S2L77: London - I

From 1977 05 10 England

White Cliffs of Dover

In these days before the Chunnel, we crossed the English Channel on a hovercraft, meaning our first view of England was the traditional one, the white cliffs of Dover. We drove into London, the destination of our trip of over 9,000 miles as the crow flies from Singapore to London. Subtracting a flight to leapfrog Burma (whose land borders were closed), that's more than 7,500 miles on the ground across southern Asia and Europe. Whew! Time for rest and relaxation after so much ... rest and relaxation. I spent two weeks in London, longer than any other stop on the trip. Time for lots of photos. Here's the first batch from London.

More photos after the jump.

Richardson Coalition Abandons Nonpartisanship

If you had the impression that the Richardson Coalition was some kind of civic volunteer service organization, it may have been because the Richardson Coalition fostered that impression by sponsoring programs like the Richardson Real Heroes award. But if you look closely at fine print at the bottom of the Richardson Coalition web page, you'll notice "Pol. Adv. paid for by the Richardson Residents for Responsive Government, a Political Action Committee (also commonly known as the Richardson Coalition PAC)."

Yep, the Richardson Coalition is a PAC, organized to collect money in order to influence elections. Up to now, the only elections the PAC has attempted to sway were Richardson city council elections.

Up to now, that is. After the jump, the PAC expands its reach.

Basketball Playoffs: Berkner 75, Plano West 73

The Berkner Rams men's basketball team won a huge victory Tuesday night over the Plano West Wildcats 75-73 at Garland's Culwell Center. It was the third round of the Texas UIL state tournament, the regional quarterfinals. Plano West came into the game as champions of District 10-5A and ranked eighth in the state. The Rams were no slouches themselves, District 9-5A tri-champions and ranked 17th in the state. They proved it by taking a second quarter lead over Plano West that they never relinquished, stretching it to twelve points late in the game.

Keenan Evans put on a show, leading all scorers with 35 points, including two clutch free throws with three seconds left to give Berkner a five point lead. Plano West's D.J. Hogg, with 27 points on the night, did his best to rally the Wildcats down the stretch, hitting a couple of three pointers in the last four seconds of the game to make the final margin of victory two points. Berkner's big lead was too much to overcome.

It's a great time to be a Ram!

With the win, the Rams advance to the regional semifinals at Baylor's Ferrell Center in Waco Friday night at 8:00 pm.

Review: The Unending Mystery

Amazon

From The Unending Mystery, by David Willis McCullough:

Labyrinths are painted on the walls of ancient caves and carved onto Neolithic rock outcroppings. They appear in some of the oldest legends in lands as different as the Greek Isles and the American Southwest, but were also the stuff of myths even older than the stories as we now know them."

After the jump, my review.

A Potential Problem in Denton Becomes Real

Mayor Laura Maczka:

One of the strengths that our city has is that we recognize potential problems before they become problems.

Source: neighborsgo Richardsone.

When I quoted the Richardson mayor last week, it was on the topic of farmers markets, which the city sees as a "potential problem," not an asset, and wishes to tangle in red tape. The city council has already devoted time in two meetings to look into how to restrict them. At least another meeting is needed for the council to formally adopt an ordinance. So, our city council is on top of this "potential problem."

All that set me to thinking (always dangerous). What other "potential problems" are out there that Richardson ought to be acting on before they become real problems? That's when I came across the city of Denton's clusterf*ck over gas drilling in residential neighborhoods (sorry, that's the word that came to mind, for obvious reasons). The story, after the jump.