Farewell to the Hole in the Roof

After 38 seasons, the Dallas Cowboys will play their final game at Texas Stadium tonight, and there's a whole lotta reminiscin' goin' on. I'll add briefly to the collection here.

The building is best known, of course, for what isn't there: the famous hole in the roof. Architecture critic David Dillon puts it best when he says, "It's odd to think of negative space as iconic, but that's what the hole in the roof has become – absence as presence." And he also adds,

That probably wasn't what Cowboys owner Clint Murchison Jr. had in mind in 1969, when he chose a half-dome design for his new stadium in Irving. More likely he was calculating all the money he'd save on heating and air conditioning, which even in the days of $15-a-barrel oil was a bunch. Plus this was football, gladiatorial combat; fans were entitled to a bit of shelter, but players belonged out in the elements, regardless of consequences.

It's interesting to see how things have changed in the intervening decades; in the new Cowboys stadium in Arlington, the roof will probably close at the slightest hint of snow.

The Dallas Morning News has put together a special section of Texas Stadium stories, the Web version of which is here. Among other things, the section features reminiscences by the original architect and the longtime general manager of the stadium, as well as lists of some of the top pro, college and high school games played there (it was a highlight of many high schoolers' careers to play under the famous open roof). And one of the best articles in the collection is this one, told from the perspective of the stadium itself, "as told to" writer Brad Townsend.

As for my own memories? I marched there a few times as a member of the UNT Green Brigade marching band (among the things that surprised me the first time I was there: The field is set up in a convex pattern, presumably to aid in drainage during rainy conditions, so it feels like you're marching uphill as you approach the midfield; also, the stars along the sideline are of different sizes, depending on where you are on the field, though they look identical on TV), saw a number of Cowboys games there, including the one that would end up being Tom Landry's final game as head coach, though we didn't know it at the time), and a number of concerts, most notably Pink Floyd (it was weird to see the famous inflatable pig used on the cover of Animals floating in the air juxtaposed against the Ring of Honor in the background). And I also remember the concert I didn't get to see: Billy Joel and Elton John. We made it all the way to the box office, only to find out that the tickets were "cash only," and my friend who drove us only had plastic. D'oh.

It's been said that the two things most people do when they take a stadium tour are look up through the hole in the roof and stand on the star. I don't know if I did that on that first college game day or not, but I'll make it a point to try that at the new place, whatever circumstances might bring me on the field.

I've watched the new stadium go up in Arlington during the past year, and it certainly looks impressive, and in due time, a lot of memories will be made there as well. But for now, it's time to pause and remember a local icon that brought so much enjoyment to so many. With any luck, the "Boys will win the game and send the building out in fine fashion.

UPDATE: Oops. That didn't work so well, did it?

Blowing out the candles: Happy Birthday Dad! As has been the case recently, I don't get to see him on the actual day, but we'll all meet up for Christmas.

A Very Illuminati(ng) Beethoven Story

On Tuesday, I posted about how I had integrated Beethoven's birthday into my beginner lessons this week, and the next day, an interesting article from Slate was posted to my fraternity's listserv: How the Illuminati Influenced Beethoven. Here's a sample:

If Beethoven had come from anywhere but Bonn he still might have been a genius, but he would not have been the same man and composer. True, he was more self-made than anything else, could see the world only through his own lens. He was a legendarily recalcitrant student and claimed to have learned nothing from any of his teachers. His most celebrated teacher, Joseph Haydn, sardonically dubbed Beethoven die grosse Mogul—in today's terms, the big shot. Yet at the same time, Beethoven was by no means aloof. He soaked up every idea around him, read voluminously in classical and modern literature, studied the music of older masters and modeled what he did on them. His art drew from myriad sources, among them the extravagant humanistic ideals floating around Bonn in his youth. One of the things it all added up to was something like this: music as an esoteric language wielded by a few enlightened men for the benefit of the world. Beethoven was all about duty to the abstraction called humanity. That was what he was taught and what he lived and wrote for, through all the miseries of going deaf and a great deal of physical pain. It was people he didn't much care about. But in taking up Schiller's Ode for the Ninth Symphony, he proposed not just to preach a sermon about the brotherhood of humanity and the dream of Elysium. He wanted the Ninth to help bring those things to pass.

It's an interesting article; read the whole thing.

College Scholarships 2.0

Someone has come up with a pretty good idea that could revolutionize the way some people pay for college: Human capital contracts. This idea was profiled recently by Boston Globe reporter Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow:

In 1997, David Bowie applied his well-known penchant for experimentation to finance: He offered to sell shares of his albums' future revenues. If you had faith in the enduring popularity of Ziggy Stardust and Space Oddity, you could purchase Bowie Bonds and receive a percentage of the royalties for 10 years. In return, the aging rock star got an immediate infusion of cash.

When Miguel Palacios, a young Colombian financial analyst, heard the news of this arrangement, he had an epiphany. As a college student, he'd witnessed classmates reluctantly drop out of school because they couldn't afford to continue. Had they been able to offer their own version of Bowie Bonds, perhaps they could have earned their degrees.

"If he could do it," Mr. Palacios thought, "why couldn't all those bright, talented students do it as well?"Other thinkers have begun to ask the same basic question. The result is an innovative way to think about paying for higher education. The idea, sometimes called human capital contracts, is that investors agree to cover the costs of college or graduate school in return for a percentage of the students' future earnings over a fixed period of time. Since payments are scaled to wages, the odds of default – and of financial hardship for the graduate – are greatly reduced. This scheme transfers much of the risk from students to investors. But if the students earn handsomely, the investors stand to gain more than they would under a traditional loan.

Over the last few years, several companies have begun brokering these agreements in Europe and Latin America. One of these, Lumni, which Mr. Palacios co-founded, is laying the groundwork for operations in the United States, and its first few clients here plan to sign contracts by the year's end.

Read the whole thing. This seems on the surface to be a great idea for aspiring musicians; many of the ones I've taught in college have an immense amount of talent, but very little in the way of funding for their studies. And since many college musicians have already started work on the professional level while in school, it would be easy for potential investors to see tangible evidence of their abilities. There's still plenty to work on to make this a successful idea in the U.S. (among other things, it works best like an insurance pool; not just future musicians, artists and actors but future doctors and lawyers would need to join in order to keep the program well-funded), but it certainly seems like a good option for people with a lot of talent but not so much cash.

What do you think? Leave your opinions in the comments.

This Guy Did an Unburritably Bad Job of Impersonating an Officer

On KRLD this morning, I heard the story of a guy in Grapevine who was trying to impersonate a cop. According to the story, he was somewhat convincing as far as making his pickup truck look like a police vehicle (it's not common for the police to drive pickups, but here in Texas, it's not out of the realm of possibility). But the "badge" he flashed when he tried to pull someone over? Not very convincing at all.

How bad was it? Well, look here. He made his badge by taking a Chipotle gift card, blacking out most of the surface with a Sharpie or something like that, and keeping an un-blacked out area that spelled the letters POLICE. But the Chipotle logo is very much visible at the top, and it doesn't take an eagle eye to see that the foil from the burrito pictured on the card is visible beneath the POLICE part.

The wannabe cop (can we call him Officer Burrito? Cop-potle?) was caught by the proverbial "alert citizen," and he's now being held on immigration charges. Oops...

Off we go, into the wild moo yonder: Also from KRLD, a British pilot clipped a cow with the wing of his plane while trying to make an emergency landing. The funny thing is that the pilot didn't even seem to notice at first. (The cow was unharmed.)

Kids Report the Darnedest Things

As I said a week ago, I gave my beginners whom I'd teach today--Beethoven's birthday--a short assignment to find out who he was and tell me a little bit about him. As expected, some of their answers were quite amusing (my questions in italics, their responses below):

So what did you find out about Beethoven?

• "He was a music writer who played the piano and wrote a lot of songs." (Would he be insulted to have one of his symphonies called a "song"?)


• "I forgot to look it up, but I know that he wrote a lot of awesome music." (At least the kid was honest.)


• "He was known for producing a lot of musicals." (I can see it now: BEETHOVEN ON BROADWAY!!)

What was unique about him in the last several years of his life?

• "He was grumpy."


• "He was weird-looking."


• And one kid did nail the part about him being deaf.

Where was he from?

• "Somewhere in Europe. Not France...Not England, because that's a city." (Me: It is?) No, wait...London is a city, England is a country. Man! And I just came from Social Studies, too."

Happy Beethoven's birthday to you! And I hope you caught today's edition of Peanuts, where Schroeder gets a Beethoven's birthday cake brought to him by Linus and Lucy.

Have an ice day: What crazy weather we're having in North Texas at the moment! Even though school was in, it was hard to get around anywhere, and cocooning ensued for a second straight night. I feel for the folks who had to go on freeways today (I didn't), but the most hazardous place I visited was a Super Target parking lot, where the ice sheets were masquerading as clear concrete. We were all doddering around like old-timers to get anywhere.

Cocooning and Catching Up

What a difference 24 hours makes. Yesterday, I was enjoying a beautiful afternoon outdoors in shirtsleeves. By the end of the Cowboys game last night, the temperature had dropped some 20 degrees. This afternoon, there was some light freezing drizzle, but nothing of much consequence on the roads, save for a few bridges. And by dinnertime tonight, bridges were freezing left and right; the one that I crossed--not a big elevated one, just over a creek--was running at about 5 miles an hour and already caused a wreck.

So after a quick trip for dinner with a friend (away from said bridges, mind you), it was time to do what some people call cocooning for the rest of the night. Despite the mess on the bridges, though, I'm not expecting an ice day tomorrow, although I'll turn the radio on at the first alarm tomorrow morning, just in case. But honestly, it's close enough to break that I don't need a day off tomorrow, and the lost wages that would ensue.

Tonight's night in did give me a chance to catch up on almost a week's worth of blog posts, though; I've been pretty bad lately about starting posts and not finishing them until several days later. So that my work doesn't go for naught, I'll call your attention to what I've intended to talk about for the last week:

• A solution to the oil crisis and Starbucks' financial woes? Someone has come up with biodiesel made from used coffee grounds.


• Last week, I actually assigned some homework to a few of my saxophone students in honor of a notable day in music history that's being celebrated tomorrow.


• Read about some unusual ways to keep skin moisturized during the winter.


• A Texas Congressman wants to use legislation to outlaw the Bowl Championship Series in college football.

I'll catch up on a few more during the week (I have unfinished posts going back to November!) and link to those as well.

In the meantime, if you're up tonight and reading this right after I post it, cast your vote for tomorrow: Ice day, or not?

A Beautiful Afternoon on the Square

Southlake Town Square. A shade after four o'clock in the afternoon. Temperatures in the 70s belie the mid-December date on the calendar. And I'm sitting on a park bench taking pictures like this...

...on my new iPhone. Yep, I took the plunge today.

I'd been debating iPhone vs. BlackBerry a while ago, and, while the keyboard of the latter sounded nice, the iPhone's far superior browser display, access to wi-fi when needed, and overall cool factor made it win out in the end. Plus, I was already with the proper carrier and long past due for an upgrade. Having gotten a little bonus money recently, it was time for a Christmas present to myself this year.

I'm sure it will take me a while to figure out all the different functions of this device. I've already figured out most of what I need to know for texting (although I had some righteous typos while getting used to the touch-screen keyboard), but I haven't set up email yet. The iPod portion will likely be filled with a mix of my favorite tunes and some teaching aids, as I'm now one gadget away (either a Y-cord or a small, durable docking device, respectively) from being able to have access to play-alongs at the college and the schools for the first time since my boom box bit the dust. And I have yet to even visit the App Store; that'll be a fun, productive time-waster, I'm sure.

I wanted to go back to Southlake after my early-evening event to try another picture out there at night, when the area is festooned in Christmas lights, but I'll have to save that for later. (The camera is not anywhere near the quality of my Canon, of course, but from these first few pictures, it appears to be a little better than the ones from the RAZR.)

This is a light teaching week ahead with the college on break, but I have a feeling my new "toy" will consume a bit of my free time for the next few days, as I figure out the ins and outs of it.

Brrrrr: What's with the 30-degree temperature drop during the time of the Cowboys game? I have a feeling that tomorrow won't be anything like today was.

Somebody Call These Folks a Wambulance

From reading the op-ed page of today's paper, it appears that everyone is outraged about something, and I can't quite understand why.

First, Kathleen Parker reports that some feminist groups are outraged at a couple of Obama campaign staffers for their participation in a Facebook mini-scandal:

It always seems like fun at the time. Then the photo surfaces.

Two guys, some beer and a cardboard cutout of Hillary Clinton have created fresh grief for the young and uninitiated to Washington Rules.

In the latest blog scandal-ette, Jon Favreau, a Holy Cross valedictorian and 27-year-old wunderkind speechwriter for Barack Obama, was captured clutching the prospective secretary of state's, um, pectoral area, while a fellow reveler, wearing an "Obama Staff" T-shirt, nuzzles Mrs. Clinton's ear and holds a beer bottle to her smiling lips.

The photo popped up on Facebook for a couple of hours before being removed ... too late. The moment was captured, and the rest was instant and persistent history. On the Information Highway, alas, road-kill is never really dead.

One day, Mr. Favreau was the golden boy of silken tongue. The next, he was just another dimwitted dude

[...]Feminists groups such as NOW and The New Agenda are outraged that Mrs. Clinton – or at least her image – is being treated disrespectfully by the boys. Conservatives are outraged that there's not enough outrage, as would be the case were the party boys Republicans.

An attorney wrote on the Feminist Law Professors blog that Mr. Favreau should not be excused for "youthful indiscretion" and questioned Mr. Obama's judgment "in continuing to rely professionally on someone so young and irresponsible and offensively sexist.".

But wait--what does Senator Clinton herself have to say about all this?

Only Hillary Clinton has made light of the "incident," hereinafter known as Night of BBB (Boys Being Boys). In an e-mail to The Washington Post's Al Kamen, a Clinton adviser wrote: "Senator Clinton is pleased to learn of Jon's obvious interest in the State Department, and is currently reviewing his application."

Hear, hear. Nipping nonsense in the bud is an essential skill for a secretary of state, and Mrs. Clinton used her shears deftly. If anyone recognizes a little harmless male sport, it would be the bride of President "Is." One thing is harmful; another thing isn't.

I agree with Parker here. If something "offensive" doesn't actually offend the person whom it targets, then everyone else should just acknowledge that, simmer down, and maybe get a hobby that doesn't involve sticking their noses quite so far into other people's business.

But of course, that doesn't really happen:

Nevertheless, Mrs. Clinton's response has fallen short of what some deem appropriate. CNN's Campbell Brown charged Mrs. Clinton with forfeiting her feminist cred, especially after issuing her own charges of sexism throughout the presidential campaign. Now that Mrs. Clinton's a member of the Obama team, she suddenly has a sense of humor?

All of the above would be nonsense except that almost nothing any longer is. Nonsense is the new standard for controversy, and even party shenanigans qualify.

Puritans and prohibitionists would adore our brave new world of shutterbug infamy. The fact is, no one's having fun anymore, especially in the nation's capital, where one can't afford to let the tongue slip or risk being caught in the cross hairs of a cell camera.

At this point, I'm going to say something that would certainly cause outrage among some of these people: We should go back to Scripture on this one, specifically the verse which reads, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." All these people who are raging over a perceived slight to someone they may not even know personally (because of those pesky group-identity politics again) ought to examine their own lives first. An enterprising blogger could have a field day discovering and posting the idiotic things that the "outraged ones" have said and done themselves. (Sadly, time constraints do not allow me to be that blogger, though I'll admit it would be fun.)

Parker makes another good point in her closing paragraph:

In the meantime, feminists might channel their free-ranging anger toward, say, Iran, where yet another woman recently was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.

An excellent point.

And on the same page, at least locally, Derrick Jackson is all in a huff over the Burger King "Whopper Virgins" commercials:

When European germs wiped out Indians, at least that aspect of conquest was unintentional. Burger King has no such excuse.

The modern colonizers currently have an ad campaign called "Whopper Virgins." Commercials are running during televised sports events, and the company has a nearly eight-minute video on its Web site.

In a bizarre parody of an actual documentary, Burger King sent a crew out to remote Hmong parts of Thailand, Inuit parts of Greenland and a village in Romania – all places where people have never seen a hamburger nor ever heard of one through advertising.

The first part of the video involved plucking some villagers to come to a modern office in native dress to compare Burger King's signature burger with a McDonald's Big Mac. Villagers are shown fumbling with the burger while a patronizing narrator says, "It's been very interesting to see their reaction to the hamburger because they've never seen such a foreign piece of food before, and they didn't even quite know how to pick it up, and they didn't know how to – from what end to eat. ... It was really interesting. We were able to see these people's first bite of a hamburger."

Remarking on the villagers' awkwardness in handling the burger, the narrator added: "It took them awhile to understand the dynamics of it, and so that was fascinating to see because we take it for granted."

OK, so it sounds like Jackson is accusing BK of being culturally insensitive. Good people can agree to disagree on that. But here's where the story really goes off the rails:

urger King defends the ads, saying it worked hard to respect cultural sensitivities. All this, to spread disease to developing peoples. The Westernization of the global diet, led by America's fast-food giants, is helping spread obesity and diabetes as it has never been seen before.

Even if levels of obesity stay what they are now, the number of people around the world with diabetes will explode from the 171 million people of 2000 to 366 million by 2030. The numbers will more than triple in places ranging from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Bangladesh to Guatemala. They will more than double or nearly triple in China, India, Brazil and Mexico. According to World Health Organization researchers, diabetes was already responsible in 2000 for nearly 3 million deaths around the world.

"Given the increasing prevalence of obesity, it is likely that these figures provide an underestimate of future diabetes prevalence," those researchers said. Translated, even more people will die.

The researchers, not surprisingly, say, "Initiatives by the food industry to reduce the fat, sugar and salt content of processed foods ... could accelerate health gains worldwide." But no, Burger King wants to colonize the farthest reaches with fat, sugar and salt.

OK, so Jackson is the Food Police now. But isn't he forgetting about a few important things?

• It's not just diet that controls obesity, diabetes, etc.; it's also exercise and overall activity of lifestyle. It'd be one thing if Burger King came into this remote village and not only forced them to eat, but also required them to watch, say, 6 hours of TV every day. I'm guessing the villagers' more active lifestyle would preclude many of the things that Jackson is worried about.


• And beyond that--what's the chance that Burger King is going to build an outlet in a location so remote in the first place? I doubt it makes even the slightest bit of economic sense to do that.

I just don't get all the outrage from these folks. There are a lot of problems in the world today, but I find it quite far-fetched that these two things would top any thinking person's list. Granted, Jackson is a columnist who obviously gets paid to write a certain number of columns a week, but still, if this is the thing to get his dander up, it must be a really slow news day.

I realize that I have a really high threshold of being offended--it takes a lot--and I wish this standard were held by others; it would probably cause the sale of blood pressure medicine to decrease dramatically. If anything, the only thing that I'm outraged by right now is that so many people are feeling so much outrage over such trivial matters.

We Need Government Solving the BCS Problem About As Much As We Need Football Coaches Writing Laws...

We've heard about this before, most recently in an interview with President-Elect Obama: Government officials throwing their two cents' worth in about the Bowl Championship Series vs. a possible college football playoff system. It's not the first time this has happened--a Texas state senator filed a bill that would have prohibited Texas colleges from participating in any postseason game that wasn't part of a playoff system, as outlined in this 2005 post--but now a Texan is attempting this nonsense on a national stage:

Taking aim at a BCS system he said "consistently misfires," a member of Congress planned to introduce legislation that would force college football to adopt a playoff to determine the national champion.

Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, didn't specify what sort of playoff he wants – only that the BCS should go.

He said the bill – being co-sponsored by Reps. Bobby Rush, an Illinois Democrat, and Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican – "will prohibit the marketing, promotion, and advertising of a postseason game as a 'national championship' football game, unless it is the result of a playoff system."

Congressman Barton, you've done a lot of good things during your tenure, but this is not one of your shining moments. The BCS isn't perfect, but government intervention isn't the way to go, either. I may be in favor of solving this problem on the field (as I said a few weeks ago), but a legislative solution would be just as bad as having it solved in the courts.

Let the coaches, athletic directors and university presidents solve this problem, Rep. Barton; you stick to writing laws. Besides--isn't there some sort of financial crisis going on at the moment? I would think that would be more worthy of your attention.

WIth any luck, this bill will fail as badly as the one in 2005 did here in Texas. I'll keep you updated, of course.

The Big Freezy?

"New Orleans was blanketed by snow today" is a phrase that would not likely make anyone's list of typical news headlines. But that's exactly what happened today, and it is indeed a rarity: The last time it happened before today was Christmas, 2004, and the time before that was in 1989. All in all, it's happened just 17 times (not counting barely-measurable "trace" amounts) since 1850, and this is the earliest day that the white stuff and the BIg Easy have been as one.

Check out the linked story for some cool pictures; I especially liked the one with one of the St. Charles streetcars covered in snow. It's nice to see that they're running again, which was not the case when I visited there most recently, in the spring of '06.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Are all the politicians and news anchors who drive drunk going to be able to get to work this morning through the snow?"--Nola.com reader "ignatiuseyes," from the comments to the linked story. Another funny quote: "The Angels need some Head and Shoulders!" from reader "babsjohnson." (This reminds me of the day when it started raining heavily during school in sixth grade, and a kid in beginner band class said, "When it rains, it means that the tubas in heaven are opening up their spit valves." Eww.)

The Doctors Are Out (of Their Minds)

In catching up on a few days' worth of newspapers at lunch today, I ran across an article that's very timely but contains some odd solutions to the stated problem.

The subject is keeping skin from drying out during the winter months, which resonates with me, because the skin on my hands gets so dry that it's been known to crack open on my knuckles, completely at random. And while Dallas dermatologist Dr. Mary Hurley has some good advice in this area, I'm not sure that I'd be willing to heed the suggestions the National Institutes of Health in a sidebar to the article:

•Keep baths or showers short.

•Use warm, not hot, water.

•Use as little soap as possible. Try mild cleansers such as Aveeno or Cetaphil or mild soaps such as Neutrogena or Dove.

•Dry skin thoroughly but gently. Pat, don't rub.

•Bathe or shower less often.

Say whaaaat? Bathe or shower less often? In a word, no. The public-school part of my job requires me to spend all day in small, stuffy spaces that sometimes have insufficient temperature control. I'm not going to shower less, and I sure hope the kids don't, either.

And the American Academy of Dermatology has some unusual ideas as well:

• Switch to an oil-based moisturizer and use it frequently. The more oil a moisturizer contains, the more effectively it protects against moisture loss. Ointment moisturizers have a high oil content because, by definition, an ointment consists of 80 percent oil and 20 percent water. This water-in-oil emulsion forms a protective layer on the skin and is more “moisturizing” than creams and lotions.


• Apply a heavy layer of moisturizing, broad-spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of 15 or higher. Use on the face, hands and other exposed skin. This acts as a barrier against the elements and is especially important if you will be outdoors.

I'm not sure too many people buy sunscreen in the wintertime, unless they spend their entire day outdoors for their jobs. It may be medically sound, but I'm not sure it's practical.

And the other thing that bugs me about this is the insistence on slathering a bunch of oils on your skin. If I did that, I'd break out all over...and probably have to see a dermatologist. (Hmm--the cynic in me wonders if there's not an ulterior motive here.)

But far worse would be the person who went overboard on the sunscreen or oils and then decided to bathe less. I think such a person's coworkers might well protest, and rightfully so.

What do you do to keep your skin from drying out in the winter?

Hap birt t m: Today is my half-birthday--exactly six months to the day between my last birthday and my next one. Granted, nobody appends the "half" to their age once they're older than, say, ten, but it's still funny to tell people on that day. (I'd still like to give someone a "half-birthday card" sometime: They get the front half now and have to wait six months to read the punch line.)

Next Thing You Know, I'll Be Assigning Term Papers

I did an unusual thing in my lessons this morning: I assigned the beginners some very mild homework.

Now, I suppose you could say that, as a private music instructor, I'm assigning "homework" all the time: Practice this, practice that. But this morning's assignment involves some actual research.

Among other things, my beginners progress through an elementary method book, passing off a certain number of lines each week. When I give those assignments, I end up writing the date of the next lesson (one week later than the current day, unless I'm on a weird schedule) at the beginning of the assignment. When I did that for this morning's kids, I realized that next Tuesday, December 16, is Beethoven's birthday.

There have been plenty of major composers in the history of music, but Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig von Beethoven would have to be among the most well-known among the general public. Ask someone to name two famous U.S. Presidents, and they're likely to say George Washington and Abraham Lincoln (indeed, when I was really little, I thought they were the first two Presidents). Ask someone to name two famous classical composers, and they're likely to say Bach and Beethoven (the prominence of the latter in Charles Schulz's Peanuts cartoons--as an idol of piano-playing Schroeder--certainly added to his fame).

So I couldn't resist turning the date of the next assignment into something more academic. I told each of the beginners in turn about the significance of next Tuesday, and I asked them to find out a little about him, including something noteworthy; this could be anything from his appearance in Peanuts to his blindness to the fact that he composed the famous four-note motif of his Fifth Symphony.

(Speaking of Beethoven's deafness: A few weeks ago, when looking through contest solos with the older kids, one of them was contemplating a Beethoven piece. I asked that kid if he knew who the Beethoven was and what was noteworthy about him, and the kid replied, "He was blind, right?" Umm, no, but that did launch into a discussion of great blind piano players throughout history--Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, et al.)

It will be interesting to see what they come up with (and I think these kids are good enough students that they'll actually do the assignment). I'll post their discoveries here next week.

The white stuff: It was lightly sleeting when I left the college tonight, but nothing will come of it; not yet. I can think of all the time that the forecasters have overdone it on the "impending doom" angle, and even they weren't hyping this much beyond a "please drive carefully" angle tonight.

The Economy and the Environment May Find Common "Grounds" Here

For quite some time now, a lot of people have been in search of the perfect alternative fuel, and nobody's come up with the perfect one yet. But if this one works, it could solve a couple of problems at once: The fossil-fuel crisis and the recent economic woes of Starbucks. That's right--someone has found a way to make biodiesel from spent coffee grounds:

[...]They estimate that the coffee ground biodiesel industry could generate as much as $8,000,000 in profits annually using waste from US Starbucks stores alone.

One of the main limits to the acceptance of biodiesel as an alternative fuel is its price premium above regular diesel. To bring the price of biodiesel down, the industry uses as much waste material from other industries as possible to make it — such as used fryer oil and animal fats from poultry processing.

I've heard about fryer-oil biodiesel as well; people who have seen such vehicles in action say that the car gives off the aroma of french fries as it goes by. But back to the coffee angle:

In holding with the idea of cheap biodiesel feedstocks, a team of researchers in the Chemical and Materials Engineering Department at the University of Nevada figured that maybe spent coffee grounds would fit the bill too.

And boy do they ever. Not only do spent coffee grounds have a relatively large amount of oil (about 15% — almost all of which can be converted into biodiesel using standard methods), biodiesel made from the grounds has a long shelf life due to the large amount of antioxidants in coffee. Antioxidants slow the process of rancidification.

There’s a bonus too: at the end of the biodiesel extraction and conversion process, the leftover grounds can be turned into fuel pellets for wood stoves and boilers, closing the waste loop (or at least putting most of the carbon and nutrients that had recently been used by the plant to grow back into the atmosphere where they can again be used by plants to grow).

Sounds good to me. Let's do some more work on this, guys (or, as Glenn "Instapundit" Reynolds would say, "Faster, please"). And if the fryer-mobile smells like french fries as it passes by, just imagine the pleasant aroma of a car powered on, say, Christmas Blend. And imagine turning in one's own spent filters at the filling station (Starbucks with pumps?) for a fuel credit. I'm intrigued, to say the least.

I'll keep following this story and update it when (hopefully) more progress is reported.

The Twelve Days of What?

I'm a big fan of Amazon.com. I've gotten plenty of very reasonably-priced (if not downright cheap) CD's and books from them over the years, and I'm a regular patron of the downloads store they launched earlier in the year. So it was quite distressing to see the Instapundit post today that pointed to the name of Amazon Music's seasonal sale, 12 Days of Holiday. May I add my voice to the chorus that says, "Huh?"

Glenn Reynolds nails it when he says, "What does that even mean? Besides someone not wanting to say “Christmas,” that is...'Holiday' is not, in fact, a synonym for 'Christmas.'”

We've discussed this subject here before, when I was lambasting Wal-Mart for having their clerks say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas," as well as my two-pronged screed against the people who were offended by the placement of Christmas trees in Sea-Tac Airport in Washington state and those who were offended by choirs singing Christmas carols. You know the only thing that offends me here? All these people getting offended! (Not to mention their trying to dictate the behaviors of others to conform to said offense.)

As I said in one of the earlier posts:

many of the people who are offended by the use of "Merry Christmas" would squeal like a stuck pig if the perks of the holiday were taken away from them. Offended by the word Christmas? OK, then you lose your Christmas bonus. You don't get December 25th as a holiday, either. What's that, you say--that's different? But hang on--can you really have it both ways?

At some point in time, most sane, rational, mature people will have some sort of "tipping point"-type event that will make them say "enough already!" to the PC plague. Me, I got there a long time ago, but then, I was born white and male, so I guess I never had a chance with the PC crowd. But as I've said before, I've read the Constitution, and among those "inalienable rights" listed in the Preamble, "the right to not get one's feelings hurt" is nowhere to be found. So those who waste their lives (and lungs) complaining about things like that should indeed just be ignored, just like little kids throwing temper tantrums...which is really what they are, in adult bodies, most of the time.

And to make matters worse, Mark Steyn reports that, when a reader wrote to Amazon to complain about not using the word "Christmas" in the promotion, they received the wrong canned email in response, getting one that apologized for using the word "Christmas." Steyn provides a nice laugh at the end: "I wonder if it might be time for Amazon to crank up a computer-generated apology sincerely apologizing if you were offended by receiving the incorrect sincere apology."

Also, The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg (who's Jewish, by the way) defends the use of "Merry Christmas" with this statement:

"Holiday" isn't a holiday. It's a way of avoiding offense. But who, exactly, is offended? This is what I don't understand. I'm perfectly happy living in a country that is populated mainly by Christians, particularly Christians who show nothing but acceptance for their fellow citizens who happen to follow other religions. So it doesn't sit well with me that Christians now feel constrained to offer the anodyne "Happy Holidays" rather than a greeting that touches directly on the reason for our seasonal merriment.

So, my Christian sisters and brothers, feel absolutely free to greet me with "Merry Christmas," and I'll greet you right back. You can say "Happy Hannukah" as well, or "Happy Kwanzaa." Say, in other words, what you feel. The important thing is to not be afraid.

Well said, sir.

NEXT DAY UPDATE: Also via Instapundit, it appears that Amazon has relented, and the promotion is now being called the 12 Days of Christmas. Perhaps the power of a widely-read blogger (that's Instapundit, not me, LOL) really can make a difference.

Blowing out the candles: Happy birthday to my Australian blogger buddy (and groom-to-be) James.

We still remember: Pearl Harbor may have been eclipsed by 9/11 as the defining national disaster of a generation, but there are plenty of people for whom December 7, 1941 still lives in infamy, and we recognize the sacrifice for those who gave all during that time. And if you've never heard or read FDR's "infamy" speech, it can be found here.

Blowing Out the Multitude of Candles Again

Once again, this is the day where three old friends of mine, spread out all over the place (Denver, Ft. Worth and "I'm not sure") celebrate their birthdays on the same day. So all the best to Chris C., Wyatt and Andrew D. (the latter two share not only the same birthday, but the same birth year, and Wyatt gets bonus points for getting married on my birthday). I hope to see you all soon. (And in the Celebrity Department, it's also Walt Disney's birthday today; he would have been 107.)

I'm pretty wiped out from a long week, and I have a few posts to catch up on, so I'll hopefully get to some of that tomorrow.

If You Play It, They Will Dance

One of my combos at the school had a performance today. This in itself was not unusual, as we do such a thing during the week before exams pretty much every semester. But what was unusual was the amount of dancing that took place during our performance.

It wasn't just an isolated thing, either: There was the guy and girl who walked past us several times, stopping to dance for just a moment each time they were nearby. There was also the lady in the craft sale who was really getting into it, and I saw at least one more outbreak of dancing from someone in the back. (I'm surprised that the two little kids didn't start anything up while we were playing; if I recall, at various times in their young lives, all three of my nephews have been good for a little of that.)

And this wasn't a dance gig, either. It was simply a performance in the Atrium area of campus for anyone who wanted to hear, and the dancing was a bonus. Jazz started out as dance music, of course, but bebop, for all the good it did, steered the music on a different path. Some of the most successful modern jazz has reintroduced the element of groove, and I think it's helped get us some audience back.

Whenever I send an email from my home address, there's a quote in the signature box at the bottom: "Jazz will endure as long as people hear it through their feet instead of their brains." The source? John Philip Sousa, of all people. And the March King had it right: While jazz may have been relegated to the concert halls of late, there's still something there that might nudge someone towards the dance floor (even if they have to create said floor from an ordinary area). While it might have been odd for everyone in attendance had done it, I'm glad that we prompted a few people to do so.

Who Says Texas Never Has Any Fall Colors?

I beg to differ:


Downtown Rowlett
I have quite a few posts to catch up on this week, so today, I'll let the picture tell the usual thousand words, and I'll try to get a couple of other shots to add later. There's been some great colors in Plano the past few weeks, but I'm evidently lacking in Mad Phone Cam Skillz right now, because nothing that I took up there has turned out quite right. I'll try again tomorrow...

Did the BCS Computers Give the Horns the Hook?

I should mention from the outset that I'm not a University of Texas football fan; my sister's four years in Aggieland pretty much prevented that from happening (though, as a matter of state pride, I will root for them against Oklahoma every year during the State Fair, which shows that I'm not an OU fan either). So I really don't have a dog in this hunt, as we allegedly say all the time here in Texas. But it sure seems to me that UT got hosed by the BCS computers yesterday when they picked Oklahoma to represent the Big 12 South in the conference championship game (over the Horns, who beat OU back in October).

It was an unusual situation all around: Texas, OU and Texas Tech all finished at 11-1, and each one's only loss came to one of the other two. UT beat OU by ten points, Tech barely beat Texas on a last-minute touchdown, and OU demolished Tech a few weeks later. If you're a UT fan, it will certainly be rough to see OU and Missouri--both of which lost to UT this year--play in the conference championship game. (And while this might beg the question of whether the division of the Big 12 into North and South divisions--when the South is considerably stronger--is the best idea, I'll save that discussion for later.) But do we really want BCS computers breaking ties in the conference standings in the first place? Shouldn't this be decided on the field as much as possible?

Here are several views from across the nation:

• Fox Sports Don Borst says the computers really blew it, especially when they vaulted 11-1 OU over 12-0 Alabama.


• The Dallas Morning News' Tim Cowlishaw says that it's the Big 12's tiebreaker method, not the BCS, that's hosing the Horns.


• Meanwhile, Cowlishaw's DMN colleague Kevin Sherrington notes that it's not correct to say that the BCS computers are "unbiased", since they're programmed by humans.


• And Justin Potts of The Bleacher Report says that this situation should be the straw that breaks the proverbial camel's back as far as the BCS is concerned--because it basically rewarded Oklahoma for running up the score.

So what do you think? Does this call for a playoff, or does the Big 12 simply need to come up with a more sensible tiebreaker that places more value on head-to-head competition? (Longtime readers may recall that I offered up my own fix almost five years ago,, and I still think such an idea would work, though I'm also open to an eight-game playoff that incorporates the bowls.)

And in the meantime, I bet a lot of people in Burnt Orange Nation have become Missouri fans for this week...

Moses Parts the Waters of Holiday Gloom with a Selfless Act

Truth be told, this holiday season isn't very old, and yet we already need a feel-good story like this. On a weekend where we've already had a Wal-Mart worked trampled to death by a mob who couldn't wait till 6 a.m. for the doors to open, not to mention a shootout at a Toys "R" Us in Arizona, it's a breath of fresh air to read the story of Moses Baranuic, a 17-year-old Moldovan immigrant from Federal Way, Washington who found a sack containing $10,000 on the bathroom floor at the grocery store where he worked--and turned it in:

He was heading to the men's room on break, and he had no idea what treasure he'd find in there.

"As I walk in right here on the floor, I noticed a bag of money," he said.

But he had no idea yet how much money was in there

So he washed his hands, thought about it, and did the right thing.

"I just grabbed the money, walked outside and gave it to the manager," Baranuic said.

His manager was impressed.

"His name tells it all," said store manager Etray Hudson. "With a name like that you can't go wrong.... Moses."

Moses says there's something biblical about his decision to turn in the cash.

"Because I teach a Sunday school with 10-year-old kids and I always tell them to do the right thing," he said.

The guy who accidentally left the money (he was in the process of moving at the time, which is why he had it with him) came back and was extremely grateful; he took down Moses' address and said a "little reward" will be coming to him.

You may read a lot of stories about teenagers doing bad things, but--as someone who's around them on a regular basis--there are plenty of stories like this that happen all the time; it's just nice for one to actually make the news.

I'll let Moses have the last word here:

"I've always been considered a pretty good worker, so now there's even more respect. People trust me even more today, so I don't regret it because maybe I didn't get the $10,000, but I got something you can't buy with money."

You sure did, Moses. You sure did.

UPDATE TO LINKED STORY: "The parent company of Top Foods announced Friday that they will be giving Moses a $500 reward in recognition for the great thing he did in returning the money." Very cool.

How Black Was Your Friday?

I spent quite a bit of yesterday driving back from Houston, so i wasn't "fully engaged" in the Black Friday process this year. But if my one morning trip to a furniture store is any indication, there are plenty of people out there who--despite the weakened economy--won't shrink from a bargain. (If you're wondering why I was at a furniture store on Black Friday, it was to help select what's going to be my Christmas present from Mom and Dad: A new living room set. As Mom pointed out, most of the furniture I've ever had has either been hand-me-downs [from them] or hand-me-ups [from my sister], so it was about time that I got something brand-new for Casa de Kev. Sure, it spoils the "surprise," but it's not like they were going to wrap up a sofa and leave it under the tree in the first place.)

So my quick survey questions for you are as follows:

• Did you do any shopping yesterday?


• If so, were the shopping centers more or less crowded than in previous years?


• Did you actually buy anything? And did it appear that people around you were mostly buying things or just window-shopping?

Remember that you can comment anonymously on this blog, but it's better to pick a screenname so that we don't have two many Anonymi running around.

I'm Thankful For...

...a lot of things, actually. Here are a few:

• Getting the chance to visit with family. It's just me and Mom and Dad this time around, but that'll be nice; I needed a chill day after the busy-ness of the past month, and they haven't gotten to come up my way since July because of their travel and my work.


• The greatest group of friends anyone could ever want; they're family as well. (I've always said that you have two families: The one you're born into, and the one you choose.) Also, the chance to hang with the two who live out-of-town (both having returned this morning) before starting my own trip, and the chance to do so again when I get back.


• Gas prices below two bucks a gallon (even the national average matches this number now). It's hard to believe that, not quite six months ago, I saw $4.14 gas in Vermont, and it flirted with the four-buck mark at home for a week or two.


• Good health. When everyone and their dog was getting sick about two weeks ago, I managed to have only a few days of the "crud," and I actually felt better after attending an outdoor event for a few hours in 40-degree temperatures. (Also, when I strained a leg muscle on the Corpus trip, I managed to rehab it in about 24 hours, with a combination of walking on sand at the beach and doing some unusual "scisssors" exercises that would have never crossed my mind had I not been sleeping on couches that weekend.)


• Having a job that I really love, that hardly ever seems like work, and that has the opportunity to really make a difference in people's lives.


• Music. Not only is it the source of the non-work job mentioned above, but it is a great form of expression for the writer/performer and a great form of enjoyment for the listener.


• The freedom to worship God in any way we see fit, without government interference (I think we take this for granted sometimes, but it's certainly not a given in many other parts of the world).


• And finally, being able to live in the greatest nation that the world has ever known. Sure, it's not perfect, but where else would you even think about wanting to live?

That's my short list. What are you thankful for today?

Retrograde Travel Advisory: Oh yeah--so if you haven't figured it out already, I'm in Sugar Land for a few days. Normally, I would do a Travel Advisory post when I was on my way out, but the multiple activities before I left today means that...umm, I forgot. (And I'd normally do a Sugar Land "dateline" at the top of the post, a la newspapers, but it would have messed with my whole "ellipsis" thing in the title.)

If you went somewhere in the past 24 hours, I hope your travels were safe and enjoyable (and the same in a future tense if your trip hasn't started yet). Oh, and someone please explain to me why the only bad traffic I encountered on the entire trip was heading into downtown Dallas. That's pretty backwards, in a "petting the cat from the tail forward" kind of way.

A Truly Legendary Evening

I can't even begin to describe how cool last night was. (For the uninitiated, "last night" was the North Texas Jazz Legends celebration honoring my former professors Neil Slater and Jim Riggs, held at the UNT Coliseum in Denton.) The evening was much as you'd probably imagine it would be, what with four alumni bands playing and all. The amount of talent in the room, never mind onstage--there were quite a few people who attended but didn't play--was staggering, and it was great to see so many people I hadn't seen since my college days.

Here are a few random thoughts regarding the evening:

• Everything ran smoothly and efficiently, with the various rehearsals, soundchecks, and so on starting exactly on time. It was almost like "Lab Band Madness: Special Enhanced Alumni Edition."


• Needless to say, the alumni bands hardly needed any rehearsal at all; one of the alumni directors, who also teaches college, joked about how nice it was to just sit up there and wave his hands and not have to teach rhythms to anybody.


• There were so many alumni involved that several bands did considerable substitution between their two tunes; the band in which I played had two distinct saxophone sections as well as some minor trombone swappage.


• The "'70s and earlier" band featured a few names you might know: Tom "Bones" Malone and "Blue" Lou Marini (think The Blues Brothers, folks). Lou got some nice solo space on a three-way battle on "Groove Merchant."


• The prepared video tributes to Riggs and Slater were both humorous (especially the early pictures of them) and informative; for example, I had no idea that former Ft. Worth Symphony conductor John Giordano used to be the saxophone professor at UNT, nor did I know that Slater mentored a young Bob Mintzer during his New York days.


• It's one thing to play a tune that you played in college, but it's a completely different animal to look at the piece of music and see your own handwriting on the page (notating how many times a solo section was played, which instruments took solos, etc.) from all those years ago.


• Many fancy affairs have coat-check or hat-check rooms, but last night was the first time I'd ever seen a "horn-check room" for people to leave their instruments (under the watchful eye of a security guard) when they weren't playing. It came in very handy for me, since my bari wouldn't have fit in the seats.


• The current One O'Clock and Two O'Clock closed out the evening, and each group brought up its former director to be part of the action: Riggs soloed on one of the Two O'Clock tunes, and Slater conducted a brand-new composition of his with the One.


• When I arrived at UNT as a freshman, I wasn't quite ready to study with a professor yet (and with 100+ saxophonists at the school, it's impossible for everyone to do so right away). So my first saxophone instructor was an outstanding doctoral student, and she exhibited the patience of a saint as I worked out some horn issues (long story short: I was told at orientation that there were plenty of school baritone saxes to be had, so I turned down the chance to buy a Mark VI from a friend [*kicks self now*]. It turns out that I was told wrong...) and prepared me to study under faculty from junior year onward. I got to see her last night for the first time in quite a few years; Dr. Jackie Lamar, this shout-out is for you...


• I never played in the One O'Clock (and only in the Two for a very short time), so it was a thrill to be on stage with so many former members of that band.


• As I said, I ran into quite a few of my former classmates, some of whom I hadn't seen in years. Two of them made my day when they said "You look exactly the same as you did in undergrad school." The fact that those statements were made by people who were balding and/or greying made it even better. (Thanks, Mom and Dad, for those blessed youthful genetics!)


• After the music ended at 11 p.m. (some three-and-a-half hours after it started, the Coliseum floor was opened up for an "after-hang" which was still going on when I left at about 12:30 in the morning. It was really great to see everybody and to find out that everyone seemed to be doing well.

The last time UNT held a celebration like this was in '97 for the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the first jazz studies degree in the nation. My colleague and I had to miss that one because of a concert at our college that we couldn't reschedule, so we jumped at the chance to play in this one. A few of us were talking about it, and we realized that the next such celebration (not counting the one next May for soon-to-retire vocal jazz and arranging guru Paris Rutherford) will probably be for the 75th anniversary of the program, which is still fourteen years away. Someone joked that, at that event, people would be saying "Look at how old the '90s band looks!" Yikes...

And needless to say, I'll be buying the DVD of last night when it comes out.

UPDATE: The alumni interaction didn't stop when the Coliseum doors closed last night; check out this hilarious post from the UNT Jazz website: UNT jazz alumni network in action. (It also features one of the longest sentences I've ever read--and this from a guy with a Ph.D, no less.)

Truth or Rumor?

Here are some interesting tidbits of information, as reported by one of my students today:

• In one neighboring high school, 95% of the blood gathered at a recent school blood drive was unusable, because it tested positive for STD's.


• And in another school across town, about 75% of the blood from a similar drive was unusable because it tested positive for drugs.

I have no way to substantiate these two rumors, and we've all heard wild things like this circulating around the schools in the past. But it's interesting that two schools which are not even in the same district as the school where I heard the rumors, nor are they big sports rivals of any kind, were chosen as the subjects here. (There's always the chance that, if it's a rumor, the school names were chosen strictly at random.)

And if it is true, how would such information get leaked in the first place? It doesn't make the employees at the blood bank seem very professional if they're letting information fly around like this, and if it were really happening, you'd think it would be in the news (minus the names of the schools, perhaps, to avoid undue embarrassment to innocent kids), so that the point (which would be that far too many teens are doing drugs or having unprotected sex) could be driven home.

But if it really is true, doesn't that mean that quite a few sets of parents simply need to pay a bit more attention to their kids these days?

Your thoughts, as always, are welcome in the comments.

Homework = Practice?

This morning, I heard a story on the radio (which, unfortunately, I can't find linked anywhere) that featured a teachers' union president weighing in on the importance of homework at a time when some schools are evidently starting to de-emphasize it. Among other things, he said it was like practice, and he invoked music among several subjects that required regular practice.

But is this accurate? Is homework really like practice? I suppose we could do a compare/contrast type of thing here...

Homework is like practice because:

• Both serve to reinforce the concepts previously introduced in a lesson.


• Sometimes kids dread doing either of those things.*


• Both have direct bearings on future performance: If you don't do your homework, you might not do well on the test; if you don't practice enough, you might bomb your audition, concert, or whatever .

But then again...

Homework is not like practice because:

• Some students will put in extra practice time simply for personal enrichment. I don't know of too many of them who will do extra homework-type items that weren't assigned by the teacher.**


• Homework is sometimes given as "busy work" by the teacher, and it may also be given to make up for the fact that some material wasn't covered in class. I can't speak for any of my colleagues, but I've never assigned something to practice that hasn't first been taught in a lesson, and I sure don't give "busy work."


• And finally, homework is usually something different every night (except perhaps for things like memorization of multiplication tables), whereas practice also involves a great deal of reinforcement (for example, my students play their major scales from the time they learn them in sixth grade until the end of their senior year in high school).

So obviously the jury is still out on this one (and feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments). And if you're interested in this subject, I found a few interesting articles about the no-homework trend:

• A teacher's take on why he doesn't assign homework


• Here's a site dedicated to the eradication of homework: stophomework.com


• And an article on how parents these days may have trouble helping their kids with homework if the work being done now involves more problem-solving and critical reasoning

This is an interesting subject that I'm sure I'll revisit later; the no-homework teacher's philosophies could easily spawn a post all by themselves.

*This is especially true of the kids who might be forced into piano lessons at an early age, and even more so if the teacher is the stereotypical "mean old lady" in half-glasses who raps your knuckles with a ruler for missing a note. But does this person still exist anymore? I dated a piano teacher once, and she was nothing like that at all.

**I do, however, have a great friend who used to come home from college and join his engineer dad for some father-son bonding. While most people would think of, say, throwing the football around for a while, these two sat down and did calculus. Seriously. (Of course, they would then go throw the football. But still...)

They're Standing By Others with Music

In church this morning, we got to watch a snippet of a cool video, which also happens to be online for your own viewing pleasure:
It's a montage of musicians all around the world playing "Stand By Me," and it was made by an organization called Playing for Change, which is a foundation that's "dedicated to connecting the world through music by providing resources (including but not limited to facilities, supplies and educational programs) to musicians around the world. A documentary about the movement is coming next year, and a guest column by founder/director Mark Johnson may be found here.

And being the wonky musician type, one thing kept occurring to me as I watched the video: It must have taken a lot of preparation to get everyone used in the video to play in exactly the same key (especially considering the different tunings in different parts of the world) and tempo; either that, or some very clever editing techniques were used. (And the fellow musician sitting next to me in church--a bassoonist--was somewhat disappointed that her instrument didn't make it into the video. The saxophone was nicely represented by a guy in Italy.)

Anyway, it's a cool video. Give it a look, and feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.

Notes from the Road (Stephenville Edition, Part 5)

No matter how many times I take the trip to Stephenville, I always get a lot of, umm, mileage out of it as far as blogworthy material is concerned. This weekend's trip was no exception:

• The town of Bluff Dale, between Granbury and Stephenville, always provides a decent amount of interesting quotes; I guess there are just some really clever, folksy people out there (or it's just one guy and he gets around a lot). This time, on the outskirts of town, I noticed a steakhouse that touted its signature dish as being LARRUPIN' GOOD. I wonder just how good it has to be to qualify as that, and what the steak does when it larrups.


• Not too far away from that was a ranch called the Lion's Den, which also stated that it was owned by the DeLeon family. This makes sense, of course, because DeLeon is Spanish for "of the lion," or "of lion" if you wanted to be completely literal. (One of my sister's elementary school teachers married a guy named DeLeon, and I--taking Spanish at the time--jokingly referred to her as "Mrs. Of Lion." What's really crazy is that evidently some other students picked up on it (from my sister, I assume) and started calling her Mrs. Of Lion as well.)


• And in another "We're not in Dallas/Ft. Worth anymore, Toto" moment, one of the businesses out there is Bluff Dale Deer Processing. (As always, I saw more than a few people wearing hunters' camouflage jackets at the Hard Eight last night.)


• While on the subject of the Hard Eight, I finally managed to select a reasonable amount of food there, for possibly the first time. (If you've missed the earlier explanations, the meat is ordered from the outdoor pit, and everything looks and smells so good that it's easy to order way more than you can actually eat in one sitting--not to mention ending up with a $15-$20 meat bill in the process.)


• Most school zones in this area slow traffic down to 20 MPH. But in smaller towns like Bluff Dale and nearby Tolar (home of the Rattlers), the school zone speeds are 30 and 35 MPH respectively.


• Gas prices have continued to drop in the Metroplex (I happily paid 1.89 a gallon in Ft. Worth yesterday, and I saw it for $1.82 in Benbrook after that. But in Stephenville, I saw $1.74 gas on multiple occasions. (The most "expensive" gas I saw was $2.06, just outside of Granbury. I also noticed that nobody was at that gas station...)


• Speaking of Granbury: I griped in a previous post about the ridiculous number of stoplights on 377 in that town and how nice it would be to have a bypass loop. That may never happen, but I do applaud them for at least appearing to have worked on getting the lights in better sync, as I found myself stopping much less (in both directions) than any previous trip. But contrast that to the very small town of Cresson, whose one stoplight seems interminably long for a cross-street that's just not all that busy. What gives, folks?


• And finally, I found myself behind a vehicle that I'd never seen before: A Toyota FJ Cruiser. It's more car than I'd ever need at this moment, but it looked pretty cool.

And by the way, if you're wondering--I didn't see any UFO's on the trip. (That subject was discussed here a few times before, and it's been in the news again recently, when a Dublin High School student got some video footage of an unexplained "something" that he and a friend saw.)

Previous Notes from the Road (Stephenville Edition):
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Parts 4A and 4B

Travel Advisory

I'm off to Stephenville on fraternity business--a common occurrence for this time of year. It's a nice drive, as I've said before, and it may well spawn another "Notes from the Road" post, as I always seem to see interesting stuff on this trip. Blogging will resume sometime tomorrow.

What's the Funniest New Thing on YouTube?a-ha! Here We Go!

Over the summer, I devoted a post to the hottest Internet meme of the time, Buffalaxing--a tip to the best-known practitioner of the genre, who took songs in foreign languages and added subtitles that didn't pretend to actually translate the words, but rather to express what the listener thought they sounded like in English. The best-known Buffalaxation is simply known as "Benny Lava," and it's still funny several months later. (And I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it on this blog, but another really funny Buffalax video is his send-up of a '70s German disco song called Moskau.)

And in the same spirit comes a new idea: the Literal Video Version of classic rock songs (limited thus far to the '80s and '90s). Creator Dustin McLean sums it up like this: "Ever wish songs just sang what was happening in the music video?" Well, now they do, and to me, the funniest Literal Version is set to one of the all-time classic videos, "Take On Me" by a-ha:



Other send-ups include "Head Over Heels" by Tears for Fears and "Under the Bridge" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Funny, funny stuff.

(Hat tip: Lileks at buzz.mn)

Did You Thank a Vet Today?

Veterans Day is one of those holidays that can be easily overlooked if you're not careful; nobody gets the day off unless they work for a government office or a bank, Macy's doesn't have a "white sale" for it, and it doesn't even get moved to a Monday to give the celebrants a long weekend. But it's obviously very important to this nation, because it honors the sacrifices made by those who have worked to keep this country free.

Here's a great quote that came across my fraternity's listserv today:

What is a veteran?

A ‘Veteran‘ — whether active duty, discharged, retired, or reserve — is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to “The United States of America,” for an amount of “up to, and including his life.”

The author is unknown, but thanks to Matthew Fuger of Mackenbach, Germany, for submitting it.

On the radio today, the listeners' poll question was "Have you ever thanked a veteran?" I'm pretty sure I had before, but I was able to answer "yes" just now, because, with two veterans among the older students in one of my ensembles at the college, I made sure to recognize their service at the end of rehearsal today. With so little attention paid to the holiday, it seemed like the least I could do.

Have you ever thanked a veteran for his or her service?

(And yes, this post is going out at 11:11 p.m. on 11/11. I may not be up that late, but I'm thankful for "scheduled posting" so that I can do the symbolism properly.)

Bailing Out Detroit's Big 3--Good Idea/Bad Idea?

One of the things in the news recently has been the recent meeting between officials of the Big 3 U.S. automakers and Congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid in an effort to get government help to shore up their dwindling finances (you may insert the B-word--bailout--here if you're so inclined). The automakers' angle is pretty much "We're too big to be allowed to fail," and the meat of the discussion went like this:

Among the topics discussed were a $25 billion loan to fund union-controlled trust funds that would be set up in the coming year to cover the health care costs of retirees and their family members. Shifting about $100 billion of those costs from the automakers' balance sheet to the trust funds was a key concession the companies won from the UAW in the 2007 labor deals.

The discussions also touched upon allowing the automakers to tap into the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street firms and the nation's banks that was passed by Congress last month. Treasury has so far rejected auto-industry inquiries about accessing that pool of money.

The automakers also renewed their pre-election request to double the $25 billion low-interest loan program approved by Congress, as part of energy legislation, to help automakers convert to making more fuel-efficient vehicles in an effort to meet the demands of car buyers and new federal rules.

I've weighed in on the U.S. auto industry--and why I chose a car from outside their ranks--in a previous post. Among my main points:

[D]uring all my recent car-shopping, I never once considered a domestic automaker, and I think the main reason was at least the perception of a lack of quality. Having just come off a year where my aging car was in the shop for three major issues, the last thing I wanted was a new car that had similar problems right off the bat.

But is it just a perception of low quality among domestic automakers, or is there any truth to that? (We'll set aside for the moment the question of which car is more "domestic"--a Ford truck made in Mexico, or a Honda Accord made in Ohio?) I can only go on anecdotal evidence, but it seems like the people I know who drive domestic vehicles have their cars in the shop more often than those with foreign--especially Japanese--ones.

[...]The jury's still out on what caused the once-mighty domestic auto industry to fall so far. Did they rest of their laurels while the once-upstart Asian companies took over the mantle of innovation? Are the unions here to blame? (I'd have little trouble citing that as a cause myself.) One of the presidential candidates blamed our own government regulations; it's probably a little of all of that.

Don't get me wrong--I'd love to see the American auto industry rebound; I'd love for a lot more of everything we consume to be made over here. But for me personally, while Detroit was sleeping, Tokyo rose up and created something that a lot of us could wrap our hearts and minds around, and, having just bought my third Honda vehicle in a row I don't see myself going in a different direction anytime soon.

I'm not sure where I stand on this bailout idea. Part of me thinks that the government has given too much money to ailing corporations already, and I'm not a fan of $25 billion going to a union-controlled anything. But on the other hand, the government did bail out Chrysler in the late '70s/early '80s, and that move netted the Treasury some $350 billion when all was said and done.

L.A. Times writer Joel Stein had an interesting take on the situation: Test-drive a bunch of domestic cars to see if their makers are worth saving. Needless to say, there's some funny stuff in this column:

Shortly after getting to the Glendale Dodge dealership, I realized that evaluating cars was going to be more difficult than I'd anticipated, because the only thing I know about cars is that, after 19, women don't want to have sex in them. While waiting for a salesperson, I also realized that Phil Collins wrote many more songs than I remembered. Luckily, my method of car evaluation is exactly the same as most car buyers: Does it look cool and hook up to my iPod?

But among all this, Stein has a solid point to make as well:

[N]o matter how much I liked these cars, I don't think the government should use taxpayer money to give life-support to dying, poorly managed, market ignorant, technologically outdated industries other than newspapers. As sad as it would be for American icons like Chrysler to die, and for thousands of people to lose their jobs, propping up failure prevents innovation.

And of course, he threw in the "other than newspapers" clause because he works for one; your mileage may vary.

But really, the first thing that crossed my mind when I read about this situation was, "Why can't they just make cars that suck less?" Humorist Scott Ott says pretty much that in this Scrappleface post from today (and it's even funnier that he has those words coming out of Pelosi's mouth). Read the whole thing, which expresses the way I feel about unions in a nice package of biting satire. Here's a sample:

“You autoworkers think your big union bosses have your best interests at heart,” she said, “and so you march in lockstep to the polls where you vote for union-backed political candidates whose campaigns you funded through your union dues. Those politicians, many of them lawyers, then go to Washington and listen to the siren song of union lobbyists to increase the regulatory burden on U.S. automakers, driving up the cost of production so it’s tougher for your company to compete with foreign car makers.”

In the meantime, you have folks like myself driving around in Honda Fits and experiencing total satisfaction with same. (What's not to love? I've been filling it up for less than $18 a tank for the past week, I got just shy of 40 MPG on my recent roadtrip, and the sum total of my "maintenance" during the past ten months has been three oil changes and two tire rotations.) If a U.S. automaker made a car that could hold half an unlit birthday candle to mine, I'd certainly check it out...and if they do make such a car, either their publicity machine is sorely lacking, or they just need some more time to build a reputation for reliability like that which Honda has enjoyed for decades.

What do you think--should the Big Three get a bailout/loan/whatever? Are they really "too big to fail," or would the economy survive their loss? Feel free to chime in below in the comments.

A roadtrip for Rover: No matter who made the car, hilarity will ensue if the dog starts driving it.

Marching to the Beat of a Very Inspiring Drummer

When I was in undergrad school, I once heard a guest speaker deliver an inspiring story about a trombonist in a college marching band in Iowa who was blind. (He learned the music by ear, from listening to his section-mates, and then he memorized the number of steps in each maneuver.) But I never expected to see this: An entire marching band of blind members from Ohio.

Watch and enjoy the entire video; it's very cool. (Yes, they have a little help on the field, but it's still amazing.) And to top it all off, the band has been invited to march in the Rose Parade in 2010.

And speaking of drums: The old Holiday Inn Select on Central near Meadow (not far from the doomed Circuit City mentioned in yestereday's post) was imploded this morning, and the DMN shot a very cool video of the process. Note how the charges going off in sequence sound more than a little like a drum cadence...

Some Circuit City Stores to "Unplug"--But Not RIght Here

Some portions of corporate America continue to fall on hard times, and cutbacks have ensued. A few months ago, we talked about the doomed Starbucks list, and now I've had the chance to read the doomed Circuit City list, which doesn't include nearly so many stores (though it's not like there's a Circuit City on every corner, nor do they build across the street from themselves). There are only four stores in D/FW on the list (and that's if you expand the metro area to include Sherman), and only nine in Texas, period (though one of the ones that's closing is a store in Mansfield that's been open for little more than a month.

I was of course happy to see that the one here in Firewheel was not among the doomed stores; though the center has been pretty good about replacing tenants both large and small that have closed (such as the forthcoming Hollister that's being built in the old Sharper Image spot underneath the clock tower), it would have been a blow to the area to have such a big store go out, especially with the impending loss of Linens 'n' Things. (And besides, I want some shopping options whenever my vintage 1991 TV finally gives out.)

One of the ones closest to here that is on the list is an older store at Central and Meadow in north Dallas; it's so old that it still has the original "plug-in" design. That didn't ring a bell with one of my younger friends until I found a picture of one here, in a forum on the site Groceteria, which usually discusses--you guessed it--grocery stores. (Scroll down about halfway to see the picture, and check out this shot of a former CC store with the plug painted blue!) And a bit later, I found a video of the old "plug" commercial as well (from '94, if the YouTube commenters are correct).

What's your favorite "retro" commercial? And is the company that it's, umm, plugging still in business?

UPDATE: Did I speak too soon? As of Monday, Circuit City filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and will eventually close more stores.

And in other electronics news: The iPhone (which I'm still contemplating purchasing soon) does lots of things, but did you know it can be used as an ocarina? (More Apple news here; hat tip: Instapundit.)

Oops...

I only intended to take a short nap tonight, heading over to the couch at around six o'clock. It's been a long week, and I figured that a good half an hour would do me some good.

Unfortunately, I just woke up...after five hours of napping. I was a little disoriented at first, wondering why it was 11:00 and still dark; yes, I thought it was tomorrow morning already.

I had a topical post to do tonight, but I guess I'll save it, unless I can't get back to sleep here in a bit.

Funny Election Headline of the Week

Bacon defeats Fries--at least in a state senate race in Colorado.

(The comments--from Amazon's "Al Dente" food blog--are funny as well. And to prove it's not a joke, read this story, which calls it a "tasty" race.)

Good News for Local Drivers

After seeing it to the south this past weekend, it appears that $1.99 gas has finally arrived in Plano. Yay!

(This is a busy, busy week--not much time for blogging. More later.)

Kids Say the Darnedest Things...About the Election

As I've said on many occasions, I don't talk about politics on this blog. But on this Election Day, first and foremost, I encourage any eligible person who hasn't voted yet to go out and do so--it's your fundamental duty as an American. (And besides, if you don't vote today, you informally waive the right to gripe about the people who get elected today. And I'm not saying that your free speech will be suppressed, but rather that you lose a lot of credibility if you don't participate in the process.)

And to stay topical without actually being topical, I offer you these election slogans, found on a series of posters at one of the public schools where I teach:

• ONCE YOU GO BARACK, YOU NEVER GO BACK


• VOTE FOR McCAIN--HE'S GOT THE BRAIN


• BARACK TO THE FUTURE


• McCaIN...PalIN...JOIN THE "IN" CROWD


• OUR COUNTRY IS IN TRAUMA, VOTE OBAMA


• CATCH THE TRAIN, VOTE McCAIN

And there was at least one less-whimsical, more "serious" one:

• McCAIN & PALIN: WE DON'T JUST HELP THE POOR, WE HELP ALL

And one that just generates a "Huh?":

• IT'S TIME FOR A DIFFERENT "B.O." IN THE WHITE HOUSE

Kids really do say the darnedest things.

And tomorrow morning, when this is all over--take a walk, call a friend, read a good book. No matter what happens tonight, I think we all need a vacation from politics for a while.

Notes from the Road(trip)

This was a great weekend. I hadn't done an out-of-town roadtrip since late March, and I hadn't really gone out of town, period, since July. It was time. And even though, in less than 24 hours, I managed to pull a muscle in my leg, got my first speeding ticket in over 17 years, and got my car stuck in the sand--twice--I also got a free dinner, walked on a beach for the first time in years, and played both a marimba duet and a saxophone/piano duet, the latter with one of my nephews. It was truly a superb time.

As always, here's a random list of things I noticed on the trip:

• A funny sign seen in Jarrell, just north of Austin: "THIS IS GOD'S COUNTRY. PLEASE DON'T DRIVE LIKE HELL THROUGH HERE."


• Coming into greater Austin near Friday afternoon rush hour, I decided to try the new SH-130 tollway, which goes around Austin. It's a nice route, save for one problem: The connecting road back to I-35, SH45-SE, is not done yet, so I detoured onto SH 71 near the Austin airport--and got caught in some of the traffic I'd hoped to avoid. (It turns out that 130 is now open to SH 183--which is not yet acknowledged by either Google Maps or Mapquest--and a far better way would be to take 183 south to SH 21 and rejoin I-35 in San Marcos. Of course, I discovered this route after my trip was over.)


• I participated in the Chipotle "Boo-Rito" promotion again (that's three years in a row for me and my Fit Brother, Coop), and it seems like the costumes were more minimal than usual this year (maybe it's the economy?), though people did make a lot more elaborate hats. It was funny to see the looks on the faces of people who had no idea that the promotion was going on.


• If you're in the airport area of San Antonio and need to kill some time, Alamo Quarry Market is a pretty cool place to visit. (And yes, the iconic smokestacks are original equipment from back when there really was a quarry at the site.)


• There's no way to sugarcoat it: Interstate 37 between San Antonio and Corpus is boooooorrring, especially at night (yes, this was the area where I got the ticket). Thank goodness for the iPod...


• On the way to Austin, I noticed that the new "Safety Rest Area" had opened near Salado, at least on the southbound side of I-35, and indeed, it does look a lot nicer (and, yes, safer) than the old, cruddy ones. But it was funny when we stopped at one along I-37 and noticed a sign reading, WATCH FOR SNAKES. Somehow, I don't usually think of "safety" and "snakes" in the same sentence very often.


• On the other side of the coin, there are usually two types of rest stops in Texas: a Rest Area (facilities, picnic tables, vending machines, maps) or a Picnic Area (picnic tables without facilities, which always sounded silly to me). But on the way to Corpus, I saw yet a third classification: a Parking Area (pavement, pretty much). It appears that a Parking Area is to a Rest Area as a Yugo is to a Jaguar.


• The beaches at Mustang Island require a parking permit, which is available at any local convenience store. It's 12 bucks for a year, but there doesn't seem to be a day pass of any sort. Good thing I was with a local who could use the pass later...


• During the weekend, I had the chance to visit a pair of two-story versions of places that are usually limited to a single story: Whataburger by the Bay in downtown Corpus, the flagship restaurant of the locally-based chain, and a Starbucks with a loft (and a "green roof") in south Austin.


• On the way to Austin on Saturday night, I made "a short Schlotzsky's stop in Schertz." Say that ten times fast...


• And finally, it was a good weekend to take a roadtrip, since gas was so cheap. I paid $2.00 a gallon just north of Waco on Friday afternoon and $1.99 in Corpus the next morning. I also saw the same Waco stations showing $1.94 in on my way back on Sunday. But why was it around $2.19 when I got home? I had to go a few miles away to find it in the $2.10's, and I didn't see anything approaching sub-$2 prices.

It was great to get away for a weekend, and I look forward to the next time.

The return of DWT: Another thing that happened during this weekend was the traditional switching of the clocks to Daylight Wasting Time. I was at my sister's in Austin by that time, and by then, I was quite tired. This was probably the first time since early high school that I didn't stay up for the time change.