The Battle at Kruger

Oblivious as I am to the world around me it is not too big a surprise that I'd not seen what I guess is the most viewed video on YouTube. That being "The Battle at Kruger." Over 31 millions video views. This video was the Winner of YouTube's Best Eyewitness Video. YouTube must have some sort of awards show. I suppose there is a YouTube video of the YouTube Video Awards Show.

There is a "The Battle at Kruger" website. If you are at work, be warned the website opens with loud jungle music. The turn off the sound button is small, scroll down and you'll find it on the left side of the page.

The Battle at Kruger video lasts a bit over 8 minutes. Stay with it til the end and you are rewarded with a happy ending.

Naked in Seattle

Each morning after I read the hard copy Fort Worth Star-Telegram I then read the online version of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer to get a, well, more intelligent version of a newspaper. I miss the daily hard copy of the P-I. In all my years of reading the P-I I don't recollect anything about it annoying me, or finding a mistake. I've lost count of the mistakes I've come across in the Star-Telegram. One would have thought I'd spot a mistake or two in the P-I, since I lived in its coverage zone for my entire life, til moving to Texas. Yet, even with me not all that familiar with the coverage zone of the Star-Telegram, I find errors. I think one can extrapolate from that that there must be a lot more errors that I don't spot because I'm not familiar with what's being written about.

Anyway, this morning whilst reading the P-I I was struck, yet again, by how starkly different the West Coast is from Texas. I knew prior to moving that it would be much more conservative, overall, in the Buckle of the Bible Belt. It's not a secret that the West Coast, and Washington in particular, and certainly Seattle, is much more liberal than Texas.

Washington is also way less repressive and, I dunno, free-spirited might be the words I'm looking for. Like in today's P-I on the front page there's a photo of a nudist swinging on a rope over the Ballard Pool. That's the photo above. I can't imagine such a photo appearing in the Star-Telegram. Let alone an article about a local pool's nude swims.

There are a few nudist colonies in Texas and a nude beach called Hippie Hollow down by Austin. The West Coast has nude runs, nude swims, nude bike rides & nude hikes. Vancouver has Wreck Beach, that's a huge nude beach where thousands congregate on a hot summer day. I've been there once. It was fun. But I got sunburned in unfortunate places. Near where I lived in Washington there is a nude beach called Teddy Bear Cove. I remember many a fun night at a natural hot springs near the Mount Baker volcano. It is a short hike through old growth forest to Baker Hot Springs. On a weekend night there were often dozens of nude hot springers having a real good time. Early in the Reagan years orders came from Washington to shut down Baker Hot Springs. It has since been restored to its former glory.

There is a Seattle neighborhood called Fremont that seceded from the Union and declared itself the Independent Republic of Fremont. Fremont has an annual event called the Summer Solstice Parade and Pageant. Thousands attend. A highlight is the nude bike ride. A few years back there was an attempt by some prudes to force clothes on the bike riders. That attempt failed.

I can't imagine a parade in Texas featuring a nude bike ride. If one wanted to go on a nude hike in Texas I don't think it'd be much of a problem because there are a lot of fine parks with fine trails and very very very few Big Texans out hiking on them. Regarding that I'll just say this, for the same reason it is pleasant to swim in the buff it is also pleasant to hike sans outerwear.

Below is a video of a pair of Canucks crossing the border, legally, and heading to Baker Hot Springs. In the video they erroneously name Baker Lake as Mount Baker Lake. I point that out lest you visit the fine state of Washington and want to seek out that scenic lake. There is no one but the Canucks in the hot springs and this pair of Canadians broke the rules by keeping their clothes on. Shameless scofflaws.

Below the video is today's fresh goofiness from the Star-Telegram.



Okay, today's Star-Telegram goofiness is once more that bizarre policy of supposedly making a story local unlike the evil paper in the evil city 30 miles east of Fort Worth, by pointing out any remote Texas connection to someone being written about. On the TV page, in a blurb about a show on FOX called Bones, we learn a guy from American Idol will be on tonight's show. And "fellow Idol grad---and former University of North Texas student---Brandon Rogers also appears and Burleson's Kelly Clarkson gets name-dropped."

Wow! Burleson's Clarkson gets named dropped and some guy who dropped out of a Texas college is on the show! I'm sure glad we got reminded for the umpteenth time that Kelly Clarkson is from Burleson. I almost forgot.

And then on "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire The Colony's (that's a Dallas suburb) Janelle Newland goes after the big bucks today, and she's not the last North Texan we'll see during the next couple weeks." Oh thank God, a reason to go on living.

If that is not enough excitement, on American Gladiator, "competition begins, with the challengers including Dallas' Jeff Davidson and his wife, Ally..."

Jenna Bush Tornado Free Wedding

The Jenna Bush wedding did not get hit by the line of storms that passed through north Texas yesterday.

Oh well.

I apologize to my 2 readers for once more succumbing to one of my more pathetic obsessions, but, this morning's Sunday Fort Worth Star-Telegram had the goofiest example yet of their bizarre policy of trying to tie any story to any remote pointless connection to Fort Worth.

I believe the Star-Telegram's #1 worst reporter is Anna Tinsley. She is the writer who over and over and over again repeated the nonsense that a lame Fort Worth food court was the first pubic market in Texas and was modeled after Seattle's Pike Place. I can remember 2 other glaring errors, one being in her description of trails at Bob Jones Park up by Lake Grapevine. The other being several bizarre mistakes in an article about a new section of trail at River Legacy Park.

So, in this morning's Star-Telegram, Anna Tinsley apparently was sent to Crawford to cover the Jenna Bush wedding.

Under a sub-headline "Texas 'royalty'" Miss Tinsley writes:

"It's like our royalty in Texas is getting married," said Stacy Wallace, a Temple woman who originally hails from Fort Worth. "I've been wanting to come by for some time, and I thought (Saturday) was the perfect day to do it."

She originally hails from Fort Worth? Why is this information we need? So, Miss Tinsley solicited the quote about Texas royalty, telling Miss Wallace she was a reporter for the Fort Worth paper and Miss Wallace then said she hailed from Fort Worth and so Miss Tinsley added that important fact to her story about the Jenna Bush wedding? Is that how this useless point ended up in the paper?

And what precisely does "hails from" mean? Comes from? Doesn't to hail something mean give a shout out to? Or call? Okay, I'll look it up. Well, after we get past the frozen version of hail and objects thrown forcefully through the air and an enthusiastic greeting and to praise vociferously we get to hail meaning to be a native of.

If Miss Wallace now lives in Temple does she still qualify as a native of Fort Worth?

I'm past caring now. Below is an amusing video about the Jenna Bush wedding. It sounds like the report comes from India.

Tornado Warning for Jenna Bush Wedding

At 4:15 PM CDT the National Storm Prediction Center issued a Tornado Watch until 9:00 PM CDT. The storm line runs from about 50 northeast of Dallas, southwest to Temple, Texas. Temple is south of Waco. In the neighborhood of Crawford. Where Jenna Bush is due to walk down the aisle with her daddy come sunset.

So, at this point in time the Jenna Bush wedding has the potential to have some good weather drama. The local TV stations are likely already in full arm waving Weather Drama Queen Mode. I'm not going to turn on the TV to find out.

Watch the below video to get a real good idea of what we put up with here in constantly stormy Texas.

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.