Is Fort Worth No Longer Home To America's Biggest Boondoggle?

Wikipedia has an article about the important Boondoggle subject in which we learn....

The term "boondoggle" may also be used to refer to protracted government or corporate projects involving large numbers of people and usually heavy expenditure, where at some point, the key operators, having realized that the project will never work, are still reluctant to bring this to the attention of their superiors. Generally there is an aspect of "going through the motions" – for example, continuing research and development – as long as funds are available to keep paying the researchers' and executives' salaries.

Currently Fort Worth is home to America's Biggest Boondoggle, a slow motion project which has been lumbering along in slow motion for most of this century, known, by some, as the Trinity River Uptown Central City Panther Island Vision.

Seattle has had a project underway for several years known as the Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Tunnel Project. Until recently this project has been stalled due to a stuck tunnel boring machine named Bertha.

Bertha recently was boring again, but then soon was halted once again. First off by a malfunctioning barge and then by the appearance of a large sinkhole which caused Washington Governor Jay Inslee to order a Bertha halt til it could be determined what caused the sinkhole.

Bertha coming to a halt so soon after her two year repair was finished became the moment when Seattle's tunnel project may have surpassed Fort Worth's Boondoggle and became America's Biggest Boondoggle.

The Seattle tunnel project dwarfs Fort Worth's slow motion pseudo island project, cost-wise. And engineering difficulty wise.

When I first learned of the plan to tunnel under downtown Seattle with the biggest tunnel ever bored I wondered how that worked, engineering ignorant boy that I be. I mean, this huge tube being dug under giant skyscrapers? Don't skyscrapers scrape all the way to bedrock for their foundations? Does the tunnel go under those bedrock foundations I wondered?

Many options were considered before it was decided to dig a tunnel. After Bertha got herself stuck a couple years ago, those who were advocates of other options began making the case that the tunnel plan needed to be abandoned to revert to one of the other viaduct replacement plans.

Reading articles criticizing the Bertha debacle it strikes me as such a contrast with what I don't read in the Fort Worth press regarding Fort Worth's slow motion, poorly planned, ineptly engineered flood control economic development project, which has seemed to go nowhere slow for years, causing many to wonder why, if this is such an important flood control/economic development project why is it being built with all the urgency of a turtle?

A couple articles about Seattle's tunnel boondoggle illustrate the difference between what one might read about a Seattle issue in the Seattle press and what one might read about a Fort Worth in its propaganda press.

Seattle’s Unbelievable Transportation Megaproject Fustercluck

and

Guest Editorial: Seattle Pull the Plug on the Tunnel Unless You Can Answer These Seven Questions

I like that Flustercluck word. Had not heard that before. In one of the articles the word "Doonboggle" was coined for Boondoggle? Backwards Boondoggle? Is that what Doonboggle means?

Can you imagine an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth Business Press or Fort Worth Weekly titled Guest Editorial: Fort Worth Pull the Plug on the Trinity River Vision Unless You Can Answer These Seven Questions?

Yeah, me neither.

Methinks there are likely more than seven questions that should be answered or the plug pulled on the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

2016 Fort Worth Stock Show Parade Possibly With Snowflakes

That which you see here I saw this morning on the front page of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram online edition.

This would make this the opposite of my usual bloggings about things I read in west coast online news sources which I would not expect to be reading in a Texas online news source about something happening in Texas.

As in, I doubt today any west coast town has a Stock Show county fair event in the dead of winter with a big parade to start off the fair.

With snowflakes.

The 2016 Fort Worth Stock Show Parade starts rolling in about an hour. So far I have seen no snowflakes falling from a gray cloudy sky.

Currently the temperature is a relatively balmy 45 degrees, so it would seem unlikely that snowflakes will be falling soon, unless we experience a sudden precipitous temperature drop.

Which can happen at this location on the planet.

I don't think I will be making my way to downtown Fort Worth today to watch the world's biggest non-mechanized parade. Going to downtown Fort Worth and finding parking used to be so easy, before the Radio Shack Corporate Headquarters boondoggle debacle destroyed acres of parking lots and the world's shortest subway.

I may make it to the 2016 edition of the Fort Worth Stock Show. I have a couple weeks before that opportunity passes for another year.....

Are Festus Allcock's Confederate Battle Flags In Tomorrow's Fort Worth Stock Show Parade?

Tomorrow, Saturday, January 16, the 2016 Fort Worth Stock Show Parade takes place in downtown Fort Worth.

Weather permitting.

Currently the forecast is for precipitation in downtown Fort Worth tomorrow, possibly in the form of snow.

In the past week, or so, it became known that the infamous Confederate Battle Flag of recent extreme controversy, due to that flag's racist reputation, would not be allowed in tomorrow's parade.

The Confederate Battle Flag banishment has upset a group of what are known as Confederate Flaggers, led by Festus Allcock. I blogged about this in a blogging titled Festus Allcock Leads Confederate Battle Flag Charge During Fort Worth Stock Show Parade.

This morning I looked at the photos I took the last time I watched the Fort Worth Stock Show Parade to see if the notorious Confederate Battle Flag was parading that day.

Well, looking at the photo above it does appear that the Confederate Battle Flag was being carried in that particular iteration of the Stock Show Parade, carried by a marching group of Confederate Rebel Re-Enactors.

Another group of Confederate Rebel Re-Enactors, with this group on horseback, also carried Confederate flags, but not the notorious Confederate Battle Flag.

I do not think anyone could logically accuse the above parading group of Confederate Rebel Re-Enactors to be racists, as it appears that at least one of those riding with the group is of African-American descent, though not in uniform

The Yankee Union Re-Enactors also paraded on horseback, sans, it appears, the Union flag.

I am sort of the opinion that much too big a deal has been made over the Confederate Battle Flag, and Confederate Memorials of the statue sort.

My ancestors arrived in America several decades after the Civil War, eventually settling in part of America, Washington, which was not yet part of the Union during the Civil War. So, I am not a Yankee.

When I drove down to Texas, back in May of 1998, to see if it was a place I might want to move to, I recollect driving west to Weatherford, walking around the Parker County Courthouse, impressed by the courthouse square where I came upon something I had never seen before.

A Confederate War Memorial.

Til that moment it had not dawned on my that I was in the Confederacy, in the South, in Rebel territory.

Since seeing that first Confederate War Memorial I have seen many more, like the big Dallas Confederate Memorial at Pioneer Cemetery by Pioneer Plaza, with Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis depicted.

I am not onboard with those who see these historical memorials as being racist symbols in need of eradicating.

I am onboard with those who want to eradicate the Confederate Battle Flag when the Confederate Battle Flag is used as a racist symbol of hate.

I don't know if Festus Allcock uses the Confederate Battle Flag as some sort of racist badge of idiocy, or if Festus Allcock and his Confederate Flaggers simply see the Confederate Battle Flag as a historical relic.

However, that Confederate Battle Flag has, for many reasons, come to represent something very ugly that the majority of Americans object to.

And so, methinks it would behoove Festus Allcock and his fellow Confederate Flaggers to join the rest of the world in relegating that flag to fading memory and no longer wave it in people's faces.

Not in parades, not on flag poles. No where.....

Grand Opening Set For New Floating Bridge While In Fort Worth.....

My Favorite Nephew Jason, knowing of my interest in bridge building projects completed in four years or less, emailed me a link to a KOMO news online article about the Grand opening set for new 520 floating bridge.

The new 520 floating bridge is replacing the old 520 floating bridge. The old 520 floating bridge is the longest floating bridge in the world. The new 520 floating bridge, when it opens, will be the longest floating bridge in the world, spanning more distance that the old 520 floating bridge.

The 520 floating bridge floats on Lake Washington. It is one of two floating bridges which cross the lake. The 520 floating bridge is at the north end of the lake. One the east side of the lake the bridge starts floating not far from Bill Gates' home. At the west side of the lake the bridge floats near the University of Washington.

The cost of the entire 520 floating bridge project is around $4.65 billion. Construction of the new 520 floating bridge began in 2012, with the Grand Opening set for April of 2016.

Four years to build the longest floating bridge in the world.

Over water.

Meanwhile, in Fort Worth, a pseudo public works project known as America's Biggest Boondoggle, also known at the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island Vision is building three simple little bridges over dry land, connecting Fort Worth's mainland with an imaginary island, with a four year construction timeline.

No, that is not an artist's rendering of one of America's Biggest Boondoggle's bridges you see below.

The above is a WSDOT artist's rendering of the new 520 floating bridge, looking west towards Seattle. The University of Washington would be on the right at the end of the bridge, the Seattle Space Needle would be to the left, hidden behind a hill.

As you can see the new 520 floating bridge has a wide bike/pedestrian trail. I'm thinking this new bike bridge crossing would easily connect to the Burke-Gilman trail and possibly make for a bike ride loop around the north end of Lake Washington. That would make for one long bike ride. Long and fun.

The bike/pedestrian trail across the new 520 floating bridges has five bump outs, which they are calling belvederes, once of which you see depicted above.

I do not know if America's Biggest Boondoggle's three bridges have bike/pedestrian trails with bump outs. I suspect not.

I also have not heard of a Grand Opening date for America's Biggest Boondoggle's three simple little bridges being built over dry land.....

Why Don't Texas Schools Incorporate Native American Culture Into Their Curriculums?

What you see here is a screen cap from my old home zone newspaper, the Skagit Valley Herald online edition.

This blogging falls into the category of things I read in a west coast online news source which I would not expect to read in a Texas local news online news source.

Apparently the schools in the various districts in my old home zone of the Skagit Valley are adding courses teaching Native American culture to their curriculums.

Skagit County is home to three Native American tribes. The Samish, the Swinomish and the Skagit.

My current county of residence, Tarrant County, is home to zero Native American tribes.

Before the Texans arrived, Tarrant County and the surrounding area was home to many Native Americans of various tribes. In modern day Texas those tribes survive, for the most part, only in town names, like Waxahachie and Waco, and others.

The history of Native Americans in Texas is quite complex, quite interesting, and a history worth being known and taught.

Methinks it would behoove Texas to add Native American culture, and history, to their school curriculums.....

Festus Allcock Leads Confederate Battle Flag Charge During Fort Worth Stock Show Parade

This coming Saturday, January 16, the 2016 edition of the Fort Worth Stock Show Parade takes place, weather permitting.

I have watched the Stock Show Parade a couple times. It is one of the best, if not the best, parade I've ever watched.

Very entertaining.

The world's biggest non-mechanized parade.

Meaning no motorized vehicles, just critters and humans are in the parade. But, you are allowed to use a mechanized device to get yourself to downtown Fort Worth to watch the parade.

This year's Stock Show Parade has an added element which might make for some interesting viewing.

As you can see, via reading the screen cap above, which I gleaned from Facebook, a person named Festus Allcock is organizing what apparently are known as Confederate Flaggers to flood the parade route with Confederate Battle Flags to protest such flags being banned from the parade.

I suspect this may be the year that Fort Worth's Stock Show Parade gets national media attention.

How can it not? What with a name like Festus Allcock leading the Confederate charge.....

Balmy Walk With Village Creek Indian Ghosts Perplexed By An Odd Sign

A lot of people had the same idea I had today. That being that these suddenly almost balmy temperatures presented an excellent opportunity for a salubrious aerobic endorphin inducing visit to Arlington to exercise with the Indian Ghosts who haunt the Village Creek Natural Historic Area.

Along with the Indian Ghosts I was a bit haunted by that which you see in the photo.

Previously, whilst mountain biking, when I would zip at high speed across the dam bridge that crosses Village Creek, I would zip up the trail that had been worn in the short knoll you see here, facilitating making contact with the paved trail at the top of the knoll.

A bulldozer has pretty much obliterated the well worn trail. And the sign you see at the top of the knoll, with a close up view below, has been added to where the trail used to be.

As you can see, the sign is telling Ghost Whisperers to USE SIDEWALK, with a an additional message on the sign telling bikers to keep off.

I fail to see how that trail that had been worn on the knoll did harm enough to warrant going to the bother and expense of installing this sign. Particularly when you consider the ironic fact that a bulldozer made an actual mess, the likes of which the well worn path never made.

Very perplexing......

Why Is Spencer Jack Learning To Write Right Handed?

Interesting incoming email from Spencer Jack's dad, my Favorite Nephew Jason.

Subject line: Learning cursive (writing)

Does FUD think that this is necessary? Third grader FNSJ has informed me that his school is now requiring all homework be turned in in "cursive" (the new lingo for 'writing.')

Seems backwards.

In forth grade will they learn how to chisel into stone?

______________________________

I thought I'd read somewhere sometime ago that teaching kids how to write what I think was called "longhand" when I learned to write is, apparently, now, not universally taught.

I Googled to see if my memory was correct regarding "longhand" meaning cursive to see there is a Wikipedia article on this important subject titled, appropriately, "Cursive".

The first paragraph of the Wikipedia Cursive article....

Cursive, also known as longhand, script, handwriting, looped writing, joined-up writing, joint writing, or running writing is any style of penmanship in which the symbols of the language are written in a conjoined and/or flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing faster. Formal cursive is generally joined, but casual cursive is a combination of joins and pen lifts. The writing style can be further divided as "looped", "italic", or "connected".

So, I remembered correctly that I learned "longhand" whilst a youngster in grade school.

In the Wikipedia article we also learn that a nationwide survey found that the majority of elementary school teachers lacked training in teaching cursive handwriting, with only 12 percent claiming to have taken a course to teach it.

In the Wikipedia article we also learn that some states have opted out of requiring schools to teach cursive handwriting. And that as of 2011 44 states have adopted the Common Core State Standards, standards which do not include teaching cursive handwriting. The individual states are debating whether or not to include teaching cursive handwriting in their state's standards.

I have no idea what the current standard is regarding teaching cursive handwriting in the state Spencer Jack lives in. I do know that Spencer Jack does not go to a public school, which may explain why his private school seems to be being a bit strident about this teaching cursive deal.

The main thing I learned from this incoming cursive email is that Spencer Jack writes right-handed. Spencer Jack is the eldest son of an eldest Jones son. For generations the eldest son of a Jones son is always left handed. This usually also applies to the eldest son of the eldest daughter of a Jones son.

Now, in Spencer Jack's case he is the eldest son of the second eldest son of the eldest son of the eldest son of the eldest son of a Jones son, so, maybe that second eldest thing caused the right-handed loophole in Spencer Jack's case.

I remember being left-handed made learning cursive handwriting more difficult for me. Or so I thought at the time. My handwriting has always been a bit different from how it is supposed to look. In the modern era I use cursive handwriting so seldom that when I do the effort borders on being illegible.

There are multiple fonts that replicate cursive handwriting quite well. Maybe Spencer Jack can type his cursive longhand handwriting at home and fool his teachers.....

Last Night Zelda Put Me To Sleep With A Tale Of Southern Racist Bigotry

The lady you see raising her fist here is Sheila James Kuehl.

Sheila James Kuehl rose to fame in the early 60s due to her portrayal of Zelda Gilroy on the CBS sitcom known as The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.

Last night whilst watching TV on my phone, horizontal in bed, waiting for the sleep bug to bite me, I came upon a YouTube video of Sheila James Kuehl reminiscing about an aspect of her time on Dobie Gillis.

With that aspect being Ms. Kuehl's fond, poignant memories of the castmate she refers to over and over again as Bobby.

Bobby, as in Bob Denver, he of Maynard G. Krebs fame on Dobie Gillis and Gilligan fame on Gilligan's Island.

The first fond memory of Bobby was not the part of the video which impressed me. It was the story Sheila told of an incident she and Bob Denver experienced  in Birmingham, Alabama which impressed me. An experience which ended with Bob Denver beaten by three white racists because he had the temerity to come to the defense of an elderly black woman the three bigots were harassing.

Racism that I have personally experienced in the modern day South has been troubling my conscience for a couple months now. In the video Sheila remarks that the racism experienced in Alabama was shocking to her and Bob Denver, with their Southern California sensibilities.

I'm guessing it is my Pacific Northwest sensibilities which cause me to have a difficult time understanding why so many people I have contact with, people born and raised in the South, seem to have no trouble being co-horts of overt racists, rationalizing being tolerant in ways unfathomable to me.

Anyway, watch the video below to hear Zelda's tale of Gilligan getting beat up by three idiot racists....

Too Cool To Pool Or Watch Seattle Seahawks Super Bowl Quest

Seems like only a couple weeks ago I had my last swim of the old year.

Ten days into the new year the pool looks as inviting as it did when I last got wet in it.

However, the outer world temperature currently is barely above freezing, at 36, after having dipped into the 20s during the night.

Hence the pool is too cool to be doable.

Last night was not cold enough to be what is known as a three dog night, but it was cold enough to be what is known as a three blanket night.

Currently a large number of football fans from my old home zone are enduring what may be the coldest NFL game in football history, hoping to beat some Vikings in Minneapolis en route to this year's Super Bowl.

I doubt many of the Seattle Seahawks are used to playing in sub-zero temperatures, while those Vikings may feel perfectly comfortable.

Does Minneapolis have a covered stadium, ala the Dallas Cowboys stadium? Or is it an open venue like the Seahawks home venue? I don't know if one could layer enough layers to spectate out in the open in sub-zero temperatures.

The coldest I have ever experienced is 17 below zero. Everything freezes, as in as you breathe eventually icicles form from your exhaust.  Your eyelids get frosty. Your nose turns numb. It is not a pleasant experience.

I don't know how many playoff games the Seahawks have to win to go to the Super Bowl again. But, I think it is probably too soon to be planning a Seahawk Super Bowl Party.