starts at the 3:25 mark.
Few things are sadder than watching your well-disciplined dog walk out to the far end of the backyard during a big thunderstorm just to take a dump. He’s such a good boy and certainly deserves a treat. I saved him the dignity of not taking a photo.
Can someone out there kindly be proactive and keep Sen. Ted Cruz away from all things Dallas Stars and Dallas Mavericks related at the American Airlines Center until the start of July? He’s more than welcome to attend as many Astro games as he’d like.
My whole day yesterday seemed off, as if the time and date didn’t seem right. I guess part of the reason was that I didn’t have to work on Monday. What didn’t help was not realizing I was watching a newscast I thought was new but was recorded the previous day. After each segment, I simply thought not much had changed from yesterday. But since I blogged about Bill Walton’s death yesterday, it dawned on me I was watching an old newscast, or Walton died twice.
For the first time in a very long time, I didn’t use self-checkout at Wal-Mart because a cashier somehow became available. The cashier’s necklace caught my attention, so I asked her about it. Her answer was rather curt, telling me it was her name. She wasn’t wearing an employee badge or nametag, and the necklace appeared to face the wrong side, so I asked her for her name. All she told me was that it means “sand.” As in sand from the beach. I didn’t press her any further; I just said, “Ah, okay,” and moved on. She was probably having a bad day, but I’m still curious about the name.
Remember the Garfield car window toy craze of the ’80s? I recently found out it only happened because of a manufacturer’s mistake. Jim Davis, Garfield’s creator, told mental_floss in 2014:
He took a plush Garfield and attached Velcro to his paws, hoping people would be amused enough to hang him on their curtains. When he got the prototype back, the factory had made an error and placed suction cups on instead. Davis wasn’t too bothered; since they adhered well to glass, he assumed people might want to apply them to residential windows.
Posted inPersonal|Comments Off on Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, May 29, 2024
