Tag Archives: Mouth of the Brazos

Those feathered descendants of the dinosaurs

Posted on July 18, 2013 | 3 comments

Some people have trouble imagining what scientists have in recent decades demonstrated via China fossils to be true: that birds are the descendants of dinosaurs.

Not me and J.D. at Mouth of the Brazos, who watched a Texas Mockingbird in action:

“The way the bird landed and hopped, using its wings and tail for balance, after the lizard (which had no chance at all) made me think of dinosaurs. It is hard to NOT believe that birds are closely related to them.”

Especially the big ones, like Mexican Grackles and Blue Jays. I still wonder about hummingbirds, though.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Texana

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Of skunks and snakes

Posted on July 15, 2013 | 4 comments

Went out on the patio early Sunday (as in about 2 a.m.) to smoke a cigarette and got a glimpse of a big bushy white-n-black tail swishing around the corner of the house. Figured it was the skunk Mrs. Charm sniffed out the other day, or a member of the same family, anyhow. I left it alone. Never mess with skunks.

We also have big raccoons, opossums and armadillos now and again.

J.D., over at Mouth of the Brazos, however, gets the cold-blooded critters. For instance, what apparently was a “good-sized” Prairie Kingsnake advancing down his flagstone walk towards his flower bed and porch. Says he could tell by the shape of its head that it wasn’t harmful, but he stood up from his porch rocker and clapped his hands anyway which made the snake do a 180 and slither away.

All we ever see of the snake variety are pencil-thin, pale-green garden ones. Happily. If my only choice is skunks or snakes, I’ll take the skunks.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Mrs. Charm, Rancho Roly Poly, Texana

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Our robot overlords have arrived

Posted on February 18, 2013 | Comments Off on Our robot overlords have arrived

This K-Max robot helicopter, which has no human crew, is doing resupply for Marines in Afghanistan. Up to 4,500 pounds worth. Yes, but will it do Medevac?

Meanwhile, our drone-lovin’ president (like Slick Willie a natural-born killer when he can do it by remote control without endangering himself) is encouraging the use of drones over our airspace. Maybe the next time you see a helicopter fly over your neighborhood, you should duck and cover.

Or else bring out your still-legal (so far) AR-15 semiauto and shoot the sumbitch down. Not that I would ever advise anyone to break the law, you understand.

Via Mouth of The Brazos.

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Posted in Afghanistan, Science/Engineering, The War, Troops

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Back when you could drink and drive

Posted on May 2, 2012 | Comments Off on Back when you could drink and drive

Absolutely true. It was 1978, when I moved back to Texas, that you could still set an open can of beer (or an open bottle of bourbon, if you were so inclined) between your legs as you drove. And if you got stopped for speeding (which wasn’t very likely) the cop wouldn’t say a thing about the booze.

Ah, those were the days, as JD Allen (The Mouth of the Brazos) remembers.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Scribbles, Texana

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Tornado memories

Posted on March 17, 2012 | Comments Off on Tornado memories

As a recovering journalist, my memories of the job come and go, some quite indistinct—like this tornado recollection I left at JD Allen’s place not long ago:

“I ‘chased’ one in the Panhandle one time so the photographer I was working with could get a decent shot of it. He was driving. We were about a mile from the thing and it was very big and very black and moving very fast on the ground. I was very tempted to bail out, but he was driving too fast. Fortunately he took his shot and [we] got the hell out of the way.”

It’s so flat up there, just miles and miles, as someone has said, of miles and miles. But my favorite spot still is Happy, the town without a frown. One grain elevator, though. And a cookbook.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Scribbles, Texana, Weather/Climate

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Debra vs Goliath

Posted on February 11, 2010 | Comments Off on Debra vs Goliath

JD Allen of Mouth of the Brazos likes her. Indeed, he’s planning to vote for her, though, as usual, he’s conflicted with politics. The former GOP chairwoman turned Tea Partier has shot up in the polls. There’s just one problem. Besides running on Gov. Rick Perry’s platform, she has no campaign money.

UPDATE:  And now, thanks to Glenn Beck, we know why no serious money is backing her. She’s over. Adios, Debra.

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Posted in Texana

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Up she rises

Posted on February 5, 2010 | Comments Off on Up she rises

The Brazos, that is, according to JDAllen and Bob Dunn, here and here. They ought to know, the river being in their backyards, more or less. I need to drive down off the mountain and see if Shoal Creek is rushing white-water yet.

She gets that way after all the rain we’ve been having. “Like this weather?” the fish man asked me the other day at the H-E-B. Does anybody?, I replied. He said no more. Actually, all this rain will have a good result: the Bluebonnets and other wildflowers should be really good in a few more weeks.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Rancho Roly Poly, Texana, Weather/Climate

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