Fort Worth Is Not The Most Laid-Back City In America

Yet one more sort of goofy item on the Microsoft News page I see via my Windows Edge browser.

Titled "This Is The Most Laid-Back US City"

I do not know if the above link works on all platforms, or just on the Edge browser.

Anyway, this was a gallery one scrolled through, listing the 50 most laid-back cities in America. By what criteria? I have no idea.

Several Texas cities showed up on the Laid-Back list. With Houston being in last place, at 50. San Antonio is #47, followed by Dallas as the 46th most laid-back city. Continuing on, expecting to see laid-back lazy Fort Worth show up, I came to the last Texas entry, Austin is the 29th most laid-back city.

And, the most laid-back city in America? Why, it is the big city in America about which I am most familiar.

Seattle.

Like I said, I do not know by what criteria it was decided a city's level of laid-backness is. As I have experienced Seattle, the town is way too bustling to be considered laid-back. The downtown area of Seattle has throngs of people bustling about. If a couple cruise ships are docked, with the cruisers off the boat, the Seattle waterfront is bustling, not remotely laid back.

The most laid-back city I have experienced, by my idea of what laid-back is, is Fort Worth, Texas, with the deadest big city downtown I have ever been in. A ghost town on the busiest shopping day of the year, Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.

Fort Worth never shows up on these type lists. On the rare occasion something about Fort Worth is made note of, a big fuss ensues. Like the time a Washington, D.C. lobbying group, who were advocates of the Urban Village concept, had Fort Worth as one of the Top Ten American Cities with Urban Villages.

You likely will not believe this, but Fort Worth actually had a city-wide celebration celebrating showing up on this list.

I was in Tacoma a short time after this, talking to the guy who was Tacoma's Deputy Mayor at the time.

Tacoma was also on this list of cities and their urban villages. I asked the Deputy Mayor if Tacoma had a city-wide celebration after getting this esteemed honor. He laughed, and said, no, we just politely sent them a thank you message.

I then told the Deputy Mayor that Fort Worth had a city-wide celebration over this esteemed honor. You have to be joking, was his replay. Nope, not joking, said I.

I think the rarity of Fort Worth being the recipient of any sort of accolade is a big contributor to what seems like the town's civic inferiority complex. Part of that complex is caused by being linked to Dallas in a large metropolitan area known locally as the Metroplex. Dallas is the well-known, handsome big brother, whilst Fort Worth is sort of the homely sister, to use a metaphor.

My early years in Texas, living in Fort Worth, reading the local newspaper called the Star-Telegram, I made frequent note of the inferiority complex as manifested by what I called Green With Envy Syndrome, where that newspaper would opine that some perfectly ordinary thing would be causing towns far and wide to be green with envy.

Again, I am not making this up.

Years ago I made a webpage making note of multiple instances of Fort Worth's Green With Envy Syndrome.

I have been told that the Star-Telegram has dropped its Green With Envy nonsense. I know it has been years since I have seen an instance of the syndrome...

Is Fort Worth One Of The Most Breathtaking Skylines In America?

 

Another interesting Microsoft Windows Edge browser Start Page gallery of photos. This gallery purports to name The 30 most breathtaking skylines in America. I do not know if the link to the skylines works in all browsers or mobile devices.

The text at the start of the gallery of skyline photos...

The 30 most breathtaking skylines in America

The US is a wide and diverse land of intense and unique bursts of development, with higher buildings and more interesting structures popping up each year. These skylines emerge like a fingerprint of each city, revealing their characteristics through architecture, atmosphere, and culture. Check out this gallery to see the top 30 skylines in the country.

I assume the list of 30 is ranking the skylines in order, what with the list starting with Washington, D.C., a town which really does not have much of a skyline and ending with New York City at #2 and Chicago at #1.

I would have guessed New York City would be the town thought to have the most breathtaking skyline.

I am familiar with the skyline which was right behind New York City.

Seattle, WA

The combination of the Space Needle Observation Tower and Mount Rainer looming in the background makes Seattle's skyline hard to forget.

Seattle does get a bit of a boost, breathtaking skyline wise, what with there being mountains no matter which direction you look, east, west, south and north.

I am also familiar with the breathtaking skyline 5 spots below Seattle.

Dallas, TX

Dallas' skyline isn't extremely new, and although it has high-rises like the Bank of America Plaza (which reaches 921 ft), its best feature is the colorful, interactive lighting that adds a layer of festivity and celebration to this already beautiful skyline.

The Dallas skyline is impressive after dark. Nice during the day too.

Further down the list are two other Texas towns, Austin and Houston.

I was impressed with both Austin and Houston's skyline upon my first visit to both towns.

When I see lists like this, remembering my experience of living in Fort Worth, a town which has a kind of civic inferiority complex, due to being sort of the homely little sister to handsome big brother, Dallas.

Anytime there is any sort of positive mention made of Fort Worth, no matter how remote, the locals, well, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and others, make a big deal of it. 

Such as, recently a British travel writer wrote a column published in a UK newspaper touting Fort Worth as now being the coolest town in Texas, replacing Austin in that cool distinction. I read the article and found it rather delusional, and odd, real odd.

I wonder how long a list of America's Most Breathtaking Skylines would have to be before Fort Worth showed up on the list. 100? 200?

How Cool Forbes Ranks Fort Worth With Molly The Trolley

I saw this Seattle ranked nation’s No. 2 coolest city — just behind this West Coast rival article this morning in the Seattle Times, which I found amusingly interesting.

Now, if the Texas town I lived in previous to the Texas town I currently live in had been ranked #2 in anything a city wide celebration would be declared by the town's mayor, which is what happened earlier in this century when some obscure Washington, D.C. lobbying group listed Fort Worth as being a Top Ten Most Livable City, with the criteria being something to do with having neighborhoods develop as urban villages, or some such thing.

Tacoma also got this imaginary prestigious "award". Soon there after I had reason to visit Tacoma's then deputy mayor. I told him Fort Worth had a city wide celebration after receiving this prestigious award. The deputy mayor laughed and said you're kidding, aren't you?

Nope, I'm not making this up. Are you saying Tacoma did not have a city wide celebration?

No. said the deputy mayor, we just politely thanked them and then forgot about it.

Now, should Fort Worth be ranked #2 in anything the town's propaganda purveyor known as the Star-Telegram would headline an article full of embarrassing puffery touting their imaginary iconic town, such as what happened a couple weeks ago, which we mentioned in a blogging titled Imaginary Iconic Fort Worth Downtown Opens New Little Hotel With Molly The Trolley.

Now, when you think about it, shouldn't a town  be considered one of the coolest towns in America when its downtown public transit consists of a bus made to look like a trolley, then called Molly the Trolley?

The first few paragraphs of the Seattle Times cool town article are instructive as to how a big city newspaper, wearing its big city pants, covers such a thing, as opposed to Fort Worth's embarrassing excuse for a newspaper of record...

What a bummer, Seattle; we’re No. 2.

San Francisco is officially cooler than Seattle, according to Forbes and Sperling’s Best Places, which found that the former was “crushing” the competition when it came to restaurants, world-class museums, sports teams, good hiking and reliable mass transit.

Seattle, however, trumped all other contenders when it came to, yes, coffee and beer.

“Seattle won on this front with 83 coffee shops, coffee roasters & craft beer breweries per 100,000 residents,” according to the 2017 edition of America’s Coolest Cities, published on Thursday.

The article also had a graphic showing the location of the top 10 coolest cities in America.

Shocking. No Texas town is in the Top 10 coolest. Not even Austin.

Austin does show up on the full list of Top 20 coolest towns, coming in at #13 coolest.

According to Forbes, the west coast dominates in coolness, which is not too surprising to me, having been in all those towns and finding them all quite cool.

Dallas has always seemed sort of west coast cool to me. Making me surprised Dallas is not on this list of cool American towns.

The entire list of 20 Coolest American towns...

1. San Francisco
2. Seattle
3. San Diego
4. New Orleans
5. Portland
6. San Jose
7. Los Angeles
8. New York
9. Boston
10. Denver
11. Charleston, S.C.
12. Honolulu
13. Austin
14. Miami
15. Madison
16. Houston
17. D.C.
18. Las Vegas
19. Orlando
20. Tampa, Fla.

I Wonder Why A High-Rise Building Boom Is Not Reshaping Fort Worth's Skyline?

That is a question more than one person has asked during the current economic boom where big cities all over America are seeing their downtown's transformed by new construction.

I have mentioned, previously, that nary a week goes by where I do not learn of some new big project, or projects in downtown Seattle, most recently yet one more new skyscraper, this one being of the super tall, well over 1,000 feet tall sort.

A couple weeks ago the Fort Worth Star-Telegram had an article announcing the first new semi-tall building in downtown Fort Worth in 7 years. That news had me asking I Wonder When A Super Tall Tower Will Be Built In Fort Worth?

A couple days ago I saw on Facebook that which you see above. A posting about an article in the Austin American-Statesman about the high rise building boom which is reshaping the Austin skyline.

So, that would make this blogging a variant of the bloggings about things I read in west coast online news sources which I would not be reading in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about something happening in Fort Worth. Only this time it is a Texas newspaper reporting something happening in a Texas town that is not happening in Fort Worth.

Now, why are towns like Seattle, Los Angeles, Austin, Dallas and others seeing their downtown's in boom mode? With new residential towers, skyscrapers and other developments?

While Fort Worth's downtown flounders.

Well.

Seattle, Los Angeles, Austin, Dallas and other towns are not host to America's Biggest Boondoggle. None of those booming towns have absurdly mismanaged public works projects allegedly transforming their downtown's, with the development stalled for most of this century, with very little shown for all the time and money spent.

I have mentioned, more than once, Mr. Spiffy's wise observation that the reason downtown Fort Worth is so moribund, development-wise, compared  to other booming towns, is developers are rightfully wary, not knowing if the redevelopment project north of downtown is ever going to come to fruition and be the location where they want to invest their development dollars.

Or will the existing downtown still be the place to be when America's Biggest Boondoggle comes to its likely inevitable end?

No other big city in America has a noose hanging around its neck like Fort Worth does with America's Biggest Boondoggle choking downtown development.

How is this not obvious to anyone who can see what is happening in other booming towns in America, compared to what is not happening in Fort Worth?

We are almost to 2016, with Fort Worth remaining the only city in America with a population over 500,000 with zero department stores and zero grocery stores in its downtown. Fort Worth is the only city in America with a population over 500,000 which is a ghost town on the biggest shopping day of the year.

Why are these obvious symptoms of something wrong not something being addressed? When I first arrived in Fort Worth the downtown had a vertical mall, with an ice rink on the ground floor. One could access this vertical mall via a subway, after finding parking space on giant free parking lots.

The subway and those giant free parking lots disappeared in the Radio Shack Corporate Headquarters, city-enabled, Boondoggle.

Why are the Fort Worth Boondoggle's and the damage they do not talked about, with those who perpetrate this damage on the city held accountable?

Currently no one seems to be holding America's Biggest Boondoggle, also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island Vision, responsible for the dearth of development in downtown Fort Worth.

Whatever happened to all the development which was supposed to occur along Lancaster Avenue, once the old overheard freeway came down, with the road upgraded, landscaped, and bizarre lighting artwork installed? Where are the new restaurants, resident towers, department stores, grocery stores  and more along Lancaster Avenue?

Oh, I think I know.

Any developer who might think of sinking money in that area, at the far south end of downtown Fort Worth, is concerned that north of downtown, where America's Biggest Boondoggle has its imaginary island, that that is where growth will be happening, so the developer thinks let's just wait and see before we commit any money to building anything......

Is Fort Worth Happy To Be The Scrappy Little Sidekick Of Dallas?

Last night I read a sort of amusing article in the online version of Texas Monthly.

Texas’s Cities: One Big, Dysfunctional Family
CHRONICLING THE RIVALRIES OF HOUSTON, DALLAS, FORT WORTH, SAN ANTONIO, AND AUSTIN.

My Texas experience is only about a decade and a half long, so a lot of the rivalry stuff between Texas cities was nothing I had experienced, or thought.

However, I have long made note of one rivalry. That being what comes across, at times, as Fort Worth's sort of, well, inferiority complex, caused by Dallas being the big kid on the Metroplex block, with Dallas getting bizarrely demonized by many Fort Worthers.

Three paragraphs from the dysfunctional article, with the first paragraph mentioning the Fort Worth hating Dallas dysfunction, and with the third paragraph including another of the few mentions made of Fort Worth, with that mention being an example of the type thing that riles some Fort Wothers...

Small towns have their vicious football rivalries, but for sheer volume of insults and homerism, the five cities of the Texas Triangle offer the most fertile ground for discussion today. Here it is in a nutshell: Fort Worth hates Dallas. Houston hates Dallas and Austin. San Antonio hates Austin. Austin wishes all the rest of us would just go away, and Dallas pretends that none of the rest of us even exist.

Dallas and Houston are warring fraternal twins. Houston has always resented Dallas for being better at football, hates how global pop culture sees Dallas as the world’s oil capital when it is not, and thinks he is a little materialistic for Houston’s taste. (You know what really galls Houston about Dallas? Creator David Jacobs was inspired by Blood and Money, an epic true-crime tale that took place in Houston.)

With the exceptions of Austin, which Dallas loves to try to impress with a new-found impetus toward coolness, and scrappy little sidekick Fort Worth, the city gaslights every other Texas locale. But especially Houston. “Rivalry?” Dallas asks. “What rivalry? We don’t have a rivalry with Houston. Nobody up here ever even thinks of Houston.”

Fort Worth is the scrappy little sidekick of Dallas?  Well, the scrappy part of that line is sort of a compliment, isn't it? I would take it as such if someone called me scrappy. Calling me little, that I would not like so much.

That paragraph where we learned Fort Worth is the scrappy little sidekick of Dallas took me some parsing before I think I figured out what was being said.

If I am right the writer is suggesting that Dallas plays mind games with most other Texas towns by acting as if Dallas does not feel any rivalry with them, with Austin and Fort Worth being exceptions, with, Austin being an exception because, apparently, Dallas hopes to impress Austin that Dallas is also a cool town, and with Fort Worth being an exception due to the town being the scrappy little sidekick of Dallas, like a little buddy.

I may have totally misunderstood that scrappy little sidekick Fort Worth gaslighting paragraph.

Could an article like this Texas Monthly article be in Washington Monthly about the dysfunctional rivalry between Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue, Spokane, Yakima and Olympia?

Likely not. I don't think one would read a line about Tacoma being the scrappy little sidekick of Seattle. Or Spokane hating Seattle. Or, well, you get the point....

In Fort Worth Learning Why Austin's Cedar Fever Makes Me Sick

I finally have a name for that which has vexed my breathing apparatus this past week.

Cedar Fever.

I learned this via Mrs. Galtex via a posting and link on Facebook.

Mr. and Mrs. Galtex returned to D/FW on Wednesday from one of their frequent Portugal visits.

This is what Mrs. Galtex had to say, in part, about their return to Texas...

"Mr. G is not doing too well right now, as the cedar pollen count was sky high on Wed when we flew back to Texas. He immediately started sneezing and sniffing once we landed at DFW and went outside."

Mr. and Mrs. Galtex moved from Austin to the North Texas zone of Fort Worth to escape the dreaded annual Cedar Fever attack.

The link Mrs. Galtex Facebooked went to Jeffee Palmer's Now and Thenadays blog to a blog post titled  Austin Makes Me Sick!!! which gave me a lot of info I lacked about this Cedar Fever from which I have been suffering.

Below is a blurb from Austin Makes Me Sick!!! Read the blurb then click the link to read the rest of the story about this living hell known as Cedar Fever....

The number one reason not to live in Austin is CEDAR, specifically the pollen that cedar trees produce resulting in the truly abominable cedar fever. “Cedar is juniperus ashei,” allergist Dr. Eric Schultz told a local television reporter recently, “It’s one of the worst allergens, or most potent allergens on the planet. Here in central Texas it’s rampant, especially in Austin.”

You might think I’m talking about a runny nose or some sneezes here and there. Again, you’d be wrong. It’s far beyond that.  For weeks you can be plagued by sore throat, amazing phlegm production, a nose that won’t stop running, watery, itchy eyes, intermittent sneezing attacks, and ultimately a hacking cough. 

Watching American Idol In Austin Wondering Why Fort Worth Gets Left Out

That is Harry Connick Jr. holding an immigrant from Pakistan, currently residing in the Texas town called Houston, holding the Pakistani American in Austin, in the season premiere of the latest iteration of America's pop star generating factory called American Idol.

I, along with millions of others, bailed on last year's American Idol. I don't know who won.

The combo of Mr. Connick Jr., Jennifer Lopez and Keith Urban being this year's judges made for a vastly improved American Idol viewing experience, so far.

Harry Connick Jr. is very amusing. Jennifer Lopez reminds me of another Puerto Rican, Miss Puerto Rico, sweet-natured and very easy on the eyes. And Keith Urban is just about my favorite Australian.

So, the auditions started off in Boston and then moved to Austin. Keith Urban wore a "Keep Austin Weird" t-shirt to help with the "Keep Austin Weird" movement.

The capital of Texas is a very attractive town, looks good on TV. I've visited Austin several times since I have been in Texas. Austin sort of reminds me of Seattle, sort of.

So, watching American Idol in Austin last night got me wondering why in the world the American Idol auditions have never come to Fort Worth.

If I remember right the American Idol auditions have come to Dallas, previously. The American Idol auditions have been to towns all over America, to all the major west coast towns, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle. American Idol has been all over the east coast, as well. And all over the hinterlands, to places like New Orleans and Memphis and Chicago.

So, why in the world has American Idol never come to Fort Worth? Is not the biggest American Idol winner of all time, Kelly Clarkson, sort of a hometown girl?

Do the American Idol producers not know that Fort Worth is currently internationally renowned as a music venue, what with having one of the world's foremost waterfront music venues in the form of Panther Island Pavilion, located on the scenic, crystal clear Trinity River?

I am fairly certain Fort Worth must have a venue where American Idol auditions could be held. Maybe in that flying saucer looking building that is part of the Fort Worth Convention Center.

Usually the judges sit in a spot with a window behind them looking out on a scene that represents the town they are in. In Fort Worth this might be a bit difficult......

Texas Beekeeper Rescues 250,000 Bees Living In An Austin Home

Weird news this morning from a town in Texas called Austin.

A beekeeper named Walter Schumacher, keeping bees for a business called Central Texas Bee Rescue, rescued around a quarter million bees that were living in a 7 foot hive. In a house.

The 7 foot hive was one of the biggest the beekeeper, Walter Schumacher, has ever seen.

The 7 foot bee hive was in a home lived in by an Austinite named Lillian Johnson. Lillian does not remember a time when bees were not humming in her kitchen walls.

The humming in the walls has been going on for around 40 years.

Occasionally bees would manage to get into the house. Lillian would try and close off the bees house access with tape. I assume duct tape.

The bee tipping point, that finally had Lillian getting a beekeeper into her house, was the worry that her 5 month old son might be stung by one of the frequent buzzing intruders.

I remember years ago when Big Ed's big twin, Wally, had a beehive in his attic. It was very unsettling. I do not remember how Wally got rid of his bee problem. I am fairly certain that Central Texas Bee Rescue and beekeeper Walter Schumacher were not involved in removing that particular beehive.

According To Forbes The Lone Star State Dominates America's Best Cities For Young Adults

I saw an article in the Seattle P-I this morning that was interesting.

The title was "Seattle a top city for twenty-somethings? Not so fast, says Forbes."

Seattle does self-deprecating, as expressed in its newspapers, in a way I've never, or rarely seen in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. I can't imagine why that is.

Really, I can't.

One of the lines in the P-I article says, "Seattle is a good place for young people, according to Forbes Magazine. Just not quite as good as practically every city in Texas."

Seattle ranked high, along with New York City for what Forbes called "Hipster Scenes," assigning a city a Coolness Rank and Nightlife Rank. Seattle was in 3rd place in Coolness and Nightlife. But, cost of living brought its score down, along with NYC.

In the Forbes article a sub-heading says "The Lone Star State Dominates."

Here's a blurb, "....uber-hip Austin is the best place to live if you're in your 20s and searching for a town filled with peers, good job prospects and fun things to do. The central-Texas metro, known both for a bustling tech community and a trendsetting music scene, ranks first on our list of America's Best Cities for Young Adults."

Houston ranked #2, Dallas #6 and San Antonio #9, hence the Lone Star State dominating line.

New York City came in #3, Chicago #4, Denver #5, Seattle #7 and Atlanta #8.

Seattle and NYC took a hit in the Forbes ranking due to their median age being older than other top ranked towns, with all the Texas towns ranked, being in the top 5 for the youthfulness of their median age.

Salt Lake City was ranked the most youthful. This must be a function of the Mormon tendency to over-reproduce.

I've never been to Minneapolis-St. Paul. That town came in at #38 out of 40 towns ranked, in terms of its nightlife.

I did not look at the entire list to see if Fort Worth showed up. It is well-known, in Fort Worth, that downtown Fort Worth is the liveliest downtown in Texas. It's true. Some magazine said so once....

Austin #1 Of 10 Best Cities For The Next Decade

Kiplinger Magazine searched for the top cities in America poised to prosper economically in the next decade, evaluating American cities for growth and growth potential.

Kiplinger found that though some U.S. cities may have been slowed by the Great Recession, they still have managed to thrive by "lifting good old American innovation to new levels."

#1 of those American cities lifting American innovation to new levels is Austin, Texas.

In article, titled "10 Best Cities for the Next Decade" Kiplinger said of Austin...

"Austin is arguably the the country's best crucible for small business, offering a dozen community programs that form a neural network of business brainpower to help entrepreneurs. Now overlay that net with a dozen venture-capital funds and 20 or so business associations, plus incubators, educational opportunities and networking events. Mix all these elements in what many call a classless society, where hippie communalism coexists with no-nonsense capitalism, and you've got a breeding ground for start-ups.

Don’t discount the fun factor: In the self-proclaimed live-music capital of the world, music and business creativity riff off one another. The city’s famous South by Southwest festival, where concerts, independent film screenings and emerging technology overlap, is a prime example."

Hippie communalism? I think I want to move to Austin.

#2 on the Kiplinger list is a town I am familiar with, called Seattle. Seattle is in Washington.

This is what Kiplinger had to say about Seattle...

"Rain City? We'd say Brain City. Home to a well-educated workforce, a world-class research university, über innovators Microsoft, Amazon and Boeing, and a host of risk-taking, garage-tinkering entrepreneurs, Seattle crackles with creative energy. "We only have two products here: smart people and great ideas," says Mark Emmert, president of the University of Washington.

Seattle is revising its tax, zoning and permit policies to make them more business-friendly, says Johnson. Meanwhile, this sophisticated Pacific Rim city has other qualities to recommend it, including great food, a glorious setting, an outdoorsy culture, enough rain to keep the locals' complexions looking dewy -- and, yeah, plenty of smart people."

I used to be one of those smart people. And then I moved to Fort Worth where I've been dumbing down for a decade. So, Austin had a fun factor working in its favor, apparently funner than Seattle? I've had fun in both towns. I'd have to give the fun edge to Seattle. Austin has no Ferry Boats or Cruise Ships. No Space Needle or Monorail. No Pike Place Market. No NFL or Professional Baseball Team that I know of.

Austin has a nude beach at Hippie Hollow. Seattle does not have a nude beach. Both towns participate in the bizarre World Nude Bike Ride.

The rest of Kiplinger's Top Ten Towns ready to boom in the next decade are...

3. Washington, D.C.
4. Boulder, Colorado
5. Salt Lake City, Utah
6. Rochester, Minnesota
7. Des Moines, Iowa
8. Burlington, Vermont
9. West Hartford, Connecticut
10. Topeka, Kansas

Snorkeling Topless in Austin's Barton Springs Pool

No. That is not me snorkeling in my swimming pool. The snorkeling took place down in Austin, in Zilker Park's Barton Springs Pool.

Barton Springs is a man-enhanced natural springs. In the 1920s Austin dammed the springs to create a bigger swimming hole. And added sidewalks and other park-like features.

In the 1940s a bathhouse was added.

You can go swimming in Barton Springs Pool all year long. Just like my pool. Only Barton Springs stays warmer. The temperature ranges from 68 in winter to almost 72 in summer.

Admission is free from November til the Ides of March. A fee, ranging from $1 to $3, is charged from mid March til October. Barton Springs is open from 5am til 10pm. The admission fee starts getting charged at 8am. That gives early birds 3 hours to swim before paying that big entry fee.

On Thursdays Barton Springs Pool closes from 9am til 7pm for cleaning. Once a year Barton Springs is closed for several weeks with the floodgates fully opened so the pool totally drains for heavy duty cleaning.

Barton Springs closes during heavy rain due to Barton Creek being prone to flooding and overflowing the diversion dam.

Barton Springs, in addition to swimming and snorkeling, also provides a nice sunbathing zone on the green slopes that surround the Springs. And, with it being in liberal, free-spirited Austin, topless sunbathing is permitted for both genders.

You'll need to go to another Austin location, Hippie Hollow if you feel the need to go both topless and bottomless.

Watch the YouTube video below to see what it is like to go snorkeling in Barton Springs. Notice the big eel that is snorkeling with you in Barton Springs Pool...

Men's Health: Five Of The 10 Fattest Cities Are In Texas

Being obese is stigmatized in most of the modern Western world, though those thus endowed were seen as a symbol of wealth at other times in history, and still are in many parts of Africa. And possibly Texas.

The current issue of Men's Health Magazine has yet one more of those ubiquitous lists, listing, this time, the Fattest Cities in America, from #1 to 100.

From the Men's Health website...

"Go to Google Maps, type in "United States," and you'll be reminded of just how big Texas is. But what you can't see is the size of the state's citizenry: Five Lone Star cities are among the nation's fattest, with Corpulent Christi at the top."

Joining Corpulent Christi in the Top Ten from Texas are #3 El Paso, #4 Dallas, #7 San Antonio and #9 Houston. All received a Grade of F, except for Houston, which got a D-.

Also on the list from Texas, but extremely lean, is Austin, at #97. Getting an A grade, along with Seattle at #98. Only Seattle, Washington, D.C., Burlington, Vermont and San Francisco are skinnier than Austin.

Other Texas towns on the list are # 13 Lubbock with a D- Grade, #54 Arlington with a C+ and #66 Fort Worth with a B-.

Some optimistic Obesity News for Texas is that NBC's Biggest Loser reality TV show is going to help Texas lose some of its poundage, promising to help America's 2nd biggest state shrink.

Currently, I am in Fort Worth, which, according to Men's Health, is almost as skinny as Austin. I am guessing it is all those natives constantly hiking all over the Tandy Hills that keeps Fort Worth from ballooning to a Dallas/Arlington size of bigness.

Giant Rattlesnake Killed In Manor Texas With Recipes & An Urban Legend

I was looking at my blog statistics and saw that an infosearcher had come to my blog from BING searching for "Giant Rattlesnake Killed in Manor Texas."

So, I went to BING and clicked on "Giant Texas Rattlesnake - Urban Legends." Apparently the snake picture you see here has been circulating for a few years, with various versions of where it was caught. The rattlesnake is alleged to be 9 feet 1 inch long and weigh 97 pounds.

The text accompanying this version of the Giant Rattlesnake story (including a Rattlesnake Recipe) was as follows...

Next time you're out in the tall grass, remember this one. This snake was recently found at the J & S Quik Mart located just south of RR 3014 Turnoff on Highway 281 south of Tow, Texas. [That's just west of Burnett, Texas]

9 feet, 1 inch - 97 lbs.

A reminder that these creatures are actually out there and no matter what you believe, sometimes they should get not only prescriptive rights to be there, but the full right of way.

And here's how to cook 'em .......

DEEP-FRIED RATTLESNAKE

1 medium-sized rattlesnake (3-4 lbs.), cut into steaks
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup cracker crumbs
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder (not garlic salt)
1 teaspoon salt dash pepper

Mix dry ingredients. Whisk milk into beaten egg and use to dip snake steaks. Then coat them with dry ingredients. Fry, uncovered, in 400 degree oil until brown. Yum,Yum!

After reading this urban legend version of a giant rattlesnake I was appalled to click on another link to learn that a giant rattlesnake was found in a Manor woman's backyard on Monday. Manor is a town a short distance east of Austin in Central Texas. When the police arrived they shot the snake. A snake autopsy revealed the carcass of a full grown rabbit in the snake, hence the bulge in the picture.

The Austin area is being invaded by rattlesnakes seeking relief from the drought. The number of people treated for snakebites in Austin this year is nearly the total for all of 2008, when 36 snakebites were treated.

If you get bit, don't copy what you've seen cowboys do in movies. Don't suck the venom out and don't choke off the blood with a tourniquet. Instead get yourself, as quickly as possible, to an ER.

Zombie Problem In Austin Texas

The capital of Texas is having some sort of Zombie problem.

Sort of like the plot line of the current season of 24 on Fox, some sort of terrorist type pranksters hacked into the network that controls roadway warning signs in the Austin zone.

I don't know if a War of the Worlds Orson Welles type panic ensued in Austin, with people seeking escape from the Zombies.

I doubt it. Austin is a pretty sophisticated town, from what I've seen. I'm pretty sure most Austinites know there is no such thing as a Zombie.

Now if these terrorist type pranksters hack into the network that controls Fort Worth's roadway warning signs, with a Zombie warning, well, here you might have a few people panicking.

I remember when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas, February 1, 2003, the roadway warning signs had a message of the sort that would not have crossed my mind as possible til it happened. That event seems so recent, but it's already 2 days away from being 6 years ago.

If I remember right, an hour or so after the Shuttle disaster the signs said something like "Watch For Falling Space Shuttle Debris." I vaguely recollect seeing people looking up, watching for falling debris, long after the explosion. When people started finding pieces of the Space Shuttle is when the sign was changed to the message you see in the picture.

I found no debris, and unlike a lot of people I did not hear or see anything that morning. I was laying on the floor reading the paper and drinking coffee, totally unaware that something very bad was happening above me.

Clothing Optional Hippie Hollow Nude Beach in Austin

I've been working hard on trying to overcome my pathological shyness. So with gas prices so low it seemed like a good idea, at the time, to burn some driving down to Austin.

Why Austin, you ask? Well, near Austin there is a body of water called Lake Travis. And on that body of water there is a place called Hippie Hollow, where a human body visiting this particular body of water is not required to wear clothing, as in it is a clothing optional type of place, meaning people of all sizes, shapes, ages and gender are naked.

There are warning signs to caution those who might not realize they are entering a naked zone, as in signs saying "NOTICE: NUDE SWIMMING OR SUNBATHING ME BY OCCURRING BEYOND THIS POINT."

Now, yesterday was not the first time I've been naked. I take at least one shower every day and don't wear a swimming suit to do so. Yesterday was not the first time I've been naked outdoors. I have skinnydipped a time or two, among other things.

Hippie Hollow had some things viewable that I probably would have preferred to not have imprisoned in my memory. But there were some things viewable that I don't mind having seen. I'm hopeful the bad memories will fade.

A visit to Hippie Hollow is not free. In addition to the gas you'll need to burn to get there, you'll also have to pay a fully clothed park ranger 10 bucks before you can take your clothes off.