Fort Worth Mayor Proclaims National Beatnik Week In Fort Worth

I missed part of Don Young's message that I just blogged about. The message had an Earth Day Green Flag image that I had not scrolled past.

When I did scroll past the Green Earth Day Flag I was surprised to read...

"The only photo I could find of Mayor McCann will surprise you. Here he is in 1960 signing a proclamation for, "National Beatnik Week". (LIFE magazine)"

The photo is brought to you courtesy of Pat Kirkwood.

Obviously, the surprising thing is the idea that Fort Worth had a Mayor, Thomas A. McCann, who signed a proclamation for "National Beatnik Week." I can't imagine current Fort Worth Mayor, Mike Moncrief, signing such a thing. In 1960 had the Good Ol' Boy Network not yet taken over Fort Worth, turning it into an Oligarchy?

The Beatniks were sort of the precursors of the Hippies who came along a few years after 1960. I've been told by people who lived in the Fort Worth zone during the 60s that the turbulence of that era, pretty much passed this area by, including the Hippie Phenomenon.

Maynard G. Krebs, with Maynard being a Beatnik, a few years before he became Gilligan, stranded on an island, was a popular pop figure of the late 1950s, early 1960s. Maybe Mayor McCann was a big Maynard G. Krebs fan, hence the National Beatnik Proclamation.

It's very perplexing.

Fort Worth's First Earth Day April 22, 1960 Saving The Tandy Hills For The Future

I did not realize til I got incoming this morning from Fort Worth's Top Watchdog, Don Young, that today, April 22, was Earth Day.

I worded that poorly. I knew April 22 is Earth Day, but today, that fact failed to register til Don Young reminded me.

Okay, that was worded slightly better. I'm losing my ability to communicate, apparently.

I wish I could have celebrated Earth Day with an early morning swim. But, my pool lost all its water.

The first Earth Day was on April 22 of 1970. It was a BIG DEAL. Protesting was very popular back in those days. If I remember right, on the original Earth Day, some very bad Viet Nam War news hit the public, as in Nixon had expanded the war into Cambodia.

I wonder if Steve Doeung remembers when the Viet Nam War came to Cambodia?

The Cambodia expansion caused all sorts of protesting. If I'm still remembering right, these were the protest episodes that saw the murder of 4 Kent State students by National Guard troops.

We live in such calmer times these days, though the naysayers don't seem to realize it.

Don Young's incoming had a very interesting bit of history in it.

On April 22, 1960, 10 years before the first Earth Day, the Fort Worth City Council, led by Mayor Thomas A. McCann, agreed to purchase the land now known as the Tandy Hills Natural Area.

From the city record..."a resolution enacted by the City Council of the City of Fort Worth, Texas, at a meeting regularly held on the 22nd day of April, 1960, does promise to pay, $138,250..." for the Tandy Hills land.

I don't know what $138,250 is worth in 2010 dollars, but it sounds like Fort Worth got a super bargain back in 1960.

Who knew Fort Worth was so Progressive, so Green, so long ago? The foresight of Fort Worth's 1960 City Council and Mayor preserved a prairie wonderland for generations to come.

Which will be celebrated this coming Saturday at the 2010 Prairie Fest.

See you there!

Adrian Murray & John Basham for Tarrant Regional Water Board

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Editorial Board did some Tarrant Regional Water District Board Member Election Recommendationing yesterday.

Adrian Murray and John Basham are running, together, for positions on the Water Board.

Regarding Murray and Basham, the Star-Telegram says they are, "competent individuals who are eager to give back to their community. They have credible ideas and questions that deserve to be asked and answered. They should remain engaged with the water district regardless of the outcome of this election."

And then the Star-Telegram goes on to endorse incumbents, Jim Lane and Marty Leonard, because of their long and rich history of public service, who have demonstrated skills, commitment and vision needed to be excellent board members on this most important public body.

Well.

The Tarrant Regional Water District is responsible for providing water and flood control affecting around 1.7 million people in Fort Worth, Mansfield, Arlington and a large swath of Tarrant County.

The Water District was set up decades ago, well before this area morphed into a giant Metroplex. Consequently, only voters is 6 towns get to vote to elect the board. Those towns are Fort Worth, Azle, Edgecliff Village, Westworth Village, Westover Hills and most of River Oaks.

Please note that Mansfield and Arlington are not on the list of those who get to vote. Does it not seem like, well, common sense, that all areas affected by the Water Board be included in who gets to vote? Should not this antique setup be updated to this century?

Haltom City also does not get to vote. Haltom City has a deadly flooding problem. That flooding problem, caused by allowing development, without requiring flood control mitigators, does not seem to concern the Tarrant Regional Water District Board in any meaningful way.

The current Tarrant Regional Water District Board is onboard with the Trinity River Vision, that being Fort Worth's Billion Dollar Boondoggle that added an unneeded flood diversion channnel in order to, hopefully, snag some federal dollars.

All the yammering about the supposed good the current Water Board has done, things like a park on Eagle Mountain Lake, recreational trails, an Eagle Mountain pipeline, pales when compared to the good the Water Board has not done.

As in, making fixing the Deadly Flash Flood Problem priority #1.

The area where the Trinity River Vision's flood diversion channel would be doing its diverting has not flooded for over 50 years, thanks to flood prevention levees built by the same Army Corps of Engineers.

It is all perplexing to me.

The Durango Texas Editorial Board strongly recommends Adrian Murray and John Basham for the Tarrant Regional Water Board.

Tandy Tulips Sort Of Coloring Up The Tandy Hills Before A Possible Big Storm

Like I said couple days ago, the Tandy Hills Prairie finally got the memo telling the sleepy Wildflowers that it was time to wake up and add color to the place.

As you can see, the Tandy Hills Wildflowers are doing a good job of it. I don't recollect the Prairie being quite this lush and green before. A big benefit of a wet Fall and Winter. I guess.

And just in time for Saturday's 2010 Prairie Fest.

The current weather forecast is casting a little potential cloud over Saturday's Big Event.

A really big, really strong weather system is advancing from the West. It is due to potentially hit the Tandy Hills on Friday, with the storming ending by Saturday morning.

From my limited experience with the reliability of weather forecasting in these parts, I'll believe the storm when I see it. There are too many variables that come in to play, here, that can drastically alter a forecast.

I saw a new Wildflower today that was not coloring up the Tandy Hills. Due to being white. Is white a color? I guess it is. Well, actually it was predominantly white, with a pink center. This Wildflower looked sort of like a miniature tulip.

So, while awaiting proper identification, I am calling this Wildflower a Tandy Tulip.

Taking A Detox Cleansing Revitalizing Toxic People Cure

The Toxic People Epidemic seems to continue to spread. Earlier I got a report of very bad cases way out in West Texas, in the Wink Zone. I mentioned this to my therapist, Dr. L.C., who then told me that Elsie Hotpepper, unbeknownst to me, is having a Toxic People Contamination Problem.

Yesterday I learned that the Wild Woman of Woolley, Betty Jo Bouvier, is fighting her particular Type of Toxic by going on a Detox Program.

I am always easily swayed, so yesterday I decided to jump on Betty Jo's Detox Bandwagon. My Detox Treatment is Detox Tea. It promises to be Cleansing and Revitalizing, with over 20 Potent Chinese Purification Herbs for Traditional Support of the Defenses, plus Healthy Skin.

I already have healthy skin. But I definitely could use some Support of the Defenses against Toxicity. I've lately learned that a couple thousand mile buffer, and no contact, is not good enough Toxic People protection, in the age of easy Toxic Intrusion, via the Internet.

I read all over the documentation on my Detox Tea Box and I can find no information regarding whether or not the 20 Potent Chinese Purification Herbs help Detoxify the toxic effects of Toxic People.

In addition to my Detoxing Battle, as of this morning, for awhile, I will not be in the swim of things. I went swimming early this morning. By around 10, the Pool Doctor showed up to begin the pool draining process, so that the pool can be re-lined. I do not know how long this will take.

I will need to find some sort of calorie burning substitution, for the duration, lest I blow up like a Toxic Fat Person.

In the meantime, it is late afternoon and I am heading to the Tandy Hills to go Wildflower Hunting.

Proceeding To Extract Minerals From Fort Worth's Oakland Lake Park

Last week, when I picked up the latest FW Weekly, I also picked up a little neighborhood newspaper that covers where I live, called Greater Meadowbrook News.

In the Greater Meadowbrook News there is a full page "column" titled Running with Wanda, by Wanda Conlin.

Via Wanda I learned that the Handley Neighborhood Association, at their March meeting, heard from a Land Agent named Diane Reid.

For you who are not in a gas/oil drilling zone, a Land Agent is the person who finagles the rights to poke hole in the ground for the drillers.

The Land Agent updated the Handley group about Chesapeake Energy drilling operations in the neighborhood. Apparently Chesapeake owns land near where Lee Harvey Oswald is buried on Shannon Rose Hill. And on Ederville Road near the Handley Post Office.

The Chesapeake activity near the Handley Post Office raises some concerns due to the troublesome increase in truck traffic on a street already prone to wrecks. I have seen 2 wrecks by the Handley Post Office. I don't quite get why this is such a wreck prone location.

And then the West Meadowbrook Neighborhood Association also had a March meeting. At that meeting Fort Worth Parks and Community Services Planner, David Creek, "educated" attendees about the beginning of procedures to extract minerals from Stratford and Oakland Lake Parks.

Huh?

Is "procedures to extract minerals" double-speak for drilling for Barnett Shale Natural Gas? Is a drilling rig going to be set up in Oakland Lake Park?

It's very perplexing.

GASLAND The Movie May 12 At The Modern Art Museum In Fort Worth

May 12 you've got to join me and Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize Winner, Josh Fox, for a showing of GASLAND the movie at the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth.

This is going to be a BIG party, starting at 5:30 pm. Open to all. With a cash bar and snacks. The movie starts screening at 6:30 pm in the Modern's Movie Auditorium.

Movie tickets are $15. After the movie you can hang out with Josh Fox and ask him anything you want to ask.

At 8:30 pm the VIP After Party starts up. Members of Texas OGAP (Oil & Gas Accountability Project) and Josh Fox will be in attendance. You also can attend the VIP After Party. The entry fee is $100. That $100 covers your movie ticket.

All proceeds from the Gasland Event go to benefit Texas OGAP.

You can RSVP by going to the Gasland Earth Works Action Website.

Herds Of Turtles Today At Veterans Park In Arlington With A Bright Yellow Wildflower & A Detoxifying Wild Woman

In the picture you are looking at a herd of Turtles resting precariously on the banks of the Veterans Pond at Veterans Park in Arlington, today, under a cloudy noon sky.

The Turtles in Veterans Pond appeared to be organized into two competing gangs. With one Gang being the bank dwellers you see here and the other Turtle Gang controlling the opposite side of the pond, while occupying a big log.

A couple Turtles were doing underwater surveillance, occasionally periscoping their heads out of the water, to make sure, I assume, that no enemy Turtles were encroaching on their Turtle Territory.

I don't think these are a different brand than the Toxic Turtle that tried to kill me in July of 2002 in Lake Grapevine. The malevolent reptile was big. And fast.

Speaking of Toxic. I learned this morning that Betty Jo Bouvier, aka The Wild Woman of Woolley, is trying to tone down some of her Wildness by going through some sort of 12-step Detoxification Program. Betty Jo may be the least toxic person I've ever known, so it will be interesting to see what she's like after this Detoxification process works its magic on her.

In the meantime, in a Show of Solidarity with Betty Jo, I am drinking some De-Tox Tea. I don't know how well it is working. I'm still feeling plenty toxic.

I almost forgot to mention. I saw a new Wildflower today blooming at Veterans Park. By new, I mean, new to my eyes, this Texas Wildflower season.

My Anonymous Tacoma Informants Are Wrong About Toxic Fat

I am starting to grow a tad weary of messages from my Tacoma Informants. Some of it is just a tad too mean spirited. Now, I am not squeamish when it comes to mean spiritedness. Sometimes being a bit mean spirited is just what a situation calls for.

I think I need to clarify, for my Anonymous Tacoma Informants, my actual attitude towards the entity known as Toxic Tacoma Person #1, aka Fubbo.

The tone of the messages from the ATI (Anonymous Tacoma Informants) is that they basically think I hate Fubbo.

This is not the case. Yes, I've been appalled by Fubbo's behavior, offput by it, with my delicate feelers (term stolen from Gar the Texan) hurt by the behavior. But, hating Fubbo never entered the equation. It is more a thing of feeling sorry for the girl and her self-destructive, self-defeating ways. That and I do not like chronic lying.

So, this morning the ATI tells me that Fubbo is doing some heavy duty lying on her blog in a blogging about being fat due to eating a lot to cover her shame. Or something like that. And then the ATI got mean spirited, saying Fubbo was lying about having been non-fat in her earlier days.

Well, I can vouch for that fact, the non-fat fact. The ATI's are wrong in thinking Fubbo is lying about her skinny past. In the picture at the top you are looking at Fubbo, years before she became toxic and bigger. That is me, standing next to Fubbo, also years before I became toxic and bigger.

That picture was taken in front of the Boot Hill Cemetery in Virginia City, Nevada. We were staying in Reno, having driven there in Fubbo's little rotary motor Mazda car.

The second picture, where Fubbo is being all Betty Grable with her right leg, surrounded by snow, is at Crater Lake. That is Big Ed next to Fubbo, on the left, and Miss JW on the right.

As recently as April of 2006, Fubbo was significantly smaller than the 2008 and, I assume, the 2010, version. She'd been going to Weight Watchers and was looking good and healthy. After that she was hit with a family woe that would stress anyone, with her coping mechanism being to seek comfort in food, with Fubbo being the eventual result.

So, there you have it, my Anonymous Tacoma Informants, photo documentation of the Thin Fubbo. Now let's have ourselves an Informant Moratorium for awhile. Unless you come up with some really good material.

Citizens React Regarding Downtown Fort Worth Gunplay Of Texas Governor Rick Perry & Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief

I thought it was maybe only me who thought the Governor of Texas and the Mayor of Fort Worth indulging in gunplay in downtown Fort Worth was a bit nuts.

But, this morning there were three letters to the editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram regarding the Governor and the Mayor playing with guns in downtown Fort Worth.

I can't help but wonder, how many instances of extremely bad judgment will it take for the voters of Fort Worth to quit electing Mike Moncrief as their mayor with 70% of the vote of the 6% of the voters who bother to vote?

I've given up on the idea that Moncrief is ever going to come to grief over his conflicts of interest crimes, as in being on the take to the Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drillers running roughshod over Fort Worth in cahoots with the corrupt mayor.

At this point in time, with so much crime, I'm starting to think the FBI is on the take too. If a city government can get so corrupted, why would it stop there?

Anyway, below are the three letters to the editor about the Governor/Mayor Shootout in downtown Fort Worth...

Not-so-hot shots

It is disturbing to have the governor of Texas and the mayor of Fort Worth pictured on the front page of the Star-Telegram waving guns for all the world to see. This is a negative message about guns, and it makes Texans look like fools.

Texans are not always viewed in the most positive light when it comes to guns, and this reinforces negative stereotypes.

-- Johnnie Skinner, Fort Worth

Did anyone else think it ironic that Perry is shooting blanks?

-- Ross Bannister, Grapevine

Even though they were firing blanks, doesn't this tell the celebrants on New Year's, July Fourth, etc., who love to fire their guns in the air using real bullets that it is quite all right because our mayor and governor do it? What were these guys thinking?

-- Paul Thomas, Fort Worth