Mary Kelleher for Fort Worth City Council 5

Yesterday a Facebook notification showed up notifying me that something had changed...

A Page you follow, Elect Mary Kelleher, changed its name to Mary Kelleher for FW City Council 5

This was new news to me. I am assuming Mary Kelleher's current term on the Tarrant Regional Water District Board is coming to an end, and thus, now, Mary Kelleher is running to become a Fort Worth city councilwoman.

Ironically, well, maybe it is not ironic, more coincidental, but the same day I learned Mary is likely going to become a councilwoman, a Microsoft OneDrive Memory showed up which also reminded me of Mary Kelleher.

That is me you see above, on my way to D/FW International Airport, picking up an ostrich egg from Mary Kelleher's mailbox, on the way.

Switching from ostrich eggs back to the previous subject.

If my memory is serving me correctly, I first learned of Mary Kelleher, decades ago, via an article in Fort Worth Weekly, about Mary's issues regarding the Trinity River regularly flooding in her area of Fort Worth.

Prior to that, the entity who goes by the name Layla Caraway, who some know as Elsie Hotpepper, had been in the news---local, state and national, due to her home in Haltom City teetering precariously above a flooding creek.

Fort Worth's Congresswoman, Kay Granger, visited the site of Elsie Hotpepper's teetering home, causing Elsie to have some hope that maybe that local politician might be of some help. A hope history would prove to be erroneous.

This was all happening early on during the first decade of what has become an embarrassing Boondoggle, which has been Boondoggling along now for three decades, with little to show for what was purported to be a vitally needed flood control and economic development scheme.

The fact that no attention was being paid to actual vitally needed flood control, both in the flooding creeks in Haltom City, and the Trinity River in East Fort Worth, motivated both Elsie Hotpepper and Mary Kelleher to become what are known as political activists.

After reading about Mary's flood woes in that FW Weekly article, Elsie Hotpepper met with Mary, and convinced her to run for the TRWD Board.

I remember I was on a bike ride on the Trinity Trail when I got a call from Elsie Hotpepper, telling me about the meeting with Mary, and the hope Mary would run and win.

Mary did so, she ran and won. By a landslide.

I recollect my first time meeting Mary was when I went to vote at the Handley/Ederville polling location, where Mary was outside the polling location, greeting voters. I introduced myself.

It is sort of hard to believe this was such a long time ago, and, all these years later, the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision has yet to come to any sort of useful visible fruition. That and nothing much has been done to mitigate flooding in Tarrant County areas actually prone to deadly, serious flooding.

If I remember correctly, and sometimes I do, the last time I saw Mary and Elsie, in person*, was back in early 2016. Mary took Elsie and me out to lunch at an Outback Steakhouse, I think that was the location. 

And then after lunch we drove to Mary's farm where I met a large collection of animals, including an ostrich, one of whose eggs ended up getting picked up by me out of Mary's mailbox, a few days later.

Methinks it will greatly benefit Fort Worth having Mary Kelleher on the city council. And then, eventually, Fort Worth Mayor. Or Kay Granger's position. As a congresswoman...

*I was erroneous regarding Outback Steakhouse being the last time I have seen Elsie Hotpepper. I forgot about a year before COVID struck, I pedaled my bike to Sikes Lake to meet up with Elsie at a Sikes Lake gazebo.

Fort Worth Weekly Does Not Know I Am A Foe Of The TWRD

A couple weeks ago when I blogged The Formidable Gayle Reaves Fired From Fort Worth Weekly it did not cross my mind to think that the absence of Fort Worth Weekly's Editor-in-Chief would so quickly cause a noticeable deterioration in the usually impeccable editing in Fort Worth Weekly.

And then I picked up this week's Fort Worth Weekly, looked at the cover and saw that which you see here....

FOES V. TWRD.

I really do not think TWRD would have gotten past the eagle eyes of Ms. Reaves.

It was the other part of the cover article's title which had me more intrigued than the unfortunate typo.

"Has the Tarrant Regional Water District met its match?"

Which of the TWRD's, I mean, TRWD's many foes is this article gonna be talking about, I thought to myself.

Elsie Hotpepper? Mary Kelleher? Layla Caraway? Monty Bennett? Me?

Well, we can rule me out. Only me and two other people know I'm a foe of the TRWD.

I have not yet read the article in its entirety, just enough to get the gist, and to realize it is sort of a myriad of  FOES v. the TRWD.

I was afraid this article was going to be sickening, with Fort Worth Weekly having succumbed to the bizarre TRWD party-line kool-aid that the Star-Telegram drinks and hop on the Kill the Evil Dallas Businessman (before he steals our precious Fort Worth water} Bandwagon.

I would direct you to a link to this week's Fort Worth Weekly cover article, but I have been told that that link does not yet exist. Apparently ever since the departure of Gayle Reaves updating the FW Weekly website has become a bit tardy.

But, I have to say, ever since the departure of Gayle Reaves, FW Weekly has been showing up by noon on Wednesday at my regular Albertsons source, rather than a day late.

I have no idea if there is any connection between timely FW Weekly arrivals and the Reaves departure. I suspect not....

UPDATE: I have now read the Fort Worth Weekly FOES V. TWRD article. Simply put, I do not think this article would have made it to print under Gayle Reaves' editorial eye without extensive editing.

Haltom City's Layla Caraway In Celebrity Trending News With Bruce Jenner

On August 10 I blogged about an advertisement I was surprised to find in Fort Worth Weekly which divulged details about Miss Layla Caraway which were previously unknown to me.

Now this afternoon I was surprised to learn that a website entity, Celebrity Balla, devoted to celebrities and their various shenanigans, had picked up on the Layla Caraway celebrity news in an article whose title you can see above in a screencap from the detailed article.

I did not know, til reading this new information, how strong the relationship is between Miss Caraway and Bruce Jenner. I knew Bruce's marriage to world class shrew, Kris Kardashian Jenner, was in trouble, with long suffering Bruce relegated to the garage.

I may have to set my DVR to record Keeping up with the Kardashians to see if Miss Layla Caraway shows up in that soap opera.

I know Miss Layla Caraway fairly well and I really truly do not understand where she finds the time to get herself in to these type celebrity situations.

Very perplexing....

Shocking New Age Related Information Regarding Haltom City's Layla Caraway

I was perusing this week's Fort Worth Weekly when I came upon an advertisement which surprised me.

I knew that Miss Layla Caraway's birthday this year was a significant one.

But, for some reason I thought the number was going from 29 to 30.

Not 39 to 40.

On more than one occasion, when Miss Layla and I have been out in public, there have been incidents where someone makes a remark which indicates the person making the remark believes me to be Layla's dad, with the remark being directed at Layla being something along the line of  how nice of you to take your elderly dad out on the town.

I have found these incidents of being mistaken for being Layla's dad to be slightly unsettling, but I quickly get over it.

However, now I must re-assess, what with this Lordy Lordy Look Who's 40 information. I guess this means I look something like 70.

Anyway, Happy Birthday, Layla. You don't  look a day over 29.....

Fort Worth Weekly's 2011 Best Free Spirit, Watchdog & Old Guy Was Not Me

Fort Worth Weekly Best Of 2011 Edition

While Elsie Hotpepper and I were foraging for Horse Apples today I got a call telling me I needed to get this week's Fort Worth Weekly, with it being the annual "Best Of" issue, as in "Best Of 2011."

I usually find this type thing a bloated ad magnet. That and I rarely know the person, place or thing the Reader's or Critic's choices choose.

So, I got this year's Best Of 2011 and thumbed through it, and just like I thought would be the case, most of the choices were unknown to me.

However, there were a few I recognized, particularly on a couple pages in the "People & Politics" section.

For instance, I have met the Critic's Choice for Free Spirit, Layla Caraway. Personally, I think Ms. Caraway is more of a Watchdog than a Free Spirit. I think Elsie Hotpepper should have gotten the Best Free Spirit of 2011 accolade.

Kevin Buchanan was the Reader's Choice for Watchdog. I may be remembering wrong, but wasn't Kevin Buchanan a big proponent of Fort Worth's failed Streetcar to Nowhere Plan? That doesn't seem very Watchdoggy to me. The Critic's Choice for Watchdog was North Central Texas Communities Alliance.

My view of NCTCA is the group has very good intentions. I don't know how successful the group's Watchdogging is. However, there is this other group I would have picked as the Best Watchdog of 2011 had I been the critic making a choice. I would have picked the Trinity River Improvement Partnership (TRIP).

TRIP was sort of recognized in the "Culture" section in the Locally Made Film category, where the Reader's Choice was the award winning TRIP documentary, Up a Creek. The Critic's Choice was a locally made film I've not heard of called Pioneer. Apparently Pioneer has also won awards.

Another of the few names I recognized was Clyde Picht. The Critic's Choice for "Old Guy." I manned a booth for awhile with Clyde Picht at this year's Prairie Fest. I liked him. But, I did not think of him as an Old Guy.

In the "People & Politics" section and the "Culture" section Durango Jones and the Durango Texas blog were picked as the Reader's & Critic's Choice by no one in any category. What a shocking omission.

Granny Grassroots' Harping Harp

Also left out of being the Best of Anything in 2011 was another person I met at this year's Prairie Fest, who co-manned a booth with me for much longer than Clyde Picht, that being the entity known as the Granny Grassroots.

Granny Grassroots, while not the Best of Anything in 2011, according to Fort Worth Weekly's Readers and Critics, did place a large ad in the FW Weekly Best of 2011 edition.

Methinks Granny Grassroots would also have been a good choice as Best Free Spirit of 2011.

Watch Granny Grassroots' video below and you'll see what I mean by free spirit. Who but a free spirit would haul her harp to the Trinity River to sing a song to the litter as it floats by?

Up A Creek Was Not Up A Creek At The Labor Day Weekend Glen Rose Neo-Relix Film Festival

A fairly reliable source informs us that Up A Creek won the Grand Prize in the Conservation Category at the Labor Day Weekend Glen Rose Neo Relix Film Festival.

Up A Creek is a Trinity River Improvement Partnership (TRIP) documentary in which Ms. Layla Caraway shares her nightmare experiences with Texas flooding, and the aftermath, where Ms. Caraway has tried to get those who should know better to focus their attention on the real flooding issues of Fort Worth and Tarrant County, instead of an un-needed flood diversion channel, a little lake and a forest of magic trees.

Taking the prize at GRNRFF I'm guessing it is now on to the Telluride Film Festival (next year, I think this year's took place this weekend), the Sundance Film Festival, then, of course, the Academy Awards, where I will accompany Ms. Caraway while she accepts the Oscar.

Seattle has a rather big film festival. Maybe we'll be going to that one too.

Glen Rose is a dinosaur-centric town in Texas near Dinosaur Valley State Park, hence the Neo Relix name for the Glen Rose Film Festival.

Hiking Among The Tandy Hills Prickly Pear Cactus Thinking About Being Up A Creek With TRV MHMR SFRF FWW & Other Initials

In the picture you are with me today around noon, face to face with a patch of prickly pear cactus prickling up the Tandy Hills.

It was a perfect hiking temperature today, with a strong wind blowing.

This morning's swim was also perfect with the water warmer than the air.

I've been a blogging/websiting maniac today, on my blogs and other blogs, that are sort of like my secret secondary blogs.

I think all the commenting on the Paradise Center Scandal Blog is the most of that type activity I've experienced since years ago when I inadvertently caused myself the Scarborough Faire Renaissance Festival Brouhaha of over the top silly reaction.

The Scarborough Brouhaha was pretty much silly nonsense. The Paradise Center Scandal brouhaha is not something silly, it's something serious that sort of is like a boil on the festering sore that is the dark side of the Fort Worth Way of how the city and county government operate, with little accountability and zero transparency.

Meanwhile, on a brighter note, FW Weekly has an excellent article about Tarrant County's fiesty firebrand, Layla Caraway, and her multi-year battle to get Fort Worth and Tarrant County to wake up and face the water.

Read "TRV's Up a Creek: As the Trinity River moves right along, local communities still aren't  safe from floods" in this week's FW Weekly, the closest thing Fort Worth has to a real newspaper.

Watch "Up A Creek" The Movie Documentary About Tarrant County Water Issues

The "Up a Creek" movie documentary has now been YouTubed.

In "Up a Creek" you will meet a young Texas lady named Layla Caraway.

Miss Layla is a lifelong Haltom City native who was peacefully living her life, minding her own business, when something happened to her that turned her in to a political activist.

"Up a Creek" documents Miss Layla's activist journey and the serious issues regarding Tarrant County flooding that are currently not being addressed. Which, of course, leads to the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle being part of what is discussed in this movie.

"Up a Creek" is presented below, in 4 parts, for your viewing and educational pleasure....

I Was Not Up A Creek Without A Paddle Tonight At The Stagecoach Ballroom In Fort Worth

I made it safely back from the world premiere of "Up a Creek" at the Stagecoach Ballroom.

I really did not know what to expect to see in tonight's movie premiere.

I knew, sort of, what the subject matter was, that being promoting an adult version of improving the Trinity River and its tributaries and actually doing something about the flooding problem, other than building the world's best artificial wakeboard lake.

And stopping the bizarre Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

The movie starred a young lady from Haltom City named Layla Caraway. It tells the story of how it came to be that Ms. Caraway is so passionately fighting the bizarre political power structure that runs roughshod over Fort Worth and Tarrant County.

Or as one of the talking heads in the movie said, "Fort Worth, the eminent domain abuse capital of Texas."

No. I was not that talking head.

I must say, Don Woodard is a Fort Worth treasure. His letters to the editor of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram are great. But that man and his one-liners are even better. Clyde Picht is another Fort Worth Treasure.

There are a lot of Fort Worth treasures.

Unfortunately the current system of conducting business, in what is known as the Fort Worth Way, sort of stops Fort Worth's treasures from turning Fort Worth into the treasure it could be, rather than the poorly run company town it is.

Tonight, before the movie, while I hid in the dark, observing the crowd, a young lady approached me and asked if I was Durango. This type thing always makes me nervous, shy guy that I be. I said my name is not Durango. The young lady insisted that it was. And so I agreed. And then I learned it was she who emailed me today about something about Montana. It is from that email I know this was Georgia S. I met tonight.

I also met "Tarrant Liberty Guy" who had commented on my blogging earlier today about tonight's movie premiere, saying "Hope to see you and Ms. Hotpepper tonight!"

Well, Tarrant Liberty Guy saw me, but I don't know, for sure, if he saw Ms. Hotpepper.

"Up a Creek" will soon be available for viewing online. I'll  direct you to that when it is ready to be viewed.

In the meantime, I've got myself a problem with a video of J.D. Granger, who was not at tonight's TRIP meeting movie premiere.

Ironic, because it is J.D. who is sort of up a creek. With no clue he is missing a paddle or two.

I TRIPPED Up In The Botanic Gardens In Fort Worth Tonight Without Elsie Hotpepper

I lasted longer at the TRIP meeting tonight than I thought I would. I made it through the meet and greet part.

Then I made it part way into the main show, before my Adult Attention Deficit Disorder kicked in, which had me thinking I could be doing something else, until the impulse to leave could be resisted no longer.

It would have helped if Elsie Hotpepper had showed up, as expected, at Fort Worth's Botanic Gardens tonight.

The promised hors d’oeuvres turned out to be a buffet table laden with tasty goodies. Waiting in the line reminded me of good times in Las Vegas and Reno waiting in a slow buffet line behind people older than me.

I was deathly afraid someone at this thing might recognize me. I hate it when that happens. So, I went in Clark Kent mode, with glasses. It worked. No one recognized me.

After about a half hour of sitting solo, eating hors d’oeuvres, this nice lady in a slinky black dress indicated I should come to her. I did so. She told me the show was about to begin. And that I could go get myself a good seat.

Good seat, to me, means a seat located in the back near an exit.

Well.

Imagine my surprise when the show starts up and the nice lady in the slinky black dress was introduced as, and I hope I get the name right, Layla Caraway.

Like the seeds, I think.

Miss Caraway gave a good introduction as to what TRIP is all about. As in sane management of the Trinity River. As opposed to the current insane management of the Trinity River.

Miss Caraway ended her speech introducing a documentary, produced by KERA in Dallas, about the Trinity River. It is a good documentary.

But.

I had already seen it.

This was when my AADD started kicking in.

So, I decided to slink away in the dark and return to my present moment, free of something I'd already seen.

Imagine my shock, as I exited, to literally bump into Miss Caraway. It was very awkward. I explained that having seen that documentary had caused my AADD to kick in. Miss Caraway explained that the documentary would soon be over and speakers would be speaking.

But.

Once the AADD kicks in, there is no turning back. It really is a difficult condition to live with.

I must say, the Trinity River Improvement People have put together a rather impressive operation. It obviously is more reality based than the Trinity River Vision. TRIP seems to be wanting to actually solve actual real problems, rather than build Wakeboard Parks and unneeded flood diversion channels and a little pond pretending to be a lake.

It seems to me that if TRIP gets its message right and accurately aims that message at the Trinity River Vision, that the people in the rest of America, who are helping pay for the Trinity River Vision, will join with TRIP in demanding that the Vision to Nowhere be permanently blinded.

Before it hurts people.