Fort Worth's Mayor Wants To Become Betsy Blue Rollerblading Sidewalks While Eating Less Beef

I saw that which you see here and thought "HUH".

The "HUH" was due to thinking "Blue Zone" was referring to Democrat, as in turn Fort Worth from a Red Republican dominated town to a progressive, liberal, forward thinking Blue Democrat dominated town.

The "HUH" was also due to seeing right-wing Republican Betsy Price hoping to turn Fort Worth Blue.

Turn Cow Town into Long-Living 'Blue Zone' is an article on the NBC News website. It was via a blog comment from Steve A that I learned Betsy Price wants to become Betsy Blue....

Steve A has left a new comment on your post "Pondering Thirteen Months To Build The Empire State Building Over Dry Land & Fort Worth's Bridge Boondoggle": 

Meanwhile, Betsy Price is looking to be around a LONG time so she can see the boondoggle's final completion - http://www.nbcnews.com/health/aging/texas-mayor-hopes-turn-cow-town-long-living-blue-zone-n337416 - or cancellation... 

From the NBC article some interesting Betsy Blue quotes....

Regarding a poll which ranked Fort Worth's well-being as 61st out of 189 cities Betsy said, "I believe we can substantially raise those numbers. I really do believe we can. And I think long term, 20 years out, we'll be way up in the top 50 percent or more."

Uh, at the 61st ranking, out of 189, isn't Fort Worth already in the top 50 percent?

Betsy has a history of saying things without putting a lot of thought into what she is saying. Like at the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's TNT ceremony to explosively mark the supposed start of construction of three little bridges being built over dry land Betsy is heard, on video, uttering something like "Building over dry land is a brilliant engineering plan that will save a lot of money, with the bridges only taking four years to build, instead of the eight years it might take over water."

I may have taken a bit of poetic license with that Betsy Blue quote.

All the TRWD/TRV Boondoggle apologists making it sound like a purposeful good thing to be building those little bridges over dry land highly annoy me. There will be no water in the ditch that is supposed to go under the bridges until the Trinity River is diverted into the ditch. Any normal, properly funded public works project would be digging the ditch at the same time the bridges are being built.

Regarding Fort Worth having too many fat kids, Betsy said "Kids spend far too much time in front of screens. They eat fast food. Their diabetes rate is incredible. Estimates are this is the first generation that will live shorter. And that's really worried me as a mother, a grandmother, and as a community leader."

Live shorter? Not grow as tall?

Betsy had some useful diet advice, saying "If you're used to eating beef six days a week, maybe you eat it four days a week. Or maybe you eat four ounces instead of eight ounces. Maybe mostly you just think about what you're doing."

Yikes! Beef six days a week, cut back to four? I think it's been a couple months since I've had any beef. No wonder I"m so skinny.

The article also says part of Betsy Blue's plan to enhance Fort Worth's well-being is to add sidewalks throughout the city. There is no Betsy quote on the sidewalk subject.

Fort Worth's lack of sidewalks has been an issue with me for years. How does it happen that a big city develops with so few sidewalks? The little town I moved to Texas from, Mount Vernon, Washington, has sidewalks on pretty much every street in town. Plus paved trails that are not beside streets which can take you all over town. In Tacoma, where I spent a miserable month the summer of 2008, everywhere I walked had sidewalks on both sides of the street, usually with a grass median between the street and the sidewalk.

How does a town grow into being a big city, like Fort Worth, without adding sidewalks to all its streets?

While Betsy Blue did not directly address the lack of sidewalks issue she did get quoted making reference to something one can use to roll oneself around on sidewalks in a modern American town, saying "Let's have more life in our years. Let's be able to enjoy our children and our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren. Be able to pick them up and to dance with them—or go rollerblading if you want to."

Rollerblading if you want to? On the few narrow sidewalks in my neighborhood it would be very problematic to rollerblade on them.

That's another thing. Why are Fort Worth's few sidewalks so narrow? Shouldn't they be at least as wide as the girth of an average Fort Worther? Two average sized Fort Worthers can not pass each other on a Fort Worth sidewalk without one of those passing having to step off the sidewalk to allow the other to pass.

How many miles of sidewalks could Fort Worth install for the amount of money being slowly squandered on The Boondoggle?

Fort Worth Weekly Does Not Know I Am A Foe Of The TWRD

A couple weeks ago when I blogged The Formidable Gayle Reaves Fired From Fort Worth Weekly it did not cross my mind to think that the absence of Fort Worth Weekly's Editor-in-Chief would so quickly cause a noticeable deterioration in the usually impeccable editing in Fort Worth Weekly.

And then I picked up this week's Fort Worth Weekly, looked at the cover and saw that which you see here....

FOES V. TWRD.

I really do not think TWRD would have gotten past the eagle eyes of Ms. Reaves.

It was the other part of the cover article's title which had me more intrigued than the unfortunate typo.

"Has the Tarrant Regional Water District met its match?"

Which of the TWRD's, I mean, TRWD's many foes is this article gonna be talking about, I thought to myself.

Elsie Hotpepper? Mary Kelleher? Layla Caraway? Monty Bennett? Me?

Well, we can rule me out. Only me and two other people know I'm a foe of the TRWD.

I have not yet read the article in its entirety, just enough to get the gist, and to realize it is sort of a myriad of  FOES v. the TRWD.

I was afraid this article was going to be sickening, with Fort Worth Weekly having succumbed to the bizarre TRWD party-line kool-aid that the Star-Telegram drinks and hop on the Kill the Evil Dallas Businessman (before he steals our precious Fort Worth water} Bandwagon.

I would direct you to a link to this week's Fort Worth Weekly cover article, but I have been told that that link does not yet exist. Apparently ever since the departure of Gayle Reaves updating the FW Weekly website has become a bit tardy.

But, I have to say, ever since the departure of Gayle Reaves, FW Weekly has been showing up by noon on Wednesday at my regular Albertsons source, rather than a day late.

I have no idea if there is any connection between timely FW Weekly arrivals and the Reaves departure. I suspect not....

UPDATE: I have now read the Fort Worth Weekly FOES V. TWRD article. Simply put, I do not think this article would have made it to print under Gayle Reaves' editorial eye without extensive editing.

Pondering Thirteen Months To Build The Empire State Building Over Dry Land & Fort Worth's Bridge Boondoggle

No. That is not the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth you are looking at here. What you are looking at is a small section of the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown New York City.

Today we are looking at that tall skyscraper in the center of the picture as the latest chapter in our popular series of bloggings about feats of engineering completed in a time frame of less than four years.

That skyscraper you see here is known as the Empire State Building. For several decades the Empire State Building was the tallest building in the world.

Construction of the Empire State Building began on March 17, 1930. Construction of the Empire State Building was completed on April 30, 1931, with the grand opening the next day, on May 1, 1931.

The Empire State Building took around 13 months to build.

A year and one month.

Meanwhile, in Fort Worth, Texas, 85 years after the Empire State Building opened for business, a big explosion amid embarrassing braggadocio from local politicians, and others, marked the start of construction of three simple small bridges being built over dry land.

With those three simple small bridges being built over dry land projected to take four years to build.

Hardly anyone among the herd of local sheep questions this bizarre slow motion bridge construction's absurdly long timeline for such a simple project.

The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle has been boondoggling along for well over a decade now. Yet there is only a peep here and there about the obvious fact that there is something not quite right about this allegedly vitally needed flood control and economic development project.

Clearly, judging by The Boondoggle's non-urgent, slow motion project progress there must not be much of a flood control problem or any economic development need.

If the Interstate Highway system, which began to be built in the late 1950s, was built on a Fort Worth time schedule, we would still be waiting for a freeway to exit Texas on in the direction from whence we came.

Near as I can tell no New York City congressperson's son was given a cushy job to be the Executive Director of the Empire State Building Vision.

However, former New York governor, Al Smith, did chair the construction company which built the Empire State Building.

Maybe former Texas governor, Rick Perry, could be hired to help with some aspect of the hapless Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

For the grand opening of the Empire State Building President Herbert Hoover dramatically signaled the opening by pushing a button in the White House which turned on the lights in the Empire State Building.

What with the start of construction of the Empire State Building beginning with a simple ground-breaking ceremony, not a TNT explosion like The Boondoggle's start of construction of its three little bridges over dry land, with such things needing to be proportional, what sort of amazing act is The Boondoggle going to come up with to mark the grand opening if its little bridges are finally ever able to carry traffic?

I suspect whoever is President, on that distant day in the future if The Boondoggle's bridges are ever finished, won't be pushing any button in the White House to mark the occasion.

That is, unless America goes totally mad and elects J.D. Granger's mama to the highest office in the land. One can only shudder to wonder what job a President Granger would give her favorite son.......

With Mom & Dad At Riscky's BBQ In The Stockyards Watching The Fort Worth Herd

I came upon that which you see above a couple days ago whilst looking at webpages I'd not looked at in a long time. That is my mom, on the right, looking at my dad, on the left, trying to take a picture of the Fort Worth Herd ambling their way through the Fort Worth Stockyards.

Our herd viewing vantage point was from the outdoor patio at Riscky's BBQ where we were having the all you can eat ribs along with other Texas delicacies.

The webpage on which my mom and dad appear is titled FORT WORTH HERD IN THE STOCKYARDS. On that webpage there is a link to another webpage, with that one titled FORT WORTH STOCKYARDS VIDEO on which, if I remember right, if you watch the video, and pay close attention, you may see Elsie Hotpepper.

The above photo was taken during mom and dad's first visit to visit me in Texas. I believe this was in late October or early November. I know the year was 2001, shortly after 9/11.

Also anchoring the time frame in my memory is I remember driving mom and dad south on I-820 when something came up in the conversation which had me picking up my phone and calling my sister's number in Arizona.

My favorite nephew Jeremy answered.

Jeremy was 14 or 15 at that point in time. Jeremy was home alone and being a bit nervous. It was from Jeremy we learned that America had begun its bombing of the Al Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan. This was Jeremy's first experience where he was old enough to understand what was happening when America was starting up one of its ubiquitous wars, hence the being a bit nervous.

Seems like only yesterday, but that phone call to Jeremy took place almost 14 years ago.

The last time mom and dad visited me in Texas was in January of 2009. On their first visit, mom could still see. On the last visit mom's macular degeneration had rendered seeing very problematic.

I called mom and dad on Saturday and learned my dad is about to get a pacemaker installed. I don't think mom and dad will be taking any more roadtrips to Texas. I probably should be taking myself on a roadtrip to Arizona....

I Saw The Grass Was Greener Before My Nephew Bounced My Welfare Check From The Fort Worth Police

Soon after dawn broke this morning I found myself having a mighty fine time dodging a few incoming raindrops whilst getting aerobic stimulation and the resulting endorphins gained by moving around in a not too cool pool.

By the time the sun reached its halfway point in its daily move across the sky I thought a bike ride would have a salubrious effect on my well being.

I am rapidly aging, which my favorite nephew, Jason, reminded me of, via a text message, which temporarily interrupted today's wheel rolling, reminding me I need all the endorphins I can find to counter that rapidly aging thing.

As you can see, above, my neighborhood golf course has gone from brown to green since I last took my handlebars to look at it.

I saw several big patches of bluebonnets along the freeway on Saturday. Green grass and bluebonnets.

Spring is actually here.

In addition to those signs of spring, the temperature at my location is currently 72. Seems like only a week or two ago I was scraping ice off my windows.

Changing the subject from ice to me being an aging uncle.

That which you see here is a screen cap of the text message my favorite nephew, Jason, text messaged me with whilst I was rolling my wheels.

I guess this explains today's incident where a Fort Worth cop pulled me over, with me thinking I was going to get a ticket for not wearing a helmet, but then he just said nevermind, continue on your way, apparently due to Jason telling the Fort Worth police to disregard that aging uncle welfare check.

I suppose I should be grateful that I have a nephew who is looking out for my welfare from a couple thousand miles away....

Nephew Jason Asks Why Unlike Jesus I Did Not Rise On Easter Sunday

For the first time in several decades.

Well, years.

I went a day, that being yesterday, Easter Sunday, without blogging on my Durango Texas blog. Or any other of my myriad collection of blogs.

By the time mid afternoon arrives on any given day if I have not done my regular blog spewage I get text messages or phone calls asking me if all is okay in Durango World.

But to go absent for an entire day, well, this was basically unprecedented, resulting in messages such as that which you see here from Spencer Jack's dad, my favorite nephew, Jason, inquiring as to my failure to arise.

Well.

There was more than one reason for my Sunday blog retreat.

Probably the number one reason is that Easter is a particularly traumatic holiday for me.

Years ago, back when I was around 12, maybe 13, at Sunday School, I had all sorts of abuse heaped upon my young, innocent, naive self when I asked, in my bum puzzlement, what was up with the whole Easter thing. I could not understand why it was a big deal that Jesus died, when a short time later he becomes un-dead, walking amongst the living. So, where was the sacrifice, I asked? He did not die. He lived. And how does believing in that somehow absolve us earthly sinners of our sins? And thus give us ever lasting life, just as it gave Jesus, who was not actually human, but was the Son of God?

And why in the world would any kind hearted God send his one and only Son to Hell on Earth where he eventually ends up nailed to a cross? Where he dies. And then comes back to life. To eventually ascend to Heaven to join his Dad? So that the few people who witnessed this would pass on this tale to others, so that they might also believe in this miraculous resurrection of the Son of God and thus be absolved of their Earthly sins?

As a young kid none of this made any sense to me and seemed just, well, totally ridiculous.

And now, all these decades later, I still yearly relive that Easter trauma of long ago, of being called a heathen, a sinner, a bad boy for doubting the Word of God.

That Word of God concept got me in even more trouble, when I asked how men on earth could possibly know the words of some heavenly God?

This all continues to perplex me to this day, but I have come to terms with it as just one more thing about the world that I basically do not understand.

But.

The main reason I did not get around to blogging yesterday was I had finally reached, I think, the culmination of an aggravation that has been vexing me for several months, with that aggravation being making the hundreds of webpages on my Eyes on Texas website sufficiently mobile device friendly to make Google happy enough not to cause me grief on April 20 when Google's new mobile website rules apparently, maybe, go active.

In the past three months I have pretty much totally re-built around 400 webpages. This has gone through so many iterations that I have lost track of all the changes made, and mistakes found that needed fixing.

The final, well, I hope final, fix, is a piece of code that seems to have turned what had been hundreds of webpages getting a failing grade and red-flagged, to hundreds of webpages getting a high passing grade and green-flagged.

Whether any of this will do any good in the long run remains to be seen, but, as with all things, time will tell....

Our Water Our Future Ironically Delivered By Fort Worth's Former Mayor & Rosie

This morning in the incoming email I found a blog comment commenting on a blogging from the day before yesterday....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "A Comment From A TRWD Progaganda Shill Has Me Feeling Chesapeake Energy Deja Vu":

Check out the horrible photo editing around the heads of Mayor Betsy & Mayor Mike. Photochop indeed.

http://www.owof.info/

I clicked on the Anonymous link, with no clue what "owof" might be, to find that which you see above, a smiling couple, Betsy Price and Mike Moncrief.

Eventually, I figured out what "owof" is via the copyright blurb at the bottom of the website's one and only page....

© 2015 Our Water, Our Future. Pol. Adv. paid for by Our Water, Our Future PAC. Treasurers: Mike & Rosie Moncrief.

Our Water, Our Future, brought to you by Fort Worth's former mayor and his wife.

The political advertisement paid for by the Our Future PAC is yet one more shameless, shameful propaganda piece raising the bogus specter of Dallas businessman boogeyman, Monty Bennett's, devious, nefarious plot to take over Fort Worth's water by spending millions of dollars.

The propaganda actually cites the equally shameless, shameful Star-Telegram, as if that newspaper is a legitimate news source saying, "As has been extensively reported in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Mr. Bennett wants to take control of our local water board and has already spent an estimated $4 million in election, lobbying and legal costs trying to get control of our local water board."

Extensively reported in the Star-Telegram?

Nothing is extensively reported in the Star-Telegram. And the Star-Telegram's reporting regarding the TRWD board's shenanigans has been particularly weak and one-sided.

Apparently the TRWD board incumbents can not run on their record. And so the Dallas straw man is needed as a bogus issue. The TRWD board incumbents' public relations propaganda people must have done research that has shown them that using the Dallas boogeyman will have traction with those few voters who will bother to vote in the upcoming election.

From the TRWD board incumbents we hear about the evil Dallas businessman spending millions to take control of Fort Worth's water, forcing the TRWD to spend millions to defend itself from the myriad lawsuits filed against them by the evil Dallas businessman.

But, we hear nothing from the TRWD board incumbents about the millions of dollars they caused to be spent suing Oklahoma in a ridiculous attempt to take water from the north side of the Red River.

We hear nothing from the TRWD board incumbents, particularly Jim Lane, about the millions of TRWD dollars spent to buy land from a bankrupt friend of Jim Lane's, with the millions paid being double the market value of the land, some of which was turned into the world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century.

We hear nothing from the TRWD board incumbents about the lack of progress of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

How about an explanation from the TRWD board incumbents as to how three simple little bridges being built over dry land can take an amazing four years to build?

Those are just a few examples of the TRWD board incumbents' real record, and that real record is what the voters should be talking about and focused on, rather than giving any credence to propaganda about a Dallas businessman trying to take control of the TRWD board and Fort Worth's water.

Below I will copy all the propaganda from the Our Water, Our Future website for your perusal. See how many lies and ridiculous items of extreme exaggeration you can spot in the following Orwellian propaganda....

WATER IS OUR MOST PRECIOUS RESOURCE
This May’s Tarrant Regional Water Board election is probably one of the most important elections in the history of our city, our region, our future and for generations to come. Truly, our water is our future.

While the rest of Texas has struggled through the sustained drought, our local residents and businesses have benefited from TRWD’s prudent planning and management of our local water supply. In fact, TRWD now owns 4 lakes and has water rights in another 3 lakes across North and East Texas.

HOWEVER, A DALLAS BUSINESSMAN WANTS TO CONTROL OUR LOCAL WATER
Two of TRWD’S Board members are up for re-election this May: Marty Leonard and Jim Lane. Marty and Jim are being opposed by a slate of candidates financed by a Dallas businessman (Monty Bennett).

As has been extensively reported in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Mr. Bennett wants to take control of our local water board and has already spent an estimated $4 million in election, lobbying and legal costs trying to get control of our local water board.

VOTER BEWARE
You may have received some inaccurate information about the Water Board, please know this FALSE information was paid for by Mr. Bennett.

VOTE TO SAVE OUR WATER
Vote FOR Marty Leonard and Jim Lane in the Tarrant Regional Water Board Election on May 9th. Your vote will keep Tarrant County’s water supply safe and secure for current and future generations.

If we let this Dallas businessman get control, our future water supply will be jeopardized.

© 2015 Our Water, Our Future. Pol. Adv. paid for by Our Water, Our Future PAC. 
Treasurers: Mike & Rosie Moncrief.

A Package From Mom & Dad Has Me Thinking About A Lynden Reunion

I found a package from my mom and dad in the mailbox yesterday. What was in that package caused me to think back almost 13 years, to a date which lives on in infamy, July 27, 2002, that being the date on which the biggest Jones family reunion ever to take place, took place, at the Northwest Washington Fairgrounds in the Dutch town of Lynden.

I don't rightly recollect what motivated me to fly north for that reunion. It may have had something to do with some sort of post 9/11 sentiment, with family and family history for some reason seeming more important.

I recollect exactly one month before 9/11, on 8/11,  I was at my mom and dad's 50th wedding anniversary party, having driven myself north, solo. I remember returning to Texas with a box full of photos which I scanned and webpaged, including a lot of photos of the Jones ancestors who had made the trek from Holland to America in 1882, eventually ending up in Lynden.

I got back to Texas one week before 9/11. My mom and dad showed up for their first Texas visit a month after that. I gave the box of photos to mom and dad who were perplexed as to why I had taken them to Texas and why there were now having to haul them to Yuma.

I digress.

What was in the package from mom and dad which led me to take a picture of that souvenir coffee mug that my cousin sold at the aforementioned reunion?

Well, that would be the picture you see below.

The last time I talked to my mom mention was made of a package being mailed to me which contained, among some other stuff, a couple pictures which were taken at that aforementioned reunion. My mom did not remember this picture being taken. Nor do I. I was a bit stressed out that day, for a variety of reasons. Mom said she thought this was the last time all the siblings were together at the same place and time.

Looking at the above photo a lot has changed in the years since. I remember at that reunion my brother-in-law, Jack (not Spencer Jack's namesake) asking me to help convince my sister it would be a good thing to move to Arizona.

At that point in time I was fairly early in to my Texas exile.

Now, in 2015, eight of those in the above photo live in Arizona.

When the above picture was taken it would not have crossed my imagination to think that less than four years later I would be flying home to attend Spencer Jack's dad's first wedding. Or that two other people in this picture would be getting married, with me invited to only one of those weddings.

The below photo is not one of the two in the package from mom and dad.

The above photo is one of many group photos taken at the aforementioned reunion. I recognize very few people in this picture.

Well, enough with this trip down nostalgia road. I just got a text message from Elsie Hotpepper telling me I need to check my mailbox...

A Comment From A TRWD Progaganda Shill Has Me Feeling Chesapeake Energy Deja Vu

A blog comment arrived today commenting on a blogging from way back in February, which, when I read it, had me thinking this feels like deja vu, all over again.

First the blog comment and then what had me thinking deja vu, all over again....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Tarrant Regional Water District Corruption: The Website": 

You might want to dig a little more on this campaign. I find it odd that the other two candidates running (Luckner/Bickley) are receiving very generous amounts of money from a business man in Dallas named Monty Bennett who has sued the board 7 times costing us (taxpayers) millions of dollars, all because he does not want piping to cross his ranch. Sounds like if Luckner and Bickley win, this business man will control the water board since he also funded Kelleher in the last election. Sounds like Monty Bennett is buying politicians to me.

Something about the ham-handed verbiage in this comment seemed familiar to me. And then I remembered back early in the Chesapeake Energy invasion of the Barnett Shale if I blogged about some Chesapeake bad behavior I would see my stats light up from Oklahoma City, followed by ham-handed propaganda attacking my antiquated Archie Bunker type horse and buggy thinking.

Or something like  that.

I recollect I started referring to the senders as Chesapeake shills when re-posting some of the more memorable pieces of propaganda. And then, at some point in time, Texas Sharon informed me that everyone who was talking about Chesapeake's bad deeds was getting the same boiler plate spewage from the Chesapeake shills.

After Chesapeake realized its propaganda was backfiring on them and that it made them appear foolish, as well as ham-handed, it ceased.

At the peak of its Barnett Shale domination Chesapeake Energy basically controlled Fort Worth's city government, with Mayor Mike Moncrief acting as their stooge, a role he is now playing for the TRWD incumbents.

How ironic, these few short years later, that those who found fault with Chesapeake's bad behavior turned out to be right, with Chesapeake ending up being sued all over the Barnett Shale, including sued by D/FW Airport, the City of Fort Worth and many others of those who early on signed on to the Chesapeake invasion, such as the Bass brothers.

Am I remembering correctly when thinking that the same public relations firm that ran the shady Chesapeake Energy propaganda operation are the same shady operators who ran the propaganda operation for the TRWD incumbents the last election?

Is that why this blog comment about Monty Bennett, the evil Dallas businessman, seems so familiar to me?

Regarding that Anonymous comment....

Anonymous suggests I dig a little more on this campaign. Anonymous must not actually read my blog or Anonymous would know I am totally aware of who Monty Bennett is and that I think it is yet one more telling sign of the corruption of much of what the TRWD board does that this propaganda is being spewed over and over and over again.

How dare Monty Bennett use whatever resources he has at his disposal to defend his land. Where does he think he lives? In America? The land of the free? Where one has the right to protect ones property?

Monty Bennett has cost the taxpayers millions of dollars?

The TRWD board would not have had to defend itself if it had worked with Monty Bennett in an aboveboard, honest and transparent manner.

This Anonymous comment maker must not be aware of the millions of taxpayer dollars the TRWD board wasted in a fruitless attempt to sue Oklahoma to get access to Oklahoma water.

This Anonymous comment maker must not be aware of the millions of taxpayer's dollars TRWD incumbent, Jim Lane, finagled to funnel to a bankrupt friend who gave up some land worth something like $9 million, in exchange for a rescue from bankruptcy for a sum about twice that amount. With that land then used, in part, for the location of the world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century.

The TRWD incumbents, in using their attack the evil Dallas businessman tactic, over and over again, seem to me to indicate desperation. They can not address the real issues which have voters aggravated, so they raise the specter of a Dallas boogeyman engaged in an imaginary plot to control the TRWD board.

It is the bad behavior of the TRWD board which has gotten them frying on the sizzling HOT seat. Being on that sizzling HOT seat has nothing to do with a Texas businessman trying to protect his East Texas ranch.

And one more thing, you Anonymous TRWD shills, it is Von Luckner, Michele Von Luckner. At least get that right.....

J.D Granger Resigning From Trinity River Vision Is No April Fool's Day Hoax

This morning of the first day of April, about the same time the sun arrived, there was a loud thunder boom followed quickly by a downpour which poured down for a very short duration.

Whilst the downpour was pouring down I thought I would likely bail on the morning swim routine, what with it not being all that much fun to swim dodging big raindrops and lightning bolts.

However, by the time I was ready to get wet nothing was dripping or zapping from the sky, so I was able to have myself a mighty fine time getting some much needed endorphins in that turquoise oasis you see here under a stormy looking sky.

Prior to getting wet I got an email from Spencer Jack's dad, subject line: Seattle Space Needle Collapsed!!!!

The email included a small black and white photo of what I guess was supposed to look like a collapsed Space Needle.

I Googled "Space Needle Collapse" to learn that today is the 25th Anniversary of the infamous Space Needle Collapsed April Fool's Day Hoax.

I was living only a few, well, 55, miles north of the Space Needle at that point in time. I remember no April Fool's Day Space Needle Collapsed Hoax a quarter century ago.

A few minutes after seeing Spencer Jack's dad's email I was in the pool where it occurred to me that it might be amusing to make up an April Fool's Day Hoax.

By the time I got back to my computer I'd decided not to do any April Fool's Day Hoaxing.

The hoax scenarios I was considering were Trinity River Vision Boondoggle related.

One hoax scenario had J.D. Granger resigning as Executive Director of The Boondoggle, with a J.D. Granger quote along the line of  "I simply could not continue with this charade any longer. Having to sell the ridiculous idea that it makes sense to take four years to build three little bridges over dry land. Worrying that if those bridges get built, then what? There is no money to build the flood diversion channel under the bridges. When I got this job I was so naive that I did not realize I got the job so as to motivate my mom to secure federal money for the project. When the reason I got the job became clear to me it was very humiliating, and continues to be humiliating. I have been in over my head from the start. I think that fact has become abundantly clear to those who have watched this project flounder. I want to apologize to the people of Fort Worth and say I am sincerely sorry for my part in this charade."

The other hoax scenario was to be a Fort Worth Star-Telegram editorial citing all the reasons it is time to pull the plug on the Trinity River Vision before it does any more damage to Fort Worth.

Anyway, Happy April Fool's Day, everyone. I hope no one fools you today....