Texas Organ Donors: 451,290 and One

What do Texas driver's licenses, health care in 18th century Vienna and the ambulance business in mid-20th century America have in common? Misaligned economic incentives, perhaps?

Recently, I renewed by Texas driver's license and was offered the opportunity to become a registered organ donor. Why I never signed up before, I can't say. OK, I can say but I don't want to (it was laziness). There's really no good reason not to. In case you imagine you have a good reason, set yourself straight by reading the "Myths and Facts" section of the website for the Glenda Jackson Donate Life - Texas Registry. It's the official state organ, tissue and eye donor registry. Then sign up right there, online. Simple. Painless. Gratifying.

I Ruminate on the Olympics, BCS and Cirque Shanghai

Cirque Shanghai: Bai Xi

I've never thought of synchronized swimming as a sport. If we can't agree on that simple premise, stop reading right now. We'll never have a meeting of the minds on the rest of this. Figure skating isn't sport, either. Neither belongs in the Olympics. Gymnastics probably doesn't either. In fact, toss out all the events that rely on a judge instead of a scoreboard to determine who wins and loses. You can't add judges to performing art and pretend it's sport.

Wildcats Advance. Rams, Eagles, Mustangs Are Stopped

Our Alma Mater, Hail Thee Berkner High!

From 2009 Football

The good news ... all four Richardson RISD high schools made the football playoffs for the first time ever. The bad news ... Berkner, Richardson, Pearce lost their opening playoff game. The good news ... Lake Highlands won. Go Wildcats!

To see photos from the Berkner Rams playoff game against the Garland Owls, look here.

Final scores:

• Garland South 31, Richardson 7
  
• Garland 38, Berkner 16
  
• Denison 61, Pearce 28
  
• Lake Highlands 49, North Garland 28

Northwestern: Football, Tornadoes, War

Having a son who attends Northwestern University, I try to keep up with current events there by subscribing to a Google news alert with the search term "Northwestern." The daily summary gives me what I want ... and then some. For example, a recent alert brought these stories to my inbox:

• Tornado damages homes in northwestern Oregon
  
• Three men die in plane crash in northwestern Ontario
  
• Suicide bomber kills 3 in northwestern Pakistan

Tragic as these stories are, they are perversely comforting in a guilty, selfish kind of way. The sad news they contain is from far away, far from Northwestern University and my son. When I go looking for stories about college life in late autumn, it's things like football I want to read about, not tornadoes, plane crashes and war. So, for a moment at least, I skim over headlines like those above and click instead on "Northwestern's Upset of Iowa Improves its Bowl Outlook." But those other headlines, just being there, give me the perspective I need to always appreciate just how charmed my family's life has been.

Game Night for Gifted Children

Gifted? That's everyone in Richardson, right? "Richardson Gifted", a parent support group for those raising gifted children, has announced "Game Night", Friday, December 11, 2009, 7-9pm, at the RISD Professional Development Center, 701 W. Belt Line Road, Richardson. It sounds like positive, constructive fun, families and friends playing good, old-fashioned board games, perhaps Scrabble, Boggle, Go, Connect 4 and other classic mind-exercising games. Check it out, even if your child's teachers or playmates' parents don't necessarily agree with the "gifted" description. There's just one little thing...