Repeat Tweets: Silver Screen Slayer

Repeat tweets from October, 2014:

• Oct 1 2014: Silver Screen Slayer at PST: Silly parody of '30s private eye, Nazi spy movies. Jokes about Hollywood Jews and gays not as funny as rest. C+
  
• Oct 1 2014: Wonder if any Dallasite who argued it was *insane* to allow flights from West Africa to US is now arguing to shut down DFW airport. #Ebola
  
• Oct 2 2014: Headline in Sydney Morning Herald: "Caltech: the university ranked higher than Harvard, Oxford and Standford." Double ouch for Stanford.
  
• Oct 2 2014: J. Fred Bucy, Jr. resigned from Intrusion's Board of Directors. A name from the past -- forced out of TI in 1985. prnewswire.com
  
• Oct 3 2014: The Woman Who Lost Her Soul, by Bob Shacochis: Murder mystery, war novel, mostly a psychological study. Long, complicated, messy. B-
  
• Oct 3 2014: Jacquielynn Floyd: "In Liberia mistrust of authority and misinformation allowed Ebola to rage out of control." Glad we don't have that here.
  

After the jump, more repeat tweets.

Saying Goodbye to Stefani Carter

Tuesday, Linda Koop won election to the Texas House District 102 seat currently held by Stefani Carter. Koop defeated Carter in the GOP primary. Before the vote Tuesday, Carter made one last pitch to the voters -- not for Koop but for Greg Abbott, GOP candidate for governor. Carter wrote an opinion piece for the Texas Tribune making a case why minorities should support Abbott. Mostly it was standard GOP boilerplate (e.g., twisting opposition to public education into support: "providing quality public education"). Nothing about Carter in that part of the opinion piece. It was the rest that reminds voters what they don't like about Stefani Carter.

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Others

• Young Women's Christian Association: For years, the YWCA operated a recreation center at Collins Blvd and Plano Rd in Richardson. I don't remember the neighborhood having any beef with that. The YWCA shut down and sold the property a number of years ago.
• Town North Presbyterian Church: For years, TNPC has operated a church on Plano Rd north of Collins Blvd. This August, a zoning change was requested and granted to allow TNPC to sell part of their church property to someone who plans to construct an assisted living center on it. Again, no beef from the neighborhood. No one spoke against allowing this residential addition to the neighborhood.

After the jump, the third thing.

Highland Park 55, Berkner 10

From 2014 10 31 Highland Park vs Berkner

Berkner's season continued its nightmarish ways on Halloween night, as the Rams lost to Highland Park 55-10. Berkner had a strong start and led 10-6 after one quarter, but it was all Highland Park from then on.

Fans who attended the game were rewarded with seeing one of the top bands in the state perform their last halftime show before their big events in San Antonio. The second half was eerily quiet as Berkner's Mighty Ram band left the stadium to drive overnight to San Antonio, where they compete in a Bands of America Super-Regional on Saturday and in the State marching band competition on Tuesday.

More photos after the jump.

High School Football Playoff Tie-Breakers

If you found this page with a search looking for Texas high school football playoff tie-breaker rules, well, the short answer is that you probably won't find them on the Internet. The UIL doesn't set the rules. Each district sets their own rules. Your best bet is to call your school's athletic director and ask him or her. Now, on with the story.

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It's that time of year again. With only a couple of games left in the Texas high school football regular season, everyone starts considering which teams will earn playoff berths. Who's in? Who's out? Corbett Smith of The Dallas Morning News highlights the situation in District 9-5A, which includes mostly Frisco schools, which just might end in a seven-way tie for first place. All schools would share the championship, but three of them wouldn't make the playoffs. How crazy is that?

After the jump, what's wrong with this?

Worrying About Our SBOE

Burning oil to run cars also releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Some scientists believe that this carbon dioxide could lead to a slow heating of Earth's overall climate. This temperature change is known as global warming or climate change. Scientists disagree about what is causing climate change. Many people, however, worry that climate change might cause environmental problems, such as increased storm activity and rising sea levels.

Source: New York Times.

That's a passage from a proposed social studies textbook for use in Texas. Publishers want their books bought in Texas, so they do their best to meet the demands of the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE), which oversees textbook adoption. (Tincy Miller represents Richardson on the SBOE and is up for re-election November 4.)

In an October 20 work session, the SBOE reviewed public comments on the proposed textbooks. After the jump, my own unsubmitted comment:

Review: The Orphan Master's Son

Amazon

From The Orphan Master's Son, by Adam Johnson:

His whole life, he'd been assigned to work details without warning or explanation. There'd never been any point in asking questions or speculating on why -- it never changed the work that had to be done. But then again, he'd never had anything to lose before."

That's life in North Korea.

After the jump, my review.

Bishop Arts District

From 2014 10 20 Bishop Arts District

My photos of the Bishop Arts District in Oak Cliff are unexciting, for two reasons. One, don't go to the Bishop Arts District on a Monday, when many of the businesses are closed. Unless you want to get a lot of photos of buildings and not people. Two, I'm just not very good at taking candid photos of people. My bad. But even though my photos of the Bishop Arts District are not exciting, the Bishop Arts District itself is. More, please.

More unexciting photos after the jump.

Musical Chairs in Richardson Real Estate

"State Farm's move to Richardson will leave behind big blocks of empty office space." That was the headline to a story in The Dallas Morning News revealing the ugly secret behind the big win for Richardson.

After the jump, how the game is played.

Before Midnight (2013)

IMDB

Before Midnight (2013): Falling in love made first two movies good. Being in love doesn't. Lots of talk about state of relationship. C+