Walking Around Fosdic Lake Thinking About Occupying A Woodshed While Being On Fire Due To Uncensored Skinny Dipping

Earlier today I said I thought I'd be going to the Tandy Hills for my endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation.

But, I changed my mind and went to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdic Lake instead.

As you can see, Fosdic Lake is looking very serene today. And white puffy clouds are floating under the bright blue sky.

It does not appear to me that enough clouds are going to assemble today to deliver the predicted rain.

Looking at my computer based weather information device I see the prediction for rain has been removed from today and moved to Friday.

As you can see, it is currently 73 degrees at my location on the planet. I have my windows open. Last year, at this point in time, I had my furnace running and was wearing multiple layers of outerwear.

If the forecast holds, there will be no need for weather shielding tents at tomorrow's Occupy The Woodshed Protest on the banks of the Trinity River.

I got my TV Blog on fire for the first time in a long time. I figured there would be a lot of Googling for the uncensored version of last night's skinny dipping on ABC's The Bachelor. I figured right.

The TV Blog is currently getting more visitors every 20 minutes than Gar the Texan's Random Ramblings gets in a year.

I just threw that Gar the Texan remark in there to test if Gar the Texan's claim to read all of my bloggings is true.

On Top Chef Texas This Week We Learned That Tim Love Owns Fort Worth & Loves Tequila

Tim Love Loving Tequila

I watched a TV show on Wednesday that I keep forgetting to mention, wanting to mention this particular TV show because of its Fort Worth connection.

I am fairly certain that this particular Fort Worth connection is not going to be making anyone outside of Fort Worth Green With Envy.

Anyway.

That is Fort Worth Celebrity Chef, Tim Love, standing next to Padma Lakshmi, in the Top Chef Texas kitchen in Dallas.

In the picture Tim Love is shooting back tequila. He seemed well practiced at shooting back tequila. Perhaps his pal, J.D. Granger, has been giving Tim tequila lessons.

This week the Top Chefs had to cook in the kitchen of Tim Love's Lonesome Dove Western Bistro in the Fort Worth Stockyards.

This was to be the only visit to Fort Worth by Top Chef Texas. Next week they head to Austin.

Months ago there were news reports regarding Top Chef's producers shaking down Texas towns for various perks. I assume in exchange for publicity. Fort Worth must have resisted the shakedown, because all we saw of the Fort Worth Stockyards was a fraction of a second flash of the iconic Fort Worth Stockyards sign. And then we spent the rest of the time in Tim Love's restaurant.

One of the judges on this season of Top Chef is celebrity chef, Hugh Acheson. Hugh is a very amusing Canadian. Amusing Canadians are a rare breed. On his Bravo TV Top Chef Texas Blog, Hugh Acheson had this to say about Tim Love...

"Time to get to Fort Worth. Tim Love owns this town. It’s a great honky-tonk town."

So. In the world of celebrity chefs, apparently, it is known that Tim Love owns Fort Worth.

This is the best explanation yet as to how it was Tim Love got his sweetheart restaurant deal for his new Woodshed restaurant, courtesy of the generosity of his drinking buddy, J.D. Granger, the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle and the Tarrant Regional Water District.

You can read the details of why it was that Tim Love was drinking tequila with Padma on my TV Blog.

The Mysterious Star Telegraph Pointed Me To A Surprising Editorial In The Fort Worth Star-Telegram About The Woodshed Scandal

Can anyone tell me who the person or persons are who make up the Star Telegraph blog?

Frequently I will notice on my blog stats that the Star Telegraph has referenced one of my bloggings, linking to the blogging.

This happened this morning to the blogging titled The Next To Last Morning Of November Thinking About Bankrupt American Airlines & Other Fort Worth Corporate Boondoggles.

In a Star Telegraph blog post titled Who's Next (without a question mark) the first sentence is "Durango tells you about American Airlines filing bankruptcy and the boondoggle/bankruptcy connection in Fort Worth."

The Star Telegraph's use of my first name, rather than the more formal Mr. Jones, makes it seem as if they know me.

Looking at the Star Telegraph this morning I came upon interesting info about which I was unaware.

An editorial yesterday in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The title of the Star-Telegram editorial is Fort Worth restaurant deal has folks talking.

The Star-Telegram is actually being critical regarding some aspect of the Trinity River Vision for the first time that I am aware of.

For example, this paragraph....

The persistent cadre of Trinity River Vision detractors probably still would pounce on the idea as conniving. But one would think after the various criticisms of the authority through the years, its officials and water board members would have learned to appreciate the value of being aboveboard with everything connected to this project.

Click on Fort Worth restaurant deal has folks talking to read the entire editorial.

The editorial currently has generated 3 comments that I rather like....

TexasR

The only people who should be surprised by any of this have been living under a rock.

loosinmyland

The persistent cadre of Trinity River Vision detractors is most people. Other than those involved, those who will benefit, and the Star Telegram, few support the project that was never put to a public vote, that was enabled with a questionable cronyistic state law, and that operates with a huge gas royalty budget obtained from land managed by a political subdivision that is supposed to be insuring our future water needs. That is public land entrusted to their care. The TRWD is an octopus that can operate in secrecy, grab land and hand out largess to their chums.

Where then is the persistent cadre of journalists at your fine paper, that should be looking into all aspects of the TRWD operations as well as the TRV. Do your job and pull back a few curtains and let the light shine in!

Restore the Water District to their previous mission and reduce our water rates. How's that for starter?

jimposter

Thank you for your editorial.  There were many details of which I was unaware. 

It is truly mind-boggling the extent of political incest at work here.  

Apparently just about every member of the inside-circle gang has helped himself to a piece of the public's pie.

The "lesson" of transparency should have been learned. Instead the actual lesson learned was to just do a better job of hiding it until it is too late for the public to do anything about it.

Disgusting. They ALL should be driven from any office or employment with any public or taxpayer-funded entity.

________________________________________

Methinks this has not been a good couple months for J.D. Granger and the Trinity River Vision.

J.D. caught a lot of flak for bailing at the last minute from a public forum he had agreed to appear in. This earned him a prestigious Turkey Award from FW Weekly. And now J.D. is entangled in The Woodshed Scandal.

I like attaching "gate" to a scandal, but The Woodshedgate Scandal just did not seem to work.

One final note on the Star Telegraph. I clicked on the "Email Us Your Concerns" link on the blog and politely asked who they were. The reply said "the Star Telegraph is a collective of concerned citizens from the community."

Well, that was helpful. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of concerned citizens in this troubled, troubling community.

The Locals Are Taking J.D. Granger To The Woodshed For A Well Deserved Spanking

J.D. Granger Covering His Rear On The Way
To A Spanking In The Woodshed

The picture is a figurative representation of the Fort Worth public taking J.D. Granger to the Woodshed.

A big brouhaha is brewing over the sweetheart deal J.D. Granger gave Tim Love.

That sweetheart deal being a new restaurant called The Woodshed that has area restaurateurs crying foul. Complaining that the Trinity River Vision went through no competitive bidding process for the sweet lease deal that Tim Love was gifted with.

The article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about this latest Trinity River Vision nefariousness sort of manages to raise more questions than it answers.

Apparently the Freedom of Information Act does not apply to a governmental body like the Trinity River Vision. So, there is no transparency. J.D. Granger claims he approached other restaurateurs about the sweetheart deal, but was turned down.

But, J.D. refuses to say who these other mystery restaurateurs were.

And, apparently neither J.D. Granger or Tim Love remembers who approached whom first about this sweetheart deal. Does it not seem like one would remember such a thing? Apparently the Star-Telegram reporter, Barry Shlachter, was not curious enough to push harder for answers.

The Star-Telegram's best reporter, Bud Kennedy, mentioned The Woodshed Scandal on his Facebook page a couple days ago, which resulted in oodles of comments indicating there are a lot of people not happy with what they are seeing with the Trinity River Vision.

The Star-Telegram article titled "Restaurant owners irked by no-bid deal with celebrity chef Tim Love" has also generated a lot of comments, 70 in total, as of right now. Likely to increase.

I particularly liked the most recent comment, it being #70, from someone calling him or herself FoodCourtJester...

Seems everything Mr. Love touches turns to gold except his sorry food. Did I see he baked a roasted jalapeño granny smith apple pie for the Cowboys game? He thinks he's inventing new food if you read the recent paid advertisement, I mean article, in Ft Worth magazine. A bunch of clueless locals so eager to latch onto anything a celebrity chef does because Ft Worth has a major inferiority complex is to blame. That same inferiority complex brought us the TRV. Austin has town lake and SA the riverwalk. Oh, and the comment in this article that Love mentioned Woodshed on national TV. Yippee. Sounds like Baby Granger, Lane, et al should be taken to the woodshed.

Another comment suggested that the FBI would soon be raiding the offices of the TRV. Apparently that comment maker was not aware that Fort Worth is under a protective bubble where its corruption is immune from federal scrutiny.

But, if there was an FBI investigation, or even if someone was able to invoke the Freedom of Information Act, I think the public would be fascinated to learn how much of their money is spent on the liquor supply at TRV headquarters. How much has been spent on junkets to other towns? How much has been spent at expensive restaurants? How much has been put on a TRV credit cards for a room or two in an expensive Dallas hotel?

Why doe the Star-Telegram not politely ask J.D. Granger for a look at the Trinity River Vision's books? If it is all on the up and up and totally justifiable, J.D. Granger should have no objection to total transparency.

Regarding FoodCourtJester saying that Tim Love makes sorry food. All Tim Love has ever cooked for me is a Dirty Love Burger at the Love Shack in the Fort Worth Stockyards. After reading all the hype about the Love Shack burgers I was a bit disappointed to find I found nothing all that great about it. And the fries were cold.

Who Thinks The Texas State Attorney General Should Look Into TRWD/TRVA Business Practices, Woodsheds & J.D. Granger?

Tim Love's Unopened Woodshed

Earlier this month, October 5 to be precise, my favorite tipster named Beale sent me a composite photo he had made of pictures he'd taken of Tim Love's new Woodshed restaurant and remodeling done recently to J.D. Granger's house.

I  blogged about this in a blogging titled An Anonymous Look at JD Granger's House Improvements & Tim Love's New Woodshed Restaurant.

I was told the reason J.D. Granger bailed on appearing at October 12's Trinity River Vision Discussion Forum, at Fort Worth's Botanic Garden, was because he did not like pictures of his house showing up on the Internet, and he did not want to answer questions about his house's remodeling's resemblance to Tim Love's Woodshed.

Now, when I heard this I thought this to be highly unlikely as the reason J.D. bailed. Because, if it were, how was it that this information as to J.D.s reason for bailing was attained?

Well, I have heard from Beale again.

Today Beale is telling me that the similarities between the J.D. house and the TRWD Annex near Northside Drive are even more striking than the resemblance to Tim Love's Woodshed. What can we conclude from this? I really don't know.

Beale also told me that the Woodshed cost $1.2 million and that currently three entities, (Tim Love, Tarrant Regional Water District and Trinity River Vision Authority) are at odds over something, which is why the Woodshed sits on the bank of the Trinity River, unopened.

The most interesting thing, to me, that Beale told me today, has nothing to do with J.D. Granger, the Trinity River Vision or Tim Love's Woodshed.

I was unable to confirm this via Google searching, but Beale says that the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Bud Kennedy has actually been in the Trinity River. Not on one of J.D. Granger's Rockin' the River Inner Tube Happy Hour Floats, but by other means.

Beale says a few years ago Bud Kennedy was driving on an icy road, lost control and ended up in the Trinity River. His girlfriend, at the time, a woman who must have had superhuman strength, somehow managed to pull super hefty Bud Kennedy from his car and get him safely to dry land.

Beale tells me that his source for the TRWD/TRVA info thinks the Attorney General of Texas should be persuaded to look into these governmental entities' business practices because the "Woodshed deal stinks.As does the rest of the TRV debacle."

Those of you who haven't been paying attention, TRV are the initials for Trinity River Vision, also known as Trinity River Vision Boondoggle (TRVB), a vision that has already seen the world's premiere wakeboarding lake being a world class attraction.