Does TCU Now Play The Winner Of Oregon/Ohio State For The College Football Championship?

I admit I am not much of a fan of football. Or watching most sports.

Of all the sports people find to be something they are willing to sit and watch, basketball is the only one which I have enjoyed watching.

I went to many a Seattle Supersonic game over the years, til the team was stolen by the thief who calls himself Aubrey McClendon.

With football I don't get what people find to be so compelling that it causes them to watch these games week after week. It just seems like endless variations of the same thing, to me.

I do enjoy a good halftime show, though.

Anyway, I admit I don't get the local umbrage over their local team, TCU, being denied a spot in the college football final championship group of four.

I mean, TCU may have had a good record, winning a lot of football games, ranking high in those all important football polls. But, the reality of the matter is TCU is a small school most of the nation knows nothing about, except for it being three initials on a football poll. With those three initials, TCU, playing in a town most of America knows nothing about, Fort Worth.

I have no idea if lack of national presence was factored in when the decision was made as to what school was to play for the all important national college football title, but I suspect TCU's relative obscurity may have been a bit of a factor.

I wonder how many people watching yesterday's college football championship, where Ohio State beat Oregon 42 - 20, got what was meant by the sign you see in the photo above,  "WINNER PLAYS TCU"?

I wonder how many of the people in Cowboy Stadium yesterday from Ohio and Oregon knew that TCU was located just a few miles to the west of where they were sitting?

Under A Bumbershoot Hunting Tomatoes While Pondering The Sad Fate Of The TCU Froggies

If you looked at this picture and guessed I was in the outer world under a bumbershoot you would have guessed correctly.

This morning I was in the hot tub before the dawn of the new day. At that point in time only a fine mist was precipitating.

But, when the sun arrived to illuminate the darkness that fine mist turned into big drops of cold wetness.

When the noon time frame I arrived I  felt the need to be vertical. I also felt the need to acquire some Ro-Tel diced tomatoes with green chiles to add to the pot of chili I brewed this morning.

A bowl of hot chili is quite salubrious on a cold day like today.

I had to make my way through several flooding zones to make it to Albertsons to get the aforementioned diced tomatoes.

Checking in on Facebook today I noted a lot of concern about college football bowl games which took place on New Years Day.

Many of the locals seem to think the local team known as the TCU Froggies was robbed somehow by not getting to play in some special game where winning that special game would have meant, I guess, that the TCU Froggies are very special.

Some seem to think the Froggies are owed some sort of apology. Others go to the extreme of thinking an investigation needs to take place into what some apparently think has been a gross miscarriage of justice.

I confess I pay little attention to football, for the most part. I do know that this year there is some sort of championship deal between four teams and that it was not being included as one of those four teams which has the Froggies all bumpuzzled.

Yesterday the Froggies gave a sound thrashing to a school called Old Miss, which greatly fueled the fires of feeling the Froggies should have been one of the Final Four.

I don't quite get why beating a team known as Old Miss would be considered a big deal.

I don't know by what complex criteria this Final Four for the championship is determined. It may have something to do with the size of a school.

TCU, also known as Texas Christian University, is a very small school. I am talking about the size of the campus. You can walk from one end to the other in five minutes. I have been to major universities where you can not drive from one end to the other in five minutes, such as the University of Washington, and others.

Does TCU play in a big league? I have no idea. Like I said, I don't pay much attention beyond the chatter and noise.

However, I do know that both the Dallas Cowboys and the Seattle Seahawks are in the NFL playoffs. I have heard it said that once again the road to the Super Bowl goes through Seattle. This has something to do with home field advantage in the playoff games. I do not know if Dallas has a similar advantage.

Is is possible that Dallas might play Seattle in this year's Super Bowl? I think Dallas already beat Seattle once this year. I really do not know who I might root for if Dallas and Seattle are in this year's Super Bowl. Will Cowboy Stadium be open so fans can watch on the big screen like was done for a boring World Cup soccer game last summer?

If so, I think I shall be there......

Fort Worth Mayor Moncrief Thanks TCU For Making Fort Worth The Envy Of America

You are looking at Fort Worth's ultra-goofy, ultra-corrupt mayor, Mike Moncrief, in purple shirt and tie, in Texas Christian University's Daniel-Meyer Coliseum on Sunday for a public celebration where only around 6,000 TCU fans showed up to celebrate TCU winning the Rose Bowl.

You who live in the part of America that is not Fort Worth may be surprised to learn that Fort Worth is the "envy of the nation" because a university in this town won the Rose Bowl.

At Sunday's celebration Mayor Mike Moncrief thanked TCU "for making us the envy of the entire nation."

The "entire nation."

That is impressive.

I no longer subscribe to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Because it was no longer worth subscribing to. So, I do not know if the paper has reverted to using its "Green with Envy" type verbiage over and over again in its print version regarding some nonsensical thing that no one is envious of. Like some little known country music singer moving to town.

But.

I do look at the online Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and, though I missed it til Elsie Hotpepper pointed me to it, there it was, once more the goofy "envy of" conceit. This time in quote form on the front page, linked to an article titled "More than 6,000 TCU fans pay tribute to 'unbelievable' season for Horned Frogs" in which the Star-Telegram repeats the "envy of the nation" verbiage....

FORT WORTH -- As the community heralded its university and Rose Bowl champions as the "envy of the nation," one couldn't help but wonder whether guys named Baugh, O'Brien, Meyer and even Wacker weren't somewhere looking down and sporting smiles as big as Fort Worth.

More than 6,000 enthusiastic Texas Christian University fans filled Daniel-Meyer Coliseum on Sunday for a public celebration honoring coach Gary Patterson's football team and recognizing a 2010 season that was about as good as any in the 110-year history of the program.

I have no clue who guys name Baugh, O'Brien, Meyer and Wacker are.

But, I do know I read in west coast online newspapers, more than one Pac-10 football fan opine that a Fort Worth school named TCU, from one of the non-top type conferences, playing in and winning the fabled Rose Bowl is the final nail in the coffin of the widely disliked BCS system of choosing who plays in what football Bowls.

This somehow does not sound like envy to me. It seems more like disappointment that a fabled institution like the annual Rose Bowl has been greatly lessened. And is no longer even played on New Year's Day.

Now, what I am really curious about is all the years some team other than a Fort Worth football team won the Rose Bowl, was Fort Worth collectively envious of the town in which that winning team was located?

I do not recollect ever reading in the Seattle P-I, or hearing anyone opine that Seattle was the "envy of the nation" because the University of Washington won the Rose Bowl.

Do these locals who tout this type verbiage have even the slightest clue that it gets read by people outside of Fort Worth, you know, out in America, and that it makes Fort Worth seem really silly? And that it is sort of embarrassing to be saying this that or the other thing in a town like Fort Worth is the "envy of the nation."

This type bragging really needs to be retired permanently from this town. Until the day comes where something is actually worthy of such lofty verbiage.

The 6th Day Of 2011 Dawns Bright In Fort Worth With Casey Thompson Off Top Chef, Increased Murders & A City-Wide TCU Celebration In A Tiny Coliseum

The 6th day of 2011 seems to be dawning with yet one more blue sky day in Texas. Blue sky and we are at a balmy 6 degrees above freezing.

I need to remember to get anti-freeze before next week's predicted deep freeze.

I am in a better mood this morning than I was last night, because last night I went to blog on my TV Blog that Fort Worth's Casey Thompson had been told, on Top Chef, to pack her knives and go.

But, Google's Blogger program was in major malfunction mode. But, it's back working this morning.

Obviously, because you are reading this.

Yesterday in the Seattle P-I I learned that Seattle homicides are at a 60 year low. But this morning in the P-I I learned that domestic homicides are at a near record level. So, fewer strangers are being killed, but more family members?

Meanwhile, here in North Texas, I learned this morning in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that the number of homicides rose in 2010 in North Texas.

What has more people killing each other in one part of the country and way fewer in another part? I suspect it's something in the water. Or air.

I also learned in the Star-Telegram that our Fort Worth city-wide celebration of the TCU Horned Frogs winning the Rose Bowl will not be city-wide. Instead it will take place January 16 in Daniel-Meyer Coliseum. The public is invited. But, I believe that particular coliseum holds less than 8,000. There are more than 700,000 people who call Fort Worth home.

What happens when all of Fort Worth shows up to celebrate at that tiny coliseum?

Well, I have myself a very busy day of blogging today, trying to catch up after last night's Google Blogger Breakdown stifled me from my blogging.

The 3rd Day Of 2011 Dawns Cold In Texas With Thoughts Of Wild Women & TCU

The 3rd Day of 2011 dawns blue and one degree above freezing in my frigid zone of North Texas.

I saw no details, yet, in the Fort Worth newspaper of supposed record, the Star-Telegram, about our city-wide celebration celebrating Texas Christian University winning the Rose Bowl.

I believe TCU is the smallest school to ever win the Rose Bowl. And is also the only school with "Christian" as part of its name to win the Rose Bowl.

Or, likely, any other bowl.

I woke up this morning with an annoying twitch in my left eye. Why my left eye is twitching I have no idea. But I do know that I want it to stop.

Other than an unwanted twitching eye, I have no fresh maladies to report.

A day I wake up with no fresh aches or pains is the start of a good day.

I don't know, for sure, what I'm about to do on this first Monday of 2011. Except, maybe, finally get around to setting up the auto-deposit from Google to my new bank.

That and going walking somewhere other than the Tandy Hills. Speaking of which, I was informed last night, by someone who should know, that an announcement is soon to be forthcoming regarding the 2011 Manly Men and Wild Women Tandy Hills Hike.

I do not know if the Wild Woman of Woolley, Betty Jo Bouvier, will be in attendance. I suspect not.

The Dawn Of January 2 Thinking About Fort Worth's City-Wide TCU Rose Bowl Victory Celebration

This morning we are looking at the dawn of January 2 of 2011 from Miss Puerto's freezing balcony.

It is only 23 degrees this morning. That's cold.

Very cold.

I learned this morning that Fort Worth's TCU football team won the Rose Bowl.

Ten years ago I don't think anyone could have thought of a way the above sentence could possibly make sense.

I read this morning, in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, we will be having a city-wide celebration to celebrate TCU's stunning Rose Bowl victory.

We have not had a city-wide celebration here in Fort Worth for years. Not since some obscure Washington, D.C. lobbying group picked Fort Worth as one of the Top Ten Most Livable Communities in America.

I do not know, yet, how the city-wide TCU Victory celebration will manifest itself. Will Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief make another attempt to dye the Trinity River purple?

I have no idea what this Sunday, 2nd day of the New Year, has in store for me. All I can rule out is I am almost 100% certain I will not be going to church.

A New Year's Day Walk Around Fosdic Lake Thinking About Fort Worth's TCU Beating Wisconsin In The Rose Bowl.

You are looking at Fosdic Lake in Oakland Lake Park in Fort Worth, Texas a little after noon on the first day of the New Year of 2011.

Usually on the first day of a New Year you see a lot of people in the parks getting on with their New Year's Resolution to live a more healthy lifestyle.

It was not all that many degrees above freezing today, and a wind was blowing, both factors which, I think, made it cold enough for some to postpone the start of their New Year's Resolution.

That and there are football games on TV today.

I got a call on my way to Fosdic Lake and during the course of that call I was asked if I knew what time the Rose Bowl game started.

I had no idea. I am not a football fan. I don't get what can be so interesting about watching a football game that causes people to watch them, over and over and over again. Endless variations of the same theme is what those games look like to me.

But, much, much, much more watchable than the version of football the rest of the world plays, that version of football that Americans call soccer.

The person asking me if I was watching the Rose Bowl seemed to be shocked when I said no, I won't be watching. But, Fort Worth is playing in the Rose Bowl, I was told.

Huh? The Rose Bowl is a game that goes back way into ancient times, where the top team in the Pac-10 plays the top team in the Big-10. Teams like Washington, Oregon, California, Stanford, Arizona, UCLA, playing teams like Michigan.

I was told that TCU from Fort Worth is playing Wisconsin. In the Rose Bowl. Today.

I tell you, Fort Worth playing in the Rose Bowl is just one more sign that our world has gone totally mad.

I looked it up. #3 TCU plays #5 Wisconsin, in the Rose Bowl, at 4:30 ET 3:30 CT. Today.

Now that I know there is a Fort Worth connection to the Rose Bowl, just try and stop me from watching.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram Sort Of Sees Purple

My one reader may remember how a time or two I took issue with some erroneous Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporting.

It's been so long now I forget what the final straw was that caused me to cancel my subscription.

But, this morning reminded me of the type of thing that caused me to doubt pretty much anything I read in that paper, because over and over again when a Star-Telegram article was about something I had eye-witness knowledge of, I would spot bizarre errors.

Like over and over again touting a little lame collection of shops called the Sante Fe Rail Market as being modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market and being the first public market in Texas. Soon I was to discover not only was it not the first public market in Texas, it was not even the first public market in Fort Worth!

Anyway, back to this morning's Star-Telegram.

In an article about yesterday's predictable dyeing the Trinity River Purple Boondoggle, titled "TCU fans are purple, even if the Trinity isn't" were a few odd pieces of information.

First off, please note the the title of the article accurately reported that the Trinity did not turn purple yesterday.

Yet in the article you read the following...

"We started this morning at 2 a.m., and we will go until it runs out," said Jim Oliver, water district general manager.

He said he didn’t know how long the river would remain purple, as the water district had never tried to dye it before.

"At least a day or two," he said.

They started what at 2am??? Nothing was sprayed into the Horned Frog River until Moncrief poured his glass of purple dye sometime after 10am. The Star-Telegram has this water district manager, Jim Oliver, saying he did not know how long the river would remain purple. And then in the next sentence he is saying it'll stay purple "At least a day or two."

The article has Moncrief saying he'd been a tad worried the past couple days about whether the Trinity River would really turn purple. I'll copy directly from the article...

Mayor Mike Moncrief admitted that he’s been a tad bit worried the past couple of days.

Would the Trinity River really turn purple?

"I did sleep with one eye open," Moncrief joked Friday morning while standing on the riverbank, where trucks were shooting purple dye into the water.

"But it is purple now, and it will be purple tomorrow."

Uh, it was not purple then and it certainly is not purple today. And trucks were not shooting purple dye into the water. It was one truck and it was spraying something into the air, not pumping anything into the river, as you can clearly see in the picture above.

I'd not heard Mayor Mike Moncrief speak before yesterday. I have had others tell me how embarrassing he can be. I totally get that now. He slept with one eye open? Due to worrying about dyeing a river? How does he sleep without worrying about getting indicted for corruption? How does he sleep without worrying about cutting back on library hours? How does he sleep without worrying about closing all the city pools?

Here's another Moncrief quote from the purple river article...

"To see people out here, in large numbers, young and old, with helicopters flying overhead, you can feel the energy in the air," he said. "There is nothing Fort Worth can’t do."

To which the article retorts, accurately, "Well, maybe one thing."

As in Fort Worth can't successfully dye a river purple. As for helicopters, in the plural, flying overhead, I saw one helicopter. It made one pass sometime after 10, but before the pseudo dye job began. The helicoptor was well gone before Moncrief finished with his mayoral decree and ceremonial dumping of his purple kool-aid into the former Trinity River.

To Moncrief's statement that the river will be purple tomorrow, the Star-Telegram said...

Well, maybe not. At 2 p.m. Friday, several hours after the dye briefly turned the river purple, the river looked the way it usually does — muddy brown.

Once more reporting that the river was turned "briefly" purple. It was not remotely purple, even briefly. I do not know how the river looked at 2pm, but at 10am it did not look brown or muddy. As I said yesterday, the river was looking a shade of purple. But not from any dye job.

I don't know if it is true or not (because I read it in the Star-Telegram) but the article about the failed dye attempt said the dye was donated by Streams & Valleys, with the Tarrant Regional Water District handling the details, "such as pumping dye into the river."

Again, I saw no pumping yesterday. I saw some material being sprayed from a truck, material that only altered the look of the river by causing a sort of white foam, which quickly dissipated. You can see that in the picture.

As another example of how brain dead dumb this operation was, make note of where the "dye" is being sprayed. On the blocked side of a dam-like structure, which has an opening in the middle that the river rushes through. Thus, whatever was being sprayed, yesterday, was quickly whooshed through that narrow funnel and sent merrily downstream, with no detectable purple left in its wake.

Except for the purple provided by Mother Nature.

One more thing. The dye was donated, but how much did the rest of this latest Fort Worth Boondoggle cost the city?

Fort Worth Mayor Moncrief Fails To Turn Trinity River Purple

I have watched a strange thing or two over the years in Texas and Fort Worth. I don't know, for sure, if this morning's attempt to dye the Trinity River purple was the strangest, but I am sure it is in the Top 10 Strangest Things I've Seen in Texas.

There was quite a large crowd assembled in Trinity Park to witness the spectacle of turning the Trinity River purple.

Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief read an extremely long proclamation that ended with him decreeing that the purple section of the Trinity River was re-named Horned Frog River.

Before Moncrief's proclamation another politician spoke. A female. I've no idea who she was.

In the picture you are looking at Moncrief pouring a glass of purple dye that looked like grape Kool-Aid into the newly christened Horned Frog River.

Now, this was a bit of a pep assembly, so Moncrief's hyperbole could be forgiven. I guess. This was the first time I've seen Mike Moncrief up close and heard him speak, at length. I wish I'd thought to whip out my video camera and record the entire speech. Some of Moncrief's verbiage was shockingly ironic. I can't quote it exactly from memory, but he said something very Jesus-like, about Fort Worth looking out for the least among us. And being the #1 city in America. Or was it the world? Darn, I wish I'd turned on the camcorder.

As you can see, Moncrief is bookended by two TCU Cheerleaders. You can also see the Trinity River behind Moncrief. At this point in the proclamation he had not yet re-named the river. You can also see that it already looks sort of purple. When I first saw the river I thought it had already been dyed, plus there was a white froth on the banks that I thought might be dye related. When the actual dyeing did begin there was pretty much a collective rolling of the eyes watching. It was that bizarre.

Soon after Moncrief emptied his glass of purple dye into Horned Frog River a tanker truck on the other bank started spraying what looked like water. This was the dye. People started muttering. The tanker sprayed for maybe 5 minutes before there was no more dye to spray. The only change to the river was the effect of the spray as it landed. When the spraying stopped I could detect no color.

I asked a couple people if they saw any purple. They didn't. One lady told me her husband told her there was no way they could turn the river purple.

The crowd of hopeful purple river watchers quickly melted away after the tanker spraying stopped. The only purple I saw, besides on TCU people's clothes and the cheerleader's sign, was "GO FROGS" painted on the Trinity, I mean, Horned Frog River Levee.

Okay, now I've got to tell you the really weird thing that happened. Someone came up and asked me if I was Durango Texas. That has never happened to me before. Not in Texas. I've had it happen in Washington. I've sort of slightly had it cross my mind that this might happen and that the person might be cranky about something I'd said about their, I mean, my, beloved Fort Worth.

I asked the questioner why she thought I was Durango Texas. She said she read my blog, read what I wrote about the plan to dye the river purple and that I looked like the pictures on the blog. So, I confessed that I was the culprit. We exchanged a few pleasantries and then I wandered off taking more pictures.

A couple minutes later I sat on the river bank to listen to Moncrief. I was slightly paranoid, noticing a few people looking at me and not at the mayor. Maybe it was something behind me they were looking at. Like I said, I was slightly paranoid.

Anyway, I'm glad I watched the purple river spectacle this morning. I found it entertaining. And more so than before I'm appalled that 70% of 6% of Fort Worth's eligible voters voted that man to be their mayor. Like I said. Bizarre.

Off To See The Trinity (Horned Frog) River Turn Purple

I am heading to downtown Fort Worth's west side, to Trinity Park, in a bit to see if Mayor Mike Moncrief actually goes ahead with his plan to dye the Trinity River purple.

And rename it Horned Frog River.

All because a Fort Worth football team, called the TCU Horned Frog's, has won some games. And their school color is purple.

Too bad TCU's color wasn't brown instead of purple. Wouldn't have needed any dye if that were the case.

This has boondoggle written all over it. How much dye would have to be inserted into the river to color a section of it purple?

I'm hoping to get some good pictures. And maybe video. But I'm assuming this expedition will end up being a big dud.

On a totally unrelated, though wet note, it was 40 degrees when I tried to go swimming at 7:30 this morning. I lasted about 2 minutes in the icy water. Now, over 2 hours later I am still sort of shivering. Methinks my pooling may be over for awhile unless we get some warm days. I kept pooling last year til sometime in December.

Will this Global Warming thing I keep hearing about ever make it to Texas?

Fort Worth's Mayor Moncrief Changes The Name Of The Trinity River & Orders It Dyed The Color Purple

Okay, I admit I am not much of a spectator sports fan. I've watched a game or two over the years, but it is not something I regularly do. I prefer to play, rather than sit and watch others play.

So, I don't pay all that much attention to who wins what. This can leave me woefully ignorant of who is doing well in whatever sport.

As in, I had no idea that Fort Worth had a football team that is ranked #4 and is undefeated, that being Texas Christian University, aka TCU. Apparently TCU has never been in a BCS bowl game and due to their ranking they likely will get their first invite.

I did not know that 2 weeks ago Fort Worth initiated a "Go Purple" campaign. Evidently purple is TCU's school color. TCU's team mascot is something called a Horned Frog.

Now here is where it gets really weird.

Fort Worth's corrupt Mayor Mike Moncrief, a man who loves to help people pollute, announced on Wednesday that a section of the Trinity River that runs through Trinity Park will be dyed purple Friday morning.

And the Trinity River will be renamed "Horned Frog River" for the duration of the football season.

The wondrous powers of being a Fascist Dictator. You can order the arbitrary coloring and renaming of a river.

Tarrant Regional Water District and Streams and Valleys employees have been working on a non-toxic purple dye that will not affect water quality or harm fish, turtles or birds.

Huh?

Isn't just the act of turning river water purple harming the quality of the water?

And, how are we to trust that this purple dye is totally non-toxic? Are these not sort of the same people who used to claim the Barnett Shale natural gas drilling was non-toxic til proven otherwise?

It would seem there are better ways of showing support for the local football team than turning an already troubled river into the River Purple.