Why Does Fort Worth Pride Itself On Having The World's First Indoor Rodeo?

I had been told that, due to finally realizing how embarrassingly dumb it sounded, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram had dropped its patented Fort Worth makes other towns "Green With Envy," due to something in Fort Worth, about which no one outside of Fort Worth is actually envious, or even knows about, verbiage.

The Star-Telegram had a few variations of its patented "Green With Envy" verbiage.

For instance, the Star-Telegram might say something like, the Trinity River Vision's Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats are the Envy of the Nation.

It was always a mystery to me how the Star-Telegram determined that towns far and wide were Green with Envy over something to do with Fort Worth or how the Star-Telegram determined that something in Fort Worth was the Envy of the Nation.

And now, this morning, a fresh Star-Telegram verbiage mystery.

The subject is the world's first indoor rodeo. Apparently Fort Worth has been harboring the delusion that Fort Worth brought the world its first indoor rodeo.

In a caption, on this morning's front page of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, under a photo of Fort Worth's indoor rodeo is this verbiage....

"Fort Worth prides itself on having the world's first indoor rodeo in 1918, but a city in Kansas begs to differ."

And then in the article about this extremely important subject...

"...lots of people, especially Fort Worth boosters and Western history buffs, see the issue as more than bragging rights over a historical footnote."

How is it determined that a city prides itself about something to do with that city?

Bragging rights? People in Fort Worth brag about allegedly having the world's first indoor rodeo?

Is this "prides itself" and "bragging rights" concept a Texas thing? Or a function of a massive civic inferiority complex?

I can not imagine reading in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that Seattle prides itself on having the world's first Starbucks. Or a town in Minnesota is claiming bragging rights to the world's first indoor mall, while Seattle has long prided itself on having the world's first indoor mall with Northgate.

I doubt such embarrassing verbiage could make it past a Seattle Post-Intelligencer editor. And likely the writer of such embarrassingly dumb verbiage would be fired.

I imagine back when Fort Worth's indoor rodeo opened, with the claim of being the world's first, little attempt was made to verify if this was true.

This was way back in 1918. Fort Worth would have been even more of a backwater than it is now. I imagine back in 1918 the Fort Worth Star-Telegram spewed way bigger whoppers than the 2012 version does.

But let's just look at some of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's distorted exaggerations from this century.

The Star-Telegram repeatedly breathlessly reported that a new sporting goods store in Forth Worth, Cabelas, would be the biggest tourist attraction in Texas, thus worthy of the tax breaks the city was giving the store.

Within about a year the Fort Worth Cabelas was not even the only Cabelas in Texas, what with the opening of a Cabelas in Buda, down by Austin. And now the Fort Worth Cabelas is not even the only Cabelas in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, what with a second D/FW Cabelas now open in the North Dallas suburb of Allen.

Have you read a single word in the Star-Telegram acknowledging how outrageously that newspaper mis-represented Cabelas in Fort Worth?

Another example is the long defunct Fort Worth Santa Fe Rail Market. A very lame sort of food court, trumpeted by the Star-Telegram as being the first Public Market in Texas, and that it was modeled after Public Markets in Europe and Seattle's Pike Place Market.

Not only was the Santa Fe Rail Market not the first Public Market in Texas, it was not even the first Public Market in Fort Worth. The first Public Market in Fort Worth has a state historical marker designating its significance.

After the predictable failure of the Santa Fe Rail Market did the Fort Worth Star-Telegram do any sort of responsible post-mortem mea culpa type reportage? Not that I noticed.

And now, this morning, the Star-Telegram has Fort Worth bursting with pride due to thinking it had the world's first indoor rodeo.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram should list all the things Fort Worth prides itself on.

Like being the only city in the world to have happy hour inner tube floats in a feces infested polluted river.

Like priding itself on being the city with the fewest skyscrapers of any city in America with a population over 500,000.

Like taking pride in the fact that Fort Worth has the lowest mileage of sidewalks along side its mileage of roads of any city in America with a population over 500,000.

Like taking pride in the fact that Fort Worth's downtown is the only downtown in America of a town over 500,000 population, without a department or grocery store. (little Oliver's Fine Foods does not count}

Like the bragging rights a town gets when it has more drill holes poked in it than any other city in the world, in the world's biggest experiment in urban drilling. That is really something Fort Worth can pride itself on that makes towns far and wide Green with Envy....

The Final Saturday Of The First Month Of 2012 Dawns Late In Texas

Looking out my primary viewing portal on the outer world, on this final Saturday of the first month of 2012, due to how brightly lit the outer world appears to be, you might guess I opened my primary viewing portal's sun-blocking device after the arrival of the sun this morning.

You would have guessed right.

I was up way later Friday night than is my norm.

This has me up way later Saturday morning than is my norm.

I prefer to be operating in norm mode rather than not in norm mode.

I was under the impression that the temperature predictors had predicted it would be freezing this morning, as in 32 degrees. However, my computer-based temperature monitoring device is indicating it is 39 degrees.

I only know of 4 things in store for me on this last Saturday of January of 2012. Blogging, working on a website, an aerobic walk at a, currently, undetermined location and going to Town Talk.

It will be a full and tiring day and I will not be going swimming this morning.

A Breezy, Balmy Walk Around Fosdic Lake With The Ducks

Fosdic Lake Blue Lagoon With Ducks

Today I returned to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdic Lake for the first time since our recent deluges.

I don't know why there were no big waves, with whitecaps, on Fosdic Lake. At noon it was so windy I had to hold on to my hat during the course of more than one extremely blustery gust.

It is currently 63 degrees in the outer world at my location. I was overheating, so I have opened the window in my computer room. A nice cooling breeze is now cooling me.

I think I have said it before, but that never stops me from repeating myself. I do not ever recollect opening my windows in Texas during previous years during the Winter months of December and January. So far, this winter, there have been multiple instances of having my windows open.

By this time last year we'd been in the Deep Freeze, with frozen water material on the ground, at least once, leading up to the Super Bowl Week of Blizzards, Ice Storms and Snow.

Too bad the Super Bowl is not in Cowboys Stadium this year. It would have left a much better impression. Assuming no Jerry Jones Seating Scandal Debacle, along with the balmy weather.

The Last Friday Of The First Month Of 2012 Wondering Why Texas Towns Are Not More Literate

Looking out my primary viewing portal, on this last Friday of the first month of 2012, it appears to be very dark, this morning, in the outer world, with my swimming pool the brightest thing to be seen.

I am very pleased, this morning, to find that all the symptoms of an incoming cold, that I have been experiencing the last 48 hours, have abated. No headache, no sneezing, no stinging watery eyes.

I heard from Stenotrophomonas this morning, with a Tandy Hills Report, telling me that the heavy rains of the past couple days have predictably washed out the recently installed creek crossings and that on Thursday, around 4 in the afternoon, the Tandy Highway was a raging river, with some of the liquid provided by overflowing sanitary sewers, adding a special perfume to the water, as it flowed over the roaring Tandy Falls.

I forgot to watch last night's CNN Republican Debate. It re-ran at 10, so I set the DVR to record it, in case the morning news indicated I'd missed anything entertaining. The morning news indicated that, predictably, Newt and Mitt continued their cat fighting. With Newt ending up seeming subdued. A subdued Newt sounds depressing.

Speaking of depressing. This morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported on the shocking news that in a literacy ranking of America's Top 75 cities, of Texas towns, Austin was the only Texas town not to rank in the bottom half of America's most literate cities with a population of 250,000, or more.

Even though Seattle ranked #1 in various aspects of this literacy survey there was no mention made this morning, that I saw, in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, No article saying that towns far and wide are Green with Envy due to Seattle's literacy ranking.

I wonder if there is some correlation between a town's literacy level and a town's newspaper's tendency to use embarrassing verbiage like " Green with Envy  ?"

I was surprised that the Star-Telegram printed the following, which is unusually accurate and not the usual phony, chamber of commerce boosterism, based on delusional nonsense, that the Star-Telegram is prone to....

"Quality tends to be associated with quality, and highly literate cities often rank high in other quality of life metrics: Cities ranked in the top 10 most literate tend to offer the most active singles' scenes (Boston, Seattle, Washington and Atlanta), are safer (Minneapolis, Boston, Seattle, Portland, Denver and Cincinnati), more walkable (Seattle, Washington, D.C., Portland, Boston and Denver), and healthier (Washington, D.C., and Denver)."

Perhaps Fort Worth should send out a task force to these other towns and find out what it is they are doing different than Fort Worth that makes them actual top notch cities, rather than make believe wannabes.

I've got a big hint for you. None of those top-ranked towns have any projects going on as goofy as the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle. None of those top-ranked towns would instigate a big public works program without the public voting on it.

But.

How can you have the public vote on public works projects, in a town, where, apparently, way too many people are illiterate?

I'm guessing there is a correlation between level of literacy and a town's mileage of roads without sidewalks.

I doubt any of the highly literate towns would get away with allowing gas drilling companies to take over their town and poke thousands of holes in the ground.

Most-literate cities

1. Washington, D.C.
2. Seattle
3. Minneapolis
4. Atlanta
5. Boston
6. Pittsburgh
7. Cincinnati
8. St. Louis
9. San Francisco
10. Denver
22. Austin
46. Plano
51. Dallas
54. Fort Worth
60. Houston
64. Arlington
66. San Antonio
73. El Paso

Feeling Sick With Coffins, Baseball & Waterfalls At Arlington's Veterans Park

My Veterans Park Baseball

I do not remember being sick, yet, this century. If I have, I have lost all memory of it. No cold, no flu, no nothing.

And then yesterday I started randomly sneezing. I attributed this to being out in the rain. And maybe chemicals enhancing my local air, courtesy of the recent Chesapeake Energy well hydraulic fracturing, aka fracking.

Prior to the bouts of sneezing I had been having a couple days of itchy burning watery eyes.

And then this morning I woke up with a headache. My head has been aching, my eyes watering and my nose sneezing all day long.

Veterans Park Memorial With Coffins

Around noon I decided to treat my symptoms by going to Veterans Park, in Arlington and then ALDI in Pantego.

You can almost tell by the shadow of the waving flag that stands above the soldier who stands guard over the Veterans Park Memorial that is was windy today.

Does anyone, but me, think it a bit odd to have two coffins laying on the ground in front of bricks memorializing fallen Soldiers and Veterans, as part of the memorial?

I have never seen such a thing before, anywhere. Not that I've seen all that many of these type memorials.

I forgot to mention, soon upon arrival at Veterans Park I found a white ball laying on the ground. I picked it up and took it with me, throwing it in the air and catching it as I walked. I was feeling quite coordinated.

Veterans Park Falls

Veterans Park was a bit on the wet side, today, recovering from the first big rainstorm of 2012. Rain ended very early today, with blue sky returning to North Texas by noon.

Part of the trail through the Veterans Park Xeriscape was covered by a rampaging Veterans Park Creek, roaring over Veterans Park Falls.

I like feeling the earth tremble from a big waterfall, and getting soaked from the mist.

Changing the subject from Veterans Park, and catching a ball, back to being sick.

The only place I have been in the past week, where I was in close quarters with a lot of potential virus carriers, has been Town Talk. And Wal-Mart. I could not find Paradise Center Camp Bowie Bingo on Friday, or I would have had to add bingo to the suspect list.

I am medicating myself, currently, with medicinal tea laced with lemon juice. I'm sure it will cure me by morning.

Rain Continues On The Final Thursday Of The 1st Month Of 2012 On The Flooded Fort Worth Cowtown Wakepark

I did not realize until I stepped outside to take a picture through the bars of my patio prison cell that it is still raining on this morning of the last Thursday of the first month of 2012.

The weather predictors have predicted rain throughout today. Which explains why it is still raining.

Yesterday I mentioned that the Trinity River flood has inundated the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's first completed project, that being the much needed, community requested, World's #1 Urban Wakeboard facility, the Cowtown Wakepark.

I saw no mention made this morning in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram regarding the flood damage done to Cowtown Wakepark.

The Currently Flooded  Cowtown Wakepark

However, the Star-Telegraph sent one of its reporters out to check on the flooded Cowtown Wakepark to take some pictures. You can see those pictures in a Star-Telegraph blogging titled "Wanna Wakeboard?"

Maybe the Cowtown Wakepark was designed to easily handle being flooded, which may explain why it looks so shoddy.

I am beginning to suffer the pains that result from no aerobic stimulation. Today I will need to get myself some endorphins, even if I have to acquire them under a bumbershoot.

Bertrand Russell Got Me Thinking About Some Texas Fools & Fanatics

I just finished blogging about being perplexed by a problem in my part of the world, a problem which I think is caused by way too many fools and fanatics being way too certain that their foolish fanatical ideas, like the Trinity River Vision, make sense, when I logged into Facebook to find that a member of my favorite Fort Worth band, Triggerfish, had posted this amusing quote from Bertrand Russell.

That being...

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts."

The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Has Invaded Fort Worth's Eastside Regional Library With A Go Gateway Propaganda Billboard

Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Billboard In
Fort Worth Eastside Regional Library

Today all my endorphin inducing aerobically stimulating walking venues were compromised, to varying degrees, due to the unnatural amount of water that has fallen from the sky in the past 24 hours.

I assume the Village Creek Natural Historical Area is closed due to Village Creek flooding. The Trinity River is flooding, which has closed Quanah Parker Park and the Beach Street entry to Gateway Park. I could have gone to Oakland Lake Park and walked around Fosdic Lake under a bumbershoot, but I was in no mood for that.

So, with me in dire need of reading material, I decided to opt out of walking stimulation and instead go to the Eastside Regional Library and then Town Talk.

Imagine how appalled I was to be minding my own business, whilst book hunting, to find myself suddenly visually assaulted by an enormous chunk of Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Propaganda, plopped right in the open in the library, where impressionable young minds could have their vision of the future, forever warped, in disappointment, when this Vision Boondoggle meets its inevitable blind alley end.

On the Billboard, the map of the new "Gateway Park" shows it extending all the way east of the Trinity River, to Oakland Boulevard, with skate parks, soccer fields, softball fields and I don't know what else, atop what is now the humped up remains of a waste disposal site which regularly spews flames.

The text on the "Go Gateway" sign says.........

An exciting component of the Trinity River Vision is Gateway Park in Fort Worth's east side. The 1.000 acre park will be filled with community requested recreational amenities, such as a public skate park, an outdoor amphitheater and 15 miles of additional trails. Major strides will be made in restoring the park's natural ecosystem, including the planting of over 80,000 native oak and pecan trees. This massive effort will fuel development around the park and connect east and southeast neighborhoods to the Trinity River corridor.

Where do I start?

Community requested amenities? Really? By what means and when did the community request these amenities? Was it in that bond election that approved this project?

The Gateway Park part of the TRV Boondoggle only came to be when the TRV had to add on the un-needed flood diversion channel in order to get federal funds. Then to make the un-needed flood diversion channel work, a large area of wetlands was needed to absorb the accelerated flood waters. This then affected the existing Gateway Park, so it had to be added to the Vision, including the planting of J.D. Granger's 80,000 Magic Trees, a subject we have discussed previously.

The Trinity Trail Dam Bridge
 By Gateway Park Underwater Today

What is happening today is very interesting, flood-wise. Today is the first time the Trinity River has gone into rogue flood mode since the remnants of Hurricane Hermine dumped a lot of rain on North Texas.

All the wonderful Trinity River Vision Boondoggle flood control elements, like the Magic Trees, are years from protecting Fort Worth from a flood event, like today.

If those flood control elements ever do become a reality, which is highly unlikely, what becomes of places downriver, like Quanah Parker Park? Quanah Parker Park is also in Fort Worth.

And why is this huge Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Propaganda Billboard sitting in a public library? Where impressionable young minds, not wise to the wily ways of propaganda, will leave the library with Trinity River Vision visions of Sugar Plum Fairies, Dancing Lollipops, Magic Trees and other things which will likely never happen, planted in their innocent young minds by that nefarious purveyor of nonsense and fairy tales, J.D. Granger.

Why is the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle spending so much public money on propaganda signage? Why are they working so hard to sell their vision? It is not like they are making their case due to an upcoming election where the project will be voted on.

Really, what is the point of sticking a billboard like this, touting so many ridiculous claims, in a public library?

It is all very very perplexing.

The Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex Is Flooding Including The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Cowtown Wakepark

In the picture you are looking at an overhead view of the flooding that was blocking my way to my pool zone this morning.

Over 4 inches of rain has fallen on the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex during the current storm, which seems to have finally ceased, with the constant rain, in the last couple minutes.

I did not know that we are currently in flood mode til I read it on one of this area's few reliable news sources, that being the Star Telegraph.

Please note, this was not a typo, I meant to type Star-Telegraph, not Star-Telegram.

In a blogging posted in the Star-Telegraph, only minutes ago, titled "Fort Worth Flooding" I learned that not only are the usual suspects, like Haltom City, under water, but an object I suspected would be under water the first time we had a flood, is also under water.

Yes. The world's premiere urban wakeboard park, Cowtown Wakepark, the first project completed by the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle bogus flood control project, is under water.

I wonder how much damage the flood will do to the Cowtown Wakepark's cheap looking construction? And how much it will cost to fix the flood damage? Or has someone already figured out that Cowtown Wakepark is the first failure, of likely many, of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle?

If it was not a lot of bother I'd drive west to check out the flooded Cowtown Wakepark and take some pictures.

The Final Wednesday Of The 1st Month Of 2012 Is Stormy In Texas After Last Night's State Of The Union Address

Looking at the dark outer world through my primary viewing portal, past the bars of my patio prison cell, you can tell the sun has not yet arrived on this last Wednesday of the 1st month of 2012, Day 25 of January.

What you can not tell is it raining.

Rain began falling around 3 o'clock Tuesday afternoon. Rain has continued to precipitate ever since. At times in copious amounts.

Thunder has been booming since soon after the arrival of the rain. The booming has continued, off and on, since the rain began.

At my location I have had 3 bone jarring, building shaking, very close lightning strikes.

I do not know if this means the Great Texas Drought is over. I doubt that it is.

Changing the subject from my favorite subject to something else.

I found myself self surprised to not be displeased by last night's State of the Union Address. This was one of the few times I have watched Obama give a speech, since he became president, when I did not, at some point, think to myself, this is not very presidential.

Last night's speech was quite a contrast from the last time Obama gave a speech to a joint session of Congress, that being his embarrassing "pass this jobs bill now" speech, that seemed to indicate he had no clue how the legislative process works.

Last night's speech was so good, as was Obama's acting presidential, that I had a glimmer of thinking he could actually be re-elected. Previous to last night I really thought he had no chance.

I still don't know how well Obama will hold up to  Newt Gingrich's proposed 3 hour Lincoln-Douglass style debates, should Newt get the Republican nomination.

I just heard thunder boom, again, in the midst of yet one more downpour.

I am not going swimming this morning.