Gennifer Flowers & Paula Jones

That's a pair of names that belong in the last century. Unfortunately they resurfaced this morning. The pair of Bill Clinton's ex's have teamed up in a business venture.

They are offering Internet users graphic details of their Bill Clinton encounters for a mere $1.99 per viewing of one of their videos describing their rollicking times with Hillary's first hub.

Speaking of Hillary. Yesterday I came upon some YouTubery about Hillary. It is so easy to forget the many Clinton scandals. This YouTube video is about that long ago scandal regarding Hillary and Hollywood and a massive fundraiser whilst she was still First Lady and running for Senator from New York.

The video is in 2 parts. You have to get a couple minutes in for it to get interesting. It starts off sort of goofy. This video sort of relates to the most recent Clinton dust-up, that being a week or so ago when Bill got all huffy over an article in Vanity Fair.

United States Flag and Religion Day

I've had me a day so far. I'm sort of recovering from pedaling 20 miles yesterday and ending up with my first bad sunburn in a long time.

I thought a nice peaceful non-hilly walk would do my aching aging bones good. About 3 miles from my abode there is a nice park called Indian Village Park. So named because before the invaders ran them out of their town it was the site of one of the biggest Indian Villages on the continent.

But, before getting to Indian Village I had to go to the Post Office. And was surprised to see the state of the flag waving in the wind. That's it in the photo. This was at the Handley Post Office. Aren't there some rules and regulations regarding displaying a flag? Or maybe this tattered flag has some significance of some sort.

I'd not been to Indian Village in quite a while. It's the time of year when it's a lush jungle, with really big trees. I saw my first armadillos in a long long time, 2 little ones. My last armadillo sighting was a couple years ago at River Legacy Park when in one day I saw 3 separate sets of baby armadillos. I used to see armadillos at River Legacy all the time, but ever since a huge flood a couple years ago I've seen no armadillos and way fewer snakes.

Right after I saw the armadillos I saw this older lady in a moo-moo heading towards me. She asked if I'd seen 3 boys with fishing poles. I said no, but I just saw 2 armadillos.

She asked if I walked here often. I said no. She asked what parks I go to. She liked learning that River Legacy now has a mountain bike trail. She said something about praying about the blessing of taking her kids walking at River Legacy.

And then she asked if she could give me her testimony. This is only the second time this has happened to me in the Buckle of the Bible Belt. The other time was Gar the Texan giving me his religious testimony. But his was of a different sort, I suspect, than the type testimony the moo-moo lady wanted to give me.

I indicated I did not want to hear her testimony. She then asked if she could say one verse to me. I said okay. She then said that bible verse you hear all the time that goes something like "God sacrificed his son so anyone who believed in him would have everlasting life." I wanted to ask what sort of father would do such a thing? And if Jesus didn't really die and was back alive and in heaven 3 days after being murdered, then, really, where is the sacrifice? And why does believing this somehow give you everlasting life?

As I started to walk away the moo-moo lady insisted I take two little pamphlets. One is called "THIS WAS YOUR LIFE." The other is "DO YOU KNOW FOR CERTAIN THAT YOU HAVE ETERNAL LIFE AND THAT YOU WILL GO TO HEAVEN WHEN YOU DIE!"

That second one is disturbing for asking a question, but ending the sentence with an exclamation point.

I thought I'd made my escape, quickly crossing the bridge. But the moo-moo lady started hollering at me, something about a bird. So, I turned around and headed back towards her. She was pointing at something, but all I saw was a turtle. And then the bird appeared. It was very exotic looking. I'd not seen one before. Then the bird flew away. I started thinking the moo-moo lady has strange powers.

She then told me she'd seen a mountain lion just ahead. She said people didn't believe her. I told her I believed her because I've seen one too. She pointed to a bench and said that's where it happened, that she was kneeling and praying and looked up from her praying to see a mountain lion 6 feet away. She started screaming "Save me Jesus." The mountain lion backed away.

The moo-moo lady went home and called the police. Animal control was sent. They found signs of a mountain lion. Later that day a Dallas news helicopter got footage of the mountain lion near River Legacy Park. I remember when this was in the news.

The moo-moo lady was really easy to listen to with a classic lilting Texas accent. If only she didn't mix in that religious stuff.

Biking the Trinity Trail in Fort Worth

I have not been on my bike much in the past several months. I've been enjoying hiking at Tandy Hills Park instead. But this week I rode the mountain bike trail for 11 plus miles at River Legacy Park for the first time in a long time. New sections of trail have been added. It was all in the best shape I'd ever seen it.

I felt so good after biking at River Legacy that today I decided to pedal another trail I used to do all the time, but have not in months. That being the Trinity Trail in Fort Worth. There are 30 some miles of paved trails along side the Trinity River in Fort Worth.

I started my ride at Gateway Park. Gateway Park is where Fort Woof is located. Gateway Park is on the north side of I-30, directly across from Tandy Hills Park. Gateway Park supposedly has a new mountain bike trail. I pedaled all over, but was unable to find it. So I hit the Trinity Trail. That's it above where you see a bridge atop a dam. The trail crosses these type dams in several places.

Usually I pedal about 7 miles, turning around when I am in view of the Fort Worth Stockyards. But today was being a lotta fun. A heavy wind pushing me had me sailing over 25mph a couple times. I knew I was gonna pay for it when I headed back into the wind.

Usually I see no one on this section of the Trinity Trail. But today I saw at least 6 other bikers. And two walkers. But they were homeless people under bridges. The homeless people are usually the only humans I see on this section of the Trinity Trail. The section that runs from downtown, west, is where you'll usually see humans. And no homeless people.

I saw 2 vexing things during my ride, other than the 2 homeless people. The first one was right after I pedaled under I-35 I saw something new. A shelter with a bench and 3 drinking fountains, one on ground level for dogs, a mid-level one for kids and a taller one for bigger people. But the oasis turned out to be a mirage. As in the water fountains produced no water. I could have used some more water. When I went by the mirage on my way back there were a pair of bikers pushing on the buttons trying to get water. The City of Fort Worth has been having some budget woes. Maybe they didn't pay the water bill.

The other vexing really surprised me. When I got in view of the Stockyards, on the other side of the river, not far from that side of the river's trail, a gas drilling company rig is in full operation. I'd not seen this brand before. FGDC, I think were the initials, but my bad eyes could not read what the F word was. I know what my F word was at that moment, though.

This was at the 7 mile mark, or so. Usually this is when I turn around. But I saw construction cranes where the new downtown Tarrant County Community College is being built. When I last saw the construction zone they were cutting into the Trinity Bluff, shoring it up with steel and cement. And now the building is well underway. From what I saw I think this is going to be a real good addition to downtown Fort Worth.

I've always been impressed by the Main Street Bridge that crosses the Trinity River, connecting downtown to the Stockyards and beyond. There is an historical marker near the bridge on the opposite side from where I was. I can't remember what makes it historical, but I think it was something like being the first bridge to use concrete arches. Or something like that. I was too worn out at the 10 mile mark to add another 1 to get to the other side to read the historical marker.

But what struck me today is it is sort of sad that few see this bridge. The Trinity Trail runs under it, but no road comes into view of it. So, those Texans who are constitutionally restricted to walking distances no greater than 10 feet, have never seen this bridge. One troubling thing I noticed. One of the support trusses attached to one of the arches, was cracked. If this were an earthquake zone that would be worrisome.

That is the Main Street Bridge in the photo, just part of it. That is the arch that has the cracked truss on top of it. That is Radio Shack's Headquarters on the other side of the arch. It's a scenic spot. That few see. I think when the new TCC campus opens up, many more people will get an appreciation of this bridge. And this section of the Trinity Trails.

So, I ended up biking about 20 miles. There is little shade and I ended up being out in the sun for about an hour and a half, shirtless. So, I have my first minor sunburn in a long long while.

Dallas vs. Fort Worth

This is a totally D/FW centric blogging, so read no further if anything D/FW centric vexes you.

So, it's been my observation during my time here that there is a weird one-sided rivalry that has gone on for years, with many Fort Worthers feeling like their town is overshadowed by Dallas. Because, well, Fort Worth is overshadowed by Dallas.

You often hear odd remarks about Dallas coming out of Fort Worther's mouths, as if Dallas is some sort of evil place best avoided. I documented some of this some time ago. You can read that here. Some of it is pretty amusing.

Well. Yesterday I came upon something interesting that likely will vex those Fort Worthers who are Dallas obsessed.

On my Eyes on Texas website I have a page about the Fort Worth Stockyards. It is usually my 4th or 5th most visited webpage. I've long known it Googles well, as in, usually somewhere in the top 5, when someone searches for "Fort Worth Stockyards."

I was checking on my webstats. I get a list of what search strings people are using that have them ending up on my website. I'd noticed before, but thought nothing of it, that one of the top search strings is "Dallas Stockyards."

Fort Worth Stockyards does not show up on my top 20 list of search strings.

So. I Googled "Dallas Stockyards" and what do my surprised eyes see? My webpage Googles #1. Then I noticed the number of results for the Dallas Stockyards search was 379,000.

I then Googled "Fort Worth Stockyards" and found that search string brought up only 122,000 results with my Fort Worth Stockyards webpage being #4.

I don't really know what to conclude about this except that it would seem a lot of people associate Forth Worth's actual one and only unique thing, that being the Stockyards, with Dallas.

For a variety of reasons, some notorious, Dallas is imprinted on the world's consciousness. The Dallas skyline is iconic, recognized all over the world, due to a TV show's opening credits and that show for a long period of time being the world's most popular TV show. Nothing about Fort Worth is recognized all over the world, or even the majority of the nation.

The only thing in Fort Worth that even remotely might be considered iconic, that might be recognized by some people in the rest of the nation, is the Fort Worth Stockyards sign above Exchange Avenue.

It's sort of sad that apparently a lot of people associate Fort Worth's only possible iconic image with Dallas and Google for info about it because they think they want to visit the Dallas Stockyards.

D-Day Anniversary & Google Earth

Yesterday, if my math is correct, and I admit my math is often faulty, was the 64th Anniversary of D-Day.

I knew a computer whiz once, named Dale, who had no idea what things like D-Day or Pearl Harbor Day were. I found that appalling.

So, for you Dale's out there, here is the short version of what D-Day is.

Way back in the last century there was this massive war caused by Germany and Japan going nuts and violently taking over other countries. This became known as World War II.

A couple years after starting the war, Germany tried to take over Russia, which was then known as the Soviet Union.

But that invasion didn't go so well for Germany. The Soviets began pushing the Germans back to Germany where they belonged. The dictator of the Soviets was an evil man named Stalin. Stalin wanted his Allies, those being, mainly, America and England, to open a second front in the west.

The Allies took awhile to agree on the idea of how to open a western front. Roosevelt, who was the American President, was gung-ho on the idea of taking on the Krauts in France, but the English leader, Churchill, feared a bloodbath.

By 1944 the Soviets were rapidly advancing on Germany. The Americans and Brits knew they had to move fast so as to prevent the Soviets from taking over all of Germany. And so on June 4, 1944 the largest amphibious invasion in history began with landings on the beaches of Normandy. Normandy is a province of France. France is a country that Germany invaded in 1940. By the end of D-Day the Allies had control of the beaches and were moving inland.

The Germans were soon in full retreat on all fronts.

In a coincidence, regarding yesterday, and D-Day. I am currently reading a very good book by Joseph E. Persico called Roosevelt's Secret War: FDR and World War II Espionage. On the anniversary of D-Day I was at the point in the book were Roosevelt had changed his mind on who was to be the General in charge of Operation Overlord, that being the code name for D-Day. Roosevelt decided to have Eisenhower run the show instead of General George Marshall.

And, on another D-Day note. Yesterday I went to the beaches of Normandy. I visited via Google Earth. If you've not installed Google Earth on your computer, you really should. It's free. Go here and get it. Yesterday I also went to Baghdad. That was very interesting. You can check out the Green zone and go all over Baghdad. I had no idea there we so many cool looking buildings in Baghdad.

Google Earth has a lot of features packed into it. Like if you go to Mount Rushmore an audio tour starts up. Some areas are done in extremely high resolution. Like I can almost read the license plate on my vehicle. If you've not been to Mt. St. Helens, go via Google Earth. Las Vegas is another locale that is in extremely high resolution. You can get down to street level and see exactly what it is like to vist Vegas. I'd not been to Disneyland since Disney California opened, so that was interesting to see how that has all changed.

National Donut Day

Good Gawd. Not barely a minute after I write longwindedly about the need to go on a National Diet I learn that today is National Donut Day! The most obese nation on earth needs a day to celebrate the donut!?

I can see where it'd make sense if the state I am in had a State Donut Day. I've never seen so many donut stands as there are here. There seem to be more donut stands here in Texas than the ridiculous number of espresso joints all over the Seattle zone.

Okay, I'll admit I've had a donut or two in my day. I've actually had more donuts than espresso. I never jumped on the espresso bandwagon. I hated all that coffee talk, did not want to learn that lingo just to order a cup of coffee. When Krispy Kreme arrived with much brouhaha and huge crowds, in Arlington, well, I had to taste what the fuss was about. Krispy Kremes are good, especially when hot out of the fryer.

But, I'll eat, at most, 2, of the overly sweet things. I've seen obese people sitting inside Krispy Kreme eating one after another. And taking a couple boxes home with them. I think donuts should carry a federally mandated warning, just like cigarettes do. Because, it seems obvious from all the porkers wolfing them down that they don't know the health downside from consuming so many empty calories of sugar and fat.

Is there a National Cigarette Day? I guess I could look it up. How about a National All You Can Eat Buffet Day? Is there a National Do Nothing But Sit On Your Butt Day? I'm guessing not. Is there a National Beer Day? There should be. I like beer. And I don't have a beer gut. Or a beer butt, either.

I guess I should walk across the street to my local Krispy Kreme pusher, Albertsons, and get me a donut to celebrate this National Holiday.

Food Costs, Gas Costs & Obesity

I grow tired of hearing the constant lamenting of rising food and gas prices. Not that I don't feel the pain. It's just that rather than whine, I don't know why people just don't do something about it if money is getting tight due to having to spend more on food and gas.

Take gas, for instance. There are some places you absolutely need to drive to, you can't avoid it. Other drives you can avoid. Like I used to think nothing of driving 50 miles round trip to Cedar Hills State Park in Dallas to go on an 8 mile mountain bike ride. I've done that dozens of times during my exile in Texas.

When the drive to Cedar Hills came to cost about 10 bucks in gas, that just seemed a really stupid thing to do. That and I used to buy an annual park pass, which I no longer buy, saving another $70, or whatever it costs now.

I'm pretty certain I'm spending way less on gas now than when it cost $1.29 a gallon. I used to like to drive up to Lake Grapevine, once more about 50 miles roundtrip, to hike or bike at Rockledge Park. Then I discovered Tandy Hills Park, with greatly superior hiking, only 4 miles from my abode.

Which leads me to the food cost increase.

Well.

It has been my observation, particularly here in Texas, that America could stand to go on a National Diet. There is way too much obesity. I saw a hugely fat little kid yesterday, swimming. To me letting your kid get that fat is a form of child abuse.

I've never been much of a junk fooder. But I do like cheese, the sharper the better. When cheese prices spiked I quit buying it, just on the principle of it. My own cooking is usually healthier than eating in a restaurant, so I do that seldom. It's way cheaper to eat your own cooking.

If the chubby people would cease going to fast food joints, or cut way back, they'd save money, calories and gas.

If the chubby people would get out of their car and walk a bit more they'd burn more calories and less gas.

I see fat people at the Super Wal-Mart riding in the motorized carts, due to being unable to walk, due to their heft, with their cart filled with awful stuff like packaged donuts, candy, bags of chips, frozen breaded chicken parts, frozen corn dogs, bacon, ice cream and assorted other things that you shouldn't be eating if you're obese, with no sign of fresh fruit, vegetables or anything nutritious and lo-cal in the cart.

It is my totally based on nothing guess that America could stand to cut back on what it collectively eats by 30% or more. If demand for food goes down, the price will go down, just like the price of gas would go down if the demand for gas dropped.

Other nations do not have the advantage that America has in this area. The American people are together carrying millions of tons of stored calories, sort of a food version of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

So, now, in this time of crisis, it is time for America to draw on its Strategic Fat Reserve and go on a National Diet. This will bring down the price of food, the price of gas and the price of health care. It's a win, win, win.

Stuck: The Movie and Fort Worth

I sort of recollect mentioning an oddity which regularly occurs in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, one where if there is even the most remote of a connection between Forth Worth and someone in the news, or on TV, the Star-Telegram will let you know.

Well, today there was an example of this that I would have expected the Star-Telegram to ignore, as it is one of those connections that you really don't want to have associated with your town.

A movie named Stuck opens today. Stuck is about a woman who runs into a homeless man with her car, impaling him in her windshield. She then drives home, parks in her garage, leaves the man bleeding and dying while she goes in the house to make whoopee with her boyfriend.

Stuck is set in Providence, Rhode Island and filmed in Canada.

And now the Fort Worth connection. On October 26, 2001, a woman in my Fort Worth neighborhood named Chante Mallard rammed into a homeless man named Gregory Biggs, impaling his head and torso in her Chevy Cavalier windshield. Mr. Biggs is believed to have lived for 3 days, stuck in the windshield while Ms. Mallard made whoopee with her boyfriend.

The Stuck movie version of this crime leaves out a lot of what Ms. Mallard did. The Star-Telegram's review of this movie made the Fort Worth connection in the first sentence, as in "Loosely based on an incident that occurred several years ago in Fort Worth." They might have added, being more true to the paper's usual form, that Ms. Mallard was born and raised in Fort Worth, in addition to committing her heinous crime in Fort Worth. I don't know where she is serving her jail time.

Go here to read a New York Times article about the 'incident' that Stuck is based on.

Gas Prices. What Are You Going To Do?

A cottage industry seems to have sprouted up giving people advice about what to do, travel-wise, what with gas costing a little more than last summer. Like here in the D/FW Metroplex, in the local papers and on the radio, I've heard advice to stay close to home and visit the local attractions.

And then a few days ago in the New York Times I saw a pretty goofy variant under the title, "The 31 Places to Go This Summer." The article starts off with, "Traveling this summer may sound like a cruel joke: airlines are getting worse, gas prices are creeping toward $5 a gallon and the euro continues to go up, up, up. It's almost enough to make you stay home. Almost."

And then proceeded to offer 31 suggestions. I'd been to quite a few of the suggestions, so I slightly know whereof I speak. One suggestion that made sense, yet oddly named, as in the label was "Pacific Northwest." The suggestion was to ride AmTrak and stay in Glacier National Park.

Another suggestion that sort of made sense, if you were already in Washington, was to take the ferry to the San Juan Islands. I have not done that since the summer before I moved to Texas. Walked onboard in Anacortes and for only 4 bucks you could ride to all the islands. Lulu informed me yesterday that it now costs something like 60 bucks to take your car and one passenger out to Friday Harbor in the San Juans. She did not know how much a walk on now costs.

As for goofy gas and money saving suggestions, one was houseboating on Lake Powell. I've done this twice. No matter which marina you find your boat, it is gonna be a long drive to get there, even if you fly into the nearest airport and rent a car. And renting a houseboat is not cheap, as in over a couple thousand bucks for 4 days. And you pay for the gas. The houseboats do not get good gas mileage.

That is a Lake Powell pic at the top. Me in the lotus position high atop a redrock bluff in a place we called Bobcat Cove, misnamed because it was a Mountain Lion, not a Bobcat, that I heroically saved everyone from in the middle of the night. You can read all about that trauma here. That is me being the Captain of what I came to call Hell Houseboat in the photo on the left.

Another goofy suggestion was to go to Monument Valley. Now, Monument Valley is very cool. And the drive there goes through some great scenery, like the Painted Desert. But once more, there is driving involved. Monument Valley is in a rather isolated location.

One of the suggestions was to go to Las Vegas. I can get behind this. Easily flown to and once there you don't have to drive. Lulu would suggest you fly to Vegas and then rent a car to drive to Lake Powell. Or Monument Valley. I think I make mention of why Lulu would suggest this in the Lake Powell link above. Or just click here.

# 1 on the NY Times list is Texas Hill Country. Been there done that. I wouldn't suggest it. Unless you've not seen hills before. I believe Texas Hill Country is #1 on the list due to the list being arranged in no particular order, not due to it being in order of supposed merit.

The Western Road Trip suggestion goes through some nice scenery, starting in Vegas and having you go to Bryce Canyon NP en route to Capitol Reef NP. Why it has you skipping the North Rim of the Grand Canyon or Zion NP, I do not know. But, once more, a lot of driving would be involved.

I can get behind the suggestion to visit Portland, Oregon. But it makes no mention of nearby Mt. St. Helens. Another suggestion is to drive Highway 101 along the Oregon Coast. I've not done that in a long time and would love to.

Anyway, go here to check out the rest of the list in the New York Times.

George W. Bush Eminent Domain Abuser?

This morning I Googled "dallas cowboy stadium scandal" and was surprised to see this search string brought up 644,000 hits. I was a little less surprised to see that this very blog Googled #1 for that search striing with my Eyes on Texas website Googling #2.

But what really surprised me was some of the info this search string brought up. As in I did not know that there had been eminent domain abuse in Arlington prior to the outrageous, should be criminal, abuse that was done to get land for the new Dallas Cowboy stadium.

None other than our Dearly Beloved Leader, George W. Bush, was part of what New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof described "as a sordid tale of cronyism, of misuse of power, of cozy backroom money-grubbing -- a more pressing threat to American business than outright criminality." He called Bush's dealings appalling. "Even Kazakhstan," he said, "would blush at such practices."

Go here to read the New York Times article titled "Bush and The Texas Land Grab."

Go here to read another article on the same subject which references the NY Times article and is titled "Taking Propoerty, Bush's landgrab -- and the New York Times."

How did this guy get elected? Both as the governor of Texas. And the U.S. President. It's perplexing.

And what is wrong with the city of Arlington?

Who was it who said something like "That which you do to the least of us, you do to me?" Oh, yeah, Jesus. I've seen a lot of churches in Arlington. I've not paid close enough attention to ascertain if they are Christian churches. With Arlington's civic bad behavior regarding how the city allows its citizens to be treated, I suspect these must not be Christian churches. How did that happen in the Buckle of the Bible Belt?