Pirate Whitebeard In Arlington Walking With Village Creek Indian Ghosts

I have not gotten any better at taking those selfie things, even after I figured out how to set a two second delay.

I need to consult the Tarrant County Kim Kardashian of Selfies, Elsie Hotpepper, as to proper technique.

As you can see I am almost  ready to be Santa Claus. Either that or a Pirate named Whitebeard.

This particular selfie attempt was taken in the Village Creek zone. I'd not walked with my favorite Indian Ghosts for weeks, or so it seems.

The temperature seems to be being unnaturally balmy for a couple days before Christmas. With the outer world being heated into the 70s on this second day of winter, by tomorrow morning the semi-cool pool should be doable.

I was in Arlington this morning to go to a Tom Thumb. That's a grocery store for those who don't live where Tom Thumbs exist. I went to Tom Thumb due to last night I was informed that Tom Thumb had a CoinStar Gift Card exchange machine. I was at a Christmas Party where I acquired a $200 Lowes Gift Card. I remarked to a fellow partygoer something along the line of what am I gonna spend $200 on at Lowes? To which the fellow partygoer informed me of the CoinStar Gift Card exchange deal.

Back to the Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

As I was walking along one of the more isolated areas of Village Creek I came upon the above fisherman enjoying the balmy weather to catch himself some likely inedible fish. Having typed that I just realized  that unlike at Fort Worth's Oakland Lake Park there are no signs along Village Creek warning that it is not a good idea to consume the fish one might catch.

I just got a text  message informing me that Miss Puerto Rico needs a ride to where her vehicle is being serviced. That should turn into an adventure going all sorts of sideways that my limited imagination will not pre-conceive until faced with whatever has gone sideways....

Don't Be An Anonymous Corrupt River Rat

You are looking at the handsome face of my most frequent blog commenter.

Anonymous.

I never see most of the comments Anonymous makes. Google does a good job of detecting Anonymous spam or nuisance comments.

I have 5 or 6, or is it 7, blogs. And one humongous website. All of which generate emails and comments. I have to moderate the comments rather than let them be auto-published, because the spam comments would make for a mess if they all got published..

Adding up all the posts on all the blogs I would guess the number is in the 8 or 9 thousand range. Any of which  on any given day can generate a comment.

A person making a comment has the option of using their Google account name or OpenID, whatever that is or make up a fake name or be Anonymous.

Some commenters do not notice the message about the comments being moderated.  A few times this has resulted in someone making a comment multiple times, with each effort slightly different and increasingly strident, because the commenter does not see their comment instantly appear.

If a commenter wants to make sure their comment gets read by the moderator don't make the comment as Anonymous.

If you don't have a Google account, simply make up a name. Those I always notice, particularly if the name is clever, like JD Mama Boy, or Corrupt River Rat, or Betsy Price Not Right.

Names like that.

Does Anyone Need Some Longhorn Bulls To Ramrod On The Chisholm Trail?

And now for something completely different.

I think I have likely mentioned a time or two over the years I have received dozens of email queries asking to buy my various rattlesnake products.

People, usually from Europe, often Germany and the UK, go to my Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup webpage and somehow that leads them to think I am a purveyor of rattlesnake products.

The following non-rattlesnake related email arrived from my Eyes on Texas website over the weekend....

Subject: Longhorn bulls for sale

I was told to contact Chisholm trail for purchasing longhorn bulls. If this is correct and u r interested, please call me @ 214-xxx-9477. I have a two year old, one nearly one yr, and a younger one to be weened soon. All registered with TLBAA.

Thanks, Barbara

I explained to Barbara that my only connection to longhorns is I have a webpage or two or three with longhorn related info. And that I also made a webpage of the long defunct Chisholm Trail Days event in the Fort Worth Stockyards.

I also made a webpage devoted solely to the Fort Worth Herd, complete with video, if I am remembering correctly. And, again if I am remembering correctly, Elsie Hotpepper shows up for a second or two in the Fort Worth Herd video. I may have made more than one video of the Fort Worth Herd. I am fairly certain the one with the Elsie Hotpepper appearance is the one that uses a repeating loop of the Lonesome Dove theme song.

I digress.

That longhorn photo you see above is the photo which turned me into a highly paid professional photographer. Backpacker magazine paid me a whopping $100 to use that photo, almost 14 years ago, way back in February of 2002.

I had webpaged photos of an encounter with a rogue longhorn herd on the mountain bike trail one rides at the west end of Lake Grapevine. Someone from Backpacker magazine saw my longhorn photos and then began grueling negotiations for the publishing rights to that one photo.

When Barbara asked me if I was interested in purchasing some longhorn bulls, I drew a blank regarding knowing anyone who might be interested in such a thing.

Well, about a minute ago I remembered Mary has a farm. With a lot of critters. Mary Kelleher, if you are reading this, are you interested in purchasing some longhorn breeding stock? If so, I can get you Barbara's phone number with the xxx replaced with the actual numbers.

A Dozen Bogus Reasons For Flocking To Fort Worth

Yesterday's blogging about yet one more bridge feat of engineering completed in less than four years generated a comment which led to some amusing bum puzzlement....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Wondering Again How It Can Take Fort Worth 4 Years To Build 3 Simple Bridges":

Hey now Mr. Jones, more people than ever are flocking to Fort Worth and there are 12 reasons why! Durrr!

A dozen reasons folks are flocking to Fort Worth like never before

You know an article's gonna be great when a photo from Brian Luenser is included! Double durrr!! 

__________________________________________

Yikes! Yet one more embarrassing piece of inflated propaganda. You can click the above link to see all 12 amazing reasons for the flocking to Fort Worth.

Among the dozen reasons people are flocking to Fort Worth is....

#10 Best Downtown in the Country
Fort Worth has the No. 1 Downtown in the U.S.

When I saw this propaganda yesterday there were two comments at that point in time....

Helo: #1 Downtown in the US?

What is this research? Even us here in Fort Worth know that's not true!

Scott Pederson: -> helo
http://www.livability.com/top-10/downtowns/10-best-downtowns/2014/tx/fort-worth...

_________________________________________

This is not the first time we have seen this livability.com Top 10 list used to tout Fort Worth as having the best downtown in America, to the utter befuddlement of people who have been to other downtown's in America.

This particular livability.com Top 10 list has been blogging fodder several times, including....

Is Fort Worth's The Best Small Downtown In America? and America Is In Deep Trouble If Fort Worth Is The Best Downtown In America.

This particular Top 10 Best Downtown's in America list was looking at the downtown's of small American towns. I don't know how Fort Worth, with a population of around 800,000, qualifies as a small town, but that's how the town looked to livability.com, apparently.

I was born  in one of the small towns on this Top 10 Best Downtown's list, that being Eugene, Oregon. I have lived in another of the small towns, Bellingham, Washington. Both Bellingham and Eugene have lively downtown's of the sort that, unlike Fort Worth's, are not ghost towns on the biggest shopping day of the year.

Isn't it sort of an act of false advertising to boldly proclaim Fort Worth has the #1 Downtown in America, due to being on this livability.com list of 10 small towns?

Wondering Again How It Can Take Fort Worth 4 Years To Build 3 Simple Bridges

My Favorite Oregon Cousin, Scott, took the picture you are looking at here, yesterday or the day before yesterday.

In the picture we are in Oregon, looking north across the Columbia River, with Washington hidden in the fog.

That bridge is known as the Astoria-Megler Bridge.

I do not remember if I have blogged about this bridge previously in one of my continuing series of bloggings about feats of engineering, usually bridges, built in four years, or less.

Over water.

I am motivated to blog about these feats of engineering due to the astonishing fact that a bridge building project, currently sort of underway in Fort Worth, has a four year project timeline.

Four years to build three simple, little bridges.

Over dry land.

Eventually, some day, way in the future, if money can be found to do so, a ditch may be dug under Fort Worth's bridges, with water added, which at that point the bridges will be connecting the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

No one has an explanation as to why it will take Fort Worth's infamous Boondoggle four years to build three simple, little bridges. Most people's best guess is there is a shortage of funds causing the slow motion construction.

The Astoria-Megler Bridge is not a simple, little bridge. The bridge is 4.1 miles long. The bridge is designed to handle wind blows of 150 mph and a river current of 9 mph. This bridge is the longest continuous truss bridge in North America.

Obviously this bridge was built over water. With that water affected by tidal changes. While under construction the engineers had to contend with ship traffic making its way upriver from the Pacific, or heading downriver, out to sea.

Bridge building complications of the sort Fort Worth can only dream of.

And yet this bridge took less than four years to build, with construction beginning November 5, 1962, finished July 29, 1966.

As you can see via the above photo, the bridge as it leaves Astoria soars quite high. That is so ships can pass. Note that big pier upon which the cantilevered span rests.

I wonder if the local Astoria press made a big deal out of when that pier started to rise out of the water, like the Fort Worth Star-Telegram did when America's Biggest Boondoggle's pitiful little wooden forms for the bridge's V piers became visible rising from dry land?

I suspect not....

Listen To The Fort Worth Voice Of The Pulte Wall Of Shame

I think the first time I blogged about the Pulte Wall of Shame was back on September 29 in a blogging titled Why Is Fort Worth's Best Public Servant Ignoring The Pulte Wall Of Shame?

Then on December 4 I blogged about the Pulte Wall of Shame again in a blogging titled Arlington Pit & Fort Worth Wall Of Shame Examples Of Civic Irresponsibility.

On that same day, December 4, I heard from one of the primary Fort Worth victims of the Pulte Wall of Shame, via a text message on Facebook. However, due to a snafu with Facebook Messenger, I did not see that text message til yesterday.

The text message is worth repeating in its entirety for your enlightenment as to what it is like to live in a town with a corrupt city government and no newspapers practicing journalism of the sort practiced in more democratic locations in America and the world....

Durango,

Thank you so much for shining a light on our situation. Nearly 9 months later; most have simply walked away because it's not their wall and not their problem.

Please feel free to share my message here & the information I share with you in the comments section of your blog or a separate post or email or any medium you deem necessary.

You are 100% correct that The Star Telegram has essentially refused to cover our story despite my continued efforts to elicit their cooperation in running a story. I think I reached out to 4 various employees including editors AND reporters.

What's MORE interesting is how we were approached at City Hall by a reporter, Caty Hirst, to cover our story but who, after ONE conversation, which I'm sure was followed by her digging into the various sources and fact checking what I provided her, never interviewed me or wrote anything. We never truly spoke again. It appeared for weeks as if we were playing phone tag but in actuality, Caty may have been dodging me all together & never followed up on our story nor did anyone else at the Telegram. Coincidence? I think not. And I also think it absurd for any professional journalist to insinuate this isn't a good story...tragic as it is because it's MY real LIFE...this is good news that would draw in readers/viewers. So, suddenly dropping a story that you found so intriguing is suspicious to me.

As far as the Fort Worth Weekly...they reached out to us and I took the time (a lot of time, actually) to gather up all the documentation I could give them that THEY requested even when I told them that there was a LOT of information and documentation but that I was happy to walk them through it. And I did walk one reporter through it over the phone at length and he told me that he wanted to get something together quickly to run in the next couple of days in the public opinions section and that he'd then work on a big, full story. So, I even summarized for him the grabbing highlights he could use for the smaller section. All he had to do was print it. He contacted me two days later saying that their paper felt our story was "too complicated" for them and they wouldn't be covering it. 

Too complicated?!? Isn't that a journalists JOB...to "uncomplicate" and summarize/provide an overview of a situation and tell a story that the reader/viewer can grasp? Are journalists simply not capable of this anymore? I mean, I had even done the heavy lifting for him so navigating through it wouldn't have been so difficult. No, journalists are completely capable of this but in Fort Worth loose lips sink ships and the media here is more concerned with politics and staying in the old boy's club than actually doing what they're here for...to TELL THE STORIES of the people who live within the city; to SHINE A LIGHT on corruption or problems or public causes or needs.

If I've learned ANYthing over the last several months it's that journalism is NOT what it used to be. For someone, who as a young girl, idolized journalism and has the heart of a writer; this discovery was heartbreaking. Our media is bought, plain and simple. And you and I don't have pockets deep enough to buy any of it.

As far as Betsy...no, she still is yet to return a call, email or come out to see the catastrophe for herself. Heck, would've been nice if her office had even just reached out during these terrible floods to ask if we needed sandbags!! Councilman Moon paid nice lip service as well that he would help and outside of one completely useless email that took THREE WEEKS to get; he did nothing.

Even if our arrogant city refuses to own up to their part in this devastation; the very least they could do is pretend to CARE about my family. To think that we sat in a meeting with EVERY SINGLE department in this city and they looked in our eyes and those of my two little children and not only didn't fulfill what they promised but haven't even bothered to have an intern shoot off an email to inquire as to how we are after the terrible weather?!? That's purely disgusting. That's the best, most polite word I have for it. Disgusting.

Sorry for the length of this but I wanted to answer some of your questions.

Thank you again for continuing to call out responsible parties and shine a light that the city keeps trying to cover.

-Krissy Irizarry-

Fort Worth Boondoggle's Second Roundabout Public Art Revealed?

Last week Fort Worth locals were stunned at the million dollar reveal of a work of public art stuck at the center of the only one of America's Biggest Boondoggle's roundabouts currently under construction.

Opinions vary as to what that roundabout work of art looks like. Ruins of a water tower? A garbage can?  A drain trap?

Yesterday as I was merrily scrolling along in Facebook I came upon that which you see here and instantly wondered if I was looking at an artist's rendering of another of The Boondoggle's public art works installations.

However, I quickly learned that this work of art is, or was, located in the Texas tourist town of Fredericksburg.

This Frederickburg work of art is known as the Fredericksburg Christmas Pyramid.

I do not know if this art installation is currently installed in Fredericksburg, of if this is from a Christmas past.

This Fredericksburg work of public art does look like it would fit in just fine at the center of one of The Boondoggle's roundabouts. It'd probably cost a lot less than a million bucks.

Changing the subject, slightly.

Yesterday a fellow former Pacific Northwesterner and I were talking about America's Biggest Boondoggle and that embarrassing work of art The Boondoggle dedicated with a ceremony last week, when the former PNWer opined that would it not make more sense to simply plant a tall tree at that roundabout location, with Texas friendly vegetation surrounding the tree, creating an eye pleasing green space? Perhaps with a water feature to add to the overall eye pleasing aesthetics?

And another thing about the million dollar roundabout garbage can water tower ruin that occurred to me. Could not a local Fort Worth artist be found to design an eye pleasing installation at the center of that roundabout?

Has anyone eye witnessed the Fredericksburg Christmas Pyramid?

Fort Worth Public Artfully Wraps Ugly Except For Outhouses

Eagle Eyed Elsie Hotpepper pointed me to this interesting tidbit of Fort Worth news about some new Fort Worth public art.

Fort Worth public art, paid for via a 2% fee charged to a Fort Worth public works project, is a bit controversial of late, due to a visually distracting traffic eyesore that cost nearly a million dollars and sits in the middle of one of America's Biggest Boondoggle's traffic roundabouts, installed well before the construction of the roundabout was completed.

Some have questioned whether America's Biggest Boondoggle qualifies for the 2% public arts deal, due to the fact that the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island Vision is a quasi-public works project that is the feeble brainchild of a quasi-public agency known as the Tarrant Regional Water District.

Another reason for the validity of the 2% public arts deal being in question, regarding The Boondoggle getting funds for such, is the fact that the public has never voted on any aspect of this imaginary public works project, nor has the public been allowed to participate in any sort of public hearings regarding same, in any meaningful way.

The new works of public art which Elsie Hotpepper pointed me to is detailed in the following three paragraphs....

COMING SOON: Fort Worth Public Art is also looking for local artists to create 14 artwork images for traffic control cabinets on East Lancaster Avenue. Houston already has these fancy boxes around the city.

The idea is to make art out of drab, ugly boxes that house traffic signal controls.

“These structures provide an opportunity for the city of Fort Worth to poetically invest in its utility infrastructure,” FWPA explains on its website. “The artist designed wraps will contribute to a growing collection of public art blossoming along the corridor that connect different neighborhoods along the way.”

______________________________________

I have never noticed ugly traffic control boxes in need of an aesthetic covering. Have you?

However, in many of Fort Worth's public parks I have noticed an ugly item which might benefit from an artistic cover.

Outhouses.

Fort Worth has more outhouses in more public parks than any other major city in America.

America's Biggest Boondoggle sort of  pretties up the outhouses located at its imaginary world class music venue called Panther Island Pavilion, where there is no island or pavilion, but there are outhouses shrouded in concrete enclosures, slightly mitigating the eyesore aspect.

Wouldn't covering Fort Worth's army of outhouses in colorful wraps be a good use of public art funds? And a lot more people would see this "art" than those who might notice artfully disguised traffic control boxes.....

Bertha Will Be Done Digging Before Fort Worth's Boondoggle Bridge Ditch Is Dug

I saw that which you see here in the Seattle Times. I thought it to be interesting, the contrast between how a problem with a public works project is covered in a Seattle newspaper as compared to how the Star-Telegram covers a problem, or problems, with a local pseudo public works project.

The Highway 99 tunnel project in downtown Seattle has been stalled for about two years due to the world's biggest tunnel boring machine, named Bertha, running into some unexpected steel, causing a lot of damage to Bertha.

As you can read, via the text under the picture of the hole Bertha is in, the new tunnel was originally supposed to open this month.

If Bertha manages to bore successfully, the project timeline now has the tunnel open in  2018.

While Bertha was stalled, other parts of the approximately $4 billion project continued and are on schedule.

The Bertha problems and the ongoing fix have been reported in detail in Seattle media.

Meanwhile, in Fort Worth, there also is a stalled public works project, which used to be known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island Vision.

But is now known simply as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

Even with the delay Bertha will end up taking about four years to dig the biggest diameter tunnel ever bored.

While in Fort Worth, America's Biggest Boondoggle started construction on long delayed bridges in October of 2014, with a four year project timeline. To build three simple little bridges over dry land.

The Fort Worth bridge construction had no mechanical malfunctions to explain why it was a year after the supposed start of construction that big fanfare ensued due to bridge piers finally being under construction for one of the bridges.

Yes, you read that right. One year later only one of the Fort Worth bridges is under construction. And a big fuss was made because the wood forms for the bridge's piers could be seen.

Now, unlike the Seattle Times, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram makes no effort to explain to its few readers why this Fort Worth pseudo public works project has accomplished so little in a project which has spanned most of this century.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has not asked The Boondoggle for the real reason the bridges are being built over dry land, since it is obvious The Boondoggle's claim that the over dry land construction is a cost saving tactic is bogus. Because the reality of The Boondoggle's bridges is there will be no water under those bridges until a ditch is dug under them and water is diverted from the Trinity River.

Why does the Star-Telegram repeat The Boondoggle's propaganda about the bridge construction without questioning the obvious disinformation?

Why does the Star-Telegram not do some investigative journalism looking into the finances of The Boondoggle?

How many taxpayer dollars have been spent on the TRVA worker's salaries, including J.D. Granger's, over the course of this overly extended slow motion project? How much has the dithering added to the cost due to having to pay the people running The Boondoggle for years longer than if this had been a well executed project?

How much money has been spent on the frequent propaganda mailers sent out by The Boondoggle?

How much money has been spent on The Boondoggle's signage?

How much money has been spent on the The Boondoggle's Epstein propaganda purveyors?

How much money did The Boondoggle spend to dig the pond for the defunct Cowtown Wakepark?

If The Boondoggle was taking place in Seattle, or any other town in America with a real newspaper, you would have the answers to those questions, instead of reading the questions, unanswered, in a blog like this.

Come And Take It Durango

Someone I shall not name emailed me that which you see here.

What message is this conveying?

DURANGO COME AND TAKE IT

Come and take what?

And why is this message on the bottom of what appears to be a shoe?

Who is walking around with a shoe advertising this message?

I have a bad feeling I am never going to get any answers to these probing questions....