George W. Bush Final Primetime TV Interruption

In less than an hour, America's Primetime Television airwaves will be interrupted for the final time by George W. Bush. I may watch. I may not. I may forget.

This week's FW Weekly has an interesting article about George and his legacy. That's the cover of this week's FW Weekly on the left, with George in a cowboy hat. You probably could have figured that out for yourself.

Go here to read the FW Weekly article. It'll likely only be readable for a week, replaced next week by next week's feature article. So, if you are reading this past January 21, you likely won't be seeing this particular article about George W.

George W. Bush. I remember back in 1998, in the month of May, coming to Texas to see if there was any remote chance I wanted to move here. We'd been to the Stockyards, came back, the TV was on. An ad came on. There was the Governor of Texas, seeming smarmy, about what, I do not remember.

When the chatter started up about George W. running for President I did not take it serious. I remember saying, "there is no way he can be the Republican candidate, all the Democrats would have to do is show the rest of America all the bad stuff in Texas and proclaim, do you really want George W. Bush to do to all of America what he's done to Texas."

Little did I know how prophetic my words were.

Some time back I remember reading someone somewhere write that Texas is to America what America has become to the rest of the World. In that a lot of the world sees America as too full of itself, too cowboy, too loud, too sure of itself, too cocky, too unaware that there are other parts of the world where freedom rings, where people live well, where proud cultures thrive. Where they know the American Way is not the only way.

Before George W. Bush tarnished America in the World's eyes we were seen by the vast majority of the World as the World's brightest light. America dominates the World as no culture before has. Before George W., this domination was in a good way.

Today, not so much.

Beginning in about 5 days, I suspect America will be back being the America the World, for the most part, loves. Daring to go where no other nation has gone before. America using its power for good, to make the World a better place. America with a leader the World looks to with hope and admiration and awe.

It's been a long long long 8 years.

In all my decades on the planet this is the first time I've found myself totally discounting and despising my President. George W. is a man who should never have had the keys to the Oval Office. That is obvious now. It will be obvious 20 years from now.

It pleases me, that it is likely George W. will live long enough to realize that his hope that history will treat him better than the current times, turned out to be erroneous. Like pretty much everything else he thought to be true.

2009 Fort Worth Stock Show Rodeo & Parade

This coming Saturday, January 17, the Fort Worth Stock Show starts up with the biggest non-motorized parade in the world. That means it is a no vehicle parade, everything moves by foot or hoof.

We are very cold here in Fort Worth today and tomorrow, but it is supposed to warm up a bit by parade day with a high of 62 on Saturday. I don't remember if it was last year, or the year before that, that the Stock Show Parade was cancelled due to below freezing temperatures. And ice.

I've only been to the Stock Show Parade twice. I liked it both times. Texas puts on very good parades. I've actually never seen a parade in Texas that I did not like. I've seen two good ones in Granbury, those being General Granbury's Birthday Parade and the Granbury 4th of July Parade. I've seen the Arlington 4th of July Parade twice. I think it's the biggest in Texas, which likely makes it the biggest in America. I really liked the Ennis Polka Festival Parade. It was so good it was as if some Hollywood script writer was making it up.

I've been to the Fort Worth Stock Show Rodeo one time, my first year in Texas. It was interesting, but I don't think I'm much of a rodeo fan.

I've been to the Stock Show, itself, only one time. It is like a state fair. Not as big and busy as the State Fair of Texas, but it is still a good fair. The weather can be the most vexing part of the Stock Show, it being winter. But I prefer dressing up to stay warm to dressing down to stay cool, like you have to do at the Dallas fair on a hot fall day. It's easier to stay warm when it's cold than it is to stay cool when it's hot.

I may try and make an effort to go to the Stock Show Parade on Saturday. If I do, I'll take my video camera along.

Go here for more information about the Fort Worth Stock Show.

Texas Lemon Curd From Arizona Meyer Lemons

My one reader may remember me mentioning that last week my Mom & Dad delivered a half ton, or more, of various citrus to me when they were visiting. They pretty much have an orchard in their Arizona yard, growing grapefruits, oranges and lemons.

The lemons are Meyers, those being a cross-breed, combining oranges and lemons, thus making a sweeter lemon.

The oranges and grapefruits seem to be doing fine, but the lemons seem to be getting to the point that they need to be used.

When I first got these Meyer lemons I did not realize they were lemons. They look sort of like a distorted orange that isn't ripe yet. Mistaking one for being an orange, and peeling it and trying to eat it, was when it was discovered these were lemons.

So, this morning I Googled for info about what I could make out of these lemons. Most recipes appeared to be beyond my skill level, things like lemon meringue pie. But, I came upon one recipe that looked like it was something I could do.

Lemon Curd.

Microwaveable Lemon Curd.

I needed a cup of lemon juice, the zest from the lemons, a cup of sugar, a 1/4 cup of butter and 3 eggs.

First thing I had to figure out was what zest was and then how to get it off the lemons. My cheese grater seemed to work.

Then I had to figure out how to get the juice. My hand seemed to work just fine as a lemon squeezer.

After I'd squeezed a cup of lemon juice I strained out the seeds. I didn't have butter and didn't like the idea of using that much butter if I did have it. So, I figured olive oil might work. It's a healthier option than butter.

So, I stirred the ingredients til they seemed well mixed. Then put it in the microwave to cook at 1 minute intervals. During the first minute I started this blogging. I had 6 interruptions before the Lemon Curd had reached the prescribed texture where it stuck to the back of a metal spoon.

It's in the fridge chilling now. It seems to taste like the lemon part of lemon meringue pie, only more lemony. The lack of butter and use of olive oil seems to have done no harm.

Now, the recipe did not say what it is one uses Lemon Curd for. Can anyone help me with that?

Happy One Thousandth Durango Texas Blog Posting

I did not realize, til minutes ago, that today I passed the number of 1000 of postings to this blog.

I think I am at number 1002 with this current one.

Appalling. I've pretty much written a couple totally incoherent books, if you put all the accumulated words into that type venue, since I started this very salubrious and enjoyable spewing a bit over a year ago.

When I started doing the blogging thing, I figured the novelty would wear off in a couple months.

My new estimate is I will likely tire of it within a couple years. Maybe.

In the meantime, I'm having a party tonight to celebrate that #1000 thing.

Tragic Tandy Hills Photographic Calamity

When last we spoke I said I was heading out to get in some aerobic stimulation. Late afternoon, temperatures in the 60s, I figured I'd go to the Tandy Hills, again, maybe getting a good picture or two of the Fracking (or Fraccing) being done by Chesapeake Energy to the formerly, sort of, pristine Tandy Hills.

But no Fracking was heard as I exited my vehicle. It was quiet, no wind, birds chirping, beautiful. I walked along, holding my camera bag in my left hand, my arms swaying back and forth, like arms do when walking fast.

I had not made it off the cement sidewalk entry to the Tandy Hill trails when, suddenly, my camera went flying out of its bag and landed hard on the cement. I picked it up. Turned it on. It did not respond. Tried again. I got a sign of life. The motor began to whir, the lens popped out, but there was a grinding noise. The display lit up for a second. Then went away. I pushed the shutter button. Nothing.

I quickly came to terms with the fact that I had killed my 8 year old Olympus camera at the Tandy Hills. A fitting place for a sad demise.

My camera was already on its last legs and I was already looking for a replacement. I've got my choices narrowed down to the Olympus Stylus Tough-8000, you see above, and the Canon PowerShot SD880 you see on the right. I like the specs of the Olympus camera. It can survive almost a 7 foot drop. I can take it 33 feet underwater. It can handle being way below freezing. And it is crush proof.

The Canon is top rated for the quality of its pictures, color-wise. And its speed of processing. Neither of which is a huge issue to me. I've been perfectly happy with my, now dead, antique Olympus. I'm thinking getting a new Olympus, that would not die from an untimely death drop, is the way to go.

It's like an omen. Old camera killed by being dropped. Get a new one that can survive such a calamity.

Revenge Of The Life Changing Events

I can be easily amused. I can be entertained by observing screwy oddball behavior. I know a hot-blooded Latina with the stereotypical Latin bad temper, a person of the sort, usually, I would have put long ago into the reject pile. But, for some reason I find it funny to watch, like it's performance art and I'm just watching, I'm not really there in the room.

I used to know this real oddball who would repeat the same behaviors over and over again, with no self-awareness that she was doing so. Time and again this person would claim to have had a Life Changing Moment. It could be a book, a movie, a TV show, a new person she met who is like the brother, sister, cousin, whatever she never had. Just about anything could be a Life Changing Moment.

What made it funny was this particular person's life never noticeably changed, not in the improving sort of way. The Life Changing Moments never seemed to put the brakes on increasing the level of morbid obesity, ending the personal slovenliness, including living like a pig in a sty.

The series of Life Changing Events brought this person from a reasonably healthy weight, living in a nice house, to being so big she has to go in sideways to squeeze into that pigsty I already mentioned.

Now that I'm thinking about it, this same person, with all the Life Changing Events, happening to a life that's a living train wreck, also has an interesting method of getting revenge, when she perceives, via her drug-addled, distorted thinking, that someone has somehow done her wrong. She erupts into a big nonsensical, neurotic, angry upset, which causes the object of her insanity to have no choice but to reject her. She then goes through a series of followup behaviors that are as predictable as the sun, including saying that, "The best revenge is a life well lived."

Which leads the object of the "revenge" to be amused and ponder how a hugely obese, horribly homely person, who lives like a slob, in clutter and filth, who has all sorts of legal problems hanging overhead like a Sword of Damocles that can come cutting down at any random time, how can such a person be so cluelessly self-unaware as to say their best revenge is to live a good life?

That's just funny. If that's a good life, please don't let me ever see what a bad life looks like.

It's like this same person can casually say something or someone is ugly, can comment on someone else's looks in the rudest of manners, directly to the object of her rudeness. And yet this person has to have steel reinforced mirrors, so they don't crack when she looks in them. Dogs barks, children cry, men shrivel, when the hulking behemoth comes into view.

It's like on the old Mary Tyler Moore Show, at one point Murray said something was stupid. Ted Baxter bristled and said something like, "I don't know what it is, but there is something I don't like about that word, stupid."

Ted sort of knew he was stupid. He knew that was not a safe word for him to be using, lest it cause him to be the brunt of a joke. Which is what makes it perplexing as to why a rather homely, ugly type person would so easily use the "ugly" word.

Now, please understand, I generally do not comment on someone's looks. Or say someone is ugly. But if that person does not subscribe to the same good manners, they are fair game. So, if you are ugly, talking about other people or things being ugly. Well, I'm likely somehow gonna mention that you are not one to talk about ugly, if the situation arises where it seems appropriate. Particularly if the person is even uglier inside than out. Then they really are fair game.

Now, I've gotta haul my fat ugly carcass out of this pigpen and go do something aerobic on steep hills, now that it has warmed up to being in the 60s. Going to be in the low 20s tonight. Not happy about that.

I'm Having Me A Mystery Here In Texas

A week or so ago I noticed a perplexing phenomenon that has me, well, perplexed.

Okay, here it is. People all over the world are connected to the Internet. People all over the world use Google.

On my Blogs, I put this little widget called FeedJit, that shows the latest 50 visitors to the blog. How long ago they arrived, where they came from. And, if they came from a search engine, FeedJit shows the search string.

The latest incident of the baffling, perplexing mystery is occurring right now on my TV Blog. About 2 hours ago I blogged about last night's American Idol. I mentioned the girl in the bikini.

So, looking at my TV Blobs FeedJit stats, right now, 1 hour 37 minutes ago, someone from Mocksville, North Carolina came to the blog using the search string, "Idol's bikini girl brouhaha."

At that exact same moment, using precisely the same search string, someone from Houston came to the blog.

And now it gets real weird, 5 minutes later, using precisely the same search string, someone from Beirut, Lebanon came to the blog.

How would 3 different visitors from different locations use the same exact search string within a 5 minute period? With the first two at exactly the same time?

If this were the first time this had happened I might not find it so perplexing, but it has happened multiple times on the blog you are reading right now. With the most instances being people Googling "biggest butt in the world." On 3 occasions there have been clusters of 3 to 5 visitors, arriving at my blog within a 10 minute time frame, from locations all over the world, using that same "biggest butt in the world" search string.

Why? How?

Maybe there is something to what I've always thought to be nonsense, that being psychic connections and telepathy. Maybe there is some field of energy that envelops the earth, which connects people, with at any given moment any given individuals synapses may be firing a the same time, from the same stimulus and the next thing you know 5 different people in 5 widely different locations find themselves Googling to find the biggest butt in the world.

Or, maybe they are all on the phone with each other at the same time, sitting at their computers, talking about last night's American Idol, or big butts and one says, "hey, let's Google 'Idol's bikini girl brouhaha.' And magically all use the exact same syntax and spelling.

Anyone have any answers?

Jackie Ethel Joan: Women of Camelot

Along with most of the rest of America I'd grown sort of tired of the Kennedy's quite some time ago. I don't remember, exactly when I developed a strong disdain for Teddy Kennedy. Likely it was over his Chappaquiddick dissembling.

I'm finding Caroline Kennedy's attempt to be anointed Hillary's replacement sort of embarrassing. She does not have the gift of easy articulation that her dad and brother and mother were blessed with. I remember thinking Caroline was a bit lacking in the swift wits department, years ago, when she and John Jr. were being interviewed by Barbara Walters and Caroline could not remember, "you know, uh, those words, famous words, you know, uh, that my dad said in his inauguration speech."

Unlike most of America, Caroline was unable to remember "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

Last week, despite my supposed disdain for the Kennedy's, I read Jackie Ethel Joan: Women of Camelot, by J. Randy Taraborreli. Reading this book I felt almost like some sort of voyeur, seeing history from the inside, as the Kennedy's experienced it, particularly Jackie.

I had no idea Bobby Kennedy was also a heavy duty unfaithful husband. I figured with all those kids he and Ethel had, how could Bobby find time for Marilyn Monroe or other women. Apparently I was wrong.

But, the worst for shameless, shameful behavior is Teddy. I did not know an awful lot about Joan, except for the sensational tabloid, found drunk on the streets type stories. By the time I finished this book, I really liked Joan. Teddy Kennedy did her wrong in so many ways, for so many years, it's appalling.

I'm reading another book about the Kennedy's now, called Sons of Camelot by Laurence Leamer. A recurring theme in this book is the Kennedy penchant for extremely risky behavior. That risky behavior's end result is many of the Kennedy tragedies. Driving drunk off a bridge, womanizing, flying in bad conditions (the demise of at least 3 Kennedys), refusing police protection, driving drunk or drugged.

So, when I finished the Women of Camelot I was curious what Joan and Ethel looked like now. Joan was pretty much a beauty queen when she was younger, Ethel not so much. Some of the 21st century photos of Joan are just sad, but there are some where she looks pretty darn good. Some of Ethel are down right scary. Ethel is 80 now. Joan is 72.

When Bobby Kennedy was murdered, Ethel was about 4 months pregnant. That baby was born December 12, 1968 and named Rory. Rory was scheduled to be married on July 16, 1999. Her cousin, John F. Kennedy Jr. crashed his plane and died on his way to Rory's wedding.

I guess if Bobby and Ethel had stopped reproducing after having 9 kids, there is a chance John Jr. might still be alive today. I say, might be, because he would have had almost 10 more years, by this point in time, to have done himself in by some other reckless behavior.

That is Ethel and Rory Kennedy in the picture at the top. Rory looks just like her dad. Spooky.

The Sweetwater Texas Rattlesnake Roundup Anti-Venom

It's not too early to start making your plans to head out to Sweetwater, Texas, the 2nd weekend in March for the annual Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup.

My only visit to the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup was in 2002. At that time Coors Light sponsored a Largest Snake Contest. I don't know if Coors Light is having a contest for this year's Roundup. Or what the prize might be.

I blogged previously about the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup and included some of the comments my YouTube video had received regarding the snakes. This morning I got a new comment, this to that particular blogging, rather than the YouTube video.

This morning's commenter seemed to sound like an authority on the subject of the Sweetwater Roundup. Despite what others have said, this commenter claims the Roundup provides a valuable service due to the milking of venom from the rattlesnakes. Others have told me the venom milked at the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup can not be used for medicinal purposes due to the unsanitary milking methodology used.

Below is this morning's comment to the previous blogging about the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup...

It's obvious by the comments left that none of these people really know what they are talking about. You can make anything seem bad by the way you present it. This event has been going on for years and is the world's largest. West Texas has an ABUNDANCE of rattlesnakes! You even find them resting at your front doors, within the city, sometimes. AS FOR THEIR HABITAT--IT'S
QUITE STABLE AND SECURE. Animals were put on this earth for human needs. EVERY snake that is caught is milked (you get bit by a rattlesnake in this area--you'll be alright--due to the treatment you receive from the anti-venom). The snakes are not mistreated. People are educated in safety--since there is an abundance. Every bit of the snake is processed/used--the venom--the meat--the skins--the rattles. Honestly, you have a small bit of information to be judging so harshly. Check out the facts before you go rambling on.

Below is the YouTube video of my visit to the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup...

Friedrich Nietzsche & Fort Worth

Last week I wrote a blog in which I was talking about an article in the Seattle P-I that I thought was of a sophisticated nature, the likes of which you'd never see in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, both due to the elevated level of the critique and some of the polysyllabic words and references used, such as a reference to Nietzsche.

I suggested that so few of the Star-Telegram's readers would have a clue as to who or what Nietzsche was or is, that you'd never see a reference to someone such as Nietzsche.

As a public service, in my ongoing attempt to raise the erudition level of my few Fort Worth readers, let me explain, Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher, born in 1844, died in 1900. He wrote about religion, morality, culture, philosophy and science. While some attention was paid to him while he was alive, his greater fame and influence would come after his death.

Below is an excerpt from Wikipedia about Nietzsche....

Readers have responded to Nietzsche's work in complex and sometimes controversial ways. Many Germans eventually discovered his appeals for greater individualism and personality development in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, but responded to those appeals divergently. He had some following among left-wing Germans in the 1890s; in 1894–95 German conservatives wanted to ban his work as subversive. During the late 19th century Nietzsche's ideas were commonly associated with anarchist movements and appear to have had influence within them, particularly in France and the United States.

By World War I, however, he had acquired a reputation as an inspiration for right-wing German militarism. German soldiers even received copies of Thus Spoke Zarathustra as gifts during World War I. The Dreyfus Affair provides another example of his reception: the French anti-semitic Right labelled the Jewish and Leftist intellectuals who defended Alfred Dreyfus as "Nietzscheans".

Many political leaders of the twentieth century were at least superficially familiar with Nietzsche's ideas. However, it is not always possible to determine whether or not they actually read his work. Hitler, for example, probably never read Nietzsche, and if he did, his reading was not extensive. However, the Nazis made very selective use of Nietzsche's philosophy; this association with National Socialism caused Nietzsche's reputation to suffer following World War II. Mussolini certainly read Nietzsche, as did Charles de Gaulle. It has been suggested that Theodore Roosevelt read Nietzsche and was profoundly influenced by him, and in more recent years, Richard Nixon read Nietzsche avidly.

Nietzschean ideas exercised a major influence on several prominent European philosophers, including Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, Martin Heidegger, Albert Camus, and Jean-Paul Sartre. In the Anglo-American tradition, the scholarship of Walter Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale rehabilitated Nietzsche as a philosopher, and analytic philosophers such as Alexander Nehamas, William E. Connolly and Brian Leiter continue to study him today. A vocal minority of recent Nietzschean interpreters (Bruce Detwiler, Fredrick Appel, Domenico Losurdo, Abir Taha) have contested what they consider the popular but erroneous egalitarian misrepresentation of Nietzsche's "aristocratic radicalism". Bertrand Russell in his epic History of Western Philosophy was scathing in his chapter on Nietzsche, calling his work the "mere power-phantasies of an invalid" and referring to Nietzsche as a "megalomaniac".

So, now you know, Nietzsche influenced people as widely disparate as Mussolini, Charles De Gaulle, Teddy Roosevelt and Richard Nixon. And Hitler. He may even have helped bring about the Hippies in the 60s. I don't know if Fort Worth had Hippies during the 60s.