BagOfNothing.com

• Since last Friday, I started to include the date in the daily Bag of Randomness post title.  I thought someone would have commented on it by now.
• I was curious as to why Jimmy Carter wasn’t part of the presidential bit on Letterman’s finale, and then I remembered about ten days ago it was reported the 90-year-old flew back early from Guyana in  an election-monitoring trip.  I’m not sure how early they started working on the taped bit, but he must be pretty ill not to do a ten-second video.
• One of my Canadian readers told me all of Canada missed the first five minutes of the Letterman finale – The rules up here for TV networks is that if a show is on a US network and a Canadian network at the same time then we must watch the Canadian feed and only get Canadian commercials….the famous example is the Super Bowl every year…we don’t get to see your commercials.  Well tonight OMNI, the Canadian network that shows Letterman cut from the show at 12:37 for five minutes so we were watching another show….even on the CBS channel….
• Seth Rogan shared a thank-you letter from David Letterman for appearing on his show. Granted, it’s not hand-written, but I’m surprised that someone that’s been in the game for so long would do such a thing.
• David Letterman’s Late Show Set Thrown in Dumpsters Hours After Final Episode – I’m very surprised they didn’t try to auction off any of the set for charity, but one guy got lucky dumpster diving.
• If you think I’ve gone all blabby over David Letterman retiring, just wait until U2 disbands or one of them dies.
• Rolling Stone – Inside U2’s ‘Innocence’ Spectacle: A Backstage Q&A With Bono and Edge – Memories and megascreens: the band breaks down their arena takeover from the ceiling to the set lists – I’m glad my interpretation of the light bulb used in the show was spot on.
• With lake levels looking really good in the area, I fear a lot of news reports of lake accidents and deaths this Memorial Day weekend.
• I didn’t catch a lot of that Red Nose Day telethon, but I did catch U2 and then Coldplay working with the ‘Game of Thrones’ cast.  The best part of that skit was Jon Snow singing “Wildling” to the tune of “Wild Thing” to his red-headed beauty, Ygritte.
• Six Flags Arlington ~ Everyone Pays Kids Price Coupon
• Dallas Morning News interactive – The best golf courses in Texas
• I’m telling you I could create a much more interesting list.  For instance, he’s a cat owner and drives and old VW Beetle.  OK, only one of those is true. – 10 things to know about OL Doug Free, including his college nickname
• Buzzfeed – A Mom Wore A Cap And Gown And Walked For Her Son At His Graduation A Week After He Died In A Car Crash
• ‘CBS Sunday Morning’ will have a feature on U2.
• Today’s does of ‘MURCIA – A Civilian’s Guide To The U.S. Military – I knew a lot of this stuff already, but I wasn’t aware the Coast Guard moved from under the Department of Defense to Homeland Security.
• A ‘Breaking Bad’ themed bar named ABQ will be opening in London.
• Bill to allow Tesla to sell cars in Texas dies in committee – Lawmaker chides “Mr. Tesla” for failing to negotiate with car dealers.
• A time-lapse that features a flooded Trinity River and the Dallas skyline.
• This site compares the size of the DFW Metroplex by overlaying on other locations.
• Here’s why Chrome uses so much RAM, and how to curb its gluttony.
• Six People Are Locked in a Dome on a Volcano, Pretending to Live on Mars
• imgur – When my brother was born in 1985, my mother purchased two identical teddy bears. The one on the left has been my brother’s for 30 years, the one on the right has been kept in storage for my brother’s first child who was born today.
• “Pick your enemies carefully because they’ll define you.”

• #ThrowBackThursday – That picture was taken in May 1998.  I signed up for a week-long semester of classes in which all you had to do was go to NYC, visit a bunch of financial institutions, and write a couple of papers.  Part of me didn’t want to go because my father was already in the hospital for a month, and he ended up dying a month later.  I remember him telling me that even though it’s May, I should take a heavy jacket because it gets pretty cold in New York at night.  I just kind of agreeingly nodded at my father thinking he might be high on painkillers and didn’t take a jacket.  Well, that was a mistake because I was freezing most nights, and the jacket you see in the picture is borrowed from a friend.
• Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see a show but checked out the street they blocked for some sort of bit they were doing outside the theater.  I did catch a Conan taping that week.
• I think one reason so many friends of David Letterman are tearing up when talking about him is that they know he’s a bit of a recluse, a real private person, and despite what he says, there’s a 98% probability we’ll never see him in public again, so all of this is like a living wake for them.
• So Dave is gone. You can’t feel sorry for the man, he’s had a legendary career, rich beyond dreams, and it seems he’s finally happy.  But it’s hard to let go because doing so means something that was there for most of our life is gone.  A constant is no longer there.  It brings to realization that life changes and everything in it is fragile.  So it’s not so much that Dave is retiring, it’s that we don’t like letting go.  The door is slamming on our youth.
• I’m so grateful that CBS let the show run 17-minutes long, and how they handled Dave’s retirement.
• Man, that opening with all the living presidents (sans Carter) was beyond fantastic, very classic Letterman and what a great way to set the mood.  And I love how he was introduced . . . from a small town in Indiana.
• I remember the studio audience for Carson’s last show was only for family and close friends of his and his employees, but I think Dave just let in a regular audience.
• Dave has always acknowledged his monolog was never his strong suit.  It’s his bits, interviews, and the rare confessions of the heart that made him unique.
• I was ecstatic they brought back the old school commercial cards.
• Dave didn’t need to mention his successor Stephen Colbert at all, especially in his last show, but he took the time to do so, which I thought was classy.
• I wonder how many total hours I’ve spent watching Dave.
• Funny that Dave joked about wanting to become the face of Scientology and then they actually ran two commercials during his final show.
• I liked how Jerry Seinfeld wore a tux, and I think Chris Rock wanted to take in the moment by taking a picture behind Dave’s desk.
• Of all the things I really enjoyed, it was that behind the scenes video.
• “Of all the nice things said, merited or not, do me a favor, save a little for my funeral.”
• We don’t get to see much of his son, Harry, but that was a nice moment seeing him sitting in the audience.  It was a better moment hearing Dave talk about how much his family means to him.
• I think Dave is at his best when he’s just sitting behind his desk yacking without any guests, and it was cool seeing that last night at the very end.  It’s off the cuff and genuine with sprinkles of funny.
• The Foo Fighters were solid last night, and as much as I enjoy seeing them play, in tuxes no less, I really enjoyed all those pics and clips.
• I think I counted a total of four Jay Leno pictures displayed in the show.
• Mission Accomplished – “I want it to be upbeat, and I want it to be funny, and I want people to be happy that they spent the time to watch it,” Mr. Letterman said of his last “Late Show” in an interview with The New York Times.
• James Corden had a good bit with Sting to start off his show with a hat-tip to Dave, and had his band play Dave’s song as he walked out.  And to top it off, he had a Top Ten list of things we’ll miss about David Letterman.
• I can see Dave hosting the Kennedy Center Honors with a laid back approach.
• 23 Things That David Letterman Invented
• Back in the day, there was a local rumor that Paul Shaffer attended the University of North Texas.  While that may not be true, two members of his horn section are from the university.
• In a Touching Farewell, Conan Shared the Story of How Letterman Changed His Career
• I got an eye exam yesterday, probably my first in seven years.  I thought with 40 fast approaching, staring at a computer screen every day for at least 8 hours, and a sensitivity to light, my eyes would be in bad shape.  Nope, I still have 20/20.  But because I was driving a rental and left my sunglasses in the vehicle we actually own, I had to sport those flimsy shades so I would be able to see outside.  Without any shades, your are easily blinded by sunlight.
• I forgot how long it takes for your eyes to adjust after getting examining drops put in. Since my job entails working on a PC and sometimes having to look at lines of code, I wasn’t really productive yesterday after the appointment.
• Because of the tornado, Mineral Wells made the ‘CBS Evening News’ last night.  They referred to as “the resort town of Mineral Wells”.  Well, it used to be a resort town.
• Malls in the U.S. may be going extinct (No new enclosed mall has been built since 2006), but not in Canada – Montreal Is Building A $1.7 Billion Mega Mall
• An entertainingly long read on how Captain America was probably defrosted.
• Tech-steeped U2 leverages gadgetry to touch fans
• America’s biggest ranch, which is larger than New York City, goes on sale for $725million in Texas
• Dallas: America’s friendliest city for business
• A non-Texan tried Whataburger for the first time, and it was heaven
• Today’s dose of ‘MURICA!
• Pete Delkus ‏@wfaaweather – In 2014 North TX had 4 tornadoes all year long. Just this month we’ve had 24…and the season isn’t over yet!

David Letterman's newly updated Wikipedia page. The "former" kinda got me. pic.twitter.com/VKo7OXHQWz

— Jeff Jensen (@EWDocJensen) May 21, 2015