Football is King. At least in Allen, TX.

Football is indeed King.  Just ask the good folks in Allen, TX, a northern Dallas suburb.  A couple years ago they spent $60M on this 18,000 seat state-of-the-art high school football stadium:

 

They have since gone on to win two back-to-back State 5A Football Championships.

 

 Pretty swanky, huh?  And it's only the 5th largest high school football stadium in Texas.  (Yes, we here in Texas call it "football", even though it is rarely kicked with the foot.  I'm guessing that's because "handball" was already taken.)

Allen does, however, have one little problem....their stadium is falling apart.  Some major cracks have appeared in the structure and yesterday the Allen School District closed their pride and joy pending a top-to-bottom engineering investigation.

The contractor said from his hideout headquarters deep in the Costa Rican jungle that he would cooperate completely.  And have it all ready to go by the start of the next football season in September.   *Liar, liar, pants on fire*

Still, I'm thinking it's better to have a crack in your stadium than a crack in your head, which is what they're now saying soccer players have after a few seasons of this:

I've always wondered about this.  "Listen up kids.  I'm gonna throw...er...kick a ball at you and I want you to catch it with your head and knock it into that goal."

"And by 'head' I mean the TOP of your head,"

It seems they did an autopsy on a soccer player that died prematurely and found that he had CTD, which stands for "something you don't want".

Here's my rather unscientific solution to this terrible problem:  Let's give soccer players helmets and pads to give them a little protection, and let them catch the ball with their hands instead of their heads.  And encourage "contact".

What could possibly go wrong?

Just a reminder....the REAL football season starts in just 6 months. :)

Happy Friday everyone!  Reporting from Texas, I'm...

S

I've got all the answers. It's the questions that trip me up.

So now leaked information has come out that says the NSA has paid $278M to media companies (Google? Yahoo? etc) for access to their customer's data.  What a waste!  They could have just come straight to me in the first place and for a whole lot less than that I would have "cc'd" them on all my emails from the get-go.  We could have cut out the middle men and saved the taxpayers a bundle.

I don't quite understand what's fixing to happen in Syria.  With the aid of maybe France....the Germans and Brits have opted out....the US stands ready to strike Syria in retaliation for their use of chemical weapons.

We've announced probable targets are their Ministry of Defense building, their Secret Police HQ, their Republican Guard barracks, certain military warehouses, etc, ALL OF WHICH ARE BY NOW UNDOUBTEDLY EMPTY.  And we've said we have no desire to target Bashar Assad personally....we're not looking for "regime change".  And we have no idea how to measure whether or not we're successful.

Yeah boy, that's a well thought out plan.  Can't we just hit a few keystrokes and cyber-fry all their computers and be done with this?  Yes, I know....they can retaliate and maybe fry ours, too.  Feces occurs.  I'll chance it.  (Which just reinforces my case for good 'ol yellow pads and #2 pencils.  :)

IMO we should either kick the ever-lovin' shit out of them or stay home and let's watch football.  And since cruise missiles cost more than we have left in petty cash, I say "pass the nachos".

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I hereby declare the long Labor Day weekend begins the second I click "Publish".  (The boss won't mind.  Go ahead and mention my name.)

Y'all have fun and stay safe.  ;)

S

My annual rant against Half Price Books

Or is it "Get PLAYED"?

Yesterday I took a full load of used books and magazines to Half Price Books for resale.  I had to wheel 'em in a cart to my car, then from my car into the store.  Check in, wait until they called my name, then they gave me the news:

CONGRATULATIONS!  WE'RE PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE WE CAN OFFER YOU THE WHOPPING SUM OF $5.50  

Big f__king whoop!

"We're kinda overstocked right now."  (How come every time they see me walking in the door they're suddenly "overstocked"?)

Every year I do this, every year they insult me, every year I swear I'll never go back.  I told K this was the absolute last time I'll ever darken their door.  Of course she launched into her goody-two-shoes "it's not about the money but keeping things out of the landfill" spiel.

OK, fine.  Next time I'll just run 'em through one of those tree limb shredders and turn 'em into mulch.  See, I can be an environmentalist, too.  Or I'll take them to the doctor's office.  His magazines are really old.*

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I'm guessing we still have about another month of summer left before we begin to see the first signs of autumn (in Texas).  Miserable as it still is, I can at least see the light at the end of the tunnel.  And I have football season to take my mind off the lingering heat.  Yes, football is a wonderful thing.   ;)

S

* Or the library.  I think they give their old ones away for free.

"Hi, I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you."

K seems to think that because I've blogged on the public broadband that our leaders are crooks and their underlings are overpaid, lazy bureaucrats with BO I probably have a sizable dossier somewhere in the NSA archives.

Gee....I hope they spelled my name right.  *That's SCOTT, with two "T"s*

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Would you buy a used car from this man?

It seems the Junior Embarrassment from my home state of Texas, US Senator Rafael Edward (Ted) Cruz, has renounced half of his dual citizenship (born in Canada to an American mother and a Cuban father).  Rumors are this was done in order to pave the way for a 2016 run for the Presidency.  Of the United States of America.  Yes, I know!

I guess Canada's loss is....well....Canada's gain, too.

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Just got the news....we're moving again.  A nicer, larger apartment with a balcony/view here in our building has opened up, and we were first in line.

One question:  Does anyone have any experience with AT&T U-Verse internet/cable TV?  We have Time Warner now, but with their ongoing fight with CBS, and with football season rapidly approaching, I'm thinking this might be the time to tell TW adios.  (You don't mess with a man's telecast football games!)

Good day everyone.  :)

S

It's almost here....I can FEEL it....

While our days are still warm, and I'm sure we still have plenty of summer ahead of us, our evenings have been amazing all week.  And at 7 am this morning it was 64 degrees....imagine that!  With fall-like weather my mind automatically starts thinking about....

FOOTBALL SEASON!!

And this fall, as an added bonus....

....at the Lowandslow residence at least....English rugby, too.  :)

Later this morning K and I are going back downtown to the new "park on top of the freeway".  I'm ready for a little sunshine, cool temps, people watching, and maybe lunch off a gourmet food truck, too.  Looks like a spectacular weekend.  :)

S