BagOfNothing.com

• Yesterday was just a very off day. Actually, most of the week has felt off. Maybe I’m having trouble dealing with the time change.
• I’m ignorant of more things than I like to be, and my vocabulary isn’t as rich as I’d like. I don’t think I’ve ever used the word “sublime.” Of course, I’ve heard of it, but I don’t think I ever used it in conversation or a paper. I’ll be honest, I thought the word dealt with something blah or underwhelming, equivalent to “meh.” I think that’s because of this album cover. I heard someone use it yesterday to describe his experience with gratitude and how he went from feeling happiness to joy and ultimately sublime with God. Confused, I looked it up. I wish I had known the meaning of it earlier: Sublime is an adjective that means something is very beautiful or good, and causes strong feelings of admiration or wonder.
• Unexpectedly, BoyGeeding came over for a few hours yesterday. I don’t get to be with him as much as I’d like, so I often express things to him that most parents would keep to themselves. For instance, yesterday I wanted to let him know he was awesome. So, I said, “Son, how did you get to be so awesome?” I didn’t expect him to answer, but he replied, “Well, Dad. It’s basically because you’re my dad.”
• Late last year, one of my childhood friend’s mother died. I wasn’t healthy enough to go to the funeral, which was frustrating, but I for sure sent flowers. Within that last year, two of my closest friends’ mothers developed a form of cancer. One responded well to treatment and is in remission. The other’s outcome is not favorable. I hold her in high esteem, stayed in touch with her, and felt she treated me as one of her own many times. That got me thinking about her funeral and how I should be able to make it because I’m now in good health. Not to be macabre, but I try to plan ahead for stuff like this so I can easily take time away from work. But, for some reason I’m not able to attend, I will definitely send flowers. Then an epiphany slapped me across the face. Send her flowers NOW so she can enjoy them when she’s still alive and know that she’s loved. I tell you all this in case you are in a similar situation. No one can feel your love or appreciate a gift after they are dead, so do what you can to let them know you love them today while they are still alive.
• Today’s short goofy dog Rumble video.
• I’ve followed the life of local resident Paul Alexander, one of the last humans to live most of his life in an iron lung, for a long time. But I haven’t been too impressed with the coverage of his death by the national media. Most, like this CNN article, don’t even mention where he spent most of his life. This NBC News article only states he caught polio in the Fifties in Texas. None of them described how an iron lung worked and why his life couldn’t have been made easier with the advancement of medical technology. This 2020 article by The Guardian does the best job of describing his life outside of the contraption and compared what was going on with COVID with polio. The Dallas Morning News did a great video segment on him years ago, but it also lacked coverage of how he spent time outside of the device.

And though he had to think about every breath, he got better at it. Once he could breathe reliably for long enough, he could get out of the lung for short periods of time, first out on the porch, and then into the yard.

Although he still needed to sleep in the iron lung every night – he couldn’t breathe when he was unconscious – Paul didn’t stop at the yard. At 21, he became the first person to graduate from a Dallas high school without physically attending a class. He got into Southern Methodist University in Dallas, after repeated rejections by the university administration, then into law school at the University of Texas at Austin. For decades, Paul was a lawyer in Dallas and Fort Worth, representing clients in court in a three-piece suit and a modified wheelchair that held his paralysed body upright.

At a time when disabled people were less often seen in public – the Americans With Disabilities Act, which banned discrimination, wouldn’t be passed until 1990 – Paul was visible. Over the course of his life, he has been on planes and to strip clubs, seen the ocean, prayed inchurch, fallen in love, lived alone and staged a sit-in for disability rights. He is charming, friendly, talkative, quick to anger and quick to make a joke. At 74, he is once again confined to the lung full-time.

• https://twitter.com/peytonyager/status/1768353128473149619
• https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1768379955698885110

• My electric bill was less than I expected. Curious, I thought I’d look at my usage history and compare it to the same month of last year. Oddly, my electric provider only provides 11 months of usage history. I could understand if I had only been a customer for 11 months, but I’ve been their customer for almost two years.
• From last night’s Daily Show:
  • “Biden and Trump secured enough delegates to clinch their party’s nomination. Making this officially a three-man race between Trump, Biden, and natural causes.”
  • I thought one joke about RFK Jr went too far, “When has a Kennedy ever died unexpectedly?”
  • “China made an app so popular that the U.S. government has to ban it means communist China beat free-market America at capitalism. Next thing you know they will be manufacturing our phones.”
  • The show also pointed out a very strange thing South Dakota Governor Kristi Noam did. She filmed an infomercial-like video for a Houston dentist she and her husband flew to have a procedure with. A sitting governor of one state is promoting traveling to another state for a health procedure. That’s just weird. I’m sure some conservative dentists and other business owners in South Dakota aren’t happy.
    https://twitter.com/KristiNoem/status/1767392635944059202?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1767392635944059202%7Ctwgr%5Edd3b0d79ad2e0ed526d14ace3717b764c8e7efb1%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbsnews.com%2Fnews%2Fsouth-dakota-gov-kristi-noem-posts-infomercial-style-plug-for-texas-dental-group%2F
• The new The Fall Guy movie with Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt might have some potential but I don’t like the approach they took with it. I loved the show’s theme song and had the metal lunch bunch and thermos.
  
  One thing that continues to annoy me is when people claim Heather Locklear was on the show. She wasn’t, it was Heather Thomas. I distinctly remember the three posters my older sibling had of her in his room. Here’s The Fall Guy version that was on his closet door. A small group of you folks will be confused by the Mineral Wells Panthers stickers on the other door.
  
• I watched the most recent episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Personally, it ranks in my top three favorite episodes.
• Sleeping alone, you don’t think about washing your sheets very often. I’ve needed to for a while but kept putting it off. Having one of my dogs vomit on it was just the motivation I needed.
• https://twitter.com/TheCensoredRock/status/1767702897263890603
• Residents of Mineral Wells will often hear that the 13-storied Baker Hotel will be remodeled. We laugh because this story always comes up every handful of years only for nothing to come of it. But one day, the news proved to be true. All that went through my mind as I saw the headlines for this story, and the man made a great point: Australian billionaire revives dream to set sail on Titanic II
  • “It’s a lot more fun to do the Titanic than it is to sit at home and count my money,” Palmer reportedly told local media with the blunt honesty of man who earns almost half a billion dollars in mining royalties every year.
  • Everyone would love to have this problem: “For Palmer the question is not how to earn money, but where to spend it.”
    • That sentence reminded me of the intriguing 2003 documentary Born Rich created by a Johnson & Johnson decendent who was faced the same problem as he was about to turn 21 and accept his inheritance. In it, he seeks out how to be a productive person to avoid the dysfunction he sees affecting many of the very rich. He also interviews 10 other young heirs, one of which is Ivanka Trump, who I felt came off favorable in the film. You’ll also see a Vanderbuilt and Bloomberg heir.I’d like to see a follow-up and see what they did with their inheiritance and what they are up to now. You can watch the 67-minute documentary in its entirity free on YouTube. Sadly, you’ll have to do it in standard defintion, or what I like to call ULD, ultra-low defition. If you just want to catch the Ivanka section, who sports both blonde and brunette hair, here you go. As she shows us her room, you realize she was just a regular teen and hung posters of her favorite bands on the walls of her room. But the most intersting part starts at the 2:40 mark. She tells a story of her father who was going through a divorce and bankrumpt pointing at a homeless person outside Trump Tower and saying to her, “That guy has eight billion more dollars than me.” The former president is a very prideful man who doesn’t want to appear weak, so I wonder if she got any flack for saying he was in “extreme debt at the time.” To me, it makes for a better comeback story, and America likes a comback story.

• I’m placing a moratorium on white people singing gospel music until we can figure out what on earth happened here… pic.twitter.com/fpYXMB5TV6

  — David Mau (@_the_last_echo_) March 12, 2024

• The Tesla Cybertruck is only available in stainless steel but here’s a painted one. This person literally could have chosen any color and went with doo-doo brown?
• For my fellow Cowboys fans, it was nice of Michael Irvin to mention this old lady in his tweet.
• I wish the Republican party would split into MAGA and traditional sections. Actually, I wish the Trump supporters would just create a MAGA party.
• Two words I use way too often in my writing are in that last bullet point: actually and just. I also feel like I overuse “very.”
• Somewhat new sports terminology that shouldn’t annoy me but does like all get out:
  • The use of “Nation” or “Kingdom” regarding the fandom of any team.
  • GOAT (Greatest Of All Time)
  • Natty used as an abbreviation for a national championship.
• Kirk Cousins is a great human being, but I can’t stand the guy. It was hard to root for the Vikings in any game. His new team, the Falcons, has who I believe will be the best running back in the league in the next few seasons. Their running game will open up now that teams have to respect the passing game. Atlanta has a lot to be excited about this upcoming season, unlike Cowboys fans.
• If Jerry were truly “all in” for next season, he would have signed Derrick Henry. Signing him would not be the best thing for the team in the long term, but if the goal is to win the Super Bowl next season, that’s how you go about being “all in.” An article I was reading about Henry referred to him as a “bell cow.” Despite being from Mineral Wells with friends who lived on dairy farms, I’ve never heard of the term. So, I looked it up. A synonym was “workhorse.” Now, that I understood.
  • Mineral Wells used to have a newspaper, the Index. A friend’s father followed local sports and wrote for the paper. The man could be a little eccentric, but what a lot of folks took for granted was how their childhood was being documented. He was colorful and sometimes gave nicknames to players. I was never lucky enough to earn one as a tight end, but my very first friend in life who played running back, just like Henry, was bequeathed “Workhorse.” I took advantage of modern technology and sent him a quick text just to let him know I was thinking of him.
    
• There’s a lot to unpack here. I’ll just say that every family grieves in their own way and all victims have their own idea of what helps bring justice.
  • Georgia Congressman Mike Collins invited Laken Riley’s parents to the State of the Union address just days after her murder, which they understandably declined. However, they appeared at a Trump campaign event yesterday. The former president autographed a poster of their daughter and misspelled her name by ending it in “an.”
  • Loosely related: While criticizing President Biden for mispronouncing Laken Riley’s name, Marjorie Taylor Greene makes the same mistake and calls her Lincoln Riley. That reminds me of when a form of justice was brought to Osama Bin Laden and news people would confuse “Osama” and “Obama.”
    
• Jon Stewart often can articulate what I feel but have trouble expressing. He’s done it again. Love, worship, and support President Trump as much as you want, just don’t call it patriotism.
  

  Jon Stewart is right. Go ahead and support His Magasty if you must. But don’t call it “patriotism.” And wear the right damn coats. pic.twitter.com/W2AEcqixXz

  — Randi Mayem Singer (@rmayemsinger) March 12, 2024

• I’m usually concerned about getting up and running the first Monday after the change to daylight saving time, that I’d be dragging or it takes a few days to get adjusted. But for some reason, I wake up more alert and refreshed. Maybe I’m getting too much sleep.
• Do people use iPads anymore? In the future, I bet regular consumers won’t use or purchase them, but we’ll see them used in all sorts of ways in business. I don’t mind at all using them to fill out paperwork in the waiting room at a doctor’s office. I hear all the major airlines use them to replace physically bulky user manuals.
• It seems like all the Brits are turning on Prince William. Sources to BagOfNothing tell us Kate and William haven’t lived together for a while. She lives in Windsor close to her parents. He lives in Kensington Palace and Amner Hall. That’s about a 40-minute drive in good traffic.
• I had a dinner date last night with someone I’ve been texting with for a couple of weeks. She was one impressive woman, incredibly smart, compassionate, and resilient. Her profile pics looked great, but she was much prettier than I expected, definitely the prettiest woman in the room. I just wish the waiter would have gotten my order right and the atmosphere wasn’t so loud. I’m not good at this stuff, but I hope to get to know her better. But, I also know she’s pressed for time.
• I’ve been on a bagel kick lately. I’ve played around with both whipped and non-whipped cream cheese that comes in a tub. The last time I was grocery shopping, I noticed that the cream cheese that comes in a block was only $0.99, so I bought a couple. I provide all that context just to let you know I learned that while both products are cream cheese, the block is much denser. I thought the non-whipped tub variety was exactly the same as the block but they came in two forms to access easier to spread or help with measuring when it serves as an ingredient. The tubbed variety has a slightly higher water content which makes it spread more easily.
• I ran across the photo at the top of this post yesterday. It’s of Civil War veteran Jacob Miller. As you can probably guess, he was shot in between the eyes. You can read about him here and here, but here are some random details that caught my attention.
  • “At last, I became conscious and raised up in a sitting position. Then I began to feel my wound,” Miller recalled. “I found my left eye out of its place and tried to place it back, but I had to move the crushed bone back as together as near together as I could first. Then I got the eye in its proper place. I then bandaged the eye the best I could with my bandana.”
  • Fearful of being taken prisoner by the Confederates, he set out on a 15-mile journey to Chattanooga. Miller could only see a few feet ahead of him by holding open the lids of the swollen eye. Miller managed to stumble along, but on the way, he ran into a Confederate soldier who was out front scouting the lines and the rebel soldier took mercy on Miller’s plight. He gave Miller a drink of water from his canteen and pointed in the direction of the Union Line.
  • Miller passed out along the roadside and was picked up by a man on horseback 
  • Surgeons were sure Miller would die if the bullet were removed, so they left it in until he reached home. Once in Logansport, doctors Graham Fitch and Henry Coleman successfully removed about one-third of the musket ball. “Seventeen years after I was wounded a buck shot dropped out of my wound and thirty-one years after two pieces of lead came out,” Miller said.
  • “Some ask how it is I can describe so minutely my getting wounded and getting off the battlefield after so many years My answer is I have an everyday reminder of it in my wound and constant pain in the head, never free of it while not asleep. The whole scene is imprinted on my brain as with a steel engraving. I haven’t written this to complain of anyone being at fault for my misfortune and suffering all these years, the government is good to me and gives me $40.00 per month pension.”
  • His fellow war veterans nicknamed him “Center Shot”
  • Jacob Miller died Jan. 13, 1917, at the age of 88. 

• Only in Texas will you see someone casually walking around with a rocket launcher pic.twitter.com/AGWTOUKxiG

  — Dallas Texas TV (@DallasTexasTV) March 11, 2024