Jeers to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram

I vaguely recollect a time or two complaining about my little world class town's newspaper of record, that being the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. If I remember right I've made note before of the fact that I am not alone in bashing this deteriorating newspaper.

The complaints directed at this newspaper have grown so widespread and numerous that the newspaper itself seems to be joining in the bashing, in that of late it regularly prints reader's whines.

For example, on Saturdays on the editorial page there is always a section called "Cheers and Jeers." Now, me with my, well, negative nature, only read the "Jeers." The "Cheers" all too often are just dumb.

Like this one--- "Cheers: To Jean Johnson in home fashions and Mary Anderson in appliances at Sears for helping with a recent purchase."

I can't help but wonder if Jean and Mary sent in this "Cheer" to toot their own horn. I also can't help but wonder why the Star-Telegram would print it.

In today's "Cheers and Jeers" there were a large number of Jeers directed at the Star-Telegram, proving yet again I am not alone in my Star-Telegram bashing. What follows are some of the anti Star-Telegram Jeers.

Jeers: To the Star-Telegram for publishing awful photos of the NASCAR drivers in the April 3 Race Week section. They looked like bad driver's license pictures or police mug shots. Jeers to NASCAR if those were the only photos supplied.
--Shaun Eason, Arlington

Jeers: To the Star-Telegram for making no mention of a prominent day in U.S. history in the April 18 paper. The Doolittle Raid of April 18, 1942, was the first time in World War II when we were able to attack Japan on its homeland. Anyone know if any of the 80 crewmen are still alive?
--R.H. Rastall, Granbury

Jeers: To the Star-Telegram write Gaile Robinson for omitting the Amon Carter Museum's masterpieces Bluebonnets in her April 6 story on the Julian Onderdonk exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art. Why not cheer for the home team?
--Ruth C. Stevenson, Fort Worth

(make note of the above Jeer exhibiting the local's anti-Dallas fixation that I find so bizarre)

Jeers: To the Star-Telegram for being MIA at the races at Texas Motor Speedway, which is in Fort Worth. The other paper (meaning the Dallas paper) was there, but not you. For many years, you gave away newspapers in the campgrounds and in the stands. Great idea for Fort Worth. No longer.
--Steve Unger, Lake Kiowa

Jeers: To the Star-Telegram for selling auto advertisements that have the front end of the cars coming out of the ads into the news columns. I understand the need for ad revenue, but the paper doesn't seem to understand that customers don't want the ads leaping out at them.
--G.K. Worley, Fort Worth

(personal note: I agree, those ads are very annoying and look really cheesy)

Jeers: To the Star-Telegram for the May 2 gardening story that began: "It's time to give your lawn its first haircut of the season." Maybe in Philadelphia, where the story originated. But this is Texas, and I've been mowing my grass for three months. Can't the Star-Telegram find someone from here to write about the yard?
--Mark Watson, Trophy Club

Okay, that's it for Jeering at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for the day. It's time for breakfast.

Nick Hogan Doesn't Know Best

75% of the hundreds of people who have voted in my latest poll have indicated I should complain more about TV. Why, I do not know. But, I live to oblige.

So, I was eating lunch in front of a TV today and MSNBC was live with a crime sentencing. On the screen I saw that pop culture oddity, the pro-wrestler who calls himself Hulk Hogan. I wondered what crime did he commit? I remember reading that his wife Linda had had her fill of his overbearing ways and had filed for divorce. Had Hulk wrestled with her roughly?

I do remember watching an episode of "Hogan Knows Best," that being the Hogan Family reality show on that repository of BAD TV known as VH1, and the Hulk's wife, Linda had insisted on keeping a constantly pooping, diaper wearing monkey in the house. Much hilarity and mayhem ensued. A highlight being the Hulk having to change a monkey diaper and the monkey rubbing monkey poop on Mr. Hogan. A reality show highpoint.

Anyway, back to today on MSNBC. It was not Hulk Hogan who was heading behind bars. It's the teenage son, 17 year old Nick who is going to do some hard time. Unbeknownst to me (I can not be expected to keep up on everything) Nick was speeding, drunk and had a wreck which left his friend, a US Marine named John Graziano, in a possibly permanent vegetative state of perpetual coma.

I do not know if this will all show up on "Hogan Knows Best." Or if the divorce is part of the show. I do know that "Hogan Knows Best" now has a spin-off called "Brooke Hogan Knows Best." Brooke is the daughter. She's a singer wannabe. She looks older than her years. She seems likable.

I've not watched all that many of the "Hogan Knows Best" shows. I've found the wife, Linda, amusing, the kids tolerable, and Hulk Hogan an overbearing, sorta pseudo macho acting guy with an affected sounding way too deep voice and an odd, likely steroid use enhanced mode of walking, likely due to all that heft.

I happened upon an episode of "Hogan Knows Best" just a day or two ago. Linda and daughter Brooke tricked Hogan, real name, Terry, into going to a spa for all sortsa girly treatments to which he greatly objected. When it came time for him to wash off all the weird goo that had been rubbed all over him, his daughter, Brooke, managed to glance into the shower room and come out screaming, "I saw dad's wienie, I saw dad's wienie!" It being cable, and VH1 I cringed in fear that we, the innocent viewers, were also going to get a peak. We didn't. We did see Terry Hogan in the world's skimpiest bikini though and that is something I wish I'd not seen.

I don't know how Nick Hogan got so out of control. I'm amazed, from what I've seen on the show, that he got away from his dad long enough to get drunk. I remember one episode revolved around the dad's out of control concern that the then 15 year old Nick was being sexually active. Much cringeworthty TV time followed.

From what I've seen of Nick Hogan on "Hogan Knows Best," he is not going to handle very well the inevitable strip search prior to his lockup. I'm sure VH1 will be there to share every detail.

I'm Not The Only Star-Telegram Basher

I am not the only Fort Worth Star-Telegram Basher. Our numbers are large and they are increasing at about the same rate as the Star-Telegram is diminishing. Below is a Letter to the Editor from today's edition. Yet one more reader cancelling his subscription. I continue to subscribe, eternal optimist that I am, hoping that somehow this paper can be fixed. I'm very naive, I admit it.

---

As a subscriber for many years, I’ve watched the steady decline during the past couple of years as the Star-Telegram eliminated valued, usable content and began its descent into irrelevance.

After reading the series on JPS, however, I came to realize that the newspaper is no longer concerned with objective journalism, either.

Half-truths and subjective viewpoints were passed off as fact. Information more than 2 years old was passed off as current and, worse, still valid. Information that could have presented a balanced viewpoint was ignored. Successes were ignored.

Yes, JPS has problems, as does any hospital. But much of what was purported to be wrong with JPS had already been identified, addressed and resolved.

My main problem is that your series didn’t serve the public by providing an objective look at the situation. Instead, the focus seemed to be more on sensationalism, slanted to prey on our fears and mistrust and a need to create a “crisis in healthcare.” Give us the whole story, not just half.

The real crisis lies with the Star-Telegram. I’ve had enough. After I hit the send button, I’ll be calling to cancel my subscription.

— Brad Brown, Fort Worth

Dallas Cowboy Stadium Scandal Video

I was in Arlington early yesterday morning. I had my video camera with me. I was near the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium. I saw construction workers on the roof. It looked dangerous. I could not see how they were tethered to prevent a fall. I'm sure they were, but I could see no ropes attached to the workers.

A couple days ago I blogged about Jerry Jones' latest attempts to boot people out of their homes, for a parking lot, and that this time the City of Arlington is not going along as his co-conspirator in abusing the concept of eminent domain to attain private property for the public good.

I was able to find the location of the houses surrounded by Jerry Jones' new parking lot. I wanted to take a photo to illustrate those unlucky people's plight. But, that opportunity did not present itself. I think more newly acquired houses need to be bulldozed before the holdouts are in an Island of Parking Lots in the latest chapter of the worst abuse of eminent domain in American history.

The photo you see above is from the south side of the new stadium, with one of the few apartment complexes in the stadium zone still standing after Jerry Jones' Blitzkrieg of Bulldozers leveled all its neighbors.

Below is a video I made yesterday. In it you can see those workers on the roof I mentioned above. And you'll see some of what used to sit on the land the stadium now squats on.

Fort Worth's First Public Market

My dear 2 readers. Today is a whine about the Fort Worth Star-Telegram blogging day. I do this for my own enjoyment, not yours. So, read on if you must, but it won't hurt my feelings if you don't.

So, this morning's paper brought me a lotta fresh fodder. Right now I'll only mention one. In the Work & Money section in an article under the headline "List of endangered sites set to get longer."

Among the supposedly historic sites in Fort Worth that are in danger is the one you see in the photo. That being the Fort Worth Public Market Building.

The article describes the Fort Worth Public Market Building as having been built in 1930 to provide space for local farmers and vendors, closing in 1941.

So, what's the big deal? Well. Just a few short years ago the Fort Worth Star-Telegram had absolutely no awareness that Fort Worth had had a Public Market Building where farmers vended their wares.

In downtown Fort Worth a pathetic, obviously doomed to fail, badly designed, poorly executed, dishonestly promoted, small mall food court like thing opened to much Star-Telegram brouhaha. This sad, now shuttered, mistake, was called the Sante Fe Rail Market.

The Star-Telegram over and over and over and over again, even after being told, more than once, they were wrong, repeatedly claimed that the Santa Fe Rail Market was not only the first Public Market in Fort Worth, Fort Worth's disinformation purveyor claimed the Santa Fe Rail Market was the first Public Market in Texas!

The Star-Telegram also served up the ridiculous assertion, over and over and over again, that the Santa Fe Rail Market was modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market and Public Markets in Europe. Just 30 miles to the west, in Weatherford, there is a Public Market. And 30 miles to the east, in Dallas, there is a Public Market. Both of which, particularly the Dallas Market, actually do resemble Seattle's Pike Place Market, a market no Star-Telegram employee must have ever seen, as in how in clear conscience could they then have repeatedly repeated this absurd assertion?

Regarding the endangered Fort Worth Public Market, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram repeated the misinformation about the Santa Fe debacle being the first in Texas many many many times, even after it was pointed out to them that the first Public Market in Fort Worth was within walking distance of both the new soon to fail pseudo public market and the Star-Telegram's offices. I suggested they send one of their bloviated reporters out for a look. I also suggested they send a reporter to Seattle and have the reporter write an article making note of all the similarities between Pike Place and the Santa Fe Rail Market. If he could find any.

It is sort of sad that a transplant from the west coast, exiled in Fort Worth, has to point out the facts of their own town to the local newspaper. Something ain't right about that.

So, today it was interesting to read that these few years later the Star-Telegram is now not only acknowledging the existence of Fort Worth's first Public Market, they even put a large photo of it in the paper to illustrate the endangered structures.

Now if only they'd examine their part in the Santa Fe Rail Market's failure, due to the Star-Telegram helping create an erroneous expectation for visitors, particularly those who had been to Pike Place or some other successful public market, who were then disgusted to visit that sad Santa Fe operation and see what a lame thing it was and realize they'd been lied to once more by the local paper of record. The Star-Telegram should be ashamed for its part in that enterprise's demise.

With today's discovery of the actual first public market in Fort Worth how does the Star-Telegram reconcile their ridiculous inconsistencies? One can't help but wonder.

Tomorrow, unless something else comes, along I'll blog about the latest outrage from Fort Worth's ruling junta.

Dallas Doctor Warning

I don't have a lot of respect for many aspects of the Medical Business Industry. My limited contact with that business has always been not a pretty thing.

My worst experience being when I had to have a CAT SCAN. When I got to the hospital I was told that my doctor had ordered a different test due to some new test results. I was told I needed, I think it was called, a Gallium scan. It's been a lot of years and these are memories I want to fade.

I asked what is a Gallium scan for? You'll have to talk to your doctor I was told. I started getting a bit nervous. I was brought a large glass of a very vile fluid and told to drink it. It was gag material.

After about an hour a doctor showed up and I asked again what this Gallium scan was for and what has happened that has changed so that I'm not having a CAT SCAN? I was told a Gallium scan was to look for Hodgkin's Disease. I knew this was a cancer and that my grandpa I never met was killed by it.

Needless to say my blood pressure was going up. I was already in there for a fairly serious problem and now it got way amped up.

I started getting more insistent that I wanted an explanation. A nurse looked at some charts and seemed confused. She left. After awhile 2 doctors showed up. They asked my name. You're not Mr. Sloan? No, I am not. They told me there'd been a chart mix up.

And so, I was then led to another room, with my gut full of that vile liquid. There was some apologizing and then we proceeded on to the CAT SCAN.

When I got the medical bills, they were a Byzantine Ball of Confusion. My original operation required a, well, prothesis type of thing, made of silicone. The bill charged twice for it. I found many mistakes in the bill with my amateur eyes. I took the bill to my doctor and asked if he'd look for other mistakes. He said he wouldn't do that, ask a nurse. The nurse wouldn't do it either. I called the hospital and told them due to all the mistakes of various sorts I was not going to pay them. And I didn't.

Now, why am I telling this sad story right now? Well, I just read Gar the Texan's Blog about his bad experience recently with a bad Dallas doctor. A shrink named Neil Jacobson. Gar the Texan's daughter nearly died from this quack prescribing a pill after seeing her for 15 minutes. The hospital bill is quite large, Gar the Texan's lawyer told him it is not economically feasible to sue over such a small amount. I told Gar the Texan that is what small claims court is for.

And one of the things the Internet is good for is being able to spread the word about dangers like this Dallas doctor. 20 years ago our only source of such info would have been the conventional media, like the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. In other words, we live in an infinitely safer world now due to the Internet.

Dallas Cowboys Attacking Homes Again

Jerry Jones decided he needed more Arlington homes destroyed for added parking space for his new Dallas Cowboy stadium. So, Jerry Jones sent out someone to make offers to a number of homeowners. About a dozen, so far, have agreed to sell. Once the deals were made the deeds were transferred to a company run by Jerry Jones.

The city of Arlington, stung by their notorious new reputation for being co-conspirators in the worst abuse of the concept of eminent domain in American history, refused to use eminent domain this time.

Jerry Jones minions have been very aggressive, harassing the holdouts relentlessly. Jerry Jones has now acquired enough new parking lot space that the holdouts will end up being an island surrounded by concrete. And football fans.

Holdouts have had their homes invaded and have had to chase surveyors off their property.

Meanwhile, there are many cases still being litigated from the original land grab. Apparently there is some principle along the lines of you can't start bulldozing until due process has been followed. Or whatever the right legalese is. But Jerry Jones unleashed his Army of Bulldozers in a Hitlerian Blitzkrieg while homeowners were still trying to fight their destruction by using the American court system, well, the American court system as practiced in Texas.

If the cases can get to a court outside of Texas jurisdiction it would seem there'd be a good chance that justice might finally be found and maybe ultimate justice might be attained and someone finds himself charged, arraigned, tried, convicted and behind bars. And the NFL changes its mind about playing a Super Bowl in a stadium so shamefully built on what amounts to being a graveyard of people's unfairly altered lives.

I wonder how actively those holdout's home invasions have been investigated?

Six Flags Over Texas Roller Coasting

I've been to Six Flags Over Texas twice. Both times due to being given free passes. When I moved to Texas I thought it'd be fun living near what I assumed would be something like Disneyland. Sadly I was not out of the Six Flags parking lot before I realized Six Flags was no Disneyland.

Six Flags Over Texas is known for its roller coasters. I had not been on a roller coaster since I took my nephews to Vegas a couple months before I moved. In Vegas I rode the New York New York roller coaster. It is a bumpy ride but not bone jarring. In the photo that is me and my nephew Joey in the front seats on the NYNY coaster.

By the time I made my first visit to Six Flags I knew their Texas Giant wooden roller coaster was one of the world's tallest and that it had been named by some group of professional roller coaster riders as the Best Wooden Roller Coaster in the world.

I'd been on a wooden roller coaster before, at the PNE in Vancouver, Canada. The Canadian wooden roller coaster did not prepare me for the Texas Giant. It may be my age-related frailness, but by the time I got off the Texas Giant my bones were aching, my back felt like I'd been in a Nazi torture chamber, my neck was twisted. And my hair was a total mess.

And so I vowed to never get on another roller coaster. And I haven't.

You can ride the Texas Giant via the YouTube video below. And go to my Eyes on Texas website for more Six Flags coaster rides.

Scarlett Dumped Me For Ryan Reynolds

I'm shocked. After our long secret romance, Scarlett Johannson is suddenly marrying someone named Ryan Reynolds. How did this happen? Who is Ryan Reynolds? I don't even feel like I know Scarlett anymore. I don't feel like I ever really did.

Not having a clue as to who this was who stole Scarlett away from me I had to look it up. He's a Canadian. From Vancouver. How can she marry a Canadian? They say "eh" after almost every sentence, like they question every thing that comes out of their mouths. It is very very annoying after you hear dozens of "eh's".

That's Ryan Reynolds on the right. Eh? With the beard. Eh? Scarlett looks like she's lost weight. Eh?

Canadians also don't know how to properly pronounce other words. Like they can not say "about." It comes out as "aboot." Eh?

And Canadians leave off the word "the" when they speak of going to a hospital. They don't say, "They took him to the hospital." Canadians say, "They took him to hospital." Eh?

I worked for a short time for an ex-priest in Tacoma who married an ex-nun and who runs a rundown trinket store in Tacoma. He would say, "I will have to talk that over with staff." Not, "I will talk that over with the staff." Or, "my staff." That'd work too. I don't know why I find this annoying. Maybe, in the ex-priest's case, it's because his staff consisted of his ne-er-do-well son, the son's high school dropout wife, a dissipated elderly alcoholic, a blonde floozy and a yes girl who acted like Honey in the Doonesbury strip. It just seemed sort of pretentious to refer to that group as staff.

One time the ex-priest told me he considered me part of staff. Even though I'm in Texas. I was offput. I did not want to be part of staff. I no longer am part of staff. It was probably my bad attitude that got me removed from staff. Eh?

I also worked for the ex-priest's hugely obese sister. She sold chocolate and ate considerable volumes of the stuff. While being perpetually on the Atkin's Diet. She had all sorts of digestive and hygiene issues. Due to her size she fell down every once in awhile. I only saw one fall. It was like watching a large tree slowly crash to the ground. She never got hurt from the falls due to all that heft acting like a giant pillow. Or at least that's what I assumed. When I saw her fall I tried to help her get back up, but I can only lift 300 pounds tops.

Eventually I had enough and had to fire the ex-priest's hugely obese sister. She'd lied to and cheated one of my best friends one time too many. She was caught shorting her workers on pay. And then she made the mistake of shorting me. I never did learn the exact size of the fine that she had to pay to Labor & Industries. Except that I heard through the grapevine that it was substantial. The IRS caught up to her too. For not filing for 10 years.

I wonder who turned her in?

Turkmenistan Texas

I was reminded of Fort Worth's Bass family when I saw this photo of what I believe is the Saparmurat Atayevich Niyazov Performance Hall in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. Fort Worth's Bass Family, as I've noted previously, has an odd habit of naming Fort Worth buildings after themselves, like the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall in beautiful downtown Fort Worth.

Saparmurat Atayevich Niyazov was Turkmenistan's president for life til he died a couple years ago. He became quite famous during his reign for his megalomaniacal ways, one of which was a penchant for naming all sorts of things after himself on a level that leaves the Bass Family puny pikers.

Niyazov decided the old names for months and days would be much better if named after various people, such as himself and his mother and other Turkmenistan historical figures.

He even renamed bread after his mother. Both the month of April and bread became Gurbansoltan. April seems a much prettier name for both bread and a month. And a mother. Maybe Gurbansoltan sounds better in its native tongue than it reads in English. When I try to say Gurbansoltan it sounds like Gur Buns So Tan.

Niyazov banned car radios, lip-synching and all recorded music.

Because Niyazov thought dogs smelled bad they were banned from capital city Ashgabat.

Niyazov spent untold millions of dollars to build a lake. Which is yet one more thing Ashgabat and Fort Worth have in common, as in Fort Worth has a boondoggly plan to spend untold millions of dollars to build a lake, and just like in Turkmenistan, the good citizens of Fort Worth do not get to vote on the lake that may flood part of their town. Fort Worth's ruling junta makes those type decisions and then orders property owners off their property using the unique Texas variant of the concept of using eminent domain to acquire private property for the public good. Like building a lake.

President-for-Life Niyazoz liked seeing himself in sculpted form, so he ordered statues of himself erected all over Turkmenistan, including a 40 foot high gold statue that stood on top of a 20 story tower and rotated throughout the day to face the sun.

I used the past tense to describe the location of the above statue because it has gone bye-bye. The new Turkmenistan President-for-Life, Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov, ordered the gold statue moved to another part of Ashgabat. I don't know if it still rotates.

The new President-for-Life is not seen as a powerful leader like his predecessor. Because he looks so much like the previous President-for-Like it is rumored throughout Turkmenistan that Berdymukhamedov is Niyazoz's illegitimate son.

Berdymukhamedov is sort of acting like his possible dad in that he is sort of making moves to start his own personality cult. He recently ordered that his likeness be put on newly minted coins. Can statues and a new calendar be far behind? Maybe he'll rename the country Absurdistan.

I bet there are members of the Bass Family who would love to have a statue or two in their honor, along with their likeness on a coin or two.