Spencer Jack Caught In A Web Got Me Thinking About Fort Worth's Imaginary Islands & Bridges Over Nothing Boondoggles

This morning my favorite nephew Jason emailed me some pictures, one of which is the one above, another of which is below, where Spencer Jack is caught in a tangled web.

The text in the email...

Fall is in the air. Foggy mornings. And pleasant afternoons with the day time light shrinking. Spencer Jack suggested hanging up Halloween decorations on the "to do" list. We did such in his lego/train room.

Seeing the above picture amused me when I realized I was looking at something I don't see in my current location.

No.

I am not referring to beautiful scenery.

I am referring to islands. Real islands. I am losing memory of Washington place names, but I believe in the picture we are looking north across Padilla Bay. In the distance I believe that is Guemes Island. I don't know what the small, closest island is named. To the right, if the picture were wider, we might be seeing part of Samish Island.

Samish Island is like islands in Fort Worth, such as Panther Island, due to the fact that Samish Island is not really an island. It used to be an island, but early farmers blocked off the saltwater with dikes so as to create more fertile farmland and put an end to Samish Island's island status.

Spencer Jack and his dad drive by the view above every time they drive from their home zone in Mount Vernon, 15 miles west to Anacortes, where Spencer Jack's dad's Fidalgo Drive-In is located.

Fidalgo Drive-In is so named because it is located on Fidalgo Island, which leads me to another interesting thing that occurred to me when I thought about that drive to the Fidalgo Drive-In on Fidalgo Island.

To get to Fidalgo Island on Highway 20 requires driving over the Duane Berentson Bridge. As you can see this is a twin bridge. The picture only shows you part of this big bridge.

The body of water this bridge crosses is called the Swinomish Channel. The Swinomish Channel was not dredged as part of any sort of demented flood control, economic development scheme.

The dual  bridges replaced an antique draw bridge which caused bad traffic jams whenever a boat needed to head into or out of the channel.

I remember when the Duane Berentson Bridge was built. It did not take four years to build. And it was built over existing water. What a concept. The Duane Berentson Bridge is a much bigger bridge than the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing, which are scheduled to take four years to build.

Near where we are standing in the bridge picture is the Swinomish Casino & Lodge. I believe in addition to the lodge and casino there is also now an RV park and marina. The Swinomish are a Pacific Northwest Native American tribe. Their casino has a restaurant with my all time favorite seafood buffet.

The Swinomish Casino & Lodge, with its restaurants, did not come about due to any sort of sweetheart deals from something called the Padilla Bay Swinomish Channel Vision. The Swinomish have done a good job of economic development all on their own, with maybe a little federal help, just like the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, only with something to show for it a bit more elevated  than music venues, imaginary pavilions, a drive-in movie theater, a brewery and a wakeboard lake.

I do not remember ever reading, in any Skagit Valley media source, regarding the Duane Berentson Bridge, that it was a "Signature" bridge that would become an iconic gateway to Fidalgo Island.

Now, those of you who have seen artist's renderings of what the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing are going to look like, which of these bridges do you think might leave a more lasting impression in a visitor's memory, the Boondoggle's Bridges or the Duane Berentson Bridge?

Well, enough of that.

And now the aforementioned photo of Spencer Jack stuck in a spider's web in his Legoland Monorail Train Room.....

This Morning It Is Only 35 Degrees Above Freezing At My Chilly Location In North Texas

It is a dark and stormy morning this Friday September 12 at my location somewhere nowhere near being deep in the heart of Texas, which you can see via the view from my patio overlooking a nearby swimming pool.

I did not get in that nearby swimming pool yesterday due to big booming early on 9/11, along with big drips of rain dropping.

I did get in that nearby swimming pool this morning and had myself a mighty fine time getting cool.

Tomorrow if I get in that nearby swimming pool it should be even cooler due to the fact that the predicted cold front has arrived right on schedule.

The temperature has been dropping ever since the sun arrived in a currently futile effort to heat up the outer world.

I looked up at my computer based temperature monitoring device to see a drop of another degree, bringing us down now to a very chilly 67 degrees. I am math challenged but I think 67 degrees is only 35 degrees above freezing.

Brrrrr.

I don't think I will be driving anywhere to go on a hike or bike ride today.....

Does Arlington's Founders Plaza Make Arlington The Top Downtown In America?

The past week or two we seem to have been inundated with propaganda puffery pieces from Fort Worth's Ministers of Propaganda.

Top Downtown in America. Sundance Square Plaza is an award winning novelty, which towns across America should emulate. Panther Island Pavilion is a huge success drawing thousands to festival after festival.

I have blogged about my various perplexations on these subjects in several bloggings, such as...

Did The Prophet JD Granger Foresee The Irving Music Factory Making Panther Island Pavilion Look Like A Hillbilly Mudpit? and The Futile Search For The Missing Pavilion, Island & Panther At Fort Worth's Panther Island Pavilion and Elsie Hotpepper Helped Me Learn How Fort Worth Became The Top Downtown In America.

I'd come to terms with the fact that there is no island or pavilion in Panther Island Pavilion. I'd already sort of addressed the fact that the music events that take place at the erroneously named Panther Island Pavilion are not as "special" as Trinity River Vision Boondogglers, like J.D. Granger, propagandasize.

But what has been nagging me in the back of my memory is the thing where the Fort Worth Ministers of Propaganda spew the propaganda that Sundance Square Plaza in Sundance Square, a square which suffered for decades without a real square, is anything all that special.

And then it came to me what has been nagging my memory.

The repetitive pattern of the Fort Worth propaganda.

I think the first time I was burned by Fort Worth propaganda was when I read, over and over again, in the main propaganda spewer, the Star-Telegram, that a new enterprise in Fort Worth, the Santa Fe Rail Market, was going to be the first public market in Texas, and was modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market and public markets in Europe.

Well, you can go to the webpage I made about being appalled about various aspects of this Sante Fe Market propaganda and see quite clearly why it clearly aggravated me. That being the propaganda that this totally lame group of "stores" was the first public market in Texas and was modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market, with both claims being not even remotely legit.

What further aggravated me was just a short distance to the east, in this town called Dallas, there is a public market which every single one of my visitors from the Pacific Northwest have opined reminded them of Pike Place Market, that being the Dallas Farmers Market.

Okay, now let's switch to the subject of this little plaza that downtown Fort Worth's propaganda spewers are currently touting is drawing thousands of visitors a week.

There are a couple plazas in Dallas which actually do draw a lot of visitors. One is called Dealey Plaza. The other is called Pioneer Plaza. Dealey Plaza is known world-wide in a way I seriously hope Fort Worth's plaza never is. I have been in Dealey Plaza at an event, along with several thousand people, many more people than I think can cram into Fort Worth's Sundance Square Plaza.

But it is not in Dallas where the plaza is located that I finally remembered and realized came along before Fort Worth's, and is very similar to Fort Worth's. And is bigger.

The little town of Arlington, sandwiched between Dallas and Fort Worth, at its city center, you will find Founders Plaza. Founders Plaza has an actual pavilion, called Levitt Pavilion. There is no imaginary island surrounding Levitt Pavilion.

That is a screencap of the Founders Plaza Levitt Pavilion website at the top. Below  is a screen cap of a lot of people in Founders Plaza enjoying one of the 50 free music events held at Levitt Pavilion annually.

A description from the Founders Plaza website informs us that it has every feature you will find in the Fort Worth plaza. And more. Did the Fort Worth plaza people copy Arlington, I am wondering?

The Levitt Pavilion for the Performing Arts is inside Founders Plaza, a city park in the heart of Downtown Arlington at 100 W. Abram St. on the corner of Center and Abram streets directly across the street from City Hall. Founders Plaza is the crown jewel in the revitalization of Downtown Arlington and has become a favorite place for an impromptu picnic lunch, community gatherings and celebrations. The park includes a spacious lawn, walkways, seating walls, beautiful trees and flower beds, an interactive water fountain generously donated by the Junior League of Arlington, public art, a history garden and the Levitt Pavilion for the Performing Arts.

Inside Founders Plaza, visitors will find two special areas: the History Garden and the Meditation Grove. The History Garden, near the northeast entrance to Founders Plaza directly across from City Hall and the library, features historical markers about Arlington and its founders along with native plants. The Meditation Grove, nestled in the southwest corner behind the Junior League fountain, offers a tranquil area for reflection.

I have been to an event at Founders Plaza, several years ago. I remember, also years ago, when the Super Bowl took place in Arlington, with ESPN setting up on a downtown Fort Worth parking lot, wondering why they did not use that plaza in downtown Arlington.

And then I forgot about that plaza til today.

So, did those who make what little happens in downtown Fort Worth get Green with Envy, years ago, upon seeing what Arlington had done, plaza-wise, and finally decide it was time to add a square to Sundance Square?

Modeled after the square in Arlington?

We all know how Fort Worth likes to model things after other things, like Pike Place Market. Only this time they did a good job of modeling. The similarities between the two plazas really are striking, however, with Arlington having a real stage, more landscaping, trees and a lawn.....

9/11 At My Location In Texas Began With A Loud Boom This Morning In 2014

Oddly Lit 9/11 Computer Room Window Thunderstorm View

On a 9/11 morning you really do not want to be vibrated by loud unpredicted booms rattling your windows.

But that is what happened this morning, soon after I got vertical. The first boom was very close, and I'd seen no lightning flash.

Before the second boom rattled my windows I did see a lightning flash, so I was almost 100% certain the booms were not being caused by demented barbarians.

After a few more booms rain began downpouring.

So, I decided to opt out of my regularly scheduled morning swim for the first time in a long time.

I know I am not the only one thinking today how can it be 13 years since that awful morning when we first learned the shocking news that America was being attacked.

For me, it was a phone call from Big Ed in Dallas, telling me the World Trade Center had been hit by a plane and that I needed to turn on my TV. Since I knew Big Ed was at a meeting near the Dallas World Trade Center and Love Field, I figured it was the Dallas World Trade Center to which he referred and it was a plane taking off from Love Field accidentally crashing.

So, I was shocked to turn on my TV right when the second plane hit the second tower. A couple minutes after that I began calling people on the West Coast telling them they needed to get up and turn on their TVs.

The thirteen years since 9/11 have not been good. I don't know if it is related but I have not driven up to Washington since 9/11. I returned from a month in Washington the week before 9/11.

Prior to 9/11 I'd flown twice up to Washington. No security hassle. I've flown up to Washington several times since 9/11, disliking all the new security hassles.

After 9/11 we suffered many more years of George W. Bush being president, with two wars, neither of which went well and in which we continue to to be stuck.

And then there was the Great Recession, from which we have only partly recovered.

It is interesting, but pointless, to ponder how our world today may have been different if the person who actually got the most votes in the 2000 election actually became president.

Methinks, for some reason, had that happened, today we would not be hearing of a scary entity known as ISIS.

A Third Into September Today I Hope We Have Hit 100 For The Last Time This Year

A minute ago, or maybe two, I woke up my phone to text message a message to Elsie Hotpepper telling the Hotpepper I'd completed a task I'd been tasked with.

When I woke up the phone I was surprised to see the phone telling me that the temperature had gone over the 100 degree mark.

I looked up at my computer temperature monitoring device to see the same number.

101.

I thought the HOT days were behind us for the year, that a cold front was scheduled to arrive at any moment.

Look at the info above it appears the cold front is currently scheduled to arrive on Friday, with a low of 61, with Saturday's high being a chilly 76.

I guess I need to source my long underwear if I want to go mountain bike riding in Gateway Park on Saturday.

I had been wondering why the air-conditioning has been cycling off and on so frequently this afternoon. And now I know.

It's HOT!

Today I Learned Dallas Has The Best Skyline In The World

In the Fort Worth Star-Telegram I must have missed the news this morning that the skyline of Dallas had been voted to be the Best International Skyline.

Best International Skyline? That is odd verbiage. World's Best Skyline would seem to make more sense.

Anyway, l learned of this latest Dallas accolade this morning on WFAA's website in an article titled Dallas Voted 'Best International Skyline'.

Apparently USA TODAY runs weekly 10 Best contests. Dallas has showed up on these lists 12 times, with this latest #1 being the 2nd time Dallas has topped a category.

The previous win was for "Best Quirky Landmark in the USA" with Big Tex at the State Fair of Texas being the Best Quirky Landmark.

I do not know if Fort Worth has shown up on any of these 10 Best lists. I suspect not, due to not having read any propaganda puffery about Fort Worth being on a USA TODAY 10 Best list.

The 10 Best Skylines in the World, according to this scientific skyline study are....

1. Dallas
2. Chicago
3. Rio de Janeiro
4. Toronto
5. New York
6. Washington, D.C.
7. St. Louis
8. Hong Kong
9. San Francisco
10. Seattle

I really can not be the only person shocked that Fort Worth is not on this list, what with Fort Worth having the Top Downtown in America.

All kidding aside, these type lists are goofy. St. Louis? Why? Because of the Gateway Arch? I have only been to St. Louis once, and that was only to make a plane switch. I saw no skyline. Or the famous arch.

Shouldn't Paris be on such a list? Shanghai has a real cool skyline.

Toronto? I have no image stored in my memory of the skyline of Toronto.

Now, Vancouver, that is a Canadian town with a memorable skyline with a scenic background.

According to the WFAA article Dallas got over 40% of the votes. Apparently this landslide has something to do with a high recognizability factor due to a TV show named Dallas being a number one hit for several years all over the world.

I guess from this we Fort Worthians can glean that for Fort Worth to be recognized internationally the town needs a Fort Worth TV show to be a #1 hit all over the world.....

On Twitter Trinity River Fan/Critic Durango Texas Says Calm Down About The Amon Carter Photos

This morning shortly before leaving my abode to go the Village Creek Natural Historical Area I got a couple emails from Twitter.

The first email told me that Bud Kennedy mentioned me in a Tweet.

The second email told me that the FW Star-Telegram re-tweeted the Tweet in which I was mentioned by Bud Kennedy.

I know how to put a Tweet on Twitter, but beyond that Twitter is way too complicated for my simple mind to understand.

The tweeting, twittering, mentioning and re-tweeting had to do with the blogging from yesterday titled A Star-Telegram Review Of An Amon Carter Museum Exhibit Leads To Much Ado About Photos Of The Trinity River in which I do remember suggesting those taking umbrage about the Amon Carter river photo exhibit should calm down. I did not remember suggesting that it helps to see how others view us, but when I re-read what I wrote I could see how it could be characterized as such.

J.D. Granger Had Art Meeting The Trinity River With A Judge Needing Educating

That is a young lady named Gaile Robinson smiling at you on the left. Til yesterday I had never heard of Gaile Robinson.

Yesterday I found myself learning that Gaile Robinson is an art critic, or reviewer, or reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, because Gaile Robinson wrote a critical review report about an Amon Carter photo exhibit exhibiting photos of the Trinity River.

Both the photos and the review had a lot of locals in high umbrage mode, including Fort Worth's pre-eminent project engineer, J.D. Granger, who opined that Gaile Robinson was "a reporter who failed to educate herself about our community before she inked this junk."

The junk to which Mr. Granger refers is the article Gaile Robinson wrote for the Star-Telegram.

The full J.D. Granger statement about this serious subject....

I firmly believe there are two people at fault right now. I point this out to encourage our beautiful river community to direct your comments at both of them to help educate them about our Trinity River in Fort Worth. We are victims of an outta town arrogant and ignorant photographer and a reporter who failed to educate herself about our community before she inked this junk. I am a subscriber and love the the Star T - this piece does not reflect who they are. I know for a fact they do their homework because they absolutely grill the heck out of me before any story!

What is this "beautiful river community" Mr. Granger refers to?

Someone named Anonymous made a comment to yesterday's blogging about the Photogate Scandal which also referenced Granger's beautiful river community...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "A Star-Telegram Review Of An Amon Carter Museum Exhibit Leads To Much Ado About Photos Of The Trinity River":

J.D. Granger says that his beautiful river community needs to educate Gaile Robinson and that she is at fault. His remarks contradict what The Trinity River Vision Authority was saying two year ago.

In 2012, the TRV Authority chose Gaile Robinson to judge a TRVA event called "Where Art Meets the River". Two short years ago she was qualified to judge such an event, but now she needs educating according to Granger. 

Has anyone thought to measure the amount of egg which has accumulated on J.D. Granger's face over the years? It may be a Guinness Record....

A Star-Telegram Review Of An Amon Carter Museum Exhibit Leads To Much Ado About Photos Of The Trinity River

This morning when I woke up my phone there was a text message from Elsie Hotpepper which in part said "OMG. You have to go read Brian Luenser on Facebook. He's the guy who takes awesome shots of Fort Worth. Go to FB to see why he is not happy."

Well.

What a big brouhaha.

So, Fort Worth's Amon Carter Museum hired a Chicago photographer to take pictures of the Trinity River for an exhibit which opened Labor Day Weekend. Commissioning this piece of work has something to do with complimenting an exhibit opening in October called “Navigating the West: George Caleb Bingham and the River.”

On Facebook Brian Luenser verbalized his righteous irritation due to the fact that he has put a lot of effort into taking extremely flattering photos of the downtown Fort Worth zone and the Trinity River. Hundreds, maybe thousands, in various social media venues, are being very supportive of the Brian Luenser point of view.

People are also very upset with Amon Carter's newspaper, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and its review of the “Meet Me at the Trinity: Photographs by Terry Evans” exhibit.

That is a screen cap of part of the Star-Telegram article above. The article is written by Gaile Robinson. The article does not seem to follow the Star-Telegram's patented propaganda puffery style.

For example, a few blurbs from the Star-Telegram....

The Amon Carter Museum of American Art commissioned a portfolio of images about the Trinity River from photographer Terry Evans. Before the Chicago-based photographer made the first of her five trips to Fort Worth, the Carter’s senior curator of photography John Rohrbach warned her, “forget everything you know about rivers.”

It might have been better if Rohrbach were more blunt and told her the Trinity River put the “ugh” in ugly. It is a man-made watercourse whose path was determined by backhoes. It is a channel for polluted waters that runs through a city that turned its back on it for more than 150 years.

Maybe with some hard truths she would have had an inkling of how hideous most of the Trinity River is.

It only took one visit for Evans to appreciate the Trinity’s lack of allure. She was shocked, Rohrbach says, and admitted she didn’t know what to photograph.

The Trinity, with its tree-free banks, is a drawing card, even if it resembles a ditch more than a river in places.

There are no photographs of gorgeous big skies reflected in the water or downtown buildings shimmering through the morning mist as it rises over the water. There is nothing for a real-estate agent or city booster to hang a sale on here.

There is little to like about Evans’ views of the Trinity; she obviously found the river as pitiful as the rest of us did when we moved here from lusher lands. It is bleak, and it is brown. Yes, there are numbers of people who are drawn to the levees, who bring children, coolers, lawn chairs, fishing poles and inner tubes. But given a choice, no doubt, they would prefer a cleaner, more scenic destination.

There is little singularity to Evans’ choice of subjects, so that will not aid this collection in the future. There is just a rather bleak documentation of people who are making the best of the river with which they are dealt.

Oh my.

In reaction, on Facebook, Brian Luenser posted many of his flattering Trinity River photos, which have generated a lot of flattering comments, including the following choice comment from everyone's favorite project engineer, J.D. Granger....

JD Granger I firmly believe there are two people at fault right now. I point this out to encourage our beautiful river community to direct your comments at both of them to help educate them about our Trinity River in Fort Worth. We are victims of an outta town arrogant and ignorant photographer and a reporter who failed to educate herself about our community before she inked this junk. I am a subscriber and love the the Star T - this piece does not reflect who they are. I know for a fact they do their homework because they absolutely grill the heck out of me before any story !

Then on someone else's Facebook page someone else offered an alternative point of view...

Tom Davies It's a big ditch and it is ugly. So our solution is to invent an excuse for a politician's son and his friend's kids to have jobs and make it even uglier with bridges that don't fit in architecturally and think we can create Vancouver on the prairie and solve a non existent flooding problem as the excuse. #badidea

Now, there has been a time or two I have been ever so slightly critical about something in Fort Worth. I particularly do not like propaganda puffery mis-representing reality, such as the recent propaganda puffery falsely claiming Fort Worth's is the Top Downtown in America.

A lot of people are in high umbrage mode thinking that a local photographer, with a love of the river, like Brian Luenser, should have been hired for this Amon Carter Museum exhibit.

Well, it seems to me what they were going for, maybe, is looking at the river the way someone looks at it when they've not seen the Trinity River before.

I know when I first saw the Trinity River in the downtown Fort Worth area I thought it to be unlike any river I'd ever seen before. I did not think it was any sort of eyesore, but it also did not look like a river. Glorified ditch, as it passes past downtown, seemed a more accurate description.

And Brian Luenser does an excellent job of making that glorified ditch look scenic and attractive.

In Fort Worth there are areas where the Trinity River is not a glorified ditch, where it actually is scenic in its natural, no levees state. I take a picture at one of those locations usually at least once a week, that being where the Trinity River passes by Gateway Park. Another area where the river is not a glorified ditch is where it passes Quanah Parker Park. Another location, where the Trinity River is quite scenic, and natural, one used to be able to easily access from Mallard Cove Park, til Fort Worth city park workers blocked access with tall piles of brush for some unfathomable reason.

Anyway, methinks people need to calm down about this Amon Carter Museum exhibit and Gaile Robinson's Star-Telegram review.

It's a good thing people see things different. It's a good thing looking at your world through someone else's eyes. Even if those eyes are from Chicago and take really crummy looking photos....

On The Tandy Hills Hiking With A Big Bobcat Enjoying A Distant Look At America's Top Downtown

On the left we are on the old wagon trail on top of Mount Tandy, looking west at the stunning skyline of what we recently learned is the Top Downtown in America.

Fort Worth, Texas.

I had trouble sleeping last night, so I was vertical early this morning, which had me in the increasingly cool pool a half hour before the sun arrived to do some illuminating.

I thought a bout in the Tandy Hills Natural Area's natural steambath sauna would make me feel better.

It did.

I'd forgotten rain fell on Saturday. I remembered the rain when I got to the jungle part of the trail and found myself growing suddenly taller due to mud sticking to my shoes.

The mud did not stay stuck long, quickly shrinking me back to my regular height.

I saw several Hoodoos today, including the precariously engineered Hoodoo you see below.

The above Hoodoo was standing at Hoodoo Central at the north end of the View Street trail. I did not take  pictures of the other Hoodoos I came upon today due to the troubling fact that the humidity made it difficult to get the camera out of the pocket in which I stick it.

For what seems months now when I arrive at the summit of Mount Tandy I find my usual way in blocked by a tower maintenance operation. Weeks ago I walked over to the operator sitting under two big umbrellas to inquire about what they were doing. All I got out of the explanation was cables were slowly being replaced.

Today when I started my hiking the under the umbrellas guy waved at me. When I returned from my hiking the under the umbrellas guy waved again and then as I was standing outside my mechanized transport, hydrating, the umbrellas guy got off his perch and started walking towards me.

The umbrellas guy looked like he wanted to tell me something.

I was right.

Apparently soon after I started hiking down Mount Tandy the biggest bobcat the umbrellas guy had ever seen walked slowly in front of the fence that surrounds Tandy Tower and then took a right  to follow me down Mount Tandy.

I asked if he was sure it was a bobcat, asking if it could have been a panther. He said it had a short bobbed tail. The umbrellas guy said he's seen a lot of bobcats over the years but did not know they could get as big as the bobcat that apparently went hiking with me today.

In all the years I've been hiking on the Tandy Hills I think I have only seen one bobcat, a fast moving one darting across the trail ahead of me.