The NFL & City Of Fort Worth Ban Yum Yum Food Truck From Downtown For The Duration Of The Super Bowl Madness

I learned of the latest Downtown Fort Worth Super Bowl Nonsense this morning from Agent cd0103.

And then a few minutes later I logged into Facebook to get beat by the Scrabble Queen of Washington.

On Facebook I saw this latest Downtown Fort Worth Super Bowl Nonsense mentioned in a Facebook comment by former Fort Worth native, MBK, currently exiled in Tacoma.

MBK said, "Is Fort Worth turning into OLDFOGIEVILLE? So much for small businesses getting a piece of the Super Bowl action!"

MBK is referencing Downtown Fort Worth banning the very popular Yum Yum Food Truck til after the Super Bowl.

The Yum Yum Food Truck also has a Facebook page, where MBK further commented about this latest Downtown Fort Worth Super Bowl Nonsense, saying, "This is outrageous. The old FOGIES that run DTFW should be ashamed! The restaurants downtown won't be able to provide good service to massive crowds. It will be WORSE than during concerts/Main Street Arts Fest. Big Wigs are turning downtown to Oldfogieville!"

Til sanity returns the Yum Yum Food Truck is moving to south of Downtown Fort Worth, to 1220 Pennsylvania Avenue in the Hospital District.

However there is a complication. The Food Network is coming to Downtown Fort Worth next week, with the hope of taping a show called Outrageous Foods on the Yum Yum Food Truck. Apparently Yum Yum is known for its massive 10 pound Super Super Monster Burrito.

On December 14 the Fort Worth City Toadies, I mean, City Council, adopted an ordinance that bans non-NFL Vendors from Downtown Fort Worth. Only approved Vendor Booths will be allowed on the parking lots known as Sundance Square.

The verbiage in the City Council's order banning non-NFL Vendors is interesting, saying this ordinance is needed to "promote and protect the festive image in the downtown area" and to remove anything that might "hinder security, obstruct traffic or cause congestion."

The City's Code Compliance Director claims the city is not out to harm any business, saying "We're just looking to protect that area  of downtown."

Yes, I can see how the Yum Yum Food Truck selling hamburgers and burritos would pose a security risk, impede the flow of traffic and greatly diminish that festive image that Downtown Fort Worth is so good at projecting.

I wonder how many Porta-Potties are being brought in to line up on the Sundance Square Parking Lots? Can only NFL-Approved Porta-Potties be used? Are they bringing in some of those really cool custom made Dallas Cowboy Porta-Potties that look so attractive on the Dallas Cowboy Stadium parking lots?

With the Super Bowl being played in Arlington and with Downtown Fort Worth really not having all that much going for it, I'm wondering why the Fort Worth Fogies think there is going to be a big crowd downtown during the Super Bowl Week? Downtown Fort Worth does not have a single department store. Not a one. No Nordstroms, Neiman-Marcus, Macy's. Not even a Sears.

This department store deficit really is a sad indication of just how lively Downtown Fort Worth actually is. But removing the Yum Yum Food Truck will help make Downtown Fort Worth appropriately festive.

The Yum Yum Food Truck's location, prior to its banning, had been on Throckmorton by the Tarrant County Courthouse. You know, that building across the street from Downtown Fort Worth's #1 Neglected Eyesore, Heritage Park. In its current sad condition Heritage Park really does not add a lot to that festive image Downtown Fort Worth thinks it is protecting and promoting.

And now the smallest downtown, of any town in America with over a half million residents, doesn't even have a Yum Yum Food Truck. Plenty of Grackles though. Very festive birds.

The Last Wednesday Of The First Month Of 2011

Looking out my viewing portal this last Wednesday of the first month of 2011 the sky is bright and blue.

And the temperature is a balmy one degree above freezing.

I don't think I will go swimming this morning.

I made it through President Obama's State of the Union speech last night. I previously have had some trouble making it through his speechifying. But last night made two in a row where I listened to the entire speech without my ADD kicking in.

I am heading to the north end of the D/FW Metro zone around noon. I don't know when I'll make it back to my current location. But it will likely be sometime before the sun disappears for the day.

Thousands Of Grackles Are Massing In Anticipation Of The Upcoming Super Bowl

In the picture you are seeing just a few of the Grackles that have taken up residence at my neighborhood Wal-Mart Supercenter and Sam's Club.

Hundreds, maybe thousands, of the birds, all over the buildings, on vehicles. And standing all over the parking lot.

The Grackles have been hanging out in this location for weeks now. They seem to be getting very comfortable with their surroundings and are not as easily startled as they were a few weeks ago.

If you've ever watched The Birds, the whole scene is very Hitchcockian.

I read this morning. Or was it yesterday? That an attempt is being made to move the Grackles from their various locations, due to some people thinking this is yet one more local embarrassment in need of being hidden from the upcoming Super Bowl.

This particular Grackle infested Wal-Mart is just a few miles to the west of the Dallas Cowboy Stadium where the Super Bowl will take place. You can see the Cowboy Stadium from this location.

Across the street from the Cowboy Stadium is one of the nicest Wal-Marts I've ever seen. With the Grackles being such Wal-Mart fans I wonder if they have taken over that Wal-Mart yet? Or, are they waiting for the Super Bowl to make their move? They seem to be very smart birds. Smart birds are not Jerry Jones fans.

Maybe the Grackles are planning to fly into the stadium, en masse, through the open end zone doors. That would be poetic.

Efforts to move the Grackles have proven to be fairly futile in the past. Methinks the locals should embrace their Grackle Colonies and turn them into yet one more tourist attraction for the visiting football fans.

I'm having a bad reaction to the efforts to spruce up this place because of the Super Bowl.

I have known a slob or two who only cleans up their clutter on the rare occasions that company is expected.

That is how this local Super Bowl cleanup strikes me.

Really embarrassing.

A sloppy place picking up its clutter because company is arriving in town.

Shouldn't the litter be picked up all the time?

And I think I've already mentioned that there is no way to control where the Super Bowl visitors might be driving.

Rather than take I-30 into Fort Worth or Dallas, they might choose Division or Lancaster.

Division goes through some real eye-popping scenery in Dallas, while Fort Worth tops Dallas with Lancaster, Berry and Rosedale.

What if a visitor gets lost in the Fort Worth Stockyards zone and meanders around the neighborhood to the west? That won't leave a good impression.

Speaking of the Stockyards. Is the New Isis Theater being spruced up for the Super Bowl? It has been boarded up since I first laid eyes on it over 11 years ago. It is in the Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District. I've been told a number of times that the New Isis is in the process of being restored.

But, unless it has been fixed up, without me knowing about it, the New Isis is still an Old Eyesore, that would be really easy to at least make look better from the outside.

Switching the subject back to the Texas Grackle Invasion. The Wikipedia article about these birds was amusing. And has a Texas connection.

From Wikipedia.....

Unlike many birds, the grackle benefits from the expansion of human populations due to its resourceful and opportunistic nature. The common grackle population has greatly increased in the Austin, Texas, area in recent years and is regarded as nuisance by some, due to aggressive behavior. Common grackles are considered a serious threat to crops by some, and notoriously difficult to exterminate and usually require the use of hawks or similar large birds of prey.

With just a few word changes the above paragraph could be an accurate description of Chesapeake Energy and its fellow gas drillers.

Hiking Through The New Tandy Canyon Looking At A New View Of The Envy Of The Nation While Thinking About Guarding Donuts & Gas Drilling

Today when I accessed the Tandy Hills via the View Street Trail I was pleasantly surprised to see a cool new Tandy Hills feature. With that feature being a canyon of cut brush rising from both sides of the trail.

And then when you exit the canyon you are treated to a new view of the stunning skyline of the beautiful downtown of the city that is currently the Envy of the Nation.

An awful lot of brush was bashed to expose this new view of downtown Fort Worth that you see here, looking across Texas prairie freshly rendered back to its pristine state free of invasive plant species.

Yesterday I mentioned that I did not remember the last time I worked as hard as I did this past Saturday. I did not say what it was I was working hard at. And then today someone calling him or herself Anonymous asked, "Does being in charge of dozens of donuts count as hard work, Mr. Tandy Hills Hiker?"

Well, in answer to that Anonymous question, yes being in charge of dozens of donuts can count as hard work.

An hour or so later, after my arrival on the Tandy Hills, as I headed back to View Street, I heard motorized racket. When I saw what was making the racket I was appalled to see a bulldozer dismantling the cool new Tandy Brush Canyon and depositing it piece by piece into a dump truck.

If you look closely at the picture of the bulldozer, above the bulldozer you will see the latest addition to the scenery you can view from the Tandy Hills. A Chesapeake Energy Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drilling Rig looking as if it is sitting on top of a Tandy Hill.

Up After The Sun On The 4th Tuesday Of 2011 Thinking About A Fat Bastard & Pain-Free Hiking

Looking out my window on the world this last Tuesday of the first month of 2011 I can sort of see that this may be a blue sky day over my zone of North Texas.

However, I read in the unreliable Fort Worth Star-Telegram, this morning, that snow may be falling this morning to the west of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

It is currently 5 degrees above freezing in my location, which would seem to render snow an unlikely occurrence.

Yesterday on my increasingly visited DurangObesity Blog the blog was visited by my new friend who calls himself "Fat Bastard." Fat Bastard is an amusing guy. He has a blog devoted to being a Fat Bastard.

A couple days ago I mentioned that I got a message from Elsie Hotpepper about landing an eagle which made no sense to me. Yesterday I got messages from Elsie Hotpepper which also made no sense to me. All about me being quiet. I had made no note of myself being particularly quiet, so this confused and perplexed me.

And I finally heard from the Scrabble Queen of Washington. I was starting to grow concerned.

My aching right foot ailment has greatly improved in the past couple days. This may make for some comfortable, pain-free hiking today. I hope.

Tandy Hills Brush Bash 3 Is A Successful Wrap

I can not remember the last time I worked as hard as I worked on Saturday.

This afternoon I got Don Young's report with all the specific stats about Saturday's Tandy Hills Brush Bash.....

The Third Annual Tandy Hills Brush Bash is a wrap. On a beautiful clear, blue-sky day, a dedicated army of volunteers wrangled a mountain of brush up the steep Tandy Hills to the waiting trucks that hauled it away for composting. City of FW Parks & Community Services Department staffers led by, Michelle Villafranca and Dale Taylor, had cut the brush the previous week and assisted in the Bash.

The Tandy Hills Brush Bash Army came from all over the Metroplex. There were Boy Scouts, Master Naturalists, neighborhood folks, high school kids, moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas, a few PhD.'s and CEO's from all walks of life and all dedicated to getting the job done. And we did.

Wide open prairie vistas have been restored. The landscape looks measurably different and the prairie is much healthier thanks to our hard work. Here's the stats:

60+ volunteers

40+ community service workers

10+ dogs

36 large truck-fulls of brush

24 dozen donuts*

5 gallons of coffee, tea and hot chocolate*

1,000's of megabytes of digital photos which can be viewed on the Tandy Hills Facebook page, flicker and on our website.

Thanks to all who participated. For everyone else, pictures can't tell the story adequately. Don't wait until Prairie Fest. Come on out to Tandy Hills today and enjoy the new views.

Don Young

* Many thanks to Green Mountain Energy for providing coffee and donuts.

The Return Of The Short Shadow Of The Tandy Hills Thin Man Thinking About Litter Chain Gangs

I was on the Tandy Hills shortly after noon today. The sun was fully exposed with no clouds impeding its brightness.

Which made for a very bright, very short shadow.

I saw some of the results of Saturday's Brush Bash today. Along the main trail from View Street the view to the west is now much more viewable.

On the way to the Tandy Hills I saw a highway crew on Interstate 30 picking up bags of litter.

Yesterday I mentioned seeing what I thought to be a Litter Chain Gang picking up litter on the other side of the freeway from where I saw litter being removed today.

I got a few comments and emails about the subject. The Envy of the Entire Universe thought these litter pickers might have been something called Super Clean 2011 Volunteers, cleaning up for the Super Bowl.

More than one person was of the opinion this was being done for the Super Bowl.

Trouble with that theory is the Super Bowl takes place about 2 weeks from now. That is plenty of time to freshly coat the sides of the freeway with litter. Texans are astonishingly adept at littering.

I am also fairly certain that those guys in green, that I saw on Sunday, were not part of any volunteer group. First off the bus that transported them to the location was the same type prison bus I've seen transport Litter Gangs to pick up litter along the Trinity River's banks.

And, yesterday there was more than one man acting like a guard, watching the Litter Gang slowly pick up litter.

Anonymous, if that is her or his real name, told me that inmates are used to pick up litter in Washington. I've never seen this happen. But, I do know one convicted Washington felon who would greatly benefit, exercise-wise, if she were made to spend weekends picking up litter.

On a totally different subject, yesterday, or the day before, Betty Jo Bouvier mentioned a goofy thing regarding her town of Sedro Woolley, that being that a Washington radio station was having a contest called "Are You Smarter Than Sedro Woolley?"

Naturally, some Sedro Woollians are taking umbrage. Meanwhile down in Portland, that's the biggest town in Oregon, Some Portlanders are taking a little umbrage at a TV show called Portlandia on some obscure cable channel called the Independent Film Channel.

You can read more about being smarter than Sedro Woolley and Portlandia on my Washington Blog, and watch an amusing video of Portlandia.

How come no one makes a funny comedy TV show using Fort Worth for material? It would seem this town would be a gold mine of comic material. Trinity River Vision, Moron Mayor Mike Moncrief, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Lancaster Avenue, the Stockyards, Shanty Towns, thousands of natural gas wells, the Stock Show, Sundance Square, TCU.

And all the other marvelous wonders that make Fort Worth the Envy of the Nation....

A Freezing Texas Monday Morning Thinking About Hiking With Jack LaLanne

Looking out my viewing portal it appears the 4th Monday of 2011 has dawned with a clear blue sky.

And we are back freezing again at 26 degrees.

I don't think I will be going swimming this morning, but I do believe I will be back on the Tandy Hills today.

It felt really good yesterday to be back hill hiking after many days of not doing so.

I was surprised this morning to learn that Jack LaLanne is no longer with us. I thought he would live forever. But he died 4 years shy of making it to the century mark.

I'll get in some extra exercise today in Jack LaLanne's memory. And make an eggplant casserole.

I Am Currently Not A Fugitive From A Modern Day Texas Chain Gang

I think what we are looking at in the picture is the modern day version of a Texas Chain Gang.

I was driving east on Brentwood Stair Road and saw dozens of guys in green with green bags picking up litter.

Brentwood Stair runs along Interstate 30 on the south side of the freeway.

I stopped and took a quick picture through my windshield. The picture does not even remotely do justice to how odd this scene looked. I only got maybe a quarter of the Litter Gang in the picture.

I know these modern era Texas Chain Gangs are part of the punishment system for serious crimes like failing to pay a speeding ticket or other small time type crimes.

I have seen the Concentration Camp that is just slightly to the northeast of downtown Fort Worth, where these criminals go on the weekend and then get shipped out on buses to do tasks like litter pickup.

What I'm wondering is how much do these type operations cost this cash strapped town? Special uniforms, special bags, a bus to transport the criminals, the running of that Concentration Camp.

I do not recollect ever seeing this type activity when I lived in Washington. Is there a "weekend" prison surrounded by fence and concertina wire somewhere near downtown Seattle, where 100s of convicted criminals go to pay penance on the weekends? I don't ever recollect seeing a modern day Washington Chain Gang picking up litter by the freeway.

But, then, there is way way way less litter in the Evergreen State than you see in this Littering Lone Star State.

Sunday Hiking On The Tandy Hills With Dogs, Humans & Waterfalls

I parked on top of Mount Tandy today, not knowing if the Tandy Trails were hikable.

Upon arrival at the mountain top I saw a pair of hikers with a canine passing the Fort Worth Space Needle. This was to be the first of many human and canine Tandy Encounters today.

A short time later I came upon 3 guys who I thought, at first, were homeless people, possibly scouting out a new Shanty Town location. One of them asked where I was parked. I pointed back towards the road that leads to the Fort Worth Space Needle. The spokesman told me they'd hiked from "way over there," pointing towards View Street.

For some reason they wanted to get a look at the Fort Worth Space Needle and did not realize they could drive right up to it. This trio did not have the look of regular hikers.

A short time later I found myself facing a German Shepherd type dog, who was in a pack of two, with another dog of a brand not recognized by me. I don't think the dogs were rabid and they were not too menacing. I never did see a human to match with these dogs.

About a half hour after that dog encounter I was hearing the rushing water sounds of the Tandy River as it roars over Tandy Falls. I'd not seen water flowing over the falls in a long time.

As Tandy Falls came in to view, to the south of the falls I saw 3 more humans, with 3 dogs. These dogs were leashed. I did not have a close encounter with this particular human/dog combo, because they took a different path at the next junction.

This was my first successful Tandy Hills Hiking Day in a couple weeks.

As you can see in the view to the right, looking west at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, it is a gray, wintry day this Sunday in Texas.

Looking at that stunning skyline, I wonder if Fort Worth's Moron Mayor Moncrief thinks that skyline is yet one more reason Fort Worth is the Envy of the Nation?

This afternoon I am more than a little worried about Elsie Hotpepper. The last I heard from Elsie was yesterday, with a very cryptic message that really made no sense to me. All the message said was "I landed the eagle."

What can that possibly mean? I hope Elsie Hotpepper is not out somewhere shooting eagles. I'm fairly certain this is not legal to do.