Sports Roundup: Belton, Rice, Northwestern

Time to catch up on some sports stories I've been following. First up, it's high school baseball. Berkner lost to Belton. Then Lake Highlands lost to Belton. By that time, I was a firm believer in the Belton Tigers, winners of 11 straight games and unbeaten in their three rounds of the Texas UIL tournament. So, even though I had never heard of Belton High School before this year's baseball season, I was disappointed to learn that Klein Collins eliminated Belton in their three game playoff last weekend. I guess I should now cheer for Klein Collins, in turn. Never having seen Klein Collins play, it's kind of hard to work up much enthusiasm.

Next up, it's college baseball. We found in ourselves in Houston the day that the Conference USA baseball tournament was hosting its championship game at the University of Houston's Cougar Stadium and, coming as no surprise, Rice University was in it. So, off we went to hopefully watch Rice win the conference crown. For the last fifteen years, Rice has won either the regular season or conference tournament championship. Given that Rice won the regular season this year, maybe I shouldn't have been greedy and expected a tournament win as well. As it turned out, the University of Southern Mississippi took advantage of some critical Rice miscues and largely silenced Rice's big bats that had been so hot in the early games of the tournament. Rice fell behind 4-0 in the top of the first and never did quite catch up, losing 7-4. Now, it's on to the NCAA tournament, where Rice draws a big challenge in the regionals, facing four teams that include the University of Texas, #1 seed in the regional and #2 seed overall.

Finally, it's nice to see women's sports get some attention. The big NCAA tournament story this past weekend was the women's lacrosse championship game, played before a record crowd of over 9,000 fans. It was #1 Maryland facing the five time defending NCAA champions and this year's #2 ranked Northwestern University. Maryland ended Northwestern's streak 13-11. Every loss is a tough loss and every streak has to end sometime. Northwestern, not accustomed to athletic success, has had more than its share the last half decade thanks to the women's lacrosse team alone. Northwestern still has much to be proud of.

Gulf, Here We Come, Oil Or Not

From 2010 05 Houston - Galveston

We hadn't been to Galveston since before Hurricane Ike. Given that another hurricane season is upon us and the BP oil spill is threatening to change life around the Gulf forever, we decided not to wait any longer to make another visit to Galveston.

After the jump, our trip to Houston and Galveston over the Memorial Day weekend.

Around Town: Pokeweed

Each night, at the end of "The Late Late Show," there's a little jingle that asks host Craig Ferguson, "What did we learn on the show tonight, Craig?" And Craig, with his feet up on his desk and his coiled-snake coffee cup in hand, reviews the lessons learned.

After the jump, "What did we learn on the blogs this week, Mark?"

Of Redevelopment And Gas Stations

Suppose the city of Richardson told you that they were interested in redevelopment of a strip of older apartments, aging underperforming retail, and miscellaneous other land uses, and asked you to participate in a survey. You would rate the attractiveness of a series of photographs of potential new development for the area. For example, what would be your reaction to the photo above? Probably not much different than the reaction of almost everyone who actually participated in this focus group. The overlaid bar graph indicates that almost everyone who actually did this exercise gave this Chevron gas station the lowest rating, a 1 on a scale of 1-7.

After the jump, why their opinion may not matter.

Is It Too Late To Stop The Nonsense?

The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) finished revising social studies standards for Texas public education for the next decade. After this rewrite of history by these elected non-historians, Texas schoolchildren are now going to be taught that maybe Thomas Jefferson was factually incorrect when he described the First Amendment as "building a wall of separation between church and state," that Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address needs to be balanced by the speeches of Jefferson Davis, and that Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy, who found a red under every bed, didn't have much to be ashamed of after all.

Our children will have to endure a decade of this. Or will they? After the jump, is it too late to stop the nonsense?