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• I’ve been behind the curve when it comes to mobile phone technology, so this may be commonplace for many of you, but when I was driving to pick up DaughterGeeding at a friend’s house my phone alerted me to a car accident about five miles away in the direction I was heading, which game me plenty of time to find a detour.  I didn’t have the destination programmed in my phone, so it didn’t know where I was heading, but it was just telling me what was ahead on the road I was on.
• Some of you may have wondered why your comment doesn’t appear immediately.  That’s because due to a lot of spam, I have certain filters set up and your comment may end up in my “Needs Approval” or “Spam” list, so please don’t think I’m trying to slight or hush you.  Some of the biggies that will trigger the filter are anything relating to pharmaceuticals, vulgarity, or anything relating to the Ice Capades.
• Today’s dose of Oklahoma news – Oklahoma Governor’s Daughter Will Move Trailer Home Off Mansion Grounds
• I’m not a foreign policy expert and I only know a few things about the recently negotiated nuclear deal with Iran that needs approval by Congress.  But I do know that I see one certain commercial at least five times a day that paints a nightmarish picture of the deal if it’s approved and it asks to contact our congressional representatives to not approve it.  I bet that commercial and others are having effect as I saw a news story state that a majority of Americans want the deal rejected.
• Obama: ‘I think if I ran again I could win’ – I’m going to file this CNN article under click bait and misleading title.  This quip from Obama came as he critiquing some African leaders’ reluctance to turn over power and stated he’s barred from running again.  The article title leads the reader to believe he may have some sort of power trip and then it goes on to talk about his other critiques.   And besides, I’m sure every second term president thinks he could win a third term (LBJ might be the exception), it’s part of their type-A personality.
• This other CNN article talks about how Trump would like Sarah Palin to serve in a Trump Administration cabinet post, but I was more surprised to learn about Mama Grizzly Radio, “a station that offers 24-hour news about Palin and issues related to her.”
• This woman was overtaken by the power of bacon (Facebook video).
• I knew the U.S. had many overseas military bases, but I had no idea until I read this article – “BRAC, however, does not apply to the more than 700 United States bases overseas, including 174 in Germany, 113 in Japan and 83 in South Korea, as well as hundreds more in some 70 countries from Aruba to Kenya to Thailand.”  Before reading that article, if I were to guess the number of military bases, I’d probably say somewhere between a hundred and a hundred-and-fifty.
• Here’s a nice chart that lists vitamins and what foods have them.
• ‘Game of Thrones’ humor – The girl who played Shireen Baratheon had a funny tweet.
• Buzzfeed – This Is How Doctors Want To Die – What care do doctors want to have when they reach the end of their lives?  – This sentence might just some the whole thing up, “So much of what we do does prolong death, and prolongs pain.”
• In this GIF, you’ll see an orca bait a bird into picking up a fish and then the orca chomping on said bird.
• Imgur – That’s harsh
• The iconic Big Texan restaurant may be moving to a new address.
• Yesterday I learned that Diane Lane’s mother was October 1957 Playmate of the Month, and I had no idea she (Diane, not her mother) was in The Outsiders.  I guess when a film has Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, and Ralph Macchio, it’s easy to overlook her.  Per IMDB, Lane was asked during filming to play Lana in ‘Risky Business’, but her father said there’s no way in hell she was going to be a hooker in his movie.
• One more bit of trivia from The Outsiders – Out of the main cast, all the kids were in their late teens, the exceptions being Patrick Swayze, who was 31, and Ralph Macchio, who was 21.
• A postal employee in Utah befriended a 12-year-old boy who loved to read. The kid asked for more junk mail to read because he couldn’t afford a bus pass to the library, and that’s when the postal worker made a Facebook post which went viral.
• If you are a Bank of America credit or debit card holder, you can get free admission to the Perot Museum in Dallas or the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History this weekend. For you non-DFW folks, you can find your local free admission museum here.
• What is the marketing budget for FarmersOnly.com? Those commercials come on nonstop.
• DaughterGeeding has never been to Build A Bear, but she’s aware of the concept.  Yesterday she wanted to make her own version.  It started with just a sign on the door announcing her new business, then her finding some left over material her mother let her use.  Next thing you know she’s tracing bears, cutting them out, and asking us to use a stapler to piece them together.  It’s safe to say we no longer have any cotton balls left in the house.
• Apparently the new Vacation movie’s plot has the family visiting Plano, and the folks at Guidelive took exception to the mistakes and how the city was portrayed.  By now you’ve seen the commercial or trailer where they think they are bathing in hot springs only to find out they are in raw sewage – that location is supposedly in Plano.  I’m curious as to how the idea of Plano landed in the movie.
• Key and Peele did a SportsCenter type sketch on what it would be like if teachers were treated like professional athletes.
• Football fans in the New England area seem to be reacting quite rationally with the upheld Tom Brady suspension, and I wish there was a specific typeface to show sarcasm.
• Twiggy the water skiing squirrel is coming to Dallas this weekend.  Specifically, he’ll be at Sausagefest.
• I bet loyal reader RPM already knows the answer – Why is the US still using a Nazi tall ship? – The Eagle was built by the Nazis and fought for Hitler in World War Two – so how did a tall ship that once flew the swastika end up as a training vessel for all new recruits to the US Coast Guard?
• Today’s dose of ‘MURICA!
• Best of Big D 2015 – Some of this Reader’s Picks raise an eyebrow:
  • Best Tex-Mex – El Fenix
  • Best Local Tweeter was awarded to Pete Delkus, but the Reader’s Pick was Grubes, formerly of The TICKET.
  • Best TV Broadcaster – Tim Ryan

• Three years and three months ago I bought a battery-powered mower and have loved using it.  Last week the battery died as it won’t fully charge, and it will cost $129 to place it, which I don’t think is bad.  I haven’t done the math to see if there were any cost savings over the years, but I do enjoy the convenience and low maintenance.
• For some reason, WifeGeeding was pondering whatever happened to former KXAS anchorman Brad Wright (YouTube).  I really couldn’t find anything which referenced what he was doing today though there were a few LinkedIn possibilities, but I don’t have an account for access.  However, it appears he left the station because of a messy divorce and other things – a five-year, $600,000 court fight involving three grand juries, two criminal trials, a $30 million civil suit, two families, six children, and allegations of child molestation.  Looking at that YouTube clip, especially the era, makes me think of Ron Burgundy.
• Benjamin L. Corey – What People Really Mean When They Say “But I Believe The WHOLE Bible”
• Norv Turner is the offensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings, and curious to see how he ends up using Adrian Peterson this year.
• Per Peter King’s MMQB – Jason Garrett will become the second-longest-tenured coach in the 56-season history of the Cowboys at Buffalo on Dec. 27, 2015. Jimmy Johnson coached 88 games, Barry Switzer 71, Bill Parcells 66.  And in case you were wondering, the Man in the Hat coached 454.
• King’s article also mentions that former Longhorn and current Kansas City Chief Jamaal Charles gave a touching speech at the opening ceremonies at the Special Olympics.  In that speech he stated he was able to compete in the Special Olympics when he was ten-years-old and how it changed his life.  It was surprising to me that someone like him was able to to be eligible and made me wonder who would he compete against, but then I learned Special Olympics divides athletes according to skill level into different heats and divisions.  Though I couldn’t find what event(s) he participated in, he was allowed to compete because he was diagnosed with a mental disability, and this article states he was unable to grasp basic punctuation marks.  I wonder how many other Special Olympians have progressed on to a professional athletic career.
• One more MMQB note, it states that Peyton Manning has never been to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  That’s shocking to me considering he’s such a student of the game and son of a legendary quarterback, though not a Hall of Fame member.  Peyton will visit for the first time on Aug 8 when his former to see his former GM, Bill Polian, is inducted.
• I heard or read somewhere that we now live in a time in which we have to identify which school or movie theater shooting we’re talking about.
• I know my writing skills aren’t very strong, but a recent analysis shows that I use a squinting modifier often.
• Buzzfeed – A ‘Breaking Bad’ themed coffee shop is open in Istanbul.
• The latest episode of the survival show ‘Naked and Afraid’ skewed away from the original concept a bit.  In this episode, they chose two people with no survival skills, gave them a survival crash course two weeks prior to their expedition, and shortened the duration from 21 days to 14 days.  Even though I liked the concept, the episode lacked some punch.
• Thank goodness – Google officially ends forced Google+ integration
• Last year I posted a story about then 36-year-old Dr. Jen Welter, who was the first woman to play running back in a men’s professional football game (Indoor Football League), and I’m sure some may question how “professional” the league was.  The Arizona Cardinals have hired her to help coach inside linebackers during training camp.
• Senator Ted Cruz was supposed to be last night’s guest on ‘The Daily Show’, but he canceled to be in D.C. for a vote.  However, the backup guest was strong to very strong – historian David McCullough.  It never dawned on me until his interview, but the Wright Brothers never flew together.
• Because he won too darn much – Fair bans former NBA player Gilbert Arenas from carnival games
• An article about my profession, but I don’t deal with video games and the culture is different- Quality Assured: What It’s Really Like To Test Games For A Living
• i09 – These Videos Show All the Changes Ever Made to the Star Wars Trilogy
• Steve Noviello Credit Card Confrontation (YouTube) – When his account got flagged he did some digging and it brought him face to face with the person accused of stealing his identity.
• A cyclist physically lifts a car out of the way of a bike path (YouTube) – Granted, it was a small car, but it was still impressive.
• I thought they would be a good host – U.S. drops Boston’s embattled bid to host 2024 Olympic Games – Could one day the Olympics stop because it has become too costly and burdensome?
• Tom Cruise was the guest on ‘The Tonight Show’ and they did a lip-sync battle, which I thought was pretty lame at first until Cruise teased doing his classic scene from Risky Business.  Fallon ended the segment with “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” with the help of Cruise, and they both serenaded a girl in the front row.
• I finally caught the Adrian Beltre “Duck Duck Goose” commercial, and I thought it was pretty darn cute.