Category Archives: Texana

Bye, bye Tyrone

Posted on December 30, 2014 | Comments Off on Bye, bye Tyrone

I have been almost religiously watching Longhorns football since about 1995. Prior to that I listened to it on radio while doing something else. There are guys on the team every year that I like. This year it’s RB Malcom Brown, even when he isn’t very good, DT Cedric Reed, even when he screws up, and WR John Harris, even when he can’t get open.

But I gotta tell ya. If QB Tyrone “Fumbles” Swoopes starts next season, I will probably stop watching and listening. Mr. Swoopes is so bad he makes Case McCoy look consistent, which he never was. Or Garrett Gilbert (sometimes derided as Gilbert Grape) accurate. Saturday’s drubbing by Arkansas was almost all on Tyrone.

Now I know you could blame the offensive line for not protecting him, as I’m sure some will, but I prefer to cut to the chase: Tyrone just stinks. I like that new coach Charlie Strong got on young Tyrone at least once during a sideline confrontation. The previous coach Mack Brown wouldn’t have dared do it on television. I was sorry to see young Tyrone argue back. But that’s what he’s worth: not much. Better replace him coach. Or risk losing your audience.

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Posted in Texana, Texas Football

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The Texas Curse, early this year

Posted on December 28, 2014 | 3 comments

My nose has been running and its itching causing sneezing fits for a week now and I know it ain’t a cold. It’s cedar fever, early this year. I can’t decide whether the light rain we’re having is keeping the culprit juniper pollen out of the air or making it worse.

How could it make it worse? Beats me. When the Texas Curse hits you try to reason why, but you fail because there’s no reasoning about it. You just pray it doesn’t last more than a few weeks. Shoot, even afflicted atheists pray it doesn’t last too long.

But even when it’s not in the air outdoors, the heating system has pulled it into the house and distributed it around. Even if you vacuumed and dusted, it’d still be around. I know. I’ve tried. Better to hunker down with a good book and lots of tissues. And wait it out.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Texana, Weather

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Rule 5: Cheesecake

Posted on December 25, 2014 | 2 comments

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Kind of thing I’d see in my grandfather’s petroleum engineering office back in 1954 when I was ten and only vaguely aware that it was naughty. But fun to look at anyhow.

Via Andy at MyOldRV.

2 Comments

Posted in Blogosphere, Rule 5, Texana, The Culture

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Mark 1 Plumbing Gun Truck

Posted on December 24, 2014 | 3 comments

Might be a good idea to paint out your company logo before selling that old truck for a new one. You could wind up seeing it in news reports about ISIS from Syria or Iraq.

Like Texas City plumber Mark Oberholtzer did. And getting lots of threats back.

Via Regular Right Guy.

3 Comments

Posted in Blogosphere, Iraq, Texana, The War

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Choppers last at Radio Shack

Posted on December 18, 2014 | 4 comments

Stopped off at our local Radio Shack the other day for a radio-controlled “toy” for the almost-15-year-old Mr. Boy who has been busy acing his first-semester high school freshman finals. Just for fun. Radio Shack, alas, is going out of business. The retail empire will be missed hereabouts and certainly in its home base of Fort Worth.

Anyhow, the RC vehicles were consequently marked way down, most at 50 percent off, some more. I got him an RC stunt car for $10. It’ll probably break pretty quick. Most of them do. Still be fun for however long it lasts.

Longer, I’m sure, than one of the twin-rotor choppers so popular the last few years. Until people figured out that, however cool they look, they are expensive to buy, hard to fly and easy to break. Mr. B. and I still have the two Mrs. Charm got us last year. Still in their boxes. Cowards, yep.

Likewise the choppers at Radio Shack, almost the last kind of RC toy still on the local shelves despite markdowns of as much as 70 percent. Which still leaves the price at $30 plus.

Back in the day (in the 1980s, when we never used that expression), my first word-processing laptop for work was a Radio Shack Tandy, complete with rubber ear cups for transmitting back to the newsroom over a land-line phone receiver. Which I once did to my own amazement on an assignment in Pennsylvania. Later I got a better one (larger, flip-up screen) of my own, then called a Notebook. Memories.

Bye, bye Radio Shack. Rest in Peace.

UPDATE:  My RIP link turns out to be a slam on the company by a disgruntled employee. I was fooled by the “eulogy” headline. It’s a long gripe about how tough retail is for the cashier-person, the lowest of the low. I remember it well. It was/is low-paid and exhausting. It’s what high school and college kids often wind up with for jobs, until they find something better. When they vow never to go back.

4 Comments

Posted in Mr. Boy, Mrs. Charm, Obituaries, Rancho Roly Poly, Scribbles, Texana, The Economy

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Happy Hanukkah!

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Hanukkah is not for the squeamish. Nor the two-state solution.

It’s not really about kids, gifts, fried potatoes or candles. It’s straight-up militarism, oh yeah, a victory celebration in a multimillenial conflict: “a reminder that Obama’s war on Jerusalem was preceded long before him by Antiochus’s war on Jerusalem.”

More timely news for the eight days from Sultan Knish.

UPDATE:  Then there’s the “humor” version via Heeb.

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Posted on December 16, 2014 in Blogosphere, Israel, Texana

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No due process at SMU

Posted on December 16, 2014 | 1 comment

The Ponies don’t just have a lousy football team, they’ve also rigged the system against students accused of rape. Men, in other words. Despite all the recanted rape charges of recent years, the feds still encourage (shoot, they require) schools to favor the rape accuser over the accused.

“To reiterate: this new procedure, which OCR [federal Office of Civil Rights] requires SMU to continue in the future: (1) denies the accused student the right to an attorney; (2) denies the accused student the right to cross-examine his accuser; (3) allows the accused student no meaningful discovery; (4) can brand the accused student a rapist even if SMU’s own investigator and, later, own conduct review officer concludes he did nothing wrong; and (5) can reach that determination on a 3-2 vote.”

Innocent until proven guilty? Not on this subject and not at SMU. Keep your nose clean out there. The Supreme Soviet (i.e. OCR) is back in business, in Dallas.

Via Instapundit.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Obamalot, Obsessions, Texana, The Culture

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