The Dallas Space Needle At Texas State Fair Park

The Dallas Morning News, this morning, had an interesting article about the State Fair of Texas. Apparently the State Fair of Texas is one of the few state fairs in America that shows a profit and gets no state government subsidy. I suppose it helps the State Fair of Texas make a profit by being the biggest state fair in America.

Another interesting bit of news, in this article, was that in 2011 the fair plans to "launch a 500-foot tower reminiscent of Seattle's Space Needle."

By 2012 the fair hopes to open Summer Place Park, turning the State Fair's midway into an amusement park, with the new needle, called Texas Centennial Tower and a new roller coaster.

I was impressed with Fair Park from the first time I saw it. But perplexed as to why it seemed to be so underutilized most of the time. It is a sprawling complex with several museums and an aquarium, open all year. I used to frequently go roller blading all over the Fair Park grounds, often seeming to have the place to myself.

From the first time I saw Fair Park it reminded me of Seattle Center, without a Space Needle. Seattle Center evolved from the Seattle World's Fair in 1962. Fair Park evolved from the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition.

A DART rail line recently extended to Fair Park. It seems this should make it a much more popular destination.

At the top of Texas Centennial Tower there will be an observation deck. I don't know if there will be a rotating restaurant. At the base of the tower there will be a museum with State Fair and Centennial memorabilia. Seattle's Space Needle also has a museum, almost at its base, called EMP, the Experience Music Project.

I'm guessing Dallas will have a lot more luck building a tower reminiscent of Seattle's Space Needle than Fort Worth had building a public market that was propagandaized as being modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market.

I hope I get to go to the State Fair of Texas this year. My last visit had to be cut short due to a variety of woes. I want some of that Deep Fried Butter.

The Lush Green Jungle Of Fort Worth's Serene Fosdic Lake

I have never seen Fosdic Lake at Oakland Lake Park look so calm, serene and green as it did this morning about 10. I have known a clueless type or two, up north, who think all of Texas is brown. I remember going to see the X-Files movie. It opened in Dallas, but somehow managed to make it look like Dallas was situated in the West Texas desert. I remember leaning over to my fellow movie goer and whispering, "it's not really like that, it's green." She had the gall to reply, "yeah, right."

I would venture to guess that right at this point in time on the 2nd day of Fall, that North Texas is being a lot greener than the Western side of the Cascade Mountains of the State of Washington, a state known as the Evergreen State. My last 2 visits back to the Pacific Northwest have been during lean water times, with a lot of formerly green stuff turned nice shades of brown.

See that lady jogging across the Fosdic Lake dam? She was pushing a kid in a stroller. I saw her jog all the way around the lake, a distance of about 2 miles, I think. She was even jogging on the uphill parts.

That jungle like scene above is what you see on the north side of the Fosdic Lake dam. It looks like an Olympic Rain Forest, without moss or moose.

Swimming, Shivering & Twittering In Texas

59.7. That is my temperature this morning, coming up on 7 am. Under 60 degrees. Brrrrr. I had to close the windows last night due to the frigid cold. No fan whirring overhead, no A/C cycling on and off, no earplugs to block the noise.

In other words I slept very peacefully, so much so that I woke up at 4 am and got up. Sometime before 6 I went down to the pool. The water was warmer than the air. But it still felt cold and once again had me wondering how I managed to get in that thing all last winter.

Even though I think I understand the use of Twitter better than I did a month ago, it still perplexes me. I keep getting Followers. Why? I do not know. Some of them are obviously some form of spam. Due to what motive, I do not know.

This morning I got a new Follower named Sarah. When I clicked Sarah's Twitter link I was brought to a page telling me that Sarah had been banned due to some nefarious activity. Twitter told me "There is nothing to see here, so move along."

So, I moved along like Twitter told me to. I am always very obedient.

I am not quite sure where today is going to take me. I suspect I may see downtown Fort Worth at some point in the coming hours.

Happy Days Are Here Again In Texas

I have finally had a Happy Day, here in Texas, in this Hell that I am living. I'm not quite certain if Happy Days are here again. But it has been nice to have this one Happy Day, today.

I suspect tomorrow will be a Happy Day, too. And maybe the day after that.

Friday, I'm not so sure about. But I'm optimistic...

71 Year Old Fort Worth Man Gets Ticketed For Doing Yardwork Naked

Gar the Texan is always on the lookout for interesting, quirky info about Fort Worth and its neighbors.

Today Gar the Texan pointed me to a story which has gone national, with Fort Worth proudly attached to the story.

Seems a 71 year old Fort Worth man, likes to do yard work at his house near Lake Worth. The man has a privacy fence around his property, for the most part.

The 71 year old Fort Worth man, apparently, is a bit of a naturist. Nothing wrong with that, when you're minding your own business on your own property.

Unfortunately, while the 71 year old Fort Worth man was busy working on his backyard, wearing nothing but shoes, a female member of the Fort Worth Gestapo, Deputy L.M. Rowland, was doing some peeping tom work, looking through the privacy slats that were supposed to guard the 71 year old naked Fort Worth man's privacy.

The Fort Worth Gestapo agent was patrolling on a bicycle. She proceeded to pedal on to the 71 year old naked Fort Worth man's property. He saw her rolling in and ran into his house, despite the Gestapo agent's insistent demand that he stop.

Deputy Rowland stood at the 71 year old naked Fort Worth man's door, yelling for him to come outside. Eventually he did so, putting on a pair of shorts first, which he forgot to zip up. All noted in Deputy Rowland's police report, also noted was the fact that the unzipped shorts revealed that the 71 year old formerly naked Fort Worth man was wearing no underwear.

I'm shocked that this Fort Worth female Gestapo agent was ogling the 71 year old's private parts to check for underwear? Is this some form of sexual harassment or something?

Deputy Rowland proceeded to grill the 71 year old formerly naked Fort Worth man about his yard work habits. He admitted that he sometimes worked in his private backyard, naked.

I don't know how Deputy Rowland managed it without a patrol car, but somehow she determined that the 71 year old formerly naked Fort Worth man was not a sex offender. She then issued him a Class C misdemeanor citation for disorderly conduct, under the Texas penal code 4201 A-10, for exposing his anus or genitals in a public place and is reckless about whether another may be present who will be offended or alarmed by his act.

The 71 year old Fort Worth man's backyard is a public place? Deputy Rowlands did not see exposed genitalia. All she saw was a bare butt running into the bare butt's house.

It's all very disturbing to me. In other parts of America there are naked bike rides, naked hikes, all sorts of naked things. Usually in public places. But in Fort Worth if you feel like beating the heat by pulling weeds without benefit of outerwear, a member of the Fort Worth Gestapo may be spying on you, chase you and ticket you. I could see, maybe, there being some legitimacy to these Gestapo tactics, if there had been complaints, made to the Gestapo, about a 71 year old Fort Worth man working in his backyard wearing nothing but shoes.

It seems a simple polite informational warning is all that was called for. Deputy Rowlands could have respectfully let the 71 year old Fort Worth man know that his nakedness was viewable from the road and that he should be a bit more modest. She really did not need to issue a ticket to a 71 year old man. I really think Deputy Rowlands should be investigated and possibly punished in some way for so outrageously violating the 71 year old Fort Worth man's privacy.

Arlington Mayor Cluck Wants To Prevent Future Dallas Cowboy Party Pass Riots

Yesterday, on Monday, I mentioned that the Fort Worth Star-Telegram did not report the Party Pass Riot that occurred at the first regular season football game in the new Dallas Cowboy stadium.

By Tuesday, apparently, the Star-Telegram decided that an out of control mob scene, with beer bottles being thrown, was newsworthy.

The Star-Telegram even somehow found a photo of the Party Pass Riot. The photo does not quite show how rambunctious the riot actually was. For that you had to see the video evidence on CBS Channel 11.

Arlington Mayor Cluck told the Star-Telegram, "They put up barricades and the people ignored them. There were beer bottles flying around and a lot of pushing and shoving. I don't want to see a repeat of that."

The first game in the new Dallas Cowboy stadium broke an NFL attendance record of around 108,000 attendees. However, of that large number, only some 78,000 actually had a seat. The 30,000 Party Pass people are what pushed the total to the record breaking number. 30,000 Party Pass people, less the number who gave up, in frustration and anger, and went home.

Many of the Party Pass people arrived early, hoping to get a good place to stand. Some had been standing for hours without being allowed into the stadium. The bottleneck grew as kickoff approached. Police and Fire Officials attempted to restrict entry to just a few football fans at a time, trying to make sure there was enough standing room for those they were letting in.

And then, as the game grew closer and those left outside grew more anxious, the roof and end zone glass walls were opened, with a rush of cold air and loud cheering hitting the angry Party Pass people.

At that point the Party Pass people began to push up against the barricades. As beer bottles flew and the mayhem reached riot level the Police decided to lift the barricades and let the Party Pass people flood in.

Video screens were set up outside the stadium at both end zone plazas, for the Party Pass people. I don't think it was ever considered that all 30,000 of the Party Pass People were going to be inside the stadium. The Cowboys must have figured some of those thousands would be perfectly happy standing outside for several hours looking at video screens.

When it was first announced, months ago, that tickets would be sold so people could stand on the plazas outside the stadium, to be "part of the excitement" of the game, I thought that sounded nuts and wondered who in their right mind would pay to stand outside a stadium during a game.

The First Day Of Fall In Wet Texas

The Autumnal Equinox has fallen upon us with a vengeance here in my zone of North Texas. Fall was ushered in last night with a short Lightning Show, accompanied by wind and rain. No hail that I noticed.

In the picture you are looking at my 9 in the morning view, in Texas, of a rainy first day of Fall. We are looking south towards the 820 and 30 freeways. It is convenient to live real close to a freeway entry. In Washington I lived about 3 miles from the closest freeway entry.

This first day of Fall in Texas is reminding me very much of a stereotypical Winter day in Western Washington. I don't miss Winter in Western Washington. Except, now that I am thinking about it, I do miss going up in the mountains to go cross country skiing. I have been on my cross country skis in Texas during a rare snowstorm or two. But, the skis did not work too well on Texas snow and puny hills.

Hiking Tandy Hills & Battening Down The Hatches Awaiting An Incoming Texas Storm

Due to too much rain in the past couple weeks, I've not been able to set foot on my favorite place within a 5 mile radius of my abode, that being Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium Area. But today I took a big gamble and drove myself to the Sanatorium, thinking it may have dried out enough to make the place navigable.

My gamble paid off. There were a couple areas of slight muddiness, but other than that, I had myself a real fine, sanity restoring, hike.

Due to our recent deluges there was a very slight trickle rumbling over Tandy Falls. The trickle really was too minuscule to show up in a picture, not with my limited photographic skills.

The National Weather Service has issued a dire warning that we can expect Flash Flooding here, starting sometime this afternoon. A cold front is moving in from the north to do battle with a warm front, currently blowing quite hard, from the south. Several inches of rain are expected, along with the usual sidelights, like lightning and its accompanying thunder.

But right now it is pretty much clear blue sky, making it a bit hard to believe that Apocalypse Now will be booming in a few hours from now.

The sun does not turn the light on here til a bit past 7 at this point in time, one day before the Fall Equinox. I was in the pool after the sun had risen. Each day the pool is a bit colder than the day before. How did I manage to get in that thing all winter long last year, I can't help but wonder? We'll see if I manage that this year. I suspect I will.

Party Pass Riot At Sunday's Dallas Cowboy Game

Before the game started on Sunday's NBC telecast of the Dallas Cowboy's first defeat in their new stadium, we were treated to an interesting bit of nonsense on the gigantic video boards.

A voice intoned...

"The Manmade Wonders of the World"

"The Parthenon"

"The Great Wall"

"Taj Mahal"

"Roman Coliseum"

"And Now Cowboy Stadium"

"What the Roman Coliseum was to the 1st Century
is what Cowboy Stadium is to the 21st Century."

Yikes! It's like shooting fish in a barrel, so I'll just say this about that. There have been some rather incredible edifices erected in Dubai in the 21st Century and in a few other locations.

On an entirely different, yet related note. I have long been fascinated regarding what a horrible newspaper, journalism-wise, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram is. I've lost count of the number of things, about which I have had first hand eye witness knowledge, only to read an article totally distorting reality in the Star-Telegram.

I think of the Star-Telegram as being like the old Soviet Union's Pravda. Pravda means Truth in Russian. Pravda rarely printed the objective truth. Instead Pravda printed the party line.

I read both the Star-Telegram and the Dallas Morning News this morning. I was curious how the papers reported yesterday's near riot by people possessing Party Passes, but denied entry to yesterday's game, until near rioting forced the stadium to open.

The Star-Telegram printed a Roses & Sunshine version about the Party Pass People. I'll print what the Star-Telegram had to say, followed by what the Dallas Morning News said about the same subject...

The atmosphere in the end zones recalled the excitement of a major college football game — the type of spirit that team owner Jerry Jones hopes to repeat throughout the season and for years to come.

"You’ll see this thing flow so easily, in and out and up and down. We’re going to have a collegiate-type atmosphere, and it will create an appealing atmosphere for the people who have seats as well," Jones said.

At 5:50 p.m., the 120-foot-tall glass doors parted in each end zone, and the retractable roof opened. The Party Pass fans let out a collective sigh as Cowboys Stadium was converted from a climate-controlled dome to an open-air facility and refrigerated air from inside poured through the giant openings and rushed over their painted faces and sweat-stained jerseys.

I must say that, even though the Dallas Morning News does mention the problem with the Party Passes, its version differs greatly from what was shown last night on the CBS Channel 11 local news. The Dallas Morning News article says Party Pass people were let in after 15 minutes of complaining. The Channel 11 news said Party Pass people had been waiting for hours, many giving up, in anger, leaving and vowing never to return, some collapsing, removed by ambulance. And now, what a more responsible local newspaper, the Dallas Morning News, had to say about the Party Pass incident.

That monumental crowd, however, came with a price and some tense moments.

About a half-hour before kickoff, several hundred angry ticket holders gathered outside the stadium, unable to get in. The glass doors at Section G were locked.

Fans yelled, "Let us in, we've got tickets," said Justin Diaz, a concessionaire near the entrance. "They were going crazy. For some reason, they didn't want to let them in until kickoff."

Security officers kept saying, "You'll have to wait," Diaz said.

After about 15 minutes, officers let the people in, he said.

"I was getting nervous," Diaz said. "I've got all this money here. What am I supposed to do if they all start rushing me?"

Some season ticket holders said they were upset with the long lines and congestion caused by the thousands who spent $29 each for the standing-room-only Party Passes.

For many fans, taking bathroom breaks or buying concessions became harrowing treks into uncomfortably crowded corridors. It was an unacceptable proposition for fans paying thousands for their seats.

"All these people pay $30 and then come in and take all the concessions," said Chuck Elhoff, 63, a financial adviser and a season ticket holder from Southlake.

So, there you have it, the local news on Channel 11 showed what looked like a riot of disgruntled Party Pass people. While the Star-Telegram makes no mention of any Party Pass problem, while the Dallas Morning News does mention the problem, but does not seem to match the visuals and words, seen and heard on Channel 11.

Near Riot Breaks Out Before First Loss In New Dallas Cowboy Stadium

The cheapest ticket to tonight's Dallas Cowboy first game of the season in their new stadium cost $29. For $29 you got to stand in a designated "Party" area inside the stadium.

Thousands of $29 Party tickets were sold. However, a thousand. Or two, of the Party ticket holders were blocked from entering. The throng grew unruly, pushing towards the stadium entry, pushing against security.

Some Party Ticket holders gave up. Some succumbed to the heat. Eventually, realizing they had a near riot on their hands, the Party Ticket holders were allowed into the stadium.

Multiple events in the Entertainment Districts of Arlington and Grand Prairie had traffic slowed down on I-30. Watching the local news it seemed, other than the near riot, most people were being very pleased with the new stadium, even though Bob Costas said he was in Dallas. And the sound system zonked out at the start of Jordin Spark's Star Spangled Banner. The sound slowly grew louder as the national anthem progressed.

A record breaking crowd of over 105,000 watched a good game, with the lead switching back and forth between Dallas and the New York Giants. I grew bored and quit watching early in the 4th quarter. The game is not yet over as I type this. Currently, Dallas has taken the lead, again, 31 - 30.

UPDATE: Giants Win. Last minute field goal puts New York ahead 33 - 31.