THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER

November ended very dry, putting Austin in the exceptional drought category, i.e. the worst possible. We’re surrounded by an extreme drought area (the red on the map) with no end in sight. Our driest year since 1956. Odd combination: no rain and an early winter of chilly days andfrigid nights. Yech.

November ended very dry, putting Austin in the exceptional drought category, i.e. the worst possible. We’re surrounded by an extreme drought area (the red on the map) with no end in sight. Our driest year since 1956. Odd combination: no rain and an early winter of chilly days andfrigid nights. Yech.

We’ve had four five 100-degree days (and a slew of ninety-nines) already this year, according to the National Weather Service, and June has hardly begun. Usually we don’t see more than a fluke one of them before early July. Accuweather’s Joe Bastardi is calling this weather our Fry Pan Olympics. Sure feels like it.

Austin, Texas. Southwestern architecture in a flag theme for the weekend, inspired by Instapundit.

Austin, Texas. Southwestern architecture in a flag theme for the weekend, inspired by Instapundit.

Austin, Texas. Southwestern architecture in a flag theme for the weekend, inspired by Instapundit.

Easily the most colorful historic building in Austin, the 1886 Driskill Hotel was the namesake project of a cattleman for other cattlemen. Texas being short of cattlemen these days, the Driskill is for everybody willing to spend up to $500 plus a night to stay in a place with some character, despite smallish rooms.

It’s the bottom of the fourth, two outs and a runner on second base. Then a father notices the potential flaw in the runner’s getting to third, let alone home. His left shoe is untied. "Colin, tie your shoe!" the father yells from the stands. Colin looks down, sees the problem, then looks back at [...]

It’s the bottom of the fourth, two outs and a runner on second base. Then a father notices the potential flaw in the runner’s getting to third, let alone home. His left shoe is untied. "Colin, tie your shoe!" the father yells from the stands. Colin looks down, sees the problem, then looks back at [...]

Obama-rama, the Keep Hope Alive candidate who is already leading his enthralled leftie audiences in Jesse Jackson-like chanting, is the presidential pick of most of the kids in Mr. Boy’s second-grade class. Mr. B., whose occasional rebellion in the behavior department masks his generally-conformist nature, says he also is for the O man because "he [...]