Washington Farmers Markets

One of my pet peeves about where I live in North Texas is there is not the bounty of fresh produce, grown locally, that I was used to all my life prior to Texas, living in Washington.

Fort Worth will call the littlest, lamest thing a Farmers Market. It's just sort of embarrassing. Just in Tacoma there are several Farmers Markets. Just today downtown had its weekly Farmers Market, to which my Mom and Dad and Kristin went, buying way too many berries, which I can smell being turned into jam even as I type.

Anyway, below is a list of Washington's Farmers Market, complete with all the info you'd need to find it.

Airway Heights Farmers Market
13100 W 14th Ave, Hwy 2 @ Lawson
Friday, 9am-1pm, June 6-October 10
Lori Musgrave (509) 235-6707

Anacortes Farmers Market
Depot Arts Center @ 7th & R Avenue
Saturday, 9am-2pm, May 17-October 10, Nov. 8 and Nov. 22
Keri Knapp (360) 293-7922 http://www.anacortesfarmersmarket.org/http://www.anacortesfarmersmarket.org/info@anacortesfarmersmarket.org

Bainbridge Island Farmers Market-
Eagle Harbor Church105 Winslow Way and Madison
Saturday, 10am-3pm, November 17-December 22
Susan Anemone 206-855-1500
http://www.bainbridgefarmersmarket.com/http://www.bainbridgefarmersmarket.com/info@bainbridgeislandfarmersmarket.com

Bainbridge Island Farmers Market -
Market SquareMarket Town Square @ 208 Madison &Winslow Way
Saturday, 9am-1pm, April 12-October 18 Eagle Harbor Church @ 105 Winslow Way & MadisonSaturday 10am-3pm, November 20-December 22
Susan Anemone 206-855-1500
http://www.bainbridgefarmersmarket.com/info@bainbridgeislandfarmersmarket.com

Battle Ground - Old Town Saturday Market
SE 2nd Ave. & East Main in Old Town
Saturday, 9am-3pm, April 12-October 18
Brenda Stanton, 360-576-9767
http://www.otbgsm.com/otbgsm@yahoo.com

Bayview Farmers Market
SR 525 and Bayview
Saturday, 10am-2pm, April 26-October 25
Michael Yocco (360) 321-2585 http://www.bayviewfarmersmarket.com/tribepotter@yahoo.com

Bellevue - Crossroads Farmers Market
156th Ave NE & NE 8th (Crossroads Bellevue parking lot)
Tuesday, Noon-5pm, May 27-October 7, 2008
Grant Davidson (425) 485-1042
http://www.crossroadsbellevue.com/gddman22@aol.com

Bellevue Farmers Market
1717 Bellevue Way NE (parking lot at First Presbyterian Church)
Thursday, 3pm-7pm, May 15-October 9
Lori Taylor (425) 454-8474 http://www.bellevuefarmersmarket.org/lori@bellevuefarmersmarket.org

Bellingham Farmers Market –
DowntownRailroad & Chestnut
Saturday, 10am-3pm, April through ChristmasFairhaven Village Green (behind Village Books) Wednesday, 3pm-7pm June 4-September 24
Robin Crowder (360) 647-2060 http://www.bellinghamfarmers.org/market@bellinghamfarmers.org

Bellingham Farmers Market –
FairhavenFairhaven Village Green (behind Village Books)
Wednesday, 3-7pm June 6-September 26
Robin Crowder (360) 647-2060 http://www.bellinghamfarmers.org/market@bellinghamfarmers.org

Bothell Farmers Market at Country Village
238th & Bothell-Everett Hwy (SR 527)
Friday, Noon-6pm, June 6-September 26
Nancy Stoll (425) 483-2250 ext.3
info@countryvillagebothell.com

Bremerton Farmers Market
1318 Park Ave @ Seaside Church
Thursdays, 4pm-7:30pm May 15-October 9
Tiffany Royal (360) 621-5934
bremertonmarket@gmail.com

Bridgeport Farmers MarketFireman’s Park
(10th and Columbia)
Friday, 8:30am-12:30pm, June 20-mid-October
Verla Groenveld (509) 686-3875
Verla_1999@yahoo.com

Burien Farmers Market
SW 152nd Street between 2nd SW & 6th SW
Thursday, 11am-6pm, May 8-October 9
Debra George (206) 941-7199
http://www.discoverburien.com/debrageorgemi@aol.com

Camas Farmers Market
5th Street between Birch and Cedar
Saturday, 9am-1pm, May 17-October 4
Carren Senn Walker360-838-1032
http://www.camasfarmersmarket.org/

Carnation Farmers Market
SR 203-Tolt Avenue & Bird Street
Tuesday, 3pm-7pm, May 13-September 30
Heidi Bohan (425) 333 6050 http://www.carnationfarmersmarket.org/info@carnationfarmersmarket.org

Cashmere–Wenatchee Valley Farmers Market
Riverside Park in Cashmere
Friday, 9am-1pm, July 11-September 26
Julie Mitchell (509) 668-0497 http://www.wenatcheefarmersmarkets.com/info@wenatcheefarmersmarkets.com

Centralia – Lewis County Farmers Market
Pine & Tower
Friday, 9am-3pm, May 2-September 12
Derrill Outland (360) 736-8977
dojo@compprime.com

Chehalis – Community Farmers Market
Boistfort Street
Tuesdays, Noon-5pm, June 10-October 21
Brenda Book (360) 880-9546 http://www.communityfarmersmarket.net/info@communityfarmersmarket.net

Chelan- Lake Chelan Valley Farmers Market
Johnson & Columbia (Chamber parking lot)
Saturday, 8am-1pm, June 7-October 25
Zachary Robertson (509) 679-4194
be_the_rock@hotmail.com

Cheney - Friday Farmers Market
1st & College
Friday, 11am-4:30pm, May 18-October 26
Rhonda Elliott (509) 559-5818

Colville – NE Washington Farmers Market
Corner of Main & Astor
Saturday, 8:30am-1pm, May 5-October 27
Sheryl McKee (509) 684-3306
saam@theofficenet.com

Colville Farmers Market
Oak St & 3rd Ave
Wednesday, Noon-6pm June 4-October 22
John Smith (509) 684-4404
brythstone@yahoo.com

Coupeville Farmers Market
Alexander and 8th Street
Saturday, 10am-2pm, April 5-October 11
Peg Tennant (360) 678-4288
coupevillemarket@aol.com

Des Moines Waterfront Farmers Market
South End of the Des Moines Marina
Saturday, 10am-2pm, June 7-October 25
Rikki Marohl (206) 310-8040
http://www.dmfm.org/market@dmfm.org

Duvall Farmers Market
1st and Stella Street
Thursday, 3pm-7pm, June 5-October 2
Laurie Gilbertson (425) 788-1185 ext 402 http://www.duvallfarmersmarket.com/duvallfarmersmarket@msn.com

Orcas Island/East Sound Farmers Market
Eastsound Village Green (just north of the Historical Museum)
Saturday, 10am-3pm, May 3-September 27
Julie Miller (360) 376-4594 http://www.orcasislandfarmersmarket.org/farmerahab@rockisland.com

Edmonds Museum Farmers Market
5th Ave N & Bell Street
Saturday, 9am-3pm, May 3- June 28 and July 5-October 4
Jerry Freeland (425) 742-4512mailto:742-4512jjfreeland@aol.com

Ellensburg – Kittitas County Farmers Market
4th Avenue between Pearl & Pine
Saturday, 9am-1pm, May 3-October 25
Pam Grueter-Schmidt (509) 899-3870 http://www.kcfarmersmarket.com/kcfarmersmarket@yahoo.com

Ephrata Farmers Market
Sun Basin Plaza on Basin St
Saturday, 8am-Noon, June 14—October 25
Trish Hooper (509) 771-0383

Everett Farmers Market
1600 W Marine View Drive at 16th Street
Sunday, 11am-4pm, June 1-September 28
Tone Hutton (425) 258-3356
http://www.everettfarmersmarket.com/

Friday Harbor – San Juan Farmers Market
Courthouse parking lot @ 2nd & Blair
Saturday, 10am-1pm, April 26-October 25
Jane Burton-Bell (360) 378-237
2mailto:2grishakriv@gmail.com

Gig Harbor Farmers Market
Kimball Drive Park N Ride
Saturday, 8:30am-2pm, April 5-September 27
Dale Schultz, Chairman (253) 208-6296 http://www.gigharborfarmersmarket.com/mailto:pigs4112@aol.com

Gig Harbor Wednesday Farmers Market
Skansie Brothers Park (Downtown Gig Harbor on the Water)
Wednesday, 11am-4pm, June 4 - Aug 27
Dale Schultz, Chairman (253) 208-6296 http://www.gigharborfarmersmarket.com/
pigs4112@aol.com

Goldendale Saturday Market
Vern Markee Park at 903 E Broadway
Saturday, 9am-2pm, May 12-October 13
Earlene Sullivan (509) 773-7030

Ilwaco – Saturday Market
at The Port of IlwacoWaterfront Way
Saturday, 10am-3pm, May 3-September 27 Normandie Hand (360) 783-1143

Kelso Bridge Market
Allen Street & Pacific Avenue (under the Allen Street Bridge)
Sunday, 10am-3pm, May 6-September 30
Betty Erickson (360) 957-2515
http://www.kelso.gov/recreation/bridgemarket/
Betty.erickson@comcast.net

Kennewick Farmers Market
Kennewick Avenue & Auburn Street
Thursday, 4pm-8pm, June 7-October 25
Ann Steiger (509) 585-2301
ahsteiger@aol.com

Kent Farmers Market
2nd and Harrison Streets
Saturday, 9am-2pm, June7-September 27
Bill and Linda Westcott (253) 486-9316
kentfarmersmarket@hotmail.com

Key Peninsula Farmers Market
Corner of Key Peninsula Highway N and Olson St. in Key Center
Sunday, 12pm-4pm, June 22-September 28Tara Froode (253) 884-6350 http://kpfarmersmarket.org/default.aspxinfo@kpfarmersmarket.org

Kingston Farmers Market
Port of Kingston Marina Park
Saturday, 9am-2:30pm, April 19-October 11
Clinton Dudley (360) 297-7683 http://www.kingstonfarmersmarket.com/kingstonfarm@earthlink.net

Kirkland – Friday Night Market
at Juanita BeachJuanita Beach Park at 116th and 100th
Friday, 3pm-7pm, May 30-October 10
Sudie Elkayassi (425) 587-3347
SElkayssi@ci.kirkland.wa.us

Kirkland Wednesday Market
Park Lane East between 3rd & Main
Wednesday, 2pm-7pm, May 7-October 15
Jodi Bardinelli, Director (425) -893-8766 http://www.kirklandwednesdaymarket.org/info@kirklandwednesdaymarket.org

Lake Forest Park- Third Place Commons Farmers Market
Bothell Way NE & Hwy 104 Sunday, 11am-4pm, May 11 October 5
Grant Davidson (425) 485-1042
gddman22@aol.com

Langley – South Whidbey Tilth Farmers Market
Hwy 525 at Thompson Road
Saturday, 10am-2pm, May 3-October 25 Wednesday, 4pm- 6pm, June 18-September 3
Elizabeth Case-Smith (360) 320-0685 http://www.southwhidbeytilth.org/market@southwhidbeytilth.org

Leavenworth – Wenatchee Valley Farmers Market
Lions Park on Route 2 Tuesday, 9am-1pm, June 18-October (weather dependent)
Julie Mitchell (509) 668-0497
info@wenatcheefarmersmarket.com

Longview – Cowlitz County Community Farmers Market
Cowlitz County Fairgrounds at 7th & New York
Tuesday and Saturday, 9am-2pm, April-OctoberTerrence Miracle (360) 425-1297 http://www.cowlitzfarmersmarket.com/francesmiracle@msn.com

Mercer Island Farmers Market
SE 32nd Avenue @ Mercerdale Park (between 77th & 78th Ave S)
Sunday, 11am-3pm, August 10-October 12Callie Ridolfi (206) 403-8188 http://www.mifarmersmarket.org/callieridolfi@gmail.com

Millwood Community Farmers Market
Millwood Presbyterian Church (Knox & Marguerite)
Wednesday, 3pm-7pm, May 23-October 28
Craig Goodwin (509) 924-2350
dave-or-susan@msn.com

Monroe Farmers Market
200 block East Main Street, back parking lot
Tuesday, 2-7pm, June 3-September
Lynn Gose (360) 794-4926
gomonroemarket@aol.com

Mount Vernon Farmers Market
Downtown Mount Vernon
Saturday, 9am-1pm, May 31-October 11
Ron Farrell (360) 292-2648
http://www.mountvernonfarmersmarket.org/
mvfarmer1@hotmail.com

Mount Vernon Farmers Market
Skagit Valley Hospital at 1415 E Kincaid
Wednesday, 2:30- 5:30pm, June 4-September 24
Ron Farrell (360) 292-2648 http://www.mountvernonfarmersmarket.org/mvfarmer1@hotmail.com

Mukilteo Farmers Market
Rosehill Community Center at 3rd & Lincoln
Wednesday, 3pm-7pm, June 4-September 24
Cherri Paul (425) 418-6064 http://www.mukilteofarmersmarket.org/cmukilteo@msn.com

Newport – Pend Oreille Valley Farmers Market
3rd between Union and Washington
Saturday, 9am-1pm, May 3- November 1
Nephi White (509) 447-5470
nrw@intergate.com

Oak Harbor Public Market
Hwy 20 next to Visitor Center
Thursday, 4pm-7pm, May 24-September 27
Peg Tennant (360) 678-4288
oakharbormarket@yahoo.com

Okanogan Valley Farmers Market
American Legion Park
Saturday, 9am-1pm, May–OctoberStephanie Clark (509) 826-1259
smassieclark@msn.com

Olympia Farmers Market
Capitol Way & Market Street
Thursday-Sunday, 10am-3pm April-December (Saturday & Sunday only in November & December)
Charlie Haney (360) 352-9096
http://www.olympiafarmersmarket.com/manager-ofmarket@qwest.net

Omak – Okanogan Valley Farmers Market
Civic League Park at Central & Ash Streets
Tuesday, 3pm-7pm, June 5-October 30

Thanksgiving Market
Okanogan Grange, Tyee and 2nd2nd
Saturday in November
Debbie Mayberry (509) 826-5845
smassieclark@msn.com

Othello Farmers Market
Pioneer Park at 3rd & Main
Saturday, 8am-Noon, June- mid-October
Ann Sperl (509) 488-5700

Pasco Farmers Market
4th & Columbia
Wednesday & Saturday, 8am-Noon, May 5-October 27
Mike Somerville (509) 531-7274
threefinger@verizon.net

Port Angeles Farmers Market
Courthouse Parking Lot (4th and Peabody)
Saturday, 10am-2pm, All Year
Karen Bert (360) 928-0214 http://www.pafarmersmarket.net/karen02242003@yahoo.com

Port Angeles Farmers Market
location unknown at this time
Wednesday 3pm-6:30pm, June 18-October 1
Karen Bert (360) 928-0214
http://www.pafarmersmarket.net/pafarmersmarket@yahoo.com

Port Orchard Farmers Market
Harrison and Bay Street (June 30 at Bay Street & Fredrick Street)
April 28-October 13
Pam Moyer (360) 275-7105 http://www.pofarmersmarket.org/Krfma_personnel@yahoo.com

Port Townsend - Jefferson County Farmers Market
Location 1Uptown on Tyler & Lawrence
Saturday, 9:30am-1:30pm, May 3-November 15 (except May 17)
Wendie Dyson (360) 379-9098 http://www.ptfarmersmarket.org/info@ptfarmersmarket.org

Port Townsend -Jefferson County Farmers Market Location 2
Uptown on Polk & Lawrence
Wednesday, 3:30pm-6:30pm, June 11-September 24
Wendie Dyson (360) 379-9098
http://www.ptfarmersmarket.org/

Poulsbo Farmers Market
7th Avenue & Iverson (Poulsbo Village Medical/Dental Center)
Saturday, 9am-1pm, April 12-October 11
Jackie Aitchison (360) 779-6720 http://www.poulsbofarmersmarket.org/info@poulsbofarmersmarket.org

Prosser Farmers Market
Prosser City Park at 7th Street & Sommer Avenue
Saturday, 8am-Noon, May 3-October 25
Linda Hall (509) 786-9174 http://www.prosserfarmersmarket.com/lindakayhall@yahoo.com

Puyallup Farmers Market
Pioneer Park & Pavilion at Meridian & 4th Avenue SW
Saturday, 9am-2pm, May 3-October 25 Sunday, 10am-2pm, May 4- August 31
Janie Morris (253) 840-2631 http://www.puyallupmainstreet.com/farmersmarket@puyallupmainstreet.com

Raymond – Public Market
on the Willapa4th & Heath
Friday & Saturday 10am-5pm, Year round
Carol Dunsmoor (360) 942-2123
cdunsmoor@willapabay.org

Renton Farmers Market
S 3rd Street between Logan & Burnett
Tuesday, 3pm-7pm, June 3-September 16
Linda Middlebrooks (423) 679-1502 http://www.rentonfarmersmarket.com/jmidbk@aol.com

Richland – Market at the Parkway
The Parkway on Lee Blvd
Friday, 9am-1pm, June 6-September 26
Tara Erben (509) 946-3349

Roslyn Sunday Market
Pennsylvania Ave @ 1st St (SR 903)
Sunday, 10am-2pm, June 15-September 7
Jonine Collins (509) 649-2695
jonine@inlandnet.com

Sammamish Farmers Market
Next to city hall at NE 8th and 228th in Sammamish
Wednesday, 4pm-8pm, May 21-Oct 1
Heidi Bohan, 425-681-5541 http://www.sammamishfarmersmarket.org/info@sammamishfarmersmarket.org

Seattle – Ballard Farmers Market
Ballard Avenue NW between 20th NW & 22nd NW
Sunday, 10am-4pm (Winter 11am-3pm) All Year
Judy Kirkhuff (206) 782-2286 http://www.fremontmarket.com/ballard/master@seattlemarkets.org

Seattle – Broadway Sunday Farmers Market
Broadway & E Thomas
Sunday, 11am-3pm, May 11–November 23
Chris Curtis (206) 547-2278 http://www.seattlefarmersmarkets.org/markets/broadwaychris@seattlefarmersmarkets.org

Seattle – Columbia City Farmers Market
4801 Rainier Avenue S at Edmunds Street
Wednesday, 3pm-7pm, April 30–October 22
Chris Curtis (206) 547-2278 http://www.seattlefarmersmarkets.org/markets/columbia_citychris@seattlefarmersmarkets.org

Seattle – Lake City Farmers Market
Albert Davis Park at 125th & 28th Ave. NE
Thursday, 3pm-7pm, June June 5–October 16
Chris Curtis (206) 547-2278 http://www.seattlefarmersmarkets.org/markets/lake_citychris@seattlefarmersmarkets.org

Seattle – Madrona Farmers Market
East Union and MLK Jr. Way
Friday, 3pm-7pm, May 4-September 28
Judy Kirkhuff (206) 782-2286 http://www.fremontmarket.com/master@seattlemarkets.org

Seattle – Magnolia Farmers Market
Magnolia Community Center, 2550 34th Avenue W
Saturday, 10am-2pm June 7–October 25
Chris Curtis (206) 547-2278 http://www.seattlefarmersmarkets.org/markets/magnoliachris@seattlefarmersmarkets.org

Seattle - Phinney Farmers Market
Phinney Neighborhood Center (67th and Phinney Ave N)
Friday, 3pm-7pm, May 16-October 3
Chris Curtis (206) 547-2278 http://www.seattlefarmersmarkets.org/markets/phinneychris@seattlefarmersmarkets.org

Seattle – Pike Place Market
Pike Place between Pike Street & Virginia Street
Monday-Sunday 9am-6pm, Year Round
Noa O’Hare, Farm Program Manager (206) 774-5320
noa@pikeplacemarket.org

Seattle – Queen Anne Farmers Market
Queen Anne Community Center (1st Ave N and Crockett St)
Thursday, 3pm-7pm, June 14-September 27
Judy Kirkhuff (206) 782-2286 http://www.fremontmarket.com/queenanne/master@seattlemarkets.org

Seattle – University District Farmers Market
NE 50th Street & University Way NE
Saturday, 9am-2pm, Year RoundChris Curtis (206) 547-2278 http://www.seattlefarmersmarkets.org/markets/u_districtchris@seattlefarmersmarkets.org

Seattle- Wallingford Farmers Market
North 45th and Wallingford Ave
Wednesday, 3pm-7pm, May 16-September 26
Judy Kirkhuff (206) 782-2286 http://www.fremontmarket.com/wallingford/master@seattlemarkets.org

Seattle – West Seattle Farmers Market
California Avenue SW & SW Alaska
Sunday, 10am-2pm, Year Round
Chris Curtis (206) 547-2278 http://www.seattlefarmersmarkets.org/markets/

SeaTac Sunday Farmers Market
SeaTac City Hall parking lot (corner of So 188th St & Military Road So, off I-5)
Sunday, 11am-3pm, June 15–September 14
Trudy Olson (206) 973-4763 http://www.ci.seatac.wa.us/services/seatacmarket.htmtolson@ci.seatac.wa.ustolson@ci.seatac.wa.us

Sedro Woolley Farmers Market
Hammer Heritage Square (Ferry and Metcalf)
Wednesday, 3pm-7pm, June-mid-October
Gilda Gorr (360) 724-3835
swfarmersmarket@fidalgo.net

Shelton Farmers Market
3rd Street between Cedar & Franklin
Saturday, 9am-2pm, May-September
Brittany Pouch (360) 426-6693 http://www.sheltonfarmersmarket.com/gigglinggoatgardens@yahoo.com

Silverdale – Peninsula Farmers Market
Silverdale Beach Hotel (Bucklin Hill Road)
Tuesday, 11am-4pm, April 22-September 30
Monica Phillips (360) 830-9565

Snohomish Farmers Market
Carnegie parking lot on Cedar between 1st & Pearl St
Thursday, 3pm-8pm, May 1-September 25Neil Landaas (360) 862-9087 http://www.snohomishmarkets.com/rockfish5@seanet.com

Spokane - Humble Earth Farmers Market
10505 NewportSunday, 10am-3pm, May 25-October 30
Christina Mitma (509) 230-8778
www.localharvest.org/farmers-markets/

Spokane - Liberty Lake Farmers Market
1421 N Meadowwood (Liberty Square parking lot)
Saturday, 9am-1pm, May 17-October 11
Angela Pizelo (509) 879-4965 http://www.spokanemarkets.org/libertylakefarmersmarket@gmail.com

Spokane - South Perry Farmers Market
1317 East 12th
Thursday, 3pm-7pm, June 5-September 25
Christina Mitma (509) 876-2987
http://www.localharvest.org/farmers-markets/M11670annasherbs@yahoo.comannasherbs@yahoo.com

Spokane – Spokane Farmers Market
2nd Ave (between Division and Browne)
Wednesday, 8am-1pm, June 4-October 29
Saturday, 8am-1pm, May 10-October 25
Market Manager (509) 995-0182 http://www.spokanefarmersmarket.org/farmers@spokanefarmersmarket.org

Tacoma Farmers Market
Broadway between 9th & 11th
Thursday, 9am-2pm, May 15-October 16
Laura Kelsay Edwards (253) 272-7077 http://www.tacomafarmersmarket.com/laura@tacomafarmersmarket.com

Tacoma - 6th Ave Farmers Market
Corner of 6th & Pine
Tuesdays, 3:30pm-7:30pm, July 15–Sept 30
Heather Hanson (253) 376-5845 http://www.tacomafarmersmarket.com/6thAve@tacomafarmersmarket.com

Tacoma – Proctor Farmers Market
N 27th Street at Proctor
Saturday, 9am-2pm, April 26-November 1
Jessica Troy (253) 961-3666 and Felicity Devlin (253) 761-8066 http://www.proctorfarmersmarket.com/proctorfm@yahoo.com

Tenino Farmers Market
Old Highway 99 and Garfield Ave E
Saturday, 10am-3pm, June 7-September 6
Paul Donohue (360) 264-2002
http://www.teninofarmersmarket.org/pdon1127@comcast.net

Tumwater Town Center Farmers Market
SW corner of Capitol Blvd and Israel Rd
Wednesday, 11am-2pm, May 28-October 29
Ione Vrabel (360) 464-5879
http://www.tumwaterfarmersmarket.org/

Vashon Farmers Market
Vashon Hwy & Bank Road
Saturday, 10am-2pm, Year round Wednesday, 2pm-5pm, July 16-October 15 Holiday Markets Nov 17, Dec 1 and Dec 8
Joanne Jewell (206) 463-3518 http://www.vigavashon.org/farmersmarket@vigavashon.org

Walla Walla Farmers Market
City Hall Parking Lot (4th & Main)
Saturday and Sunday, 9am-1pm, May-October
Beth-Aimee McGuire (509) 520-3647 http://www.gowallawallafarmersmarket.com/aimee@mcinteract.com

Wenatchee Valley Farmers Market
Columbia Street between First and Palouse Street, downtown (new location)
Wednesday, 8am-1pm, June 18-October
Saturday, 8am-1pm, May 10-October; Sunday, 9am-1pm after Labor Day
Sunday Market, 9am-1pm, July-SeptemberParking lot behind Applewood Grill off Columbia Street (new location)
Julie Mitchell (509) 668-0497 http://www.wenatcheefarmersmarket.com/info@wenatcheefarmersmarket.com

Wenatchee Valley Farmers Market
Thursday "Mercado", Methow Park @ Spokane & Methow
Thursday 3 to 7, July-OctoberWillie Getz, 509-996-2747 http://www.wenatcheefarmersmarket.com/info@wenatcheefarmersmarket.com

Wenatchee Valley Farmers Market
City parking lot between the base of First Street and Palouse Street on Columbia Street
Thursday 3pm-7pm, June-OctoberJulie Mitchell (509) 668-0497 http://www.wenatcheefarmersmarket.com/info@wenatcheefarmersmarket.com

Woodinville Farmers Market
Woodinville Village (Hwy 202 and Woodinville-Redmond Rd)
Saturday, 9am-3pm, May 3-October 11
Grant Davidson (425) 485-1042 woodinvillefarmersmarket.comgddman22@aol.com

Yakima Farmers Market
S 3rd Street at Yakima Avenue (in front of Capitol Theatre)
Sunday, 9am-3pm, May 11-October 26Don Eastridge (509) 457-5765
manager@yakimafarmersmarket.org
http://www.yakimafarmersmarket.org/

Tacoma Stress Reduction

This last day of July my seasonally affected disorder has kicked into overdrive. I did get a brief respite, this afternoon, for a few minutes, when the temperature seemed to soar into the high 70s.

This morning I went to Lulu's where I was drafted to go to a crazy man's house to lift a big heavy wooden thing into the back of Lulu's Volvo. This resulted in multiple little pin=prick blood releasing wounds that forced me to use one of Lulu's linens to wrap around my hands to soak up the blood. It looked like a bad scene from a bad horror movie.

As if I needed any fresh aggravation, what with everything crashing down around me. I'm feeling like Hitler stuck in his Berlin bunker with the Soviets bearing down on him. Yes. I am under siege from multiple fronts.

My stressed induced cortisol levels were reaching the danger zone this afternoon. I needed to get some quick endorphins to hopefully hold off a stroke or heart attack. So, I went to Point Defiance. I ran up the trails, like a dog chasing a squirrel. Up and down I went.

After I'd worn myself out I went to the adjacent Tacoma Marina. The Mountain was partly out. It is hard to see, in a photo due, to The Mountain being snow covered and thus looking like clouds. Everything here looks like clouds.

The air smelled good, the saltwater smelled good, I was absorbing the positive energy of negative ions. I started feeling better, my stress level was somewhat abated.

And then I got back here to find my mom and dad in the kitchen in yet one more of their ongoing cooking projects. This time it seems to be marionberry jam and roast beef. My mother seems to be being grumpy. It's too early to put them on their medication. I don't think it's too early to put me on mine. But I've none available.

Washington's Governor, Chris Gregoire, Not Old Enough For Liquor

As if any additional proof that the Pacific Northwest's moist climate youthifies those who live here, the governor of Washington, 61 year old Chris Gregoire, governor by benefit of winning one of the closest gubernatorial races in history, with multiple recounts, was recently denied being able to order a beer due to the governor not having I.D. showing that she was over 21.

The governor had been serving burgers at some annual event in Olympia. Afterwards, to celebrate a successful completion of the burger task, the governor and a group, including her husband, decided to go to an Olympia bar named Hannah's.

The bouncer at the entry demanded to see the governor's I.D. When she could not produce one, several in her entourage pointed out to the 23 year old bouncer that this was the governor of Washington. This information did not persuade the bouncer to let the governor in for her pitcher or two of beer.

Hannah's owner, Todd Ruzicka, said it's apparent the bouncer needs some more training.

In the meantime, Governor Gregoire feels quite complimented that a 23 year old guy thinks she looks younger than 21. I know how she feels. Happens to me all the time.

Text Messaging Ban

I read this morning that some places in Washington are considering putting restrictions on cell phone text messaging. Cell phone usage while driving is already a major crime here. So far, I'm fairly certain you can't get thrown into the slammer for text messaging.

Apparently there have been incidents where pedestrians in Washington have been walking along, texting, and have walked out into traffic. I do not know how many injuries or deaths have occurred due to this.

A text message ban would hit my dad hard. He text messages all the time. Mom and dad got back here last night. After some Swiss cheese controversy my mom and dad were given a medicinal dose of blackberry wine. The photo is about 10 minutes after mom and dad took their medicine. Mom is falling asleep and dad is busy text messaging.

I don't know how to text message. I get text messages. But I do not know how to send one. I don't want to learn how to send a text message. I'm impressed, amazed and sort of appalled that my dad, age 70-something, knows how to text message.

It's sort of amusing. My dad's phone will make a noise and he'll go "I've got a text message." He then reads it and then starts working the phone with his thumbs, like a teenager.

As techo-proficient as my dad may be, he and mom messed up the flat panel TV last night, rendering them unable to watch a Mariner game til my sister switched the controller back to cable mode. Either mom or dad, or maybe both, somehow put the TV in antennae mode. It was quite traumatic here until we were able to get that Seattle Mariner game back on. I think Texas beat them, again, but I'm not sure.

Swiss Cheese & Other Crimes Against Humanity

I'm starting Day 11 in Washington. My life continues to spin out of control, in two states at once. It's like I'm living my worst nightmare and I can't wake up.

I make mistake after mistake here. As a result I've been turned into the house Monkey Boy, doing the bidding of all who inhabit these walls. Including the two poodles, Blue & Max.

A couple days ago a coffee disaster erupted when I was caught using my sister's special coffee cup. I was banned from its usage.

Then I drank too much coffee. And so yesterday a new coffee pot was purchased that has been designated "Monkey Boy's Coffee Pot."

Last week I forgot to take in the milk immediately upon delivery. That's right, here in Washington you can still get milk delivered to your door. It is delivered to a white heat reflective (if there was heat) box. There has been much controversy spinning over the fact that I did not bring in the milk within an hour of delivery. My position is that it is colder outside than in the refrigerator. I really don't see why they have refrigerators in this ultra-frigid climate.

When my mom and dad arrived, a week ago, my mom loaded the already packed refrigerator with more stuff. Including, I now know, some Swiss cheese they'd bought at the Tillamook Cheese factory on the Oregon coast.

Apparently, unbeknownst to any of us, my mom had declared one shelf of the fridge as her own. Yesterday my sister organized the fridge, totally obliterating my mom's shelf and moving the Swiss cheese to the cheese bin.

Yesterday, I made myself a steak sandwich for lunch. I saw the Swiss cheese and opened up the package and added a couple slices to the sandwich.

When my mom and dad returned last night and my mom saw we were in a kitchen frenzy, getting ready to BBQ, she checked the fridge, saw her shelf gone and asked where her special Swiss cheese was. I was the only one who knew of the Swiss cheese. And its fate.

When I confessed to cutting into the Swiss cheese my mom claimed that she'd clearly stated this was not to be touched, that it was to return, cheese intacto, to Phoenix.

My sister tried to calm the storm by saying we saw the same cheese at Top Foods that very day. And that we'd replace the damaged Swiss cheese. But that did not do much to mitigate the storm. Eventually my mom resigned herself to the fact that her Swiss cheese had been ruined beyond repair. My sister then said something like, Monkey Boy, go pour mom and dad a glass of blackberry wine.

I've likely already blocked from memory some of the other horrors I've caused these people. Like I parked my sister's car too close to her driveway's humongous rosemary bush, thus causing her to touch the bush upon car entry, thus causing her to reek of rosemary all day long.

My worst crime occurred yesterday morning. I'll spare the graphic details. Suffice to say, I went to my zone to do yoga. I do yoga sans clothes. Unbeknownst to me, one of the inhabitants was in this floor's bathroom. She was up here to take a shower. Why I do not know. At some point, to our mutual horror we realized we were both in the same space. In varying degrees of undress.

In other words, I'm sleeping well, but I'm pretty much in a perpetual state of low level trauma.

Advance Your Business Skills in the Gas Industry

Why would anyone who spent 2 seconds looking at my blog send me the below ad? I really can't see myself going to the Petroleum Club in Fort Worth to advance my business skills in the oil/gas industry. I think free lunch was involved, I believe I saw that mentioned in the full ad. I'm all about getting stuff for free. Maybe I'll go to this thing.........

Recycling in Washington Ordeals

We recycle in Washington. I get reminded of this over and over and over again every time I'm back here, after committing some massive recycling faux pas.

Yesterday I put an empty milk carton in the regular garbage. This got me 5 Bad Recycler Demerits. This morning I emptied a peanut butter jar and put it in the regular garbage. 5 more Demerits.

It's all so confusing. Way more so than when I lived here. Then there was just one bin for newspapers and one bin for plastics and glass and one bin for normal garbage.

I'm not sure I'm all that clear on it yet, even after 10 days of trying to keep it all straight. Near as I can tell there is one big container for paper products, like newspapers and magazines. Another big container for yard waste, like grass clippings that could just stay on the grass after being clipped. That would seem a good recycling plan for grass. Then there is a big bin for bottles. I am not sure if the plastic bottles are separated from the glass ones or not.

I do know that my sister thoroughly examined the glass bin to make sure there were no illegal substances in there. Like used wine bottles.

I have been accused, at least twice, of putting bad stuff in the regular garbage. Apparently if you put a bottle in the regular garbage you can be arrested, fined and forced to do garbage pickup duty in parks and freeway medians.

The various bins get picked up on various days. This makes it even more confusing.

One strange thing is the regular garbage can is by far the smallest of all the bins. And it sits out in the alley where it gets picked up. The recycled stuff goes out on the street where it must be properly located in a correct position so it can be picked up by the auto-recycle bin picker upper thing. It's quite a feat of engineering.

In grocery stores you get asked that paper or plastic question and are greeted with scornful looks if you say you don't care.

There is a lot of eco-friendly packaging here. And novel ways to skip putting something in a bag. Like today at Target my sister bought something in a big box. The cashier attached some sort of tape thing to the box that functioned as a handle. It seemed very clever. But I had concerns about the use of plastic to make the handle.

Texas for the most part has a much simpler recycling method. The litter just gets tossed so that Mother Nature can use wind to recycle it to a new location.

Enough whining about recycling. Don't get me started on the ban here on talking on the cell phone while driving. It is just all to much to have to remember.

Just Say WHOA! In Fort Worth

What are you doing August 7, 2008?

If you are frustrated, angry, depressed, apathetic, horrified or just generally concerned about natural gas drilling in north Texas, mark your calendar, program your Blackberry, scribble a post-it-note, tie a string around your big toe, whatever, just be sure you show up for this important event.

It doesn't matter where you live.

It doesn't matter if you are for or against gas drilling, in general.

It doesn't matter if you signed a mineral lease or not.

It doesn't matter if you Just Said YES or continue to Just Say NO.

Elected officials continue to issue drilling permits without all the facts or a master plan for dealing with an aggressive industry.

The health and safety of our communities has been compromised.

CREDO (Coalition for a Reformed Drilling Ordinance) is the "big tent" for everyone who wants to put the brakes on out-of-control gas drilling and the corrupt political system that has allowed it to flourish in our communities.

We believe in the military doctrine called The First Rule of Holes: If you find yourself stuck in one, stop digging.

MORATORIUM NOW!

See the "Metropolis" section of today's Fort Worth Weekly for more about CREDO and other gas drilling reports.

Don Young
FWCanDo
P.O. Box 470041
Fort Worth, TX 76147
FORT WORTH CAN DO

Yesterday's Rainy Tacoma BBQ

The photo is from last night's rainy BBQ. I somehow managed to burn the steaks. In the rain.

Lulu and her first husband came over. They ate their burned steak without too much complaining. My sister would not take her burnt steak off the steak platter.

The steaks got overly well done due to my attention being diverted by my pizza making. The pizza turned out well. Though a bit deconstructed.

The dinner party turned even more macabre when Lulu took a huge fancy to the popcorn cake my mom made for my sister. The popcorn cake has gummy bears and M & M's stuck in it. Among other things.

The other dessert item my mom also made. Angel food cake with some sorta cream cheese frosting. That was good and I understood Lulu finishing up that cake. But the popcorn cake? That thing is just disturbing.

Gar the Fish in Texas

I know a Texan named after a fish that I thought was a Texas only thing, that being Gar the Fish and the Texan being Gar the Texan.

Both Gar the Fish and Gar the Texan look like somehow a big snake had mated with an alligator creating a very scary looking mutant.

I think the actual name of Gar the Fish is Alligator Gar. I think the actual name of Gar the Texan is Garland the Texan. Maybe he is named after the Dallas suburb of Garland and not the fish.

That is a guy named Tom Wingstad, from a Texas town named Draper, in the photo. Earlier this month he caught the Alligator Gar you see in the photo. He caught it in the Trinity River that flows through the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and my backyard. It took Mr. Wingstad 25 minutes to land the 200 pound monster estimated to be about 50 years old.

I have only seen an Alligator Gar once. At a creek crossing at Village Creek Historical Area in Arlington. I was roller blading, ahead of me, on a creek crossing, I saw a guy looking at something. So, I stopped and asked what he was looking at.

He pointed to the creek and said something like, "on this side I'm looking at a big Garfish and on that side I'm keeping my eye on a big Cottonmouth."

I looked at the Garfish first. I'd never seen anything like it before. I was appalled when the guy told me that Garfish are in a lot of Texas lakes.

And then I looked at the Cottonmouth. It was slithering towards us. Both of us decided it was time to stop gawking at critters and move along.

A couple weeks after that I was mountain biking at trails at Lake Grapevine called Horseshoe. I coasted out on a dock where there were a couple of bikinied sunbathers. They told me a few days earlier one of their friends had stepped on to the teeth of an open-mouthed Garfish. A quick visit to an Emergency Room followed.

So, I went from not knowing this critter existed, seeing my first one and then hearing an account of someone stepping on a Garfish, within a couple weeks. I stayed out of Texas lakes for a long time after the Garfish revelation.

And then this morning I read that a garfish has been caught in Kiwanis Lake in Tempe, Arizona. Garfish do not belong in Arizona. They can cause all sorts of problem to a lake's ecosystem. So, Arizona Fish and Game officials are on the case.

Roe vs. Wade & The Smithsonian Institution

I guess due to it happening so seldom, there are few things I enjoy more than someone telling me something I did not know. In the past 48 hours this phenomenon has happened twice.

On the way back from the airport, picking up my sister on her return from D.C., she was telling me about all the stuff they'd seen, including the Smithsonian. She asked if I knew why it was called the Smithsonian and I realized I had no idea. Nor had she til she was in D.C.

A wealthy Brit scientist named James Smithson, admirer of America and it's promise of bringing a bright different new future to the world, died in 1829. His will stated that should his nephew not produce an heir, that his entire fortune should go to the U.S. government to create an "Establishment for the increase & diffusion of Knowledge among men." The nephew died in 1835, with no heir. President Andrew Jackson told Congress that the U.S. had received a windfall (worth millions in today's dollars}. Congress passed an act that established the Smithsonian Institution in 1846, during the Polk administration. The Smithsonian has grown to be the largest museum in the world. All thanks to a Brit who never saw America. But, apparently, got what America meant to the world. And still does.

And now the second bit of new info. For how long have we heard the phrase "Roe vs. Wade?" Decades, it seems to me. Well, this morning I was reading the online version of my old hometown paper, the Skagit Valley Herald.

And what do I learn? That the "Wade" part of Roe vs. Wade is yet one more Texas embarrassment to the rest of the county. The Wade in this famous Supreme Court decision is Henry Wade. A good ol' Dallas boy. A prosecutor, who during his tenure earned a rep as having an astonishingly high conviction rate.

Including prosecuting Jack Ruby.

And then a Dallas woman, known to history as "Roe" wanted to get an abortion. In Texas. The rest is history.

With a sad addendum.

Henry Wade retired, reputation intact. He died. Reputation intact.

But now, in the era of DNA testing court reversals, Henry Wade has had 19 of his convictions overturned. The evidence now shows that he zealously prosecuted, well, what amounts to being victims, putting who knows how may innocent people behind bars.

The process of releasing the innocent victims of Henry Wade continues.

While the rest of the nation is growing aware that Texas put a lot of people, wrongly, behind bars, that realization is not really dawning all that brightly in Texas quite yet.

In other words, I had to read about Henry Wade in my old small town newspaper. I did not read about Henry Wade in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Or the Dallas Morning News.

Meanwhile, the innocent victims of malicious prosecutions are gradually being released from the Texas Gulag. This is an issue to me. I have known a victim of malicious prosecution. And it shocked me then and continues to shock me now. And, as God is my witness, someday I will figure out a way to bitch slap back those who perpetrated a malicious prosecution mis-carriage of justice on a friend of mine.

That which you do to the least among you, you do unto me, I always say. When I am in Jesus Durango mode, that is.

Raining, Cold & Gray Tacoma July Day

I tell non-Washingtonians, who think it rains all the time here, that they are wrong. that summers are usually quite nice.

The last summer I was here for a month, July/August 2004, I saw no rain, I saw few clouds, I saw The Mountain out pretty much every day. I was not cold once I got past the first few days of getting used to it being in the 70s.

I'd settle for the 70s right about now. I'd been staying in the basement here. or what I call The Arctic. Last night I moved to the upper loft, what I call The Tropics. My sister thinks it is too hot to live up here. However, the temperature has yet to get as high as I keep my A/C in Texas. Right now the thermometer on the A/C unit, in here, says it is 68. At 2 pm. While I see you in Fort Worth are at 96 heading to a high of 102.

We got in the low 50s overnight here. And this morning, to add wet to cold, it started raining. It's been raining ever since. Rain here does not fall like Texas rain. Texas rain comes in downpours and gets its wet business over quickly, sometimes dumping 5 inches in a half hour. In Washington the rain falls in slow motion. It can take 5 hours to dump half an inch.

So, I am quickly developing a case of Seasonally Affected Disorder. As you can see in the photo, this weather disorder has piled on top of all the other things bothering me and has me being a depressed, bed-ridden nutcase, trying to stay warm in my new little army cot that I fell out of twice last night. But slept remarkably well in. It was the tropics, afterall.

Mom and dad have gone til tomorrow. Or so we've been led to believe. Tonight we are making homemade pizza and BBQing steak. Rain permitting. I'm hoping between the pizza oven and the BBQ, I will at some point today feel some heat. I guess I could go take a hot shower. But that is sort of counter-productive, when you're done you have to step back out into the icy icy air.

This is the first time I've ever been back up here when I've thought to myself the following stunning thought. I miss Texas.

Doonesbury & the Fort Worth Star-Telegram

You may remember me mentioning that I am up in Tacoma. And that I'm reading the daily Tacoma News Tribune. And that the News Tribune and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram are both part of the same newspaper chain, that being McClatchy.

You may also remember me mentioning that the Star-Telegram has been shrinking, ever smaller, for quite some time, with fewer and fewer features and columnists.

Both of these papers have the Doonesbury strip on their editorial pages. When the Star-Telegram had its most recent makeover they shrunk Doonesbury so small you needed a magnifying glass to read it. After readers complained, Doonesbury was made a bit bigger. But it is still hard to read. Sometimes I have to get it under bright light to be able to read it.

So, one would think that the Tacoma News Tribune would have a similar itsy bitsy version of Doonesbury. You would be wrong. It is about twice the size of the Star-Telegram version, I can read it without my reading glasses in natural light.

I think this incompetently sized Star-Telegram version of Doonesbury is a perfect metaphor for what is wrong with Fort Worth's bad newspaper of record, what with their apparent 'Readers Be Damned" editorial philosophy.

To read Doonesbury in all its glory, go here.

Hugh Hefner's Girls Next Door

You may remember me mentioning, yesterday, that I'd not watched TV for over a week and I was not missing it.

Well. Last night I was in my new living space, in what we call The Tropics, due to me being now on the top floor, where, supposedly, it is Hotter than the frigid zone, down in The Arctic, aka the basement. Though it was not quite tropical, as in I had to shut the windows due to it getting chilly, it was much closer to what I'm used to in Texas, though still colder than I keep my place with A/C.

In other words, I slept great and though I went to bed feeling miserable, with a very sore throat, I woke up feeling my usual self for the first time since I've been north.

Maybe I feel better because I turned on the TV last night. I'm not familiar with the local TV lineup, so I ran through channels looking for Fox News, MSNBC, Bravo or anything familiar.

I eventually found Bravo. But the show on Bravo was that Project Runway one that I don't find very interesting, due to it being all about making a dress. That and there just is not much comedy or drama.

Then I happened upon this bizarro thing on E!, called The Girls Next Door. It's all about 82 year old elderly man, Hugh Hefner and his 3 live-in girl friends in the Playboy Mansion, I think. Maybe they live next door, and not in the mansion, hence the name of the show.

Apparently, Viagra has revived Mr. Hefner, hence the 3 girl friends. Hefner claims 80 is the new 40. Which pretty much means I've not been born yet. I'll inform my mom when they return here.

There have been 4 seasons of this show, with a 5th to start in October, God willing. I assume last night what I saw was a re-run. It was all about the girls posing for an anniversary issue of Playboy. It was a historic issue, as one of the girls said, she thought, because, as far as she knew, this was the first time the Playboy had the front view of the posers on the front cover and the back view on the back cover.

Hugh wanted the girls to pose for the second anniversary issue in a row on his giant revolving bed. The girls didn't like this. It seemed to me Mr. Hefner, in his dotage years, did not remember they'd posed on the bed before.

One of the girls talked Hefner into letting each of the girls have her own photo shoot with a theme of their choosing.

But, before we saw that we saw the revolving bed shoot. And yes, it was quite clear the girls were all buck naked. Instead of the usual blurring of the naughty bits, some sort of airbrushing thing was done that rendered the girls into Barbie dolls. The nipples were missing and there were no butt cracks.

Despite the attempt at censoring for those offended by such things, it took no imagination at all to fill in the missing pieces. I sat there thinking this was so stupid. Who are they doing the censoring for? If you chose to watch this show you know what it's about. If you are such a prude that a bare boob or butt upsets you, why are you watching this?

Where it truly troubled me is I thought a pubescent boy could happen upon this and this could be the first naked woman he's ever seen. It imprints upon his imagination. And then, one day, he sees a naked woman in person and is totally horrified to see she has these nipple things, unlike the girls he saw on Girls Next Door.

Anyway, I watched about 15 minutes of this high class entertainment and decided I was over stimulated and turned off the TV and the lights and went to sleep.

Point Defiance Hike With Close Ferry Collision

My one reader may remember me mentioning going hiking at Point Defiance a couple times since I've been in Tacoma. And that I went again on Saturday, that time to take video of the hike.

My first day here we walked the beach at Point Defiance and I tried to take a photo of the crystal clear water with my old-fashioned digital camera. That did not come out well. But video of the same water did show how clear it is.

On Saturday, there were dozens of boats of all sizes in the water, from little kayaks to regular fishing boats to yachts to ferrys to container ships.

In the video below you'll go on a hike through old growth forest, spend a little time on the beach, see some very clear water, a lot of boats and a near collision with a ferry. Very dramatic.

Me, McDonald's and Tacoma

I have only been in a couple McDonald's in Texas. Maybe 3. My fast food experiences in Texas have not been pretty. It's not just McDonald's. I had a very unsettling experience at a Taco Bell in the rattlesnake town of Sweetwater.

The last Texas McDonald's I've been in was in 2001, when my mom and dad were here, I mean there---I'm here in Tacoma right now, not there, in Texas. We were on our way to Waxahachie, they saw a McDonald's and wanted an ice cream cone. The machine was broken. That was the same problem with the very first Texas McDonald's I'd been in, up in the Panhandle, in a town the name of which I've long forgotten.

I just remembered, I have been to a good Texas McDonald's, that being the one I call the "World's Most Unique McDonald's" on my Texas website. That was also during my mom and dad's 2001 visit.

So, why am I babbling about McDonald's? Well, an odd thing happens when I'm up here in Tacoma. I seem to go to McDonald's a lot. There is a very well run one near where I'm staying. It's called the Chihuly Glass McDonald's due to some Chihuly Glass being on display. I use the drive-thru. Even if the line of cars is long, it goes very very fast.

On Friday I went thru the aforementioned drive-thru to find that on Fridays you get a free iced latte, along with the 2 bacon cheeseburgers I got from the Dollar Menu.

The last time I was here, on the way back to the airport, Lulu and I went to the Chihuly McDonald's and I got a Fish Sandwich, in addition to something on the Dollar Menu. I had a 3 hour layover in Phoenix. I knew I was going to be picked up by my mom and dad and sister and likely taken to McDonald's All You Can Eat in Phoenix.

So, why in the world did I go to McDonald's before going to the airport? It perplexes me to this day.

In the meantime, today I had a McChicken and a Bacon Cheeseburger. From the Dollar Menu, of course. No, I did not want a drink or fries with that. If you're giving away Iced Lattes, I'll take one of those.

No TV No Missing It

I thought I had a few "Don't Miss" TV shows. But, apparently I was wrong. I've not watched TV since I've been in Tacoma. Or the day before I flew up here. I'm not missing it.

I had programmed myself to watch certain shows, like some sort of moronic robot on auto-pilot. Like Bravo's Flipping Out. I have not watched since Jeff Lewis fired his lying assistant, Chris Elwood, who happened to be his executive assistant, Jenni's, husband. They've probably gotten divorced in the episodes I've not seen.

And then there is Kathy Griffin's: My Life on the D-List. I thought I couldn't miss that funny show. I guess I was wrong.

I was afraid Lulu would get me addicted to the lastest version of Big Brother. But, she ain't watching it.

It's not like I'm wanting for TVs here. There's one of those big new-fangled flat panel things in one room. Every bedroom has a TV. But I've not turned mine on.

Speaking of my bedroom. It had been in an apartment in the basement, that I called The Arctic. Well, my sister got home last night, from a week in D.C., where she experienced high temps and horrible humidity and got drenched in a downpour. I would have thought she'd get back here and find it chilly. Particularly since the temps here are being record-breaking lows. As in it got down in the 50s last night and only 69 during the day.

But. When my sister got home she thought it was way too hot in here. While my mom and dad, from Arizona, and me, from Texas, are quite chilly all the time.

Due to this Hot House, my sister was not able to sleep well last night. So, this morning I suggested I move up to the upper loft, known as The Tropics, while she could move to The Arctic. She jumped at this idea, incredulous that I could find it bearable to be in The Tropical Attic. Unbearable? When it's 10 degrees, or more, colder than I keep the A/C back in Texas.

So, I am now up in "The Tropics." I am still a bit chilly. There are 2 A/C units in here, should, God Forbid, we get a heat wave with temps in the low 80s.

The TV appears to be smaller in The Tropics than the one I didn't watch in The Arctic. I likely will not watch this one either.

I'm thinking I may be in the process of making a serious life change, in more ways than one, with one being dropping TV, Cold Turkey. I tell you, I think I'm already reaping benefits from not subjecting my feeble little brain to the corroding evil of the cathode ray.

Does a Flat Panel TV have a cathode ray? I suspect not.

Fremont Sunday Market In Seattle

On Sunday I got up at 3 am to get picked up by Lulu at 6 am to be in Seattle in the Fremont District at 7 am to be at the Fremont Sunday Market which opened at 10 am.

It was a long day. But a lot of fun. Due to letting it be known that I would be there Lulu and I had a few visitors drop in. Some I'd not seen in years.

Fremont used to be a town, then it became a district of Seattle. Then it seceded from the Union and declared itself the Independent Republic of Fremont. When the Soviet Union went bye-bye, Fremont bought some Lenin statues and some old missiles.

In other words Fremont is pretty much ground zero for the lively Seattle counter-culture. There are a lot of galleries and restaurants and shops in Fremont.

A canal runs through Fremont connecting Lake Union with Puget Sound, taking boats through the Ballard Locks in order to get them through the varying water elevations. Fort Worth may one day have a lake, but unlike natural Lake Union, if their Trinity River Vision ever becomes clear and they dam up a perfectly fine river to create a little lake and some canals. Fort Worth will need no locks for its canals.

In Fremont, a bridge crosses the canal that has to open up to permit big boats to pass. This created a huge traffic jam as we were leaving the Sunday Market yesterday.

I'd not had Rainier Cherries in a long time. Bought some yesterday. They were better than I remembered.

Fremont has this really cool, large, environmentally friendly, organic oriented grocery store that has apartments built above, parking garage below, with elevators taking the apartment dwellers down to the grocery store. I got really good pizza, some natural coke made with cane sugar and an almond stuffed croissant at this store. It has a very big outdoor eating zone. I was impressed. Only thing close to this, in my zone of Texas, is Central Market. I think the Fremont grocery was called PCC. I may be wrong.

Lulu was in fine form yesterday. She's like the Queen of the Market. I may do Fremont again next Sunday. Maybe. You'll see a lot of Lulu in the video below....

Fremont Sunday Market

I got up at 3:30 this morning. My biological clock, still ticking on Central Time, thinks it's 5:30. I am up early this morning because Lulu is picking me up at 6 to go to Seattle to go to the Fremont Sunday Market where Lulu has a booth pretty much every Sunday.

It should be an interesting, albeit, exhausting day. I have to get back here in time to drive back to the airport to pick up my incoming sister at 8:30 pm.

I've been to the Fremont Sunday Market a couple times. It's a good thing. One time Wanda bought these things called Hash Brownies from a street vendor at Fremont. Apparently this type thing is illegal in some places. They were tasty brownies.

The Fremont Sunday Market has been running every Sunday since 1990. It has grown into being a thriving, diverse, European type street market. Fort Worth should have sent someone to check out Fremont and Pike Place before claiming their pathetic predictably soon to fail Sante Fe Rail Market was modeled after Pike Place and European public markets. The sad little Fort Worth boondoggle did not remotely resemble either.

There is good food to be had at the Fremont Market. Things like Veracci pizzas, Chicago style hot dogs, French crepes, tamales, Thai desserts, Tuscan Bruschetta, a pizza oven on wheels, fruits and veggies, chocolate truffles and all sortsa pastry stuff.

I'll be shooting video today and YouTubing it later. I hope it is not a cloudy day. I know it will be cold. Temperatures here are averaging about 10 degrees below the norm. So much for global warming in the Pacific Northwest.

Seattle Seafair Torchlight Parade

Last night a crowd estimated to be around 300,000 lined 2.5 miles of a downtown Seattle street, a line of people stretching from the Seahawk Stadium, known as Quest Field, to the Seattle Center (that's where the Space Needle is) to watch the 49th annual Seafair Torchlight Parade.

The Seafair Pirates are always a big part of the Torchlight Parade. They act like really bad boys. There were several giant balloons, like the pirate you see in the photo. A goldfish and a killer whale (orca) also floated by in balloon form. A rather goofy balloon, perfect for ultra-green Seattle, was Seattle City Light workers walking the parade with a giant balloon shaped like one of those new corkscrew shaped light bulbs we will soon all be plagued with.

The Torchlight Parade is one of the many events that make up Seattle's Seafair. There were over 100 floats in this year's parade. A marching Army band played "God Bless America," bringing ultra-patriotic, ultra-liberal northwesterners to their feet.

The next big event in Seafair comes up August 1-3 when hydroplanes roar in races on Lake Washington while the Navy's Blue Angels make noise in the sky. I've personally never cared for the hydroplanes races. Way too many people, both on land and in the water. Watching fast boats. Reminds me way too much of a NASCAR race. I don't get why people like watching that either.

Drive Across The New Tacoma Narrows Suspension Bridge

Like I mentioned earlier, today I drove across the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge for the first time. The new bridge included improvements to the highway that connects the bridge to I-5, vastly improving one of the Northwest's worst traffic bottlenecks.

It might be of interest to people in Fort Worth, and maybe Texas, to know that this bridge came about via a vote by the people who use it. If I remember correctly, 5 or 6 different counties voted on the bond issue to build the bridge.

Cost? Over $1 Billion. Meanwhile, as many of you know, Fort Worth currently has a likely public works boondoggle in the making that the public has not voted on and which has not been funded by the public voting on a bond issue to finance building a little lake and some canals. As you may be able to tell, it appalls me that something so drastic can be proposed to a town's infrastructure, with the people not allowed to vote on it. Because the Fort Worth Ruling Junta wants their latest boondoggle and the Ruling Junta knows the public would vote a BIG NO.

Someday, maybe, Fort Worth may become a democracy. Who knows? The Berlin Wall came down, China now is a booming capitalist nation, if you live long enough you live to see some dramatic changes. Maybe Fort Worth can someday overthrow the Ruling Junta and become a democracy. Who knows? It's unlikely, but stranger miracles have occurred.

In the meantime, watch the video I took today of driving through Tacoma and across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

A Long Day's Journey Into Night In Tacoma

I've had me a day. And it's not even 2pm yet. This morning I did not get my early wake-up call from The Poodles yapping when the newspaper arrives. They were being too contented to bother, because my little sister convinced my mom that The Poodles got sad when left alone in their own room at night. How this information was gleaned, I do not know.

Now, before Grandma and Grandpa arrived The Poodles seemed just fine with staying behind the closed door of their own bedroom, while their Uncle enjoyed his peace and quiet in the basement.

After reading the paper and drinking my morning coffee I took off to Lulu's to let her dog, Pal, out of the garage. Lulu is out of town til tonight. Originally I was to go along. I'm glad that changed.

About 8am I leashed up The Poodles and let them lead me to Wright Park. That is sort of Tacoma's mini-version of New York City's Central Park. It was a long walk.

After I returned The Poodles, to the safety of their Grandma and Grandpa, I took off to take video of the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge. That's what you see in the photo. Parallel suspension bridges. The one on the left is the old bridge. I think it was built over 50 years ago to replace the previous suspension bridge known as Galloping Gertie, due to the way she swayed in the wind. Eventually wind knocked down Galloping Gertie. Washington has had its unfair share of bridge disasters, either falling down or sinking. Or combos of both.

After checking out the new bridge I headed to Point Defiance Park to take video of the hike through the woods that I had fun on yesterday. It was fun again. I don't know if it's the fresh air, the cool temps, being at sea level or that I'm in incredibly better shape than I realized, but I had no idea I could run up steep slopes like I did again today, let alone holding a video camera in one hand while doing so.

After I was done with hiking and being at the beach and watching all the boats I headed back here, checking out Stadium High School on the way. I won't explain right now why a high school would be interesting to see. I took video of it. You'll see why its a cool thing when you see the video. I mean, if you see the video.

I'll be having myself one long day tomorrow, stuck in Seattle all day in the Fremont district at the Fremont Sunday Market. I'll be in Lulu's booth. Drop by and I'll autograph a "Durango Texas" t-shirt for you. After you buy it, of course.

Driving Tacoma's Waterfront

I went hiking today at Tacoma's Point Defiance Park. Great trails hovered over by giant old growth trees. And it smelled so good.

As I was leaving there was a couple acting all concerned that they weren't allowed to walk on the paved trail that runs along the beach. I overheard them debating. I asked where they were from. I was already thinking I knew, due to the accent. Yup, they were Texans.

I explained that this was a public park, that the only fees were for the zoo and the aquarium, that they could hike all they wanted to. For free. Washington has started charging a fee for most day use at the state parks. It didn't used to be that way. Texas charges a hefty fee to enter their state parks. Hence the Texas couple's concern. They must have thought they were at a state park. I told them they should hike til the pavement ended in about quarter mile, because then they'd be at a driftwood covered beach with a lot of people having fun. Free of charge.

After the hike I drove the Tacoma waterfront. And took video. You can watch that below. Someday, way in the future, Fort Worth may have a little bitty bit of waterfront due to their very forward thinking Trinity River Vision. I really can't wait for that to happen.

Chesapeake Energy Turns Even More Comic

2000 miles away and I can't escape Chesapeake Energy looniness. What's the latest you ask? Well, as part of Chesapeake Energy's ongoing expensive propaganda campaign's onslaught on the minds of what Chesapeake Energy must think are easily brainwashed Texas minds, Chesapeake Energy is now targeting children.

Oh no, you say. Not the children. Well, the adults get Chesapeake's Shale.TV, newspaper ads, billboards, TV ads, radio ads, bus ads, I've likely forgotten some of the propaganda ads targetted at adults, so, isn't it simple common sense that some effort be directed at kids?

And so it will be, in the form of a coloring book featuring a dog drill rig worker named Chesapeake Charlie.

Why doesn't Chesapeake Energy take all the money being blown on their silly, not-working, just annoying people, over the top propaganda campaign and instead spend that money helping the people being directly affected by the drilling shenanigans. Like if you destroy someone's trees, make it right and plant even better trees. And send the family to Disneyland while you plant them.

Try dealing directly with the actual issues that bother people, rather than trying so hard to futilely try to convince them that Barnett Shale is pretty near the Second Coming. When people let you know they don't want a drill rig next to a cherished natural area, listen to them and don't drill there. You've got plenty of spots to stick your holes in the ground. You don't need to be doing so in controversial locations.

That's how you get people on your side, by treating them fairly and sensitively, not by bombarding them with a foolish propaganda campaign that the vast majority sees precisely for what it is. Self-serving blather.

Read more about the latest Chesapeake Energy foolishness here.

$18 Billion Puget Sound Light Rail Vote

Each day up in the beautiful Pacific Northwest seems to bring yet one more fresh reminder of why I find things, at times, so perplexing in Texas.

Today's example of how different things are done here, as opposed to Texas, was the news that the voters in the Puget Sound region will soon be deciding whether or not to support a $17.9 billion plan to expand light rail, trains and buses.

The first stage of Seattle's new light rail system will soon be completed. When it's done you will be able to ride a train from north of downtown, through the transit tunnel, that runs under downtown Seattle, and continue all the way to Sea-Tac airport.

All the time I've been in Texas the only proposal I have seen that has had over a billion dollar price tag has been a rather bizarre proposal to build a grandiose transportation corridor from the Mexican border north through Texas. This proposal seems to be mostly hot air with little hope of being built.

One of Texas' slogans is "Everything is Bigger in Texas." From my observation that is only applicable to the size of the people. Other than that they seem to think a bit on the small side.

For instance, in Fort Worth, there is this Trinity River Vision Project. The local propaganda makes this sound as if it will be a transformative project that will propel Fort Worth to a wonderful, better future. It started off costing a bit over $400 million. The latest estimate has this likely boondoggle costing a bit over half a $billion.

Now, here is where it gets weird in Texas. Unlike Washington, the voters of Fort Worth have not voted on this twisted vision. Unlike citizens of Washington they have not voted to tax themselves for this supposed civic improvement.

Not only have they not voted to tax themselves, like some sort of welfare queen, Fort Worth is sucking Federal dollars to fund over half of their likely boondoggle. Yes, you read that right, you in the rest of the country, some of the money you have paid the government is being channelled to Fort Worth to help pay for a bizarre project that the people of Fort Worth have not voted on.

A project that will destroy the confluence of two branches of the Trinity River to create a little lake and some canals. To get the Federal dollars a totally bogus, not needed, flood control diversion channel was added to the project. You in the rest of the country have already paid to control flooding in Fort Worth, back in the 1950s, when enormous levees were built after a really bad flood did a lot of damage.

Meanwhile, up here in Washington, the voters will decide if they want to pay for a multi-billion dollar project to help relieve some of the traffic congestion. You in the rest of the country won't be expected to kick in a few bucks to make it happen. What a concept.

Tacoma's Cultural District & Fort Worth's

There is a town in Texas with so much culture they had to build an entire Cultural District to contain it. That would be Fort Worth, with an area of its 700,000 plus population town designated as "The Cultural District."

It's true. I'm not making it up.

Fort Worth's Cultural District is basically a few museums, a fair grounds and one theater.

Meanwhile, little Tacoma, where I am right now, a little town, less than a third the size of Fort Worth, has no "Cultural District."

But, though Tacoma does not have enough culture to assign the title "District" to it, Tacoma does have a cluster of museums in the south end of downtown. among other cultural amenities, like a new convention center. Due southeast from the convention center is the Tacoma Art Museum, next to that is the Washington State History Museum, across a Bridge of Glass, from there, is the Museum of Glass.

The setting for Tacoma's "cultural district" is quite scenic, with Mount Rainier hovering above, on a clear day, like today. There are a lot of restaurants and shops and galleries in Tacoma's "cultural district." The Glass Museum connects to the Thea Foss Waterway, which is a sort of promenade along the waterfront, with marinas with a lot of docked boats. A cable stay bridge and the Tacoma Dome anchor the south end.

The free to ride Sound Transit train runs through Tacoma's cultural district, along Pacific Avenue.

Tacoma's "cultural district" is quite aesthetically pleasing. It would be a stretch to say the same regarding Fort Worth's Cultural District. Sadly, even if Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision's Town Lake and canals ever get built, that still won't provide Fort Worth's Cultural District with any water-based culture. While Tacoma comes by water features naturally.

As for any sort of rail moving people to Fort Worth's Cultural District. Well, I don't know if they are still running, but there are these little green trolleys that Fort Worth bought from some place in Australia, that putter from the Cultural District to downtown to the Stockyards. I've never seen anyone riding one. They may be gone now.

Below is video I took today of a walk by Tacoma's museums and the Bridge of Glass and Thea Foss Waterway. Sadly, I took the video about 1pm. An hour later The Mountain was out.

Happy Birthday, Big Ed in Texas

Today is the Happy 39th Birthday of my best friend in pretty much the world, or at least Texas, Big Ed and his even Bigger twin, Wally.

In the photo, the pair known to those who know them, as the Goober Twins, are posing awkwardly in front of a rock formation known as Twin Rocks. If I remember right, this was somewhere near, or in, Capitol Reef National Park, in Utah. We were on our way to go houseboating with a group of malcontents on Lake Powell.

Wally is about twice the size now of the Wally you see in this photo. Big Ed has shrunk from the size you see in this photo. I've not seen Wally since 2004. But I get reports regarding his increasing heft. I'm at the Fremont Sunday Market all day on Sunday. That's in Seattle about 3 miles from where Wally lives with his first wife, Wanda. Maybe Wally & Wanda will show up. I hope I recognize them.

Pa & Ma in Tacoma

My parental units arrived a day early, last night, about bedtime. What followed was about 2 hours of my own personal Seinfeld episode.

The first thing brought in the house was a giant cooler. I helped my mom, who has trouble seeing, but does remarkably well, unload the cooler and figure out what was in it.

Apparently somewhere in Oregon they paid over $30 for 2 dungeness crab. They thought they were fresh crab when they bought it. But the crab was frozen.

As mom and I unpacked the cooler my dad brought in box after box after box of other stuff, til the living room floor was lined with boxes.

One of the boxes was stuff for me. It's a big box. They know I'm flying and should know this is not convenient. This is not the first time. The last time I saw Ma & Pa was a couple years ago in Phoenix. My mom loaded up my backpack with oranges. This caused all sortsa problems going through security, as in oranges falling out all over, while I tried to find my electronic stuff to put in the scanner tray. Somehow during the orange debacle my cell phone was lost.

There is a long history of trying to get me to bring big loads on a plane. I remember back late in the last century I'd flown to Vegas with a group, including Lulu. My mom and dad had been touring the country and met up with me in Vegas. We went out to the Luxor buffet. But on the way back my mom informed me she wanted me to take a huge box of Christmas presents for everyone up north, back with me on the plane.

When Lulu saw the box she was appalled. She drug it down to the hotel's customer service and shipped the box home via UPS.

I've no idea what is in all the boxes in the living room. Last night my mom was going through them and telling my dad he'd mixed things up. He'd deny, over and over again, mixing anything up. And then my mom would say, over and over again, sorry honey, I found it.

Keep in mind my mom has Macular Degeneration and can't see very well. The quality level of her vision seems to ebb and flow.

My mom and dad were under strict orders not to give anything, but their prescribed food, to the poodles. Previously my sister was appalled to learn my mom had been giving bowls of cheerios with milk to them in the morning and bowls of ice cream in the evening.

Last night mom had a huge bag of bones for the poodles. I told mom this was a no-no. That didn't stop her. The poodles gnawed the bones til nothing was on them. When I saw Blue's bone was breaking up, I wrestled it away from him.

My sister has a long to-do list for mom and dad. To keep them busy. One of the to-do things is to make strawberry jam. My dad can't hear and my mom can't see. She tells my dad what to do, so basically it's my dad who makes the jam. It is supposedly quite comical to watch this. I'm going to opt out of that entertainment.

I am securely located down in the basement. Mom and dad don't like stairs. Or so I've been told. From what I've seen nothing much stops them. I think there is a lock on the door at the top of the stairs...

McDonald's Cheeseburger Loving Poodles

The Poodles, in my temporary care, love McDonald's Cheeseburgers. They talk about them all the time on their Blog. I am under strict orders not to give them anything but what is on their vet prescribed diet. No matter how much they beg. I got a call a few minutes ago, from Washington D. C., from Max & Blue's primary caregivers, after they saw the below video. I think I'm in trouble....

Jogging in Tacoma to Fight the Cold

Have I mentioned it's cold here in Tacoma? Well, this morning I took my pair of poodles on a walk. That turned into a run. From that I learned apparently I am in running shape. Me and the poodles ran a long long ways this morning. I guess it has something to do with being at sea level. Ultra-fresh air and all those hikes I do back in Fort Worth in extreme temperatures.

This jogging thing also caused it to occur to me why people here are so thin as opposed to so noticeably fatter in Texas. Here your poor body burns a lot of calories just to stay warm. And because it's so cold it's more inviting to go outside and get physical than in hot Texas. And there are very few donut stands here. And frying food is frowned upon. For the most part. The only vegetable that gets fried here is a potato.

So, this afternoon I decided to see if going jogging without the poodles could possibly warm me up. I took my camera along because I wanted to take a photo of the above house with the "Impeach Bush" and "No Iraq War" signs. A few of the neighbors of this house had similar signs. And flew the flag. Some Texans may think the west coast is full of left-wing pinko tree hugging hippie sorts. It is true that Tacoma and the west side of the mountains, in Washington, is a very liberal zone. A lot of free-spirited, well-educated, free-thinkers up here. Lesser so in Texas.

Above we see another anti-Bush sign. In 2004 I was up here to do a job for the former deputy mayor. The day he met me he took me back, in his Prius, to my apartment. When we got there he pulled in behind a pick-up. With Texas plates. He half-jokingly, I think, said "I need to get on the phone to the sheriff to have this guy run out of town." By the time he fired me I was to realize he did not have a very highly evolved sense of humor. This run the guy out of town remark was an early example of that.


See? This is an example of how very patriotic, yet rebellious, people are here. And how well everyone landscapes their yards.


One of the things I like about Tacoma, and Washington in general, is you don't have to go to a park for a park-like experience. Like these photos show, I left my sister's house to go on a jog. The landscaping surrounding the sidewalks makes it very pleasant, visually, and all the flowers smell good. Texans, take note. You could do this too if you got off your lazy big butts once in awhile. Okay, that was uncalled for. But it was what I was thinking and I'm in too big a hurry right now to self-censor. I've got a steak on the grill.


Above we are looking at a brick-covered street, out towards Commencement Bay. Commencement Bay is part of Puget Sound. Puget Sound is part of the Pacific Ocean. Tacoma has all sorts of water features, courtesy of Mother Nature. Fort Worth may some day have a small water feature, courtesy eminent domain abuse, if their Trinity River Vision ever gets clear and results in a little lake and some canals. Regarding the above brick-covered street. There are a lot of these in Washington. Fort Worth has a brick-covered street that's sort of bumpy, called Camp Bowie Boulevard. Long ago I asked a Fort Worth native why in the world they'd keep that bumpy brick road. She was a former reporter for the Star-Telegram and she actually told me that this brick road was a unique one of a kind thing. I was appalled. I'd already seen other parts of Texas with brick roads. This was the first time I realized there are a lot of Texans who do not see much of the rest of the world. Or their own state.


I jogged a couple miles. Back at my sister's I took a picture of her house. That's the car I'm driving around. It has a lot of electronic things in it that confuse me. If the photo were big enough you'd see a pair of happy poodles staring out the windows on the right. They are very very vigilant.

Above is a Tacoma Transit bus going by my sister's house. My sister can easily take a bus from her house to the Sound Transit train terminal a few blocks away, then ride that free train to the main transit hub and get on a bus to ride to Olympia, where she is a lawyer righting wrongs. You could try and do the same thing in Fort Worth. But it would be an exhausting ordeal. And not easy. I'm referring to the righting wrongs thing, not the taking a bus thing...

It's Cold In Tacoma

I'm on Day 4 of my temporary exile in Tacoma. I've seen The Mountain once. On Monday. It's been pretty much overcast, for the most part, since then. And cold. Very cold. It is only 59 outside right now at almost 2pm. Meanwhile, looking at WeatherBug, I see Fort Worth is nearing 100. Your sky there is likely blue, with an orange tint, not this dreary gray I'm being subjected to. At least it smells real good outside, I suppose I should be grateful for that.

The photo is the view from my sister's backyard. I took this photo just a couple minutes ago. The photo probably gives you a chill. The grayest skies you've ever seen are in Tacoma, but the bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle. I guess. I need to go 25 miles north to Seattle.

I did not bring cold weather clothes with me, mostly because the last time I was up here in summer, that being the summer of 2004, it was clear sky and lows in the 70s the entire month. To compensate for the lack of cold weather clothes I am currently wearing the only pair of long pants I packed, under those I have jogging shorts and under the jogging shorts I have boxers. I've got 3 t-shirts on with a long sleeve sort of cold weather shirt on top. And I'm still cold.

The first day here my sister told me she thought it was too hot in the house and she wanted to run the A/C. Most people here don't have A/C. With good reason. But the 3rd floor loft of this place, supposedly gets hot, hence the A/C units. It was so cold in here that first night I had to find a thick comforter to throw on the bed to try and stop the shivering.

I went to Lulu's this morning. She had her windows open. And she was running her furnace. These are the type things that cause us to call her Lulu. I asked her why she was running the furnace with the windows open. She said she wanted to take the chill out of the air. We went downstairs to her basement and stood by the furnace. That was pleasant.

Lulu informed me I am going with her to Battleground on Friday to set up for a show on Saturday. I must acquire some cold weather clothes before then. Lulu and I went dumpster diving at Goodwill and St. Vinnies today. I guess I should have done some clothes shopping there. Lulu bought a broken aquarium and a rusted tv tray. She says they'll bring a lotta bucks. She paid $5 total for the junk. It didn't seem worth that much to me. Apparently I don't know the proper value of junk. That or I'm too cold to think coherently.

Tacoma News Tribune vs. Fort Worth Star-Telegram

My one longtime reader may remember me having a comment or two about the Fort Worth daily to which I subscribe, that being the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The Star-Telegram is part of the McClatchy chain of newspapers.

During my month in Tacoma my daily paper is the Tacoma News Tribune. It is also part of the McClatchy chain of newspapers. Supposedly a chain of newspapers on hard times, hence a lot of cutbacks on employees and the size of the newspaper and the amount of reading material in the newspaper.

At least that's the excuse the Star-Telegram has been giving for their incredible shrinking paper.

The first issue of the News Tribune, that I read upon arrival, had a News Tribune columnist answering reader's inquiries regarding the shrinking size of the News Tribune. I figured, interesting, the Tribune is annoying people in the same way the Star-Telegram is. At least that's what I thought when I read the headline. But no, the Tribune readers were making note of the paper appearing to have not so many pages as years gone by, they were not complaining about the loss of features or columnists or a crummy TV guide.

The Tribune writer explained that the reason their paper is smaller is due to fewer ads.

Now, that is a huge difference between these two papers. At the same time that the Star-Telegram's content has been shrivelling, the amount of space devoted to ads has soared. Sometimes full page ad after full page ad. This morning's Wednesday edition of the Tacoma Tribune had some sections with only 1 or 2 ads! And they were small.

Like the section that contains the editorial pages and letters to the editor, there were only 2 small ads in a 6 page section. The front page section is 10 pages, with 11 ads, 2 of them full page. Except for the full page ads, the others were small.

No wonder it took me a half hour, or more, to read the Tacoma News Tribune. I'm lucky if I can milk the Sunday edition of the Star-Telegram for 15 minutes. Often I'm done with their daily after about 5 minutes. A shorter amount of time than it takes to write this blog.

Another nice thing about the Tacoma News Tribune. Absolutely no mention of Barnett Shale. And no full page Chesapeake Energy ads. And the News Tribune writer talks about TV like a sophisticated adult, instead of sounding like some sort of wonderstruck bug-eyed Gomer fresh from the sticks, marveling that someone on some TV show had, at some point in time, lived in, visited or knew someone who had lived in or visited or was married to someone who lived in or visited Tacoma or anywhere else in Washington.

Hiking Point Defiance Park & Mount Rainier

I believe I mentioned in a late night blogging, yesterday, that The Mountain came out yesterday afternoon, here in Tacoma, and the rest of the Puget Sound area.

My temporary poodles, Blue & Max took me and their primary caregivers on a hike at the beach at Point Defiance Park. The beach in particular was Owens Beach. It is located near the Vashon Ferry Dock and Anthony's Homeport Restaurant.

In the video below you'll see all that is mentioned above. And maybe more. If you live in Tonasket please do not watch the video. Well, you can watch, just don't listen.

Chesapeake Blog Snares Ex-Star-Telegram Reporter

Reliable sources back in Texas have reported to me, up in Tacoma, that down in Texas, Chesapeake Energy has recruited a new shill, an ex-Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter named Jack Douglass.

My sources tell me that Douglass has indicated that he is out to discredit those who dare exercise their Constitutional right to speak out against something to which they object. Like their peace and quiet and personal safety being compromised.

Jack Douglass is going to use a Chesapeake Energy blog as his venue in what appears to amount to a propaganda smear campaign. You can view the early propaganda output here. Click on "Recent Posts" to view more propaganda. It appears no one is commenting on this regurgitation of the Chesapeake party line. Yet. Chesapeake will likely soon hire some sub-shills to do the fake commenting.

Meanwhile, the ex-employer of Jack Douglass, in the aforementioned Star-Telegram, on July 21, 2008, had an article titled "Fort Worth residents stepping up in pipeline fight," acknowledging that not everyone in Fort Worth is "Behind the Shale," in Chesapeake propaganda-speak.

Mount Rainier Appears On Day 2 In Tacoma

I am dead exhausted, having slept only an hour or two last night. I've had a busy day today, so tonight I am firing on about a half a cylinder. Whatever that means. Like I said, I'm exhausted.

Even so, tonight we had a BBQ outside. My sister made the tastiest burger I've ever had on the tastiest bun I've ever tasted.

After the BBQ I was asked if I wanted to come along to walk Blue & Max, the poodle pair who will be left in my dangerous care tomorrow, after I take their primary caregivers to the airport, departing for a week in the other Washington, with the initials D.C. at the end.

We drove to Owens Beach at Point Defiance. Point Defiance is a park in Tacoma. It is one of the largest urban parks in the world. As you can see in the photo, The Mountain, as in Mount Rainier, was out tonight. There were large throngs of people having fun at the beach, kayaking, picnicking, jogging, biking, weenie roasting, walking and in one case, an older gentleman appeared to steal a kiss from an older lady with a cane. I told her I hope she knew that man. She said she did.

I was out and about in Tacoma all day today, and again tonight. And just like my previous returns, after extended periods of exile in Texas, I am amazed at how many people appear to have had the air let out of them. I'm seeing so few fat people here. Washington is not doing its part in contributing to the National Strategic Fat Preserve. Or maybe Washington is doing its part in drawing down on the Fat Preserve and helping bring down food prices.

We drove the waterfront back after the poodle walk, lots of people at the waterfront restaurants, Mount Rainier hovering over them. The sun sets way later up north than down in Texas and it sets in very scenic way, what with all the water and mountains. It was perfect tonight. Even a ferry boat got in the view.

I hope Fort Worth succeeds with its Trinity River Vision so Fort Worth can be like Tacoma, with scenic waterfront property and a lot of deflated people using the Fort Worth waterfront. That'd be nice for Fort Worth....

Poodle Sitting in Tacoma

I have a complicated task here in Tacoma for several days, til reinforcements arrive. I will be the sole care provider for a pair of high maintenance poodles. It is only day one and I've already misplaced one, Blue, once. Max seems to need a bit less maintenance.

In the below video I'm playing with Max in the backyard when Blue goes missing. It did not take long for Blue to show up again.

I've Recovered From Fort Worth Level Orange Ozone

Last night, when I still was having a sore throat and coughing fits, I was starting to doubt that this 4 day problem was caused by the Level Orange Ozone woes that had befallen the D/FW Metro zone in recent days.

I figured if my sore throat and cough were caused by the pollution that this would clear up as soon as I got to clean air. Well, I landed in Washington, hours later I still had a sore throat. I coughed all through the night.

Then this morning I was outside in the brisk, pine-scented morning air. It felt like I was breathing in super air, like it'd been somehow treated and made the way air should be.

By mid-morning I realized my sore throat was going away. I haven't coughed in hours. I believe I am cured. If this woe was caused by D/FW pollution I can't help but wonder how it effects those not in as good as shape as myself. I know one allergy prone Puerto Rican who was laid low and puffed up by the Level Orange Fort Worth Ozone.

Tacoma, Lulu and Pick-Quick

I started off the day feeling exhausted from a bad bout of insomnia. The pine-scented air of Washington is having its predicted effect on my feelings of well-being.

Some time before noon Lulu dropped in. I then chauffeured us to one of my favorite joints, that being Pick-Quick in Fife. That's a little town between Tacoma and Seattle. Lulu bought me lunch. She's trying to fatten me up. She was also trying to buy me new pants today, saying mine don't fit anymore.

Quick-Pick makes really good burgers. I had their basic cheeseburger. It comes with real fresh tomato slices straight from a Washington farm, same with the onion. And then there was the fresh strawberry shake. Also made with fresh strawberries straight from a Washington farm. Unfortunately, for me, blackberries aren't quite ripe yet.

Quick-Pick and other burger joints in Tacoma and Seattle area towns are one of the reasons I was perplexed whilst in Fort Worth by the fuss made locally over what seemed to me to be a very pedestrian burger joint called Kincaids.

At Quick-Pick you can eat outside at their park-like area, with many picnic tables and multiple giant hanging baskets of flowers. Often with Mount Rainier as your background. But, not today, the mountain was not out due to a heavy layer of marine air. That is sort of a high fog, not quite clouds. This has now burned off and it's clear blue sky out there.

And no longer cold. I was very cold this morning. It is now 63 here in Tacoma coming up on 2pm. I see you've hit 100 this afternoon down in Fort Worth.

I'll try and get back to Quick-Pick the month I'm here and try and remember my camera. And hope the mountain is out.

A Barnett Shale Victim's Comment

Chesapeake Energy energetic propaganda campaign has many components, one being that they have people monitoring what's being said about them on the Internet. One of their shills then sends out rather off subject boilerplate comments that are actually rather amusing. Though that is not Chesapeake's intent.

In June I got a comment from a Chesapeake Energy shill. He/She said I had a slog of a blog. I took this as a compliment.

Today someone calling himself "shalevictim1" commented on the Chesapeake Slog of a Blog blogging.

Below is the comment.

"I live with the Barnett Shale every day and the only good thing is the money....while it lasts. Tomorrow morning I will again confront the pipeline crew that is cutting down trees on my land, when the lying landman said they would not. I have a lot of experience and if anyone wants to hear about it and know what they are in for then reply and I will unload. Keep in mind we have been run off of our home by gas lift compressor noise.....no not the temporary drill or frac noise...the perminent drone of the diesel gas lifter."

Sleepless In Tacoma

Yesterday whilst up in the air I drank a lot of Coke. As you, of course, know from reading every word in my Blog.

I'd been up since 5am Sunday morning. I'd gone on a long walk about noon. I'd flown for over 6 hours. When I landed in Washington it was 9:25pm Pacific Time. I'm usually in bed by that time Central Time.

By the time I got to Tacoma it was 10pm, midnight by my internal clock. When I got to my current location I unpacked and set up my computer.

I wasn't feeling sleepy, so I figured I'd take a sleeping pill (Unisom) and blog about my experience with Love Field and Southwest Airlines. I should have been sleepy. But I did drink all that Coke. And there are stimulants added to Coke. Well, a stimulant, as in caffeine.

Soon it was way past midnight. I wasn't sleepy, but I went to bed. I got cold, even though there were several blankets on top of me. I got up and found a thick comforter. This in the middle of summer. It's colder in here than I keep it with A/C in Texas.

Sometime past 3am I fell asleep for a bit. It is now 6am. I got up, turned on the coffee maker. Then I got chased by a pair of poodles. So, I went outside with them. And the air smelled like Christmas trees. I tell you, one of the many good things about living in Texas, is to be away from Washington for awhile and to return to be amazed at how good it smells, how sparkling clean it looks. And this summer, with no drought, it's very green.

I hope I can sleep tonight. In the meantime I'll be doing some poodle walking and some Lulu walking. And find a blackberry milkshake somewhere.

Southwest Airlines to Tacoma

Today's trip to Tacoma started off bad. But by the time I landed at Sea-Tac it was the best flight north yet.

Due to flying Southwest I had to fly out of Love Field in Dallas. Love Field sucks compared to the easy to use D/FW Airport. Parking was not easy. Going through security was the worst yet, with the conveyor built moving too much through the scanner, resulting in my laptop almost being knocked off.

I was wearing sandals and they made me take them off. So, I was barefoot during the chaos of trying to deal with my 4 trays of assorted cameras, computers, power supplies and stuff falling out of my backpack.

By the time I got my sandals back on I was a sweaty mess. I wanted water. The first water faucet was broken. I was really was starting to hate Love Field. I got to my gate, then took off to find water. I was successful.

Due to checking in online I was in Boarding Group A, Position 43. Southwest does not assign seats. I was able to get a window seat.

The first leg of this journey was to Albuquerque. We were barely in the air when drinks were mentioned. About a half hour later the waitress, I mean, stewardess, took my order. I was thirsty. I wanted Coke. Full sugar. About another half hour went by and finally the drink orders began to appear in the distance. I felt like I was in Hell's Kitchen.

By then I was getting cranky. A half hour prior to the Coke arriving 2 bags of peanuts were given to each of us. Salty peanuts. This did not help the thirst problem.

Finally, the Coke arrived at my section of the plane. In the littlest plastic cup I've seen, maybe 4 ounces.

I was really cranky by then. And then it began to turn around. A short time later the waitress asked if I needed anything else. Was there anyway I could have another Coke, I asked. Sure, you can. So, she brought me another.

By the time we landed in New Mexico I was back happy. Most of the people got off the plane. Then a head count was made. Then we could move to a new seat if we wanted. So, I moved to the front of the plane on the right side. This was a mistake.

The new people began to file in. No one had taken the seat next to me. Good thing. Then the announcer said everyone was on board. I like the extra room of an empty seat next to me. And then this guy and his kid could not find 2 seats next to each other. One of the waitresses asks if anyone would give up their seat. She offered free booze type drinks. Someone took the offer. And moved to the empty seat next to me.

She turned out to be interesting once she got liquored up on the wine they kept bringing her.

I was back thirsty again. We went through the same process again. This time it was Cheese Nips and peanuts a half hour before the Coke showed up. This time the second Coke showed up quickly. Then, a half hour to go to Seattle, she asked me again if I needed anything. Another Coke would be great, I said, my throat is sore. Which it was, due to breathing Level Orange Texas Ozone. She said she'd bring me a whole can. Which she did.

By then I was liking Southwest Airlines. I'm easy to make happy.

And then we flew the closest to Mount Rainier that I ever remember being. And I was on the wrong side of the plane. I did get a good view of the North Cascades, including the Mount Baker volcano, near where I used to live.

That's what you see in the above photo.

Max & Blue and Kristin and Michele were there to pick me up at Sea-Tac. It felt like natural air-conditioning outside. Now I'm in my current basement apartment and I'm sorta chilly. I can't remember the last time I was sorta chilly. It's a good thing.

Tacoma vs. Fort Worth

Tacoma is to Seattle sorta like Fort Worth is to Dallas. Tacoma's population is around 200,000, Seattle's a bit over a half million, both in a Metro area of about 3 million.

Fort Worth's population is over 700,000, Dallas over a million, both in a Metro zone approaching 6 million.

Fort Worth, with a population over 3 times bigger than Tacoma, is in the early talking about it stage of building some sort of rail transit. Tacoma already has such a thing. That's one of the Sound Transit trains in the photo, near Tacoma's museums, like the Glass Museum. Tacoma does not call its museum district their Cultural District, though, like Fort Worth does.

Also in the museum area is Tacoma's new $300 million convention center. Fort Worth spent a bit over $100 million updating their outdated, seldom used convention center and had to fund it in 3 stages. A new hotel was built across the Sound Transit rail line from Tacoma's convention center. Fort Worth had to give tax breaks to get a new hotel for their convention center.

It is free to ride Tacoma's Sound Transit. It runs from a transit hub similar to Fort Worth's downtown transit hub, only in Tacoma instead of the T Train running to Dallas you have the Sounder train running to Seattle and beyond. Fort Worth tried to have a market at its downtown transit hub. The delusional locals claimed it was modeled after Seattle's Pike Place and other successful markets. And that it was the first public market in Texas. It quickly failed. This was the first Fort Worth Boondoggle that I got to witness. It was called the Santa Fe Rail Market.

Tacoma's transit hub has a Santa Fe Rail Market type thing with some differences, the main one being that it is successful. And that it actually does sort of resemble a small version of Pike Place.

Well, in a couple hours I'll be going from the ridiculous to the sublime. I expect to have a fresh blackberry milkshake within the next 24 hours. That's the main thing I'm looking forward to.

Shreveport Gets Gas From Haynesville Shale

Apparently Shreveport is looking at Fort Worth for answers to how to handle all the little problems that crop up when you start drilling for gas in an urban zone.

The Shreveport area shale is called the Haynesville Shale. I assume Haynesville is a town. I guess I think it's a town due to that 'ville' at the end of the name. I've no idea why the shale underneath me is called Barnett.

I discovered today what seemed to me to be sort of odd verbiage used to describe these shale operations. I first read it in the Star-Telegram and assumed it was just more of their patented goofiness. But then I read it elsewhere.

Here are some examples...

"Where is the Haynesville Shale? It sprawls across northwest Louisiana, covering the Shreveport area. A small slice of Northwest Texas is also in play."

In play?

And then, "In March, Chesapeake and another company announced that it could rival or exceed North Texas' Barnett Shale, the nation's hottest play."

Hottest play?

Another example, "The Haynesville Shale natural gas play has Shreveport residents scrambling to learn the ins and outs of mineral rights."

This use of the word "play" must be oil country lingo with which I am not familiar.

Level Orange Ozone Making Me Sick

I don't know if we are at a Level Orange Ozone Alert again today, here in Texas. The air appears to be a bit clearer this morning.

The past 3 days I've developed a cough and sore throat. Yesterday I was over at my local Puerto Rican's and she told me I was having an allergic reaction to the Ozone. She's an amateur doctor in her spare time. She also suffers miserably from bad allergies which require potent meds.

Last night Miss Puerto Rico prescribed Eucalyptus Aroma Therapy for my sore throat and cough. This meant we sat and passed a bottle of Eucalyptus back and forth. This did not seem to have any salubrious effect for me. But the fumes made me tipsy.

Starting at approximately 6:25 pm, today, I should start getting some relief from this Level Orange Ozone threat, as I fly away from this polluted zone to a less polluted, I hope, zone.

Actually, if this trip to Washington is like my other 2 summers back up there, I will be remarking, for several days, how the air smells so good, like Christmas trees. And then I get used to it.

In about 13 and a half hours I will be picked up at Sea-Tac by a pair of poodles named Blue and Max. Tomorrow I hope I get to take them walking the Tacoma waterfront. Or somewhere. Actually just walking in their neighborhood is fun. Nice and hilly.

Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind

I was looking at YouTube videos, trying to find something funny about Fort Worth, when I saw several titled "Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind." Country singer George Strait's name was attached to several of the "Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind" videos.

I figured someone was either being ironic or sarcastic asking such a question, due to, well, my thinking that the answer, from most people, to that question, would be no.

So, it turns out this is a well known George Strait song. Shows what an uncultured ignoramus I am a lot of the time.

Anyway, below is the video of George Strait singing about Fort Worth. The video is a series of photos of Fort Worth. In the first photo you'll see a construction crane hovering over the now defunct boondoggle formerly known as the future downtown Fort Worth campus of Tarrant County College.

I think the person who made this slide show was somehow making fun of Fort Worth. I couldn't tell for sure, but the videographer did insert a photo of Dallas that shows what Dallas will look like if Dallas builds its Trinity River Vision Project. Fort Worth copied the Dallas vision a few years after Dallas first had its vision. Fort Worth seems to have forgotten where they got their Trinity River Vision.

Enchanted Rock State Park

My elderly cousin, Scott, has been on a long road trip all over the country. When he passed through Texas he did so entering via the Panhandle, driving across North Texas as near to the Oklahoma border as roads permitted. And then he decided the entire state of Texas was boring scenery-wise. He did concede he had not seen very much of the state and so there was a chance something, somewhere in Texas might be something other than flat and boring.

I've seen more of Texas than my elderly cousin, Scott, has. I've seen parts of Texas that are quite satisfying in the scenery department. Enchanted Rock is one such place. Enchanted Rock is a very popular state park. Some days so many people show up you have to wait til someone leaves before you can enter.

Enchanted Rock is a huge pink granite dome. Indians thought it was possessed by spirits, hence Enchanted, due to the noises the rock made when the sun went down. Later, less superstitious sorts realized the noises were due to the rock contracting as the temperature dropped.

Enchanted Rock is in the Texas region known as Hill Country. The route to Enchanted Rock via Austin takes you to the Pedernales River Valley, right by the LBJ Ranch where Lyndon and Lady Bird are buried. During wildflower season this is a very scenic spot on the planet.

To get to Enchanted Rock, via this route, you go through the tourist town of Fredericksburg. It is sort of a German-themed town. It's a short side trip from Frederickburg to Luckenbach.

$11.2 Billion For President's Helicopter

It seems of late I can not go a day without one thing or the other making me think we live in a totally insane world. Today's fresh insanity came via the news that the price tag for a new fleet of Marine One helicopters, for the new incoming President, has risen to $11.2 Billion.

That's $400 million per copter for the fleet of 28 helicopters.

Why does 1 President need 28 helicopters, I could not help but wonder? For the most part the things are used only to ferry the President the short distance from the White House to Andrews Air Force base. Occasionally Marine One copters are used for other things, like flying over a town torn apart by a tornado.

When Marine One takes off there are always additional Marine Ones in the air as well, as a decoy, playing a sort of shell game to confuse would be assassins. Sometimes as many as 5 Marine Ones are used for this purpose. So, why the need for a fleet of 28 of the things?

Marine One copters are equipped with anti-missile devices. They are heavily fortified.

The original estimated cost for the new fleet was $6.1 Billion. The price tag keeps rising because new bells and whistles keep being added.

Apparently, anywhere in the U.S. or the world that Air Force One goes to, the Presidential Limousine and Marine One helicopters also go. I've no idea how they get the copters to far away places. Maybe the copters can be stuffed inside an airplane.

Do China, Russia, the UK or France go to such elaborate expensive lengths to ferry their leaders around the planet? I remember reading, long ago, so my memory might be a bit bad, but I think it was back when then Vice President Nixon flew to Moscow where he had an infamous confrontation with Soviet leader Kruschev called, I think, the Kitchen Debate, that when Kruschev met Nixon upon landing in Air Force One, called Air Force Two when the VP uses it, that Kruschev was embarrassed to see the American leader traveling in a fancy jet, while he tooled around the Soviet Union in an old propeller powered plane.

What that has to do with this $11.2 Billion worth of Presidential Copters I don't know, but it somehow seemed to relate.

CNN & NPR Interview FWCanDo

Fort Worth's Top Rated Rabble Rouser, Don Young's, continuing Don Quixote-esque battle against the Chesapeake Energy windmills is going national, with incoming investigations into gas driller's dirty dealing in the Fort Worth zone, courtesy of CNN and NPR.

Below is Don Quixote Young's email regarding CNN and NPR....

FWCanDo will be interviewing with correspondents from NPR (National Public Radio) and CNN next week at CanDo HQ. We will also escort them on guided tours of Dirty Ol' Town.

Both media giants just happen to be in town the same days to shine a spotlight on the multi-tentacled, Barnett Shale phenomenon.

http://www.npr.org/

http://www.cnn.com/

FWCanDo is very grateful for this opportunity to remind a mass audience that not everyone in Texas is related to Jeb Clampitt or J.R Ewing or even, Tommy Lee Jones. Some of us are not blinded by money.

There are real people here who have grave reservations about natural gas extraction, production and marketing, both urban AND rural.

There are many people who believe that what's on the surface of the Earth, where we live, work and play, is just as or more valuable than the fossil fuels that lie beneath.

There are many people in Fort Worth and around the USA who are demanding that the natural gas industry abide by the same rules and laws as other industries.

It's time to end local, state and federal exemptions for a dirty, dangerous and arrogant industry that is degrading our safety, our water, our air and our quality of life.
Stay tuned and stay involved.

Don Young
FWCanDo
P.O. Box 470041Fort Worth, TX 76147
http://www.fwcando.org

"God bless Fort Worth, Texas. Help us save some of it."

Palo Duro Canyon State Park

Palo Duro Canyon is the Grand Canyon of Texas. It's also where Charles Goodnight started a huge ranch that continues to this day. Charles Goodnight's life helped inspire Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove.

Palo Duro Canyon State Park is the setting for an over the top Texas spectacle called "Texas".

"Texas" is sort of an outdoor musical drama telling the story of the settling of the Panhandle.

Palo Duro Canyon is near Amarillo.

That part of Palo Duro that you see sticking up in the photo is called The Lighthouse. You can hike or bike to The Lighthouse. It takes about 4 hours to hike roundtrip. Much faster to bike.

Palo Duro Canyon has great mountain biking. Several years ago I talked Gar the Texan into learning how to mountain bike. This had mixed results. And a lot of bad wrecks. Gar the Texan's parental units live near Palo Duro Canyon, I believe in a town called Canyon.

Below watch video of me and Gar the Texan mountain biking to The Lighthouse in Palo Duro Canyon State Park.

Pull Up Your Pants

For those of you who live in other parts of America, like the West Coast, for instance, you'd be shocked by what parts of this part of America look like.

I was at a location today in south Fort Worth, near Interstate 35. Heading east of I-35 on either Seminary, Rosedale, Berry or Lancaster, you'll go through some sections of Fort Worth that could be used as movie sets representing 3rd, 4th or 5th World Nations. Til I moved to Texas, the only other place I've seen things like this, is in Mexico.

So, I was driving along, enjoying the scenery, imagining I was in another country, far far away, when the above amusing billboard popped into view.

"Grandma says: Pull 'Em Up!" The billboard also says "HipHopGovernment.org." I went to that website and was assaulted by rap music. I don't quite get the connection of that website to Grandma and the pants.

I don't know if this wearing your pants halfway to your knees thing is just a Texas fad or if it's plaguing the rest of the country as well. It looks so inconvenient having your pants off your butt. It makes the person sort of waddle. Are they proud of their underwear and want to show it off? Is that what it's about?

Last week I was out on my resident Puerto Rican's balcony and we saw a guy walk by with his pants down, totally exposing his very nice boxers. They appeared to be silk. So, the Puerto Rican told me that earlier that week she'd been driving Boca Raton. That's a street near here. And these two guys were working on a car, when one of the guy's pants fell down. He had no underwear on. And he could not quickly pull his pants back up because he was holding onto to something critical to the car repair. So, the Puerto Rican got a good long look at the guy's bare butt. She said it was traumatic. It was not a butt you'd wanna be looking at, she said. Fat and flabby. The opposite of yours, she said.

Zorro's Big, Fat, Texas Buffet

Ever since I blogged about Zorro's Buffet, last month, my blogstats indicate that it's one of the most clicked on postings I've written. Today I found out why. My blog comes up #1 when people Google for info about Zorro's Buffet. Ahead of the actual Zorro's Buffet website.

So, this morning I got a message from someone who thought I'd "badmouthed" the place. Which I hadn't. All I said was if one were to judge the quality of the food by the quality of their website one might have cause to be cautious.

It seemed obvious to me that the person writing this was not a man and his wife out for dinner, as the writer claimed, then going to such lengths to wax poetic about the place. I figured it had to be either the owner or their ad agency or some other flak. The person suggested I try the place before passing judgement.

So, I said, give me lunch for 2 and I'll give Zorro's Buffet a try for lunch today.

I was told to tell the check-in person that I was Durango.

I took along a buffet expert, Big Ed. We got to Zorro's a bit past 1. The parking lot was pretty much full. Eventually found a place to park. Walked inside. Zorro's is huge. Walked up to the cash register, said, uh, I'm Durango. She said, we've been expecting you. She handed me a drinking glass and a knife and fork wrapped in a paper towel and told me to sit anywhere.

Found a seat, then found the buffet. Zorro's buffet is huge. The first thing I noticed, that I really liked, is Zorro's addressed my #1 buffet pet peeve. That being having to touch all those serving utensils that others have already touched. Usually they're sticky. I always find a napkin to use as a sort of glove. Sometimes it can be difficult to locate a napkin. But Zorro's has napkin dispensers at each buffet table. This should be a universal practice.

Today was Seafood Day. I tried a crab cake, but there was way too much cake and not enough crab. The grilled shrimp were very good, as was the salmon. The fried fish was catfish. Yuck. BBQ baby back ribs were smoky and meaty. The Zorro's grilled chicken was well done, like I like it.

The salads were all good, for the most part. The carrot salad would have been perfect, but there were those little type marshmallows in it. I don't care for that. There were 2 types of cole slaw, both good, a wilted spinach salad, that I liked. And several others I didn't try. The potato salad was not your usual buffet type, with too much mayo. It was made with red spuds with the skins on. Zorro's makes very good potato salad.

One thing that was a good thing, is every time I went back to the buffet there'd be something new. Like one new thing was a mixed seafood noodle dish, with clams in the shell lining the edges and lots of little shrimp in the sauce. It was nice and garlicky.

That's another thing. Most buffets, of the type that try and appeal to the masses, shy away from adventurous seasoning. Zorro's does not shy away. Some were quite adventurous, like a pasta salad that I thought was tossed with some sort of greenish pesto sauce, but instead the green turned out to be from cilantro. That was quite tasty.

I'm not a dessert eater, but there were quite a few dessert choices, including hard ice cream. I did have a dish of flan. It was very good.

So, is Zorro's Buffet the best buffet I've ever been to? No. Is it better than Golden Corral? Oh, by a long shot. Would I go again? Yes. But not anytime soon. And how did Big Ed like it? Well, you'd have to go all the way back to 1995 and the Luxor Buffet in Vegas, when Big Ed so overstuffed himself that sweat balls were popping out of his forehead, after which Lulu's first husband decided we were all Buffet Sluts. The name stuck.

The Dark Knight: The Jokers Gone Wild

I can't remember the last time I bought a movie ticket. One of the benefits of having a website that gets a lot of visitors is sometimes you get freebies. Like I've got a season pass to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center that I've never used.

Yesterday I got 2 tickets to the IMAX Theater in Dallas (Cinemark 17, LBJ Freeway at Webb Chapel Road), along with a big bucket of popcorn and 2 large Cokes.

The new Batman movie, The Dark Knight, is IMAX worthy. If you can, see it in an IMAX venue.

Before I say anything else about The Dark Knight, let me get this out of the way. Heath Ledger will win this year's Best Actor Academy Award. There, you heard it here first. Ledger's Joker is no Jack Nicholson. The Dark Knight Joker is a total psychopath, who calls himself an agent of chaos. Basically this Joker is a terrorist.

This Batman movie has a very strong post 9/11 angst about it. With the Joker being a sort of one man Al-Qaeda. At one point the Joker broadcasts video of himself performing an execution, ala those we've seen on our TVs courtesy of Muslim extremists.

There is a lot of very graphic violence in The Dark Knight. At one point the Joker rams a pencil into a victim's head. I don't know how this movie managed to be rated PG-13 rather than R.

The Dark Knight runs around 2 and 1/2 hours. Unlike many overly long movies, The Dark Knight did not wear out its welcome. I can not remember the last time I saw a movie this good.

I predict, along with Heath Ledger's Oscar for his pathetic, scary, creepy, funny psychopathic Joker, that The Dark Knight will be the biggest Hollywood Blockbuster in a long long long time and probably win an oodle of Academy Awards in addition to Heath Ledger's.

A Dark Knight Movie Trailer....with the Joker.....UPDATE: The video may no longer work. YouTube seems to be deleting all the Dark Knight Batman movie trailer videos.

Nuke The Muslim World & The Obama New Yorker Cover

A guy from Arlington, that's a town in Texas that abuses the perfectly fine concept of using the power of eminent domain to gain private property for the public good, like football stadiums. Like I was saying, this guy in Arlington, Edward Dufilho, sent a letter to the editor of Fort Worth's biggest, yet shrinking newspaper, the Star-Telegram.

Mr. Dufilho seems to have taken some umbrage over columnist Cal Thomas's repetitive yapping about the dire danger posed by the Muslim world and its terrorists. Apparently Mr. Thomas has no memory of worse, more dangerous times, you know, like World War II, for instance.

So, the guy from Arlington suggested that if the situation is as dire as Cal Thomas paints it, then the only sane thing for America to do is to unleash our nukes on the Muslim world and be done with them once and for all.

Now, there predictably will be those you did not get the point this Arlington guy was making and who will think he was actually suggesting launching nukes against the Muslim world, just like there were a disturbingly large number of people who did not get who was really being made fun of in that infamous New Yorker cover that has Obama in a turban and his wife packing heat and an Angela Davis doo, while burning the American flag and rapping knuckles.

There really are those out there, I've heard them on the radio, who think Obama is a secret agent, planted years ago, a Muslim, a hater of America. They're too stupid to realize you don't give your Manchurian Candidate a middle name that matches a Middle East dictator's name. Oh, I guess when Obama was named they couldn't have known, then, that a dictator named Hussein would take over Iraq. Regardless, those evil plotters wouldn't have named him Barack Hussein Obama, they would have given him a totally All-American name, like George Washington Lincoln.

I know a scary ignoramus who came here from an island in the Atlantic called Puerto Rico. A few weeks ago she asked me, as if she was telling me an important secret, if I knew Obama was a socco ( not sure how to spell that, it's Spanish ). Socco? Yes, half white, half black, she said. Yes, I said, I learned that years ago, along with the rest of America and America's made it pretty clear we don't care. Later she was shocked to learn John McCain had been a prisoner of war.

Below is the letter berating Cal Thomas......

Quit pulling your punches, Cal

I don’t know why Cal Thomas bothers to write new columns, because the subject is always the same.

We’re in a clash of civilizations! Us or them! Smoking gun! Mushroom cloud! Fight them there so we don’t have to fight them here, or some wingnut talking point.

If this is the death struggle Thomas is convinced it is, why the kid gloves?

All of his rants can be summed up in one word: extermination. Heck, boy. All we have to do is re-target the missiles, get somebody to attack an aircraft carrier and let fly!

I figure that just by ourselves we have more than enough nukes to incinerate every Muslim population center on the planet. The strain on our military would then be greatly reduced, as the only mission after the annihilation of more than 2 billion people would be just hunting down the survivors.

Do you think they’d see the light and become Christians rather than be massacred? You know we can’t trust ’em. Just ask the Spanish about all those Jews who “converted” just to save their skins, but practiced their religion in secret.

No, the only Christian thing to do is to wipe out every last man, woman and child who turns toward Mecca to worship. Of course, Mecca will no longer exist.

I know, I know. There are worries about the Russians and the Chinese, but I think if we divide the oil equally, they’ll come on board. We can count on them to take care of their own Muslim populations. You know what I mean.

As for Europe, I think we can agree it hasn’t been relevant for 50 years, so we, the Russians and the Chinese can offer them a choice: Deal with the Muslim population, or go back to burning coal.

Problem solved! I’m glad it’s finally out there, and boy howdy, do I feel better! I know there’s the small problem of rendering uninhabitable a significant portion of the planet, but that’s the beauty of the marketplace. I see vast opportunities in cleaning up the aftermath. Put in a good word for me on one of those no-bid contracts, won’t you?

— Edward Dufilho, Arlington

Voices From The Third Reich & Kirkland, Washington

A few weeks ago I blogged about a book I'd just finished, "Voices From The Third Reich," an oral history from survivors of the Hitler years.

This morning I was reading the Seattle P-I and saw the headline "In Kirkland, Nazi case brings up painful past." The story was yet another voice from the Third Reich.

The man you see in the photo is named Sreten Nesic. He was listening to the radio when he heard that a Bellevue man, Peter Egner, had been identified by the Justice Department as a member of a Nazi killing unit in Yugoslavia, created by the Nazis to arrest and execute Jews, Gypsies and Serbian resistance members.

The Yugoslav Nazi killing unit murdered around 17,000 people. The Nazi from Bellevue is accused of participating in the murder of 11,164. I've no idea how they came up with this precise number.

The man from Kirkland was 1 year old, living with his mom and dad in a village outside Belgrade, when his dad was arrested and taken to a concentration camp. His dad was murdered about a year later. His mother died of pneumonia a short time later, pneumonia contracted from traveling in the bitter cold, repeatedly bringing money to bribe officials to try and get her husband released.

When the money ran out, Nesic's dad was forced to dig his own grave. And then shot and killed. Nesic knows this because a second cousin, who survived the Nazis, was in the concentration camp and helped bury his father.

So, when Nesic heard on the radio that a Nazi member of the Yugoslav Death Unit, that had murdered his dad, was living in the town next to his, well, it brought back all the painful memories. And he got rightfully, righteously mad.

The Bellevue Nazi is now 86. The Nazi was living in an assisted living facility. Nesic is now 67. His dad was 25 when the Nazis arrested him. 26 when the Nazis murdered him.

You can read the entire Seattle P-I article here.

Chesapeake Facts May Not Be Ones We Need

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has one reporter who has never managed to annoy me, with either misinformation or by writing something ridiculous or by acting like a shill for the Chamber of Commerce and Fort Worth's Ruling Junta.

In other words there's this guy who writes for that paper, named Mitchell Schnurman, who rather pointedly takes on some of the little issues that many of us in the Fort Worth zone make note of, but which are not much examined by the local paper of record.

A couple weeks ago, Schnurman was appalled, as were many, by the bizarre turn of events that had Tarrant County College abandoning their ambitious, likely to have been quite an impressive addition to Fort Worth, that being a new college on the banks of the Trinity River, to buy Radio Shack's Corporate Headquarters, which Radio Shack built just a few years ago. This boondoggle is costing the taxpayers a lot of money.

In today's Star-Telegram, Schnurman takes on the Chesapeake Energy/Tracy Rowlett controversy. Chesapeake Energy has many people here shaking their heads in bewilderment at their bizarre ad campaign.

Here's a blurb of what Schnurman had to say....

"Capitalism is driven by self-interest, even in journalism, but is Chesapeake’s goal to enlighten the public or keep the gas flowing?

It may hope to accomplish both, but no one should doubt Job No. 1 in North Texas. Chesapeake is making billions by pumping natural gas, not producing news shows.

Rowlett says the Barnett Shale is the biggest story since the Stockyards a century ago. The natural gas play is boosting the local economy in a significant way and is an important piece of the energy puzzle. I’ll even buy Chesapeake’s argument that drilling is worth the "short-term inconveniences" of noise, construction and truck traffic (although that’s easy for me to say because no pipelines are being buried in my yard)."

Click here to read the entire column.

Schnurman's honest, opinionated, factual style is more what one would usually find in FW Weekly, than the Star-Telegram. Maybe none of the powers that be at the Star-Telegram and the Ruling Junta get around to reading what he writes, maybe that's how he is getting away with telling the truth...

Bravo's Project Runway 5 & CBS's Big Brother 10

I tried to make it all the way through the first episode of the new season of Project Runway, really I did. I made it as far as the point where the Top 3 and Bottom 3 were singled out.

But, unfortunately, Project Runway had not hooked me and I did not care who won that episode or who got the boot. So, I bailed. By this morning I don't even remember a single one of the dressmakers. Maybe I was too tired to be watching TV. I had had a long day of working at the computer and staring at a monitor.

I think what non-plussed me about this Project Runway show is that it is about making dresses, near as I can tell. I know for a fact I will live my entire life without ever making a dress. Or caring how one is made. Or knowing if one is fashionable. One of the reasons I find a similar Bravo show, Top Chef, interesting, is that it is about cooking food.

Cooking food. And eating it is something I actually do. So, at times I actually learn something from watching Top Chef.

But watching men and women, or semblances thereof, make dresses, was like watching someone knit. The only minor entertaining part of it was how goofy the dresses were and what they were made of.

The challenge was the group of dressmakers were let loose in a grocery store to find something to make a dress out of.

One of the dressmakers made his dress out of blue plastic cups. The judges liked that one. Another dressmaker made her dress out of black garbage bags. The judges didn't like that one. Only those two were retained in my memory.

Another thing I do remember is the Guest Judge. His name is Austin Scarlett. He was the winner from a previous season of Project Runway. I found him sort of scary. That's him in the photo. Actually I'm not totally certain he's a him, I guess I'm assuming that due to the "Austin" name.

Now, why did I mention Big Brother 10 in the title to this blog? Well, some cruel person calling himself "dvrgasm" commented on what I said about Big Brother, telling me...

"Sorry to tempt you, but it has just gotten started and it is already soooooo good. You are missing out..."

Well, despite the temptation I have continued, and, as God is my witness, will continue to resist the temptation to watch Big Brother.

DaFoWo Show & The Big Cheese Rodent Factory

Below is this week's DaFoWo Show. A Fort Worth Star-Telegram production. The show uses the Big Cheese Rodent Factory stinking story as humor fodder. My one longtime reader may remember me blogging about this a few weeks ago. There is also an amusing bit about Exorcism. DaFoWo had to use subtitles so we could understand one of the Texans being interviewed.

Chesapeake Energy: In The Pipeline---Fresh News From Dirty Ol' Town

Don Young, also known as the chief rouser of the group known as the Eastside Rabblerousers has taken to calling Fort Worth "Dirty ol' Town." I don't know if this is a reference to dirty politics, dirty gas drilling, dirty air, or what. Maybe it's a combo of all three. And more.

So, I just got email from Don Young, up to his usual Rabblerousing Duties. The subject line of the email was the same as the title of this posting, minus the Chesapeake Energy part.

The email contained several links to websites and blogs with articles about recent Chesapeake Energy and other gas driller's shenanigans and Monday night's protest in Fort Worth.

Here's a blurb from the West and Clear article about the Monday night Chesapeake Energy event at which Fort Worth protesters tried to be heard....

"The whole thing had this tense, antiseptic quality. Everyone seemed nervous and concerned about staying on message. Why? Why was everyone gripping it so tight?"

Read the entire West and Clear take on what sounded like a bizarre Chesapeake Energy event on Monday.

The July 9, 2008 edition of FW Weekly, Fort Worth's real newspaper, had an interesting article about the Chesapeake Energy/Tommy Lee Jones/Tracy Rowlett/Shale.TV controversies.

Here's the first paragraph from the FW Weekly article....

"For the past few months, North Texans have been listening to Oscar-winning actor Tommy Lee Jones spew about the wonders of the Barnett Shale natural gas drilling. Come fall, we might be hearing about similar wonders from beloved North Texas newsman Tracy Rowlett. Or, we might be hearing about the darker sides of the huge drilling boom."

Read the rest of the FW Weekly article here.

Another FW weekly blurb in their Blotch section, took on Tommy Lee Jones and his two-faced hypocrisy. Here's a Blurb from Blotch...

"...he stares at the camera and says with all the charm of a manic depressive serial killer, “Let’s get behind the Barnett Shale.” He spoke a different tune during a Parade magazine interview in 2006 when he described his high school summers spent working on oil rigs as “dirty, noisy, and dangerous.”

Read the rest of the Blotch here.

Meanwhile, the community newspaper of the community I sort of live in, Meadowbrook Today, had its own detailed take on Monday's Chesapeake Energy protests. Here's the blurb...

"Residents crowded into the Sycamore Community Center with questions for Chesapeake/Texas Midstream but the answers they received did not please all the attendees."

Click here to read all the Meadowbrook Today info about the battles with Chesapeake Energy and pipelines running through yards.

And then Wise County's wisest, and might I be a sexist pig and add, most beautiful Blogger, Texas Sharon, aka Bluedaze, blogged in her usual sharply pointed and well-aimed manner at that shooting fish in a barrel target known as Chesapeake Energy. Here's a Bluedaze blurb...

"The comments indicate that the Barnett Shale Honeymoon is over in Fort Worth. Residents are not thrilled with Tommy Lee Jones telling them to "Get Behind the Shale" or the propaganda thrown at them 24/7 from Chesapeake."

Read the rest of what Bluedaze had to say about Chesapeake Energy in her blog here.

Meanwhile, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, known to many as being the mouthpiece for Fort Worth's Ruling Junta, does not report much about Fort Worth's citizen's growing discontent over being the first urban zone in America to experiment with drilling thousands of gas holes and running hundreds of miles of gas pipes, piping odorless gas inside a city limits, under people's yards.

However, today the Star-Telegram did advise us that ozone levels are high and to stay inside if you have allergy or respiratory problems. I won't bother with a blurb or a link to the Star-Telegram.

Project Runway Tonight On Bravo

Awhile back I realized my favorite TV shows are all on Bravo. Top Chef and Flipping Out and Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List are my favorites. Top Chef is about cooking. Flipping Out is about an over the top guy with a severe case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, flipping expensive houses in Southern California. Kathy Griffin's show is about, well, Kathy Griffin. She's a funny vulgarian with a hilarious elderly mother.

Tonight is the first episode of Bravo's Project Runway's 5th season. I did not know til reading it this morning, in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, that Project Runway was the first of what has become a Bravo TV staple, that being several shows using the same formula, those being the aforementioned Project Runway and Top Chef, and also Sheer Genius.

Each of these shows starts with a short competition, the person who wins that usually wins immunity from being kicked off the show or some other advantage. After that the chefs, haircutters or clothesmakers get their big task for that week's episode. That's the interesting part, watching all the drama and comedy as they rush to get their tasks done. Then, usually, a bottom 3 is singled out, along with a top 3. One gets the boot, one gets the win.

I think there is a 4th Bravo show that follows this formula, but I can't remember what it is.

I've not watched Project Runway before, except for short bits during lunch. Watching weird people with serious personality disorders make clothes didn't seem very interesting to me, but that's what I thought about the haircutting Sheer Genius show and it turned out to be very funny. Tacoma Dumpster Diva, Lulu, claims Project Runway is one of her won't miss it shows. Lulu usually has good taste, though that has come into question of late, what with her declaration that the Golden Corral is her all time favorite buffet.

So, maybe I'll watch Project Runway tonight.

Heidi Klum is the host. She's a model. She is watchable, but she is paired with a co-host named Tim Gunn. He seems to be a bit of an odd duck with an unnatural interest in clothes. It'd be interesting to see Tim Gunn paired up with Flipping Out's Jeff Lewis.

All these type Bravo shows have guest judges. Project Runway has some sorta odd ones. Like Apolo Ohno and RuPaul and Sandra Bernhard. Brooke Shields I get, but an ice skater, a drag queen and Sandra Bernhard? I don't mean to be rude, she may be funny, but she is sort of hard on the eyes. Is she known for dressing well?

But, aside from any other reason I may have to watch Project Runway, the primary reason was provided by this morning's Star-Telegram, with its latest Texas connection to a tv show.

Here's the quote---

"There's only one Texan in it to win it. He's 28 year old Jerell of Houston, though he now lives in L.A., according to the network. Remember, it was Houstonian Chloe Dao who won PR's big prize on season two. Texas represent!"

Geez, that is so pathetic. Why do I keep reading this idiotic paper? Let alone pay for the privilege.

The Seven Regions Of Texas

This Blogspot Blogger thing has a serious malfunction this morning, in that it goofs up when I try to upload an image.

Well. The image that I can not upload is a map of Texas divided into 7 regions. Why would I want to show such a thing?

Well. Yesterday I finished the first stage in a huge expansion of my Eyes on Texas website. I've been sort of stuck with my Eyes, for the most part, only looking at the zone of Texas I primarily roam in, with short forays to Houston and Galveston and Amarillo and a few other places.

Some of the Regions of Texas are obvious, like the Gulf Coast Region. Others not so easy to see why its a special region.

The aforementioned Amarillo is in the Panhandle Plains Region. It's called that, I guess, because that rectangular shaped part of Texas that sticks up into Oklahoma and New Mexico sort of looks like the handle of pan.

Some of the Regions of Texas are less obvious, like where I live, in the D/FW Metroplex, this region is called Prairie & Lakes. Texas has only one natural lake, that being Caddo Lake. But Caddo Lake is not in the Prairie & Lakes Region.

To the east of my location there are a lot of pine trees, so it is called the Piney Woods Region. Sometimes this is called East Texas. The aforementioned only natural lake in Texas, Caddo Lake, is in the Piney Woods Region, not the Lakes Region.

The center of Texas, where Austin is, is called Hill Country, for obvious reasons, because, well, it is hilly down there.

Big Bend Country is sometimes called West Texas. It's called Big Bend Country because this is where Big Bend National Park is located. El Paso is also in Big Bend Country.

The South Texas Plains Region is where San Antonio is, and Laredo, on the Mexican border.

Texas is divided up into regions like this, I think, to make it easier to describe the state for tourism purposes. Looking at the map I realize I've actually been to every region of Texas, but just barely into the South Texas Plains Region, that being a visit to San Antonio at the north end of that region.

I need to explore Texas in more detail.

North Cascades Highway With The New York Times

A fellow Washington Exile living in Texas is always sending me things he thinks I'll find interesting that he finds in the New York Times. Usually I don't find these things at all interesting. This afternoon was an exception to the rule.

A New York Times correspondent, William Yardley, took a photographer, named Stuart Iselt, with him and traveled the North Cascades Highway, in Washington, from Sedro Woolley on the west side, to Twisp on the east. That is a screen shot, above, of the article in today's NY Times.

The North Cascades Highway opened in 1972. A northern pass across the Cascades had been in the planning for years. It was a major engineering feat. It connected the west side with an isolated part of Eastern Washington. This changed both sides. My side of the mountains, the west side, in the Skagit Valley, sort of boomed in the following years. My old hometown of Burlington got a huge regional mall, called, appropriately, The Cascade Mall, the design sort of replicating Cascade Mountain peaks, in sort of the same way Denver's new airport's look is inspired by the Rockies.

The New York Time's article consists of a very well done interactive map. Go here and start the tour. Click next to go to the next stop. At each stop there is a video that gives you a good idea of what that stop is like. The first stop on the tour is Sedro Woolley. Sedro Woolley is where my longtime fun friend, Tacomaite, Lulu's first husband grew up. I'll see Lulu in a few days. If I'm lucky my contact with her first husband will be limited. Like we who lived in the Skagit Valley often said, those Sedro sorts are difficult. Sedro Woolley is known for its Tarheels. I think that means hillbillies from North Carolina, but I'm not sure.

I remember going over North Cascades Pass the September before I moved to Texas. I doubt I will get that far north when I'm up in Tacoma for a month in about 5 days. But you never know.

Big Brother 10 on CBS

I did not realize Big Brother was back on. I did not watch a single second of last winter's Big Brother 9, that CBS quickly threw on the air during the TV writer's strike.

But, I will, with some sense of slight embarrassment, admit I have gotten hooked on 4, or is it 5, of the 10 seasons of Big Brother.

I am fairly certain I will not get hooked on the current version, that being Big Brother 10. One thing is it can be too addictive. It's on 3 nights a week. That's 3 hours a week.

And then there is the live feed. I watched the Big Brother 2 live feed, because it was free. And I watched a lot of the Big Brother 6 live feed, because that was a summer I was in Tacoma and Lulu paid to watch the live feed.

I remember when I first saw Lulu watching the live feed she was viewing it in this little postage stamp size window and holding a speaker to her ear. I did a one button click and the live feed became full screen, to Lulu's amazement. She'd pretty much strained her eyes to borderline blindness watching that little picture. Then I fixed her speakers so Lulu could listen without holding the speaker to her ear.

On the live feed you see stuff you'd never see on network TV. Most of the good stuff ends up on YouTube. Like on Big Brother 4: The X Factor, everyone was in the house with someone they had a prior relationship with. It was on Big Brother 4 that Big Brother history was made, as in the first time the Big Brother cameras filmed a couple doing that thing that in olden days you were supposed to wait to do til you were married. And then the next day the guy in that coupling voted to evict the girl he'd been coupling with. Appalling.

That was Big Brother 6 that Lulu had the live feed for. That was probably the best Big Brother ever. The house split between the Good People and the Nerd Herd. The Nerd Herd were deluded, they thought they were the good people, but they were despicable and really easy to hate. The Nerd Herd was led by the worst case of Little Man Syndrome I've ever seen. The Good People were led by a Marilyn Monroeesque beauty named Janelle.

Big Brother 2 was also very entertaining. Big Brother 2 produced the guy who many consider to be the #1 Reality TV star of all time. Dr. Will Kirby. You started off thinking he was totally nuts. And evil. And then it became obvious he was very conniving and clever. And then he became one of the funniest characters ever on TV.

Dr. Will and the aforementioned beauty, Janelle, were on Big Brother 7: All Stars. That was an unfortunate season of Big Brother. It could not be Big Brother without Will Kirby. But he insisted the disgusting person known as Mike Boogie, a creature who for reasons no viewer could understand, became Will Kirby's best friend. Boogie was hated by the viewers on BB2. No viewer considered him an All-Star. And then he won the thing and the half million bucks that go with it. Beating everyone's favorite, the beauty Janelle. It was appalling. Afterwards Boogie was harassed in public, and by Rosie O'Donnell on The View. Boogie being on BB All-Stars and winning tainted the whole thing.

I swore I'd never watch again after the All-Stars debacle.

And then Big Brother 8 came along. And I got hooked again.

And now Big Brother 10 is under way. I don't know if Lulu is watching it. I am going to resist her attempts to get me to watch, if she is hooked again. When I was up in Tacoma in July of 2004 Lulu was already hooked on Big Brother 5. She talked me into watching an episode. By the first commercial break I was hooked and asking all sorts of questions so I could understand what was going on.

Internet Addiction Woes

I got up early today. I finished reading the paper, that being the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, in about 5 minutes. It does not take long to read the Tuesday edition of this ever shrinking newspaper.

Today's TV section had fresh goofy Texas connections to people on TV. Apparently some comic named Bill Engvall is on something called Celebrity Family Feud, against somebody called Larry the Cable Guy. We Texans are told we need to root for Engvall because he did his comic act at some point in time in North Texas.

No, I do not make this stuff up.

We are also told there are some Texans on tonight's Big Brother on CBS. I won't further bore you with the towns in Texas the Texans are from or have visited or have a relative living in or would like to visit, because I've not heard of these towns, so I'm sure it'd mean nothing to you either.

Now, when I finished reading the paper, if I'd had an inclination to make fun of this paper, that I continue to buy and complain about, in a similar manner to complaining about Wal-Mart, while I continue to shop there, well, I could not have blogged about it.

Because, apparently my Internet connection stopped working about 10pm last night. Well, actually it was my network router that went into malfunction mode.

When this type thing happens, with either an equipment malfunction or the cable being down, it is quickly appalling to me how dependent and virtually addicted I am to the Internet. My first reaction was to Google for router woe info. Ooops, can't do that, can't connect.

Then I thought, well, til I get to Fry's to buy a new router, I'll just work on a website project I'm in the middle of. Ooops. Can't do that, because I need to access info via the Internet.

Then I thought, maybe I can find a wireless connection. I turned on the wireless connector. There were 3 connections available. All requiring a key. Why are people here so stingy and paranoid? Up in Washington, at my sister's last time I was up north, there were several neighbors I could connect to. Ironically I could not connect to my sister's wireless connection because she did not know the key. Some State of Washington tech guy had set her computer up. My sister assured me she now knows the key, so I won't have to be stealing neighbor's bandwidth.

So, I called my local Miss Puerto Rico to ask her if I could come blog on her computer and get info off the Internet. She said yes, like she always does.

Then, slow-witted dimwit that I am, it dawned on me that I could just plug the router cable that runs to my computer directly into the cable modem.

And that worked. So, I'm not in a rush to get to Fry's now. And my panic attack symptoms have subsided. For now.

Chesapeake Energy Protest Meeting In Fort Worth Tonight

A large crowd is expected to be present and protesting at a meeting tonight in Fort Worth. The protestors are trying to stop Chesapeake Energy gas lines from running under their homes.

Which reminds me of something.

First they drilled near a home out in the country, but I didn't speak up, because it was far from me. Then they drilled in my city, but I didn't speak up, because it wasn't in my neighborhood. Then they drilled in a park, but I didn't speak up, because I didn't use that park. And then they drilled by me and I'm speaking up before they run a pipeline under my house. Speak up before they are under you.

Fresh incoming, below,
from Fort Worth's #1 Rabble Rouser,
Don Young.

---

THIS IS IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD TODAY,
IT WILL BE IN YOURS SOON!!!
CHESAPEAKE
"STOP"
THE CARTER AVE. PIPELINE
AND THE SCOTT AVE.
"HIGH IMPACT GAS WELL"
***************************************
Please attend in Protest!!
Kathleen Hicks will be in attendance. She needs to see signs of community involvement and support.

COMMUNITY MEETING
***********************
Carter Avenue Gas Pipeline

It is VERY important that you attend this meeting!!!
If you have any questions and/or concerns regarding Chesapeake's plan to place "GAS PIPELINES" under our lawns and neighborhood streets.
JUST SAY NO!!! This is the time to address your concerns.

Meeting will be held at the:
Sycamore Community Center
2522 East Rosedale Street
Fort Worth, TX 76102
Monday July 14th, 2008 @ 6:30 PM

STOP
THE SCOTT AVE.
"HIGH IMPACT GAS WELL"

Wal-Mart Sucking Again

My little sister informed me last week that a week from now, when I'm in Tacoma, I am banned from shopping at Wal-Mart. This should not be difficult because there is no Wal-Mart in Tacoma.

This morning I went to my neighborhood Super Wal-Mart. I needed paper towels and a few other things. Like lime juice. Wal-Mart did not have any lime juice in stock.

The paper towels had one of those "Price Rollback" signs blaring that the pack of paper towels now cost $5.00. A price rollback of 63 cents. However, between when I put the paper towels in my cart and checked out the price must have rolled back up, because the paper towels rang up at $5.63.

I told the checkout girl that this was not the correct price. She told me I had to go to Customer Service to get it corrected. Even though it was early morning and Wal-Mart had few customers, there was a long long line at Customer Service. I believe Customer Service at Wal-Mart is what is known as an oxymoron.

Now, unlike Krogers or Albertsons, where I don't ever recollect the price mistake being in my favor, more often than not the price mistake at Wal-Mart gives me a bargain. So, I really didn't mind the 63 cent unexpected surcharge.

When I Googled "Wal-Mart Sucks", looking for an appropriate image, I found that there are websites devoted to Wal-Mart Sucking and Blowing. I also found some YouTube videos devoted to Wal-Mart and its tendency to suck in various ways.

Here's WALMART*SUCKS.ORG.

Here's Wal*Mart-Blows.com.

Here's Disgruntled Human complaining about Wal-Mart Sucking.

Here's Wal-Mart Really Sucks.

Okay, that's enough with the Wal-Mart Sucks websites. Now for some Wal-Mart Sucks video.

In the first video two guys whine about Wal-Mart, as they drive along. The best part of this one is at one point, like me, they lament that they continue to shop at the very place they are complaining about.



The second video is about a Wal-Mart employee and the shenanigans that go on during the late night shift.

The Closer To Texas

Yes, I know I said I was going to stop making fun of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's goofy practice of mentioning any connection between someone in the news or on TV to Fort Worth or Texas, no matter how remote or pointless.

The worst practitioner of this eccentricity is this incredibly shrinking paper's TV writer, Robert Philpot.

This morning, Philpot wrote about the season premiere, tonight, on TNT of a show called The Closer, starring Kyra Sedgwick, produced by someone named James Duff.

Here's the goofy verbiage----

"Although its lead character is an Atlanta woman transplanted to Los Angeles, TNT's crime drama The Closer has a heavy Texas connection.

Series creator and executive producer James Duff grew up in a variety of Texas cities, thanks to his father's job with Sears, Roebucks & Co., and Duff's parents live in Arlington (Duff visited recently when his mother had neck surgery). Duff attended Texas Tech, where one of his teachers was G.W. Bailey, who plays the curmudgeonly Detective Lt. Provenza on the show. Among Bailey's best friends is Tarrant resident Barry Corbin...."

Eventually Philpot gets past the fascinating, totally important Texas connections to share some actual information about The Closer.

Miss Venezuela Wins, Miss USA Falls, Miss Puerto Rico Missing

My local Miss Puerto Rico must be devastated. Near as I can tell, looking at the news in the wee wee hours of the morning, Miss Puerto Rico didn't even come close to the coveted title of the Miss of the Entire Universe.

Kidnap victim, Venezuelan Dayana Mendoza, proved the Vegas bookies have a keen eye for beauty, with the odds on Vegas favorite beating 3 other Latin American Misses for the most prestigious title in the known Universe. The runner-up was Miss Columbia Tailana Vargas, Miss Domincan Republic Marianne Cruz Gonzalez was 3rd, Miss Mexico Elisa Najera came in 4th, with Miss Former Soviet Union Vera Krasova rounding out the top 5.

Miss USA was Miss Texas, Crystle Steward. Crystle was in the Top 10, but unfortunately she had a serious wardrobe malfunction when she tripped on her jewel encrusted gown and fell down. This is the second Miss Universe show in a row where the Miss USA girl takes a tumble. Last year Miss USA Rachel Smith also took a fall and bounced right back up, just like Miss USA did this year, as you can see for yourself in the video below. That is Miss USA on the ground in the photo on the right.

Miss Puerto Rico did not make the Top 10. In addition to the previously mentioned, Miss Kosovo, Miss Australia, Miss Spain and Miss Italy were the other Misses in the Top Ten.

I was over at my local Miss Puerto Rico's last night before the most important event on the planet was beamed live from Viet Nam's resort city of Nha Trang to the rest of the Universe. By the time I got back here I forgot, like millions upon millions of other Americans, that Miss Universe was about to be crowned. I made popcorn and watched The Simpsons instead. And King of the Hill. Neither Homer or Hank Hill watched the Miss Universe thing either.

Lake Grapevine Rockledge Park Video

Like I said I was going to do, in a blogging earlier today, I went to Lake Grapevine to hike, swim and picnic. I'm back from that ordeal and have already YouTubed a primitive video.

The hiking was hot. I hiked in my swimming suit which made swimming an easy transition. I was sweating like a fat pig. Was so looking forward to the water. I'd not been in Lake Grapevine since I was attacked by a maniac turtle way back in July of 2002. I'd sworn off getting into murky Texas Lakes. But Lake Grapevine was somewhat clear today. And warm. Way warmer than the swimming pool water. The air temp was near 100. I don't think the lake water was far behind. The only time a lake has felt warmer was way back in 1999 at Lake Mead in August with my nephews.

We had some difficulty finding a picnic table, but eventually found a huge pavilion that was supposed to be used by reservation only. And I assume a fee. But, we weren't the only scofflaws. Soon after our picnic began, a huge family showed up with quite an elaborate set up, including a hammock.

Anyway, here's a very short video giving you a very short idea of what Rockledge Park on Lake Grapevine is like on a HOT July Sunday in Texas.

Miss Universe Drives Miss Puerto Rico Nuts

One of the first times I was visiting my local Puerto Rican it was the night of the Miss Universe contest. I did not realize those Miss Universe Miss America things still took place.

But, my local Miss Puerto Rico acted as if it was the Olympics or a Presidential election. Well, that night, Miss Puerto Rico won. Even though it was late, Miss Puerto Rico called her mother, on the island, so they could celebrate together. This was the first time it crossed my mind that this person may be nuts.

Well, tonight is the Miss Universe Pageant. It's on NBC. Live from Viet Nam. Apparently Third, Fourth and Fifth World countries have revived this thing, as in it's a big deal to them. Some really poor countries can not afford the entry fee. Like Armenia and Nepal.

My local Miss Puerto Rico is certain Miss Puerto Rico, Ingrid Rivera, is going to win. Bookies pick Miss Venezuela, Dayana Mendoza, to win. Miss Venezuela vexes my local Miss Puerto Rico due to her being from Hugo Chavez's country and some remarks Miss Venezuela made about it being unfair for other countries to have to compete against women from her country due to their over abundance of beauty. Or something like that. Miss Puerto Rico can sometimes lose something in the translation.

Miss Puerto Rico insists I watch the Miss Universe thing with her tonight. That is not going to happen.

Below is video of Miss Venezuela. I hope she beats Miss Puerto Rico. I hope Miss Puerto Rico does not read my blog. She's got a nasty temper.

Sunday Hike, Swim & Picnic at Lake Grapevine

Today I'm going to do something I've not done in awhile. As in drive up to Rockledge Park on Lake Grapevine and go on hike, then swim, then have a picnic. I used go up to Rockledge all the time, but it somehow seemed foolish to waste gas. But then this morning I realized I'm spending way less on gas than I did when it cost $1.50 a gallon, due to driving way less.

On the way to Lake Grapevine I'm going to another place I've not gone in a long time, that being Sprouts. Sprouts is my favorite grocery store. This week they've got seedless Texas-grown watermelons for only $1.99. Last week I discovered I can make watermelon juice with my Vita-Mix. Mixed with lemonade, the watermelon juice is a very very good thing.

Lake Grapevine's waves can get almost ocean-size in a good wind. I always see big clam shells on the beach at this lake. I did not know clams grew in freshwater lakes. There also are a lot of seagulls. I can almost pretend I'm at a Washington saltwater beach when I'm at Lake Grapevine. In a week I'll be at the real thing. A Washington saltwater beach, I mean.

I'm going to take video today at Lake Grapevine, so be looking for that on a blog soon. Probably later today.

Sunburn in Texas

Yesterday while hiking at Tandy Hills Nature Preserve, sans shirt, it suddenly occurred to me that there is proof that we humans did not originate on this planet.

But, before I get to my epiphany, a short history of my sunburn issues. When I was 14 I fell asleep on the beach at San Luis Obispo State Park in California. I woke up to the worst sunburn of my life. The sunburn caused a blister on my back. When that popped and healed over, the new skin no longer had pigment, as in there is about a 1/4 inch in diameter round white spot on my back.

I have to put ultra-high sunscreen on my white spot or it gets incredibly sunburned, incredibly easy. So, for decades now, I've mastered a contortionist's act to manage to get sunscreen onto my albino spot. Sometimes I'm lucky enough to have someone to do this for me.

So, I'm hiking along and I suddenly I wondered why humans get sunburned. Shouldn't all of these eons of humans evolving under the sun managed to evolve us to a version of human with skin that does not burn? We humans haven't always worn clothes to keep the sun off us. Back before Eve took a bite of that apple, humans ran around naked all the time.

I think the fact that after all these eons of being under the sun we still have skin that burns is obvious proof the we humans came to earth from another planet, a planet where the sun did not burn our skin. And we have not been on this planet long enough to evolve into having sunburn-proof skin. Instead we have a huge suntan/sunburn protection industry.

Now, a registered known idiot aquaintance of mine told me that Black people do not get sunburns. If that were true, which it's not, this would mean that Black people are the only humans actually native to the planet. But it's not true, so we're all aliens from another planet. Black people are fortunate in that the darker pigment of their skin lets them be out in the sun longer before getting burned.

Well, it's time to put some SPF 60 on my spot and head outside to do some evolving in the sun.

Dallas Cowboy Construction Scandal

A few months ago I made a video of the then current state of construction of the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium, interspersed with photos of the houses and apartment buildings that were stolen from their owners and then destroyed, in what is believed to be the worst case of eminent domain abuse in American history.

This morning one of the victims of Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys and the City of Arlington commented on the video.

Below is that comment. And the video being commented on.

"wow thats wierd to watch. we were relocated due to the new cowboy stadium. we were some of the last to leave. it's very surreal to watch your nieghbor hood where you live be torn down around you. I'm not whining about it, we are now much better off for having moved. However it is still sad that all those memories took place in a small run down nieghborhood that no longer exist."

FAA Radar Records Confirms Stephenville UFO

The January 8, 2008 Stephenville UFO is back in the news. The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) filed 10 Freedom of Information requests with the Federal Aviation Agency.

The FAA had no choice but to release the radar records from January 8.

Those records confirm the presence of unidentified aircraft, with at least one appearing to head towards President Bush's Crawford Ranch. The radar records show several unidentified aircraft in the same area that residents reported seeing strange things in the sky.

Radar tracked the Crawford bound UFO for more than an hour. People who saw the UFO said it appeared to move at less than 60 mph and then accelerate greatly. The radar record shows the same thing. At one point the UFO put the pedal to the metal and went from 60 mph to 532 mph in 30 seconds.

Radar lost contact with the UFO about 10 miles from the Bush Crawford Ranch.

Could there have been a presidential alien abduction? I can't help but wonder. If you think about it, when was the last time you heard President Bush make one of his patented verbal miscues? Could the aliens have taken the original President Bush and replaced him with an improved version? Bush has managed at least 2 overseas trips since January 8 without a faux pas. And he has not started a single war since January 8.

Maybe the Universe is looking out for the good ol' USA in our troubling time of need.

Below is video about the Stephenville UFO.

Tracy Rowlett Taking Flak For Being Chesapeake Chump

Yeterday many people in the D/FW zone of Texas were surprised to learn that local CBS Channel 11 News Guy, Tracy Rowlett, was quitting TV to be a part of Chesapeake Energy's ongoing propaganda campaign, by anchoring an online "news" channel called Shale TV.

Apparently Rowlett has been taking a lot of flak and accusations of being a sell out, ala Tommy Lee Jones.

The Dallas alternative paper of record had an interesting article about the Rowlett chump.

Click here to read the article.

The article includes at least one link to a very informative blog.

Read a blurb from the article below.

Dallas Observer: So, from the tone in your voice, I can already tell you're stunned by the reaction you've received from folks here and elsewhere concerning your decision to work for Chesapeake.

Rowlett: I am catching hell, but the unfortunate truth is most of what the bloggers are saying isn't true. Just give us an opportunity to do what we're going to do and just judge us based on what we'll do. You gotta remember, every program I've done had a sponsor. And I wouldn't kill a negative story about a sponsor. We've got what I'd like to think are three premier journalists -- including Olive Talley and Jon Sparks -- and they don't come any better than that. John broke the SMU scandal, and Olive was a Pulitzer finalist. We're not chumps jumping into the PR side.

The Return Of My Bad Chesapeake Energy Neighbor

Chesapeake Energy finished the noisy, messy part of its operation, across the street from my abode, a long time ago. Leaving behind, I thought, a hole in the ground that was spewing natural gas.

And then yesterday, a new drilling rig appeared. You can see it in the photo, between the two blooming crape myrtles. Or is it crepe myrtles? I guess either crape or crepe works.

I don't know why Chesapeake Energy has put up a drilling tower again. They don't let the neighbors know anything. Like when the convoy of water trucks arrived, spewing clouds of dust. We weren't warned. Chesapeake Energy never came around offering to pay for a car wash. Or a new air filter. We just got to read how lucky we were. On billboards, on TV, in the paper and on park benches.

I can hear my new neighbor right now, making a rhythmic pounding. Did something get clogged up? Did the gas quit flowing? Should we be careful about making any sparks? Like they say, I mean Chesapeake Energy says, this is "Living with the Barnett Shale!"

Kathy Griffin: Life On The D-List

Last night my TV viewing was again on Bravo TV. The always amusing, Kathy Griffin in her My Life on the D-List show.

I made it through 2 episodes, bailing by the time I got to the new episode.

In the first hour Kathy and her entourage went to Sidney, Australia on something called the Pink Flight, which consisted of a plane full of drag queens on their way to the Aussie Mardis Gras.

On the plane Kathy passed out her D-List Condoms and encouraged the fliers to join the mile high club. I'd never seen so much boisterous activity on an airplane. At one point there was a "Who has the Best Chest" contest, where bare-chested drag queens paraded down the aisle. Kathy then took her top off and did the same. I suspect she won the contest, but we did not see the result.

When they got to Sidney, Kathy and entourage met up with Lance Bass. Much double-entendre humor ensued. They all went to a zoo where they got to pet a kaola bear, which was very cute, and play with kangaroos and a giant snake. Kathy made a number of giant snake jokes, mostly directed at Lance Bass.

Then Kathy met up with Margaret Cho and Cindy Lauper to pick out a Mardis Gras costume. Kathy was offput to learn that Margaret was the Grand Marshall of the parade. Margaret invited Kathy to ride on her float. Kathy said she would. But when Kathy and entourage got to the parade they could not find Margaret's float. So Kathy and group just hopped on other floats or just walked along hoping someone would recognize her. Eventually, due to her own camera crew following her, Aussie news crews started interviewing Kathy as she marched along.

And so her goal of getting some more Aussie publicity had been reached. She was in Australia to promote her D-List show which was about to premiere on Australia's biggest network.

In the second hour it was all about being banned, again, from ABC's The View. And going to New York City to perform at Madison Square Garden. Before going to New York City, Kathy and entourage dropped in on Rosie O'Donnel, who is oddly obsessed with arts and craftsing.

Kathy told Rosie about her sad banning from The View. Rosie, having experienced similar bannings, asked what happened. Apparently, off camera Kathy had mentioned, to Barbara, something about KY Jelly, to which Barbara Walters replied that she preferred Astroglide. Kathy then worked that into her Bravo Special Straight to Hell, which aired right before she was to re-appear on The View. When Barbara learned Kathy had shared Barbara's Astroglide secret with the world, she ordered Kathy banned. Kathy is quite proud of being banned twice from the same show. She believes it is a show business first.

Of course, Kathy has now worked the banning, not only into her comedy routine, like at Madison Square Garden, it's also mentioned over and over again on the show. If they'd just gone ahead and had Kathy back on The View, I would never have had the unfortunate mental image of Barbara Walters and Astroglide etched into my memory.

To get publicity in New York City, Kathy was ordained as a minister and officiated at the wedding of an amusing pair, who told her she could say anything, nothing was off limits, but the word titties. So, of course, Kathy told the wedding crowd that she'd been told she could "say anything but titties, so I won't be mentioning titties during the wedding service, because for some reason the bride and groom do not like titties."

When the ring bearer brought the ring, Kathy stopped the proceeedings and asked why this was a grown man, instead of the usual little kid ring bearer. The groom told Kathy that because she was the minister no kids were allowed at the wedding.

Two hours of Kathy Griffin and her Life on the D-List show goes by real fast. I find her very amusing. Though I do grow a bit tired of so many word bleepings on Bravo TV. It ain't like you don't know exactly what they are saying.

I forgot to mention an amusing thing. While they were at Rosie's, Rosie asked Kathy for a favor. Knowing that Kathy was dating Apple Billionaire Steve Wozniak, Rosie wondered if Kathy could ask The Woz if he could get her into some online hi-tech seminar, that is very exclusive and to which she'd had no luck getting in. Rosie said she give Kathy anything she wants.

Anything? Yes, Anything. Well, Kathy said. Wait, Rosie said, I know what it is you will want. You want to meet Cher. Is that it? Yes, Kathy said. So, Rosie promised front row seats at Cher's show in Vegas, an overnight state in a penthouse suite and a backstage visit with Cher. Deal. Kathy then called Wozniak and he instantly said no problem. Rosie was elated. As was Kathy.

How can you not like a girl who can call Steve Wozniak on a whim and get what she wants?

Here's a video from a show from a couple weeks ago.......

Chesapeake Energy's Shale TV with Tracy Rowlett

I love admitting it when I'm wrong. So, I'll admit it. I was wrong about Chesapeake Energy. Last week I wrote that it appeared Chesapeake Energy was backing off on their multi-media propaganda onslaught. It seemed the TV ads and billboards with Tommy Lee Jones had gone away. The full page ads in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram had not appeared for over a week. I'd not seen a Fort Worth bus plastered with Chesapeake slogans. I'd not seen a Chesapeake/Barnett Shale billboard in weeks.

And then yesterday I saw 2 buses plastered with Chesapeake Energy propaganda. I thought, I guess they've not totally scaled back.

And then, this morning, I learned not only has Chesapeake not scaled back on their propaganda onslaught, they're amping it up by launching an online Shale TV Video channel to help their ongoing attempts to counter all the objections from urban citizens to having their yards dug up, trees knocked down, parks compromised and peace, quiet and clean air messed around with.

For Slate TV, Chesapeake Energy somehow lured the D/FW Metroplex's longest running news guy, Tracy Rowlett, away from CBS Channel 11. I imagine quite a sum of money was involved to get this guy to agree to be a shill for Chesapeake.

Of course, Chesapeake is claiming they will have those who object to their drilling practices on their show. It will be interesting to see if Don Young gets an invite.

Regarding Chesapeake's attempts to counter the online battering they are taking from various blogs and websites. I have a suggestion. Since you are willing to pay so much money to counter your bad public image, have you considered simply making an offer to people like me to get us to shut up?

I certainly would consider such an offer. I am no less willing than Tommy Lee Jones or Tracy Rowlett to sell out if the money is right. I eagerly await Chesapeake's Energy's offer.

In the meantime, yesterday, for some likely un-Godly reason, my next door Chesapeake drilling tower reappeared. I had no idea they came back after the drilling was done? Why? I'll take a photo of this this morning and share it with you later in the morning.

An amusing sidenote, everytime I blog about Chesapeake Energy and the Barnett Shale, I see a huge number of readers pop up from Oklahoma City, headquarters of Chesapeake Energy. I think I can extrapolate from that that Chesapeake Energy, for some reason, really really closely monitors what is being said about them. Such a sensitive company. Except when it comes to disturbing people's sleep, messing up their property, polluting their water and just being an all around nuisance.

Parker County Peach Festival

Tomorrow, Saturday, July 12, 2008, the Parker County Peach Festival takes place in Weatherford, Texas. Weatherford is the county seat of Parker County, about 30 miles west of Fort Worth. I've been to the Peach Festival a couple times. Texas does this type festival really well, small Texas town festivals and parades are a good thing.

It's hot in July in Texas, so the Peach Festival uses multiple walk through misters to cool people down.

Click here to view photos, directions and my description of my last visit to the Parker County Peach Festival.

The Peach Festival is a one day affair. I learned this a few years back when I tried to go on a Sunday. It is odd that this is only a one day thing, as the Peach Festival is huge, covering several blocks surrounding Weatherford's cool county courthouse square. A lot of bother for a one day event.

The Peach Festival has multiple music venues and 100s of vendors. And peaches. You can get them fresh, in cobblers, in ice cream, in juleps and in forms I've likely forgotten.

Now, Parker County does not produce many peaches, but they are intensely proud of their peaches.

Me, being a Washington boy, having lived most of my life in a state that produces peaches for export, in addition to apricots, nectarines, cherries, berries, grapes and apples, has a high flavor standard expectation regarding the quality of my fruits. Washington's eastern Washington soil, climate and irrigation are perfect for producing big, sweet, flavorful peaches.

In other words, both times I tasted a Parker County peach I said, "are you kidding me?" It barely even tasted like a peach. Maybe they were bad years, not enough sun or water.

At the last Peach Festival I attended there was a peach bobbing tub full of peaches floating in water. You bobbed for prizes. A big sign assured Texans that none of their precious Parker County peaches were being desecrated in this tub of water, that these are all California peaches, purchased at the local Albertsons.

See what I mean? This is a fun festival. I don't know if I'll go tomorrow. 6o miles roundtrip is a huge investment in gas. I suppose if I start walking now I could make it in time.

Michelangelo's David's Two Year American Tour

I learned from my little sister in Tacom this morning that Michelangelo's David is returning to Italy after two years of touring America. I don't know if David made it to Tacoma. It appears David may have spent a lot of time in the South part of America.

DAVID'S TRIP WAS SPONSORED BY:
McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Burger King, Krispy Kreme & Starbucks

Voices From The Third Reich and Iraq

Last night I finished reading Voices From The Third Reich: An Oral History. I have read more books, than I can remember, about the Nazi era. Years ago, after reading Albert Speer's Inside the Third Reich, no more, I was done with WWII books.

But then, a couple month's ago, I read a book about the Japanese atrocities during WWII, and before WWII, that shocked me. After that I happened upon the definitive Hitler bio.

Ever since I was a little kid, 10 or 11, and learned of the Holocaust, I have despised Germans. I've always thought they got off too easy after the war, due to the Cold War starting up between the U.S. and the Soviets. I've always bought into the idea of the German's collective guilt. How could they not know the Jews were being killed? How could they not know of the mass slaughters in the occupied zones of the Soviet Union?

After reading this Oral History I've changed my mind. The majority of the German people were just as much victims of Hitler as was the rest of the world. By the time these oral histories were taken, the older generation had died off, so most of the stories are those of men and women who ranged from 11 to in their 20s during the war.

Survivors of the Holacaust tell their stories, survivors of the Russian Front tell their stories, survivors of the Allied bombing tell their stories, survivors of the mass executions that followed the July 20, 1944 assassination attempt of Hitler tell their stories, survivors who worked with or met Hitler tell their stories, surviving German POWs, of both Soviets and Americans tell their stories (which do America proud, and make an American, me, a bit more ashamed of how the Bush wars have treated prisoners), survivors of the brutality of the Russians as the Soviets overran Germany tell their stories, survivors of the Western Front tell their stories. All in all, all types of German surivors in all sorts of situations tell their stories.

The German stories of their first encounters with American forces after the Normandy invasion was new information to me. The Germans were used to fighting the Russians. The Russians would just advance into a line of fire. In their first encounter with Americans, the Germans would find that the Americans would quickly retreat. In their first encounters, the Germans thought the Americans are easy. And then, about 5 minutes later, the Germans would be hit from the air and by artillery and tank fire. The Germans quickly learned that the Americans used heavy fire power to protect their soldiers.

Also interesting was how desperately both German soldiers and civilians tried to get under American control rather than the Russians. In the book there are several accounts of how amazed the Germans were at how well the Americans treated them. One told of being brought to America on a troop ship, well-fed on the way, landing in New York City, being put on a glass tourist boat to be brought to a camp in New Jersey. The German could not believe how prosperous America was, how much food, how many cars and how well they were treated. One German was shocked to see Black American soldiers. He was hungry when captured. The Nazis had convinced him that Blacks were sub-human. This American drove the German to a food supply bunker and loaded the German up. This was the point in time when this German realized he'd been lied to by the Nazis. This German ended up thinking the Black Americans were nicer than the Anglo Americans.

Anyway, after reading this book I realized that I was ridiculous in my attitude towards Germany. All Germans were no more guilty of all the Nazi crimes than are all Americans responsible or guilty of the various dubious acts of the Bush adminstration, you know, things like invading another country, on trumped up charges, and using a Blitzkrieg method to do so, and then putting prisoners into concentration camps, like Guantanamo Bay, where the prisoners are held, without trial, many of whom have been shown to be totally innocent, just like those the Nazis stuck in camps.

So, I know there were Good Germans, and others who were afraid to speak up. Just as I know the majority of Americans are Good Americans who are horrified that America, in even the most slight of ways, has acted in the same manner as Nazi Germany. And just like in Nazi Germany, it will be those who resisted the evil-doing, who will soon restore America to its rightful place as the Number One most decent, respected and admired member of the family of nations.

So, I am almost certain that in about 5 months or so, either Barack Obama or John McCain will begin that process for America and America again will be seen as America was seen during World War II, a beacon of rightness and goodness and power that made the world feel safe. Not scared.

Seattle And The Sonics Parting Not All That Much Sorrow

I read an interesting article in this morning's Seattle P-I about the evolution of Seattle's relationship with the now departing Sonics and how, among other things, Seattle has become like Los Angeles, being at the point that the public is ready to shrug off a sports team. LA has been without a Pro NFL team for well over 10 years. With the West Coast often starting trends for the rest of the nation, I'm hoping this bodes well for the coming end of the bizarre pro sports world of ridiculous salaries and billion dollar palaces to play the children's games in.

I can not imagine an honestly introspective self-aware type of article appearing in the more propagandaish, Chamber of Commerce boosterizing, often outright misleading and dishonest, Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Read a blurb from the P-I article below. Read the entire article here.

"Before, (Seattle) aspired to be big," Brewster said. "Now it thinks it's probably bigger than it really is.

"So it can behave like Los Angeles (which has been without the NFL for 14 years) and say, 'OK, we don't have a professional basketball team. We don't need that. That's for smaller cities like Oklahoma City.' So we have almost a condescending view toward cities that are dying to have professional sports."

Most Seattleites have never been to a Sonics game. Some view them as a nuisance that gums up downtown traffic 41 times a year. Instead of a sprouting town eager for events, we are now a crowded metropolis inundated with them. But Gorton doesn't think that lessens the value of our pro sports institutions.

"I don't think there is any leisure activity that involves all of the people," Gorton said. "Certainly the majority of people (in Seattle) have never set foot in Safeco(Mariners) or Qwest(Seahawks). An even greater majority has never set foot inside Benaroya Hall or the art museum. I don't think that cuts down on the desirability of those things."

"There are so many things to do here, I think we've become complacent or blasé about any one single attraction," Uhlman said.

In 1967, the Sonics were part of Seattle's identity, part of the recognition that helped it grow as a center for business and tourism. Now, the bottom line is that Seattle no longer needs the Sonics for those things.

Bravo's Sheer Genius Sheer Weirdness

Last night I was in the mood for doing nothing. So, I popped a bowl of popcorn, turned on the TV and found it already on the Bravo channel, due to having watched Flipping Out the night before. Sheer Genius was already a few minutes into the show. About hair cutters. This can not be at all entertaining I thought. I was wrong.

My local disinformation purveyor, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, has made mention multiple times of 2 local guys being on this show. One, named Matthew, from Dallas, one named Daniel, according to the Star-Telegram, from Fort Worth, but according to Bravo, from Dallas.

Of course, it may be possible that Daniel is from Fort Worth. When I'm on a road trip, or back in the northwest, I say I'm from Dallas, because few people know where Fort Worth is. It's like when I lived in the northwest and I was on a road trip, when asked where I was from, I'd say Seattle, because no one would know of my actual hometown of Mount Vernon. When people here, in Texas, ask where I'm from, I usually say Seattle.

Sheer Genius is similar in format to another Bravo show, Top Chef. Instead of a Quick Fire, Sheer Genius does a Quick Cut. Whoever wins the Quick Cut gets an advantage in the Elimination Challenge.

The first episode of Sheer Genius last night was a re-run of last week's show. In that re-run, the guy the Star-Telegram thinks is from Fort Worth was over the top stereotypical not a guy who likes girls. He went all emotional when he realized their challenge was to do the hair of people on another Bravo show, The Real Housewives of Orange County. Apparently Daniel was a rabid fan of this housewife show. I've not seen it. Most of the haircutters had.

Later in the show, or was it the next hour, Daniel said he got so excited over the OC women, that he wet himself. If such a thing happened to me, which it wouldn't, I would not be telling a TV camera about it. He also let it be known that when a person on the OC show got married, that he had a wedding party, where the guests came dressed for a wedding and celebrated. Another Sheer Genius person, a girl, said if she'd did something that embarrassingly weird she wouldn't be telling people about it.

At the Elimination part of this episode, Daniel had an emotional crying breakdown upset and collapse to the floor at one point during the booting process. The proceedings had to come to a halt while ex-Charlie's Angel, Jacyln Smith inquired if Daniel was all right. By the way, Jacyln Smith has held up really well. She looked like she could easily still be an Angel.

The other Texas guy, Matthew, won the Quick Cut in the second episode. This upset the others, because they did not like him. Apparently Matthew is quite socially inept, grating and constantly bitching and saying things that are offputting or make no sense. I thought, welcome to Texas.

Matthew's advantage in winning was he got to pick the first dress in that episode's Elimination Challenge. And then pick who got to pick next. And on til all the dresses were gone. The dresses went on models on whom the hair cutters had to make their hair red carpet worthy. Whatever that means.

Matthew over and over and over again mentioned his wife. How much he loved her, and she him, how he missed her, how he didn't need to relate to these juvenile fellow hair cutters, because he has a wife back home. When he picked his dress he said something like I'm picking one for my wife, to which the Germanic Colonel Klink on Hogan's Heroes in a supermodel's body type guy, named Rene Fris, said "Your wife's not here." It seemed like everyone was sick of hearing about this Matthew guy's wife.

I thought all the wife talk was typical reality show editing, foreshadowing that Matthew would get the boot. But he has immunity, I thought, because he won that Quick Cut Challenge. That's how it works on Top Chef.

So, Daniel, the other Texas guy, was all worried that he'd wet himself again, because he was sure that since this was a red carpet thing, there'd be a celebrity there. There wasn't. At one point, Daniel excitedly said this was just way too much excitement for a Texas boy, seeing all these famous people.

We see the haircutters work on their red carpet girls, then the girls go down the red carpet in front of the judges, including someone I've never heard of from some soap opera I've never heard of. But Daniel from Texas had. He was so excited.

And then the judging occurred. I thought Matthew was safe from getting booted, but no, you are safe from the next week's boot if you win the previous week's elimination. So, Matthew was in the bottom three and got the boot due to not listening to his model tell him that her hair would not hold a curl, so his red carpet hair was a disaster.

Matthew did not mind getting the boot. Once more he told everyone how happy he was to be going home to his wonderful wife and friends in Texas. We cut to another hair cutter who said something like, "That damn wife of his must be one wild cat in bed."

I likely will not be watching this next week. I will watch Bravo again tonight, unless I forget, to watch Kathy Griffin's Life on the D-List. She's funny.

One of the judges on Sheer Genius is some, apparently, well known hair guy I've never heard of named Kim Vo. He is one odd looking guy. Constantly with a really goofy grin. Below is a video of this Kim Vo guy getting interviewed after he'd been in Britney Spear's house fixing her hair.

Scandals Of The Day: Miss Washington & Jesse Jackson

I'm going to be in Tacoma in 11 days. Tacoma was in the news today. Because Miss Washington is from Tacoma, well, Wapato, to be precise. Apparently Miss Washington was runner-up in the latest Miss America Pageant. I didn't know that quaint practice still took place. I thought it'd been turned into a reality show, then cancelled.

Some embarrassing photos of Miss Washington, Elyse Umemoto, showed up today on the Internet. She apologized for the photos, in which she was shown flipping off the camera, while wearing her crown, then playing a drinking game that ended with her making suggestive hand signs. I assume involving her middle finger.

And in another scandal, Jesse Jackson was caught using some unfortunate verbiage. Again. He had been interviewed on some Fox News show. He'd been asked questions about Barack Obama. Apparently Reverend Jackson did not like Obama's Father's Day lecture to the Black Community.

Jesse Jackson thought the microphone was no longer hot. But it was. He was over heard saying something along the lines of Obama had made him so mad he wanted to remove Obama's testicles. The Reverend used more colorful language to express the sentiment. I believe the word 'nuts' was involved.

Jesse Jackson quickly apologized for his choice of words. I don't know if Obama accepted the apology or if he told Jesse Jackson that his was an example of the bad behavior he was talking about on Father's Day.

Matthew McConaughey Baby, Me & Yoga

Matthew McConaughey is a native Texas boy. He has a house down in Austin where he likes to get naked and play his bongos late at night. He and I have a lot in common, because I enjoy naked bongoing, too. Earlier in the evening though. And my preferred herbal stimulant is tea. Red Zinger.

When Matthew is visiting the D/FW zone he likes to run in River Legacy Park.

I am very grateful to Matthew McConaughey for one good reason. He taught me the right way to do the Cobra Yoga position. I've been doing the Cobra Postion correctly for a year or so now. It's made my back so much stronger. And when I do get a back a bit out of whack, like a couple weeks ago, I think the proper Cobra gets my back back working real fast.

I don't remember when last Matt was here running at River Legacy. He's been busy because he got himself in the family way with his girl friend, a model named Camila Alves. The pair are not married, but yesterday they became proud parents of a little boy named Levi.

Levi will likely be taught the proper way to do Yoga Positions from a young age. I wish I'd had that advantage.

Chesapeake Energy, Barnett Shale & Their Spokepeople

Everytime I blog about anything that makes reference to Cheseapeake Energy and the Barnett Shale, I notice a big jump in blog readers from Oklahoma City, home of Chesapeake Energy.

Twice now a blogging has gotten a long-winded, off-point comment from an obvious Chesapeake person, employed to try and counter people's perfectly valid personal points of view. I got a new one today, again from someone anonymously calling him/herself B. Others, too, have gotten similar comments from this B person, regarding what they wrote about Barnett Shale.

This is an effort worthy of Joseph Goebbels and the Nazi Propaganda machine. Throw up a bunch of smoke, while personally attacking the object of your disdain, attack a bunch of straw men. And totally ignore the issue the person is raising or the point the person is making.

Don Young sent out an Urgent Alert letting people know that Chesapeake Energy had found a loophole in Fort Worth's rules that is allowing them to attempt to drill on the fringe of Tandy Hills Park, a nature preserve. Don Young does not believe it wise to drill in an urban setting, particularly near a nature preserve. It is Don Young's right to hold whatever opinion he wants about anything, and verbalize it anyway he wants. America is not Nazi Germany.

The Chesapeake Energy propaganda shill ignores what Don Young's actual issue is and, instead, like a good Nazi, attacks Don Young. Despite the Chesapeake Energy shill's insinuation, I have not heard Don Young say he is against drilling for oil offshore, or in Alaska. I have not heard Don Young say he is against developing alternative energy sources. I have not heard Don Young say he is against nuclear power. I have not heard Don Young say he is against conservation.

The reason Chesapeake Energy is losing in the battle for hearts and minds, in this urban zone, is precisely because of this type heavy-handed, thought control, disrespectful way of addressing people's perfectly valid concerns. That and their embarrassingly over the top advertising campaign. Which appears to be halted.

I've already lived less than a 1000 feet way from a Chesapeake Energy operation. It was not pleasant. I don't want to see one near my favorite place to hike. It is my belief that drilling in an urban zone should be an energy policy of last resort, after offshore, ANWR, the Gulf of Mexico, rural shale and all possible means of alternative energy generation have been exhausted. Then, maybe, start drilling in densely populated zones. But, until remote ANWR is tapped, it is my opinion, which I am intitled to, this being America, not Nazi Germany, that no drilling rig should be allowed anywhere near Tandy Hills Park. Or any other urban park.

Now below, the anonymous shill work from the Joseph Goebbels wannabe who calls him/herself B-----

I wonder how much it costs Don Young to fill up his Conastoga Wagon? Because if he’s driving an automobile, or using electricity to cool his home, or plugging in his computer to write a blog … if he’s doing anything that uses any produced energy, then Don Young defines hypocrisy.

It really is that plain and simple. I’ll get back to Don in a moment, but first, let’s take a look at the general hypocrisy of America’s energy policy.

In 1995, President Bill Clinton vetoed legislation to drill for oil in the Alaskan Arctic. If that bill had been signed, 1 million barrels of American oil – 27 million gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel – would be on the market today.

With all that extra American oil available, we would not be suffering from skyrocketing fuel and grocery prices today. Supply and demand. The greater the supply, the cheaper the cost.

But Clinton vetoed the bill and all that Alaskan oil remains untouched … right beneath the surface of our own feet. And out of our current 100 United States Senators, 72 of them have voted to keep that estimated 10.4 billion barrels of oil off the market.

“Not here,” those 72 Senators said with their votes. “Not here.”

But that hasn’t stopped the politicians from hijacking a microphone to complain about skyrocketing prices at the pump.

It’s time to pull the plug on the hypocrites. Because, as columnist George Will astutely pointed out a few weeks ago, “Don’t drill here seems to be our national energy policy.”

That sounds familiar, kind of like the loud minority of so-called “activists” who oppose development of the Barnett Shale. “Don’t drill here,” they say, even though the technologies of natural gas drilling and production are incredibly safe and unobtrusive. Even as our nation is in desperate need of affordable, clean, efficient energy … and it rests right beneath our Texas dirt, waiting to be produced. Even though this vast resource provides not just a tremendous boost to the Fort Worth economy, but a viable means of meeting America’s energy needs with less reliance on foreign oil.

And our reliance on foreign oil is a critical and growing problem. It’s not going away and it’s only going to get worse.

T. Boone Pickens recently pointed out to Congress that America is spending $700 billion per year for foreign oil. That’s more than the Iraq war is costing us! And with new demand for oil from nations like China and India, the price tag is only going to go up … until we do something about it, something for ourselves.

And there is a way out of this mess. In his testimony, Pickens told Congress that if we converted America’s transportation fuel from gasoline to natural gas, we’d cut our dependence on foreign cabals by 38 percent. Get a calculator – 38 percent of $700 billion – we’d save $266 billion every year, just like that.

But there’s more good news. According to the prestigious scientists at the Colorado School of Mines, we have a 120-year supply of natural gas right here in North America, right under our feet. And natural gas is, by far, the cleanest burning fossil fuel known to man. It’s affordable, it’s clean, and it’s available right here at home.

Right here, at home in Fort Worth … right under our own feet.

But, “Not Here,” says Don Young. “Not Here,” say a small minority of “Not Anywhere Naysayers.”

But they still drive their cars. They still complain about the price of food that was shipped to their local grocer in gasoline- or diesel-powered vehicles. They still turn on the air conditioner or the stove at home.

And they still plug in their computers to declare “Not Here” in their blogs and emails.
Which brings us back to Don Young … and hypocrisy.

Don, if you were Amish, I’d understand. Because as New York Times reporter Peter Applebome wrote, the Amish “… live what they espouse.” They use no produced energy.

So, Don, if I see you around town in a horse-drawn wagon, I’ll wave and offer a note of respect.

But as long as you keep plugging in that computer to destroy America’s efforts to lessen our dependence on foreign oil … well, you’re just another “Not Here Hypocrite” that, frankly, isn’t worth the energy it takes to listen to you.

Star-Telegram Connections To Texas, Part 18

One of my 2 readers may remember me making mention of that Fort Worth paper that I continue to read, the constantly shrinking Star-Telegram, and its odd habit of making any possible connection, no matter how remote, to someone in the news, or on TV and Fort Worth or any other town in North Texas.

I've really not understood why this bugs me. Til today's example.

In the TV section, esteemed, likely sometime Pulitzer Prize nominated, writer, Robert Philpot, describing tonight's So You Think You Can Dance, wrote, "Fort Worth's Joshua Allen and Carrolton's Comfort Fedoke continue to represent for North Texas...."

And this, about tonight's Bravo show, Sheer Genius, Frisco's Daniel Lewis and Dallas' Matthew Tully continue to cut on this hairstyling competition..."

Okay. A few day's ago an awful show called The Bachelorette ended on ABC. I read about the finale in the Seattle P-I. A guy from the Seattle zone city of Kirkland, was one of the final two. And a guy from Breckinridge, Colorado.

The P-I's verbiage was like this, "Kirkland account executive, Jason Mesnick.....and Breckinridge, Colorado professional snowboarder, Jesse Csinsak....."

See the difference? The P-I does not describe the local as Kirkland's Jason Mesnick, as if the town possessed the guy. And the P-I identifies where the other guy is from. The P-I does not make it's frame of reference filtered thru a local prisim, instead the P-I just states the facts. One guy is from Kirkland, the other Breckinridge. Neither town possessing either of the guys.

Where, in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, it is always, "Burleson's Kelly Clarkson." Not "Burleson songstress, Kelly Clarkson."

It's like by turning something like this into a possessive, as in "Fort Worth's Joshua Allen," it just comes across as real, I dunno, ultra small townish. And, well, like Lulu said, pathetic.

Now, that I've finally figured out why this verbiage bugs me, I think this will likely be the last time I make note of it. Unless a particularly pathetic, amusing example crops up.

Fort Worth's Enviable Quality Of Life

Back in May I blogged about a weird announcement from the City of Fort Worth in which the city advertised that for the 3rd time in 45 years the city would hold a city wide conversation with its citizens.

In this morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram there was a paid ad from the city of Fort Worth. I don't know if this counts as the Star-Telegram using the infamous "envy of" verbiage, due to this being a paid ad, but this is the first paragraph...

"In a recent city survey, residents agreed that Fort Worth is a great place to live, work and play. Such an enviable quality of life, though, is no accident."

The ad article goes on to talk about all the good the 2 previous city wide conversations accomplished . The 1963 conversation somehow resulted in Fort Worth's seldom used convention center and much used D/FW Airport. And resulted in Fort Worth being named an All-American City. Wow!

And then in 1992 Fort Worth's Ruling Junta Oligarchy deigned to listen to the citizens of Fort Worth again. This conversation resulted in a recycling program, the return of minor league baseball and the Bass Performance Hall. And once more, Fort Worth was named an All-American City. Wow, again!

It is interesting, to me, that this 1992 city wide conversation resulted in the downtown Fort Worth Performance Hall. I thought the Bass family initiated that. I'm impressed, I tell you, impressed, that the Bass's built that hall after listening to the good citizens of Fort Worth verbalize their desire to have a good performance hall.

Now, the 2008 city wide conversation is under way. Maybe this time all the talking will result in recycling occurring in my zone of Fort Worth. I'm not sure that that All-American City thing is still in operation. If so, I'm sure Fort Worth will be an All-American City again after the wonders produced by this 2008 city wide conversation between Fort Worth's citizens and the Ruling Junta.

Flipping Out on Bravo

I've got a new favorite TV Show. Flipping Out on Bravo. I'd seen bits and pieces of this show last season and found it annoying. I've watched several episodes this season and find it amusing.

A good reality show is so much better than scripted TV. No one has the imagination to make up the lives some people lead. Or like the recent rescue in Columbia of all those hostages held for so long by the FARC rebels. That reality show played out like a tightly scripted, implausible Hollywood movie, with a very happy ending.

On Flipping Out you've got this guy, Jeff Lewis, with a bad case of OCD, which makes him obsess about the oddest of things. And he can say the most blunt, rude of remarks, caused, by his own admission, by his lacking of an empathy gene. He is in therapy, sees a therapist, a spiritualist and a psychic.

Yes, it is obvious this show is set in Southern California.

Flipping Out is so named because Jeff Lewis flips houses, has done about 50 flips and has a reputation for doing a brilliant job. Part of what is entertaining is seeing the transformations take place.

Jeff Lewis has several pets that he obsesses over. Three mutt dogs, one fat cat and, temporarily, 3 deer. The fat cat is a handful. Jeff Lewis had a psychic examine the cat so as to best determine how to make the move to a new house the least traumatic. One time the cat got acupuncture.

Jeff Lewis does not do any of life's mundane chores himself. He has a guy named Chris who is his house manager. Chris Elwood, the House Manager, has an assistant, also named Chris, as in Chris Keslar.

To my shock, I learned last night that Chris, the House Manager, is married to Lewis' Executive Assistant, Jenni Pulos. They are married, but don't share last names. I learned last night that the married couple rents a bungalow from Jeff Lewis. Jeff and Jenni dropped in to inspect the property. On the way there, Jeff had to slam the brakes, slightly. He reached out across Jenni's chest, which caused her to scream, "Get your hands off my boobs." He explained he was acting as a seatbelt backup. She then admitted her big boobs were hard to not touch, accidentally, in such a scenario, due to their size.

Regarding the mutt dogs, Jeff Lewis found a place that tested your dogs DNA to determine its breed mix. So, all his "people" worked with him to figure out the self-test. The results came back. One little mutt's supposed DNA indicated it was a Chihuahua/Poodle mix. Another one was a Cocker Spaniel/Doberman mix. This seemed ridiculous to Lewis, because the dogs bore no resemblance to those breeds. Lewis decided he'd been scammed. And at $200 per dog, he thought maybe he should get into the DNA Dog Test Scam.

The best drama of the night came about after Jeff's OCD Paranoia caused him to put a spy cam in his house. He was sure his House workers were taking advantage of him. As Jeff and Jenni drove along he had someone call his house. His people are instructed to answer in a precise manner, instead Jenni's husband answered and said "Bon Jour, Chez Lewis," or something like that.

Later, Jeff confronted Chris, who denied, vehemently his egregious breaking of the phone answering rules. Later Jeff saw that he had proof Chris had lied, when Jeff played back the day's spying.

In subsequent days, Jeff caught Chris on Jeff's computer for hours. Employees are banned from Jeff's computer, except for Jenni. Jeff caught Chris spending a lot of time text messaging. But the worst offense was Chris was caught going through Jeff's personal papers.

Next week's episode appears to deal with Jeff dealing with Chris' bad behavior. I'm sure much hilarity will ensue.

Chesapeake Energy, Barnett Shale, Tandy Hills Park & Don Young in Time

Time Magazine, online, published an interesting article about the new phenomenon of citizen's fighting back against the gas drilling industry's encroachments on their peace and quiet and property.

The article quoted Fort Worth's noted Eastside Rabble Rouser, Don Young. I'll paste the Fort Worth part of the article below. You can read the entire TIME article here.

Don Young went from being a full-time glass artist to spending 50% of his working hours battling the energy companies via his website, FWcando.org (Fort Worth Citizens Against Drilling Ordinance). He first became alarmed at the exploration boom when a prairie reserve near his old, cherished Fort Worth neighborhood was threatened. He began the fight by printing flyers and distributing them to his neighbors, but he soon set up a website to keep the information flowing. It has not only been a clearinghouse for Fort Worth residents concerned about the impact of backyard gas wells, but it also attracts daily e-mail messages from groups across the country, Young says. His site links to other anti-drilling advocates from New Mexico and Wyoming to Pennsylvania, Arkansas and Michigan.

Young says some of his neighbors are attracted by the sort of Texas mythology that is woven into Fort Worth's cultural history, including legends portrayed in movies like Giant with the brooding poor ranch hand played by James Dean turning into a plutocratic wildcatter. But Young and other opponents insist the real Texas — the city's old neighborhoods and tree-lined trails, plus the rolling prairie lands and nearby small towns — are threatened. "The oil companies are acting like it's West Texas here, but it's not," Young says. "We're trying to put a brake on things."

For him the fight is personal, sometimes sadly pitting neighbor against neighbor. Young has turned down a $25,000 signing bonus offered for his own land. With daily headlines proclaiming new exploration moves, Young is now committed to focusing his neighbors' attentions on the impact that the accompanying pipelines and service roads will have. Says Young: "The war is not won by them or lost by us ... yet."

Hell's Kitchen Winner: Christina

I did not get hooked on watching Hell's Kitchen's latest trip to hell. The first season of Hell's Kitchen I watched it all. Hell's Kitchen is not a reality show train wreck like, well, The Bachelorette. You can learn some useful things on Hell's Kitchen. Like new swear words and how to ruin Risotto. I did not know what Risotto was til I watched Hell's Kitchen, so it is quite educational.
I find Chef Gordon Ramsey quite amusing. His other show, Kitchen Nightmares, put me off restaurants for awhile. The new season of that show starts soon. I'll likely watch some of it. And be put off of restaurants again.

The winner of Hell's Kitchen is determined by who Gordon Ramsey thinks did the best job of designing a kitchen, a menu and executing their restaurant operation.

Last week, the 2 remaining chefs worked on their restaurants and then were whisked off to New York City by private jet. In NYC they had to prepare their signature dishes in one of Ramsey's restaurants, to be judged by chefs from his restaurants around the world. There were 5 chef judges. 3 of the 5 liked the chef named Petrozza's steak better than the chef named Christina's steak.

Because Petrozza had the better steak when they got back to LA he got first pick of booted chefs to staff his restaurant. The episode ended with one of those cliffhangers that leaves you on the edge of your seat and wanting more. Who will Petrozza pick as his last chef? The bumbling buffon, Matt, or the lady with an attitude, Jen?

We'll find out tonight. And then Hell's Kitchen opens and Petrozza likely wins. I don't remember what the prize is.

UPDATE: Ooops! My guess was wrong, as usual. Christina won. The finale was actually pretty entertaining.

Turner Falls Park in Oklahoma

Until I visited Enchanted Rock State Park I would tell people that Turner Falls Park is the most scenic place I've seen in Texas. Even though Turner Falls isn't in Texas. It's across the border in Oklahoma.

I'd driven right by Turner Falls Park several times, not realizing it was worth seeing. It's only a few miles off I-35. When you are driving the Turner Falls Park zone of I-35 you see signs telling you that you are in the Arbuckle Mountains. But being a person from a land of actual mountains, I didn't know what they were talking about.

There is a scenic lookout exit from the freeway. I pulled off to see the scene. But to my eyes there was none. So, my first time to Turner Falls Park I had very very very low expectations. The first surprise is that almost immediately upon exiting the freeway the road does seem like a mountain highway. Twists and turns and steep drop-offs.

Then you come to an overlook built by the CCC, back in the Great Depression era. It is from that overlook you get your first look at Turner Falls. That's a zoomed view, from the overlook, you see in the photo above. The CCC also built a rock trail to the valley below, from this lookout.

You pay a fee to enter the park. There is a lot to do there. An underground spring created Honey Creek, which goes over a cliff creating Turner Falls. It is crystal clear water. And quite a pleasant temperature in summer. There are several swimming holes, including one right under the falls.

Turner Falls Parks has camping, cabins, a rock castle, lots of trails. And caves.

Go here to see photos from my first visit to Turner Falls and park info.

Go here to see a winter visit with better photos.

Go here for a map of the Turner Falls Park area.

Go here for a very short Turner Falls Park video.

Barnett Shale Pollution in Wise County

Wise County's best blogger, Texas Sharon, aka Bluedaze, on Sunday, went on a reconnaissance mission to a Braden Exploration drilling site about a mile from her abode.

Bluedaze was dazed by the bad stench and fumes. And appalled to see the amount of pollution on the ground, this being near a creek that flows into Denton Creek which flows into Lake Grapevine and then into people's homes.

Go here to read Texas Sharon's account of her unwelcome, messy neighbor, and more photos.

The Fort Worth Way

An interesting letter to the editor, this morning, in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, reinforced, for me, what's been my observation after seeing Fort Worth in operation during my years of exile here.

Fort Worth is basically an oligarchy. That's where political power rests with a small elite of society, distinguished by wealth, family or military powers, or a combo of all three. In Fort Worth wealth and family can put you in the oligarchy, a Greek word which means "rule by few."

Below is the letter to the editor that sort of discusses the Fort Worth oligarchy and how it operated during the recent Tarrant County College, Radio Shack Headquarters Debacle Boondoggle.

Recognize the Fort Worth way

In retrospect, the grand plan for the downtown Tarrant County College campus failed because outsiders had no understanding of how Fort Worth operates. Neither architect Bing Thom nor Chancellor Leonardo de la Garza are native. They chose to operate unilaterally rather than get consensus and approval of the local power structure. Result: fiasco.

Arrogantly they forged ahead without going through historical power channels. For the first half of the 20th century that meant Amon Carter. Nothing important got done without Carter’s blessing.

After Carter’s demise, the power shifted to a group of businessmen loosely referred to as the Seventh Street Gang, mostly bankers and utility executives. When federal deregulation sapped their power, the young Bass brothers took over and reshaped the city.

Always working quietly behind the scenes, they have been the force to be consulted with regarding city development for a couple of decades. TCC disregarded this, and has flopped spectacularly regardless of the merit of its plan. Bass opposition to the Thom plan should have been a signal to proceed with caution.

Solution: Rather than proceed with a “split campus” as prop