BagOfNothing.com

I told a friend the other day that you are only truly over something if you can understand what you learned from it or describe how it made you stronger. I don’t know where I pulled that from or if it’s true, but it came out of my mouth, so I guess I believe it.

I hear Mineral Wells will become a 4A school. I don’t think it’s been 4A since I graduated in 1994.

I’m not sure what rock I’ve been under, but I knew nothing about the 1980 axe killing of Betty Gore in Wiley, TX, until late last week. And that’s only because, as a Jesse Plemons fan, I saw Love & Death in the top 10 on Netflix and decided to give it a try. Interesting that the series came out in 2023 on HBO Max. Probably more interesting, there was a 2022 Hulu series about it starring Jessica Beil and a 1990 CBS movie about the ordeal, all based on a Texas Monthly article and book.

I don’t know if I’ll watch the Hulu series, but Love & Death really captivated me, and I was impressed by the supporting cast’s acting. In particular, Tom Pelphrey‘s portrayal of Don Crowder, who successfully defended Candy Montgomery’s 41 axe chops on Betty Gore as an act of self-defense despite being a civil lawyer and never being a part of a criminal trial. I was also impressed by Bruce McGill‘s portrayal as the judge. He’s an overlooked character actor, who you might know best as the sheriff in My Cousin Vinny.

Where is Candy Montgomery today? Short story, but she’s now working as a certified family counselor in Georgia. Yeah, go figure.

And you know me, I like to do a deep dive after a movie. I was shocked by how heavy Plemons was in the series and how much weight he lost while promoting it.

I wonder how 99-year-old Mel Brooks is dealing with the news of the murder of the son of his best friend and his wife. Carl Reiner passed away only five years ago.

Carl Reiner gave Rob Reiner a copy of The Princess Bride, and Rob Reiner loved it and its father/son love story so much he turned it into a movie (with a grandfather and grandson). Three days before Carl’s death in 2020, he and Rob reenacted the final scene and “As you wish” pic.twitter.com/kxxYKYRF2r

— Jenna Guillaume (@JennaGuillaume) December 15, 2025

I subscribe to the daily Arnold Schwarzenegger newsletter. It’s short and provides some good tidbits on improving physical and mental health. I thought I’d share this tidbit about the importance of taking at least one 10-15 minute walk a day, especially if you are like me and have trouble getting steps in at all.

How Long You Walk Might Matter More Than Step Count

A study tracking 33,000 adults for nearly 8 years found that walks lasting at least 10-15 minutes significantly reduced heart disease and mortality risk, even when total daily steps stayed the same. For people averaging fewer than 5,000 steps daily, a single 15-minute walk provided stronger cardiovascular protection than multiple shorter bursts, likely because sustained movement activates insulin sensitivity and vascular function that brief walks don’t trigger.

While watching the Army-Navy game, which USAA heavily sponsors, I heard what I thought was the late James Garner (1928-2014) voicing one of their current ads about the upcoming year 2026. It turns out I’m not alone.

A good friend in Canada keeps me informed of some interesting trends.

Vacation travel to the U.S. is down as Canadian tourists make strategic decisions on where to spend time, money

• Tourism from Canada to Mexico is up 11.3% this year. That is 200,000 people.
• United States tourism from Canada is down 24%.
• Las Vegas is down 50%. New York City is down 46%, Honolulu is down 41%, and Florida is down 22%.

“Since the election of Trump and the insults that he placed on our country, 51st state and all of that garbage, we decided that no, we’re not going to spend money down there,” Birt said.

“We’ve had rumors of people being mistreated, or where they see your licence plate they tell you ‘North is that way.’ We’ve never run into that, but we didn’t want to support an economy and a government situation that was basically cruel and mean to us and wanted to take us over.

I meant to post this remarkable story last week. Talk about a heck of a family secret.

In 1994 Christine Kuehn received a letter that revealed a family history from which her father had tried to shield her: Christine’s grandfather, Otto, was a Nazi spy who was the only person tried and convicted for the bombing of Pearl Harbor. David Martin talks with Kuehn about her German family conducting World War II-era espionage, a tale she recounts in her new book, “Family of Spies.”

And I don’t understand how you go from the firing squad to serving just four years of hard labor and then being deported to your homeland. What the heck was Hoover thinking?

A University Park mansion spanning close to 13,000 square feet recently sold for $30.5 million, the priciest home sale in Texas this year.

Where people moved to (and from) in 2025 (Article and interactive map)

The Mega Marvin instrument is used to create cinematic sounds for horror movies and games. Here’s a short film on the making of the instrument. He named it after his grandfather, mainly because of a hand-me-down welder he gifted him.

https://youtube.com/shorts/I3l8xyoVI9Y?si=cStL7qq-3ATDh2p0

I don’t know why I haven’t noticed it before, but Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell looks like an older version of Harry Hamilin’s Mad Men character.

This week I had two second-round interviews. The one I prefer is still a steep hill to climb. I’m told that there will be two more rounds and a case study to complete within a week.

I went on a lunch date earlier this week. At the end of the date, she initiated a kiss. That was a first. Funny thing, we both got our undergraduate degrees from the same college, though we are about a decade apart in age.

Police in Edmonton, Canada, have started a pilot project using AI-equipped body cameras to detect faces on a “high risk” watch list.

AI-powered police body cameras, once taboo, get tested on Canadian city’s ‘watch list’ of faces

Police body cameras equipped with artificial intelligence have been trained to detect the faces of about 7,000 people on a “high risk” watch list in the Canadian city of Edmonton, a live test of whether facial recognition technology shunned as too intrusive could have a place in policing throughout North America.

But six years after leading body camera maker Axon Enterprise, Inc. said police use of facial recognition technology posed serious ethical concerns, the pilot project — switched on last week— is raising alarms far beyond Edmonton, the continent’s northernmost city of more than 1 million people.

But the movie was shot in Dallas.

Marco Rubio orders US State Department to revert to Times New Roman font, calling Calibri adoption ‘wasteful’

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered diplomats to revert to using Times New Roman font in official communications, calling his predecessor Antony Blinken’s decision to adopt Calibri a “wasteful” diversity move, according to a leaked internal cable.

The department switched to Calibri, a modern sans-serif font, in January 2023, saying it was a more accessible font for people with disabilities because it did not have decorative angular features and was at the time the default in Microsoft products.

Some scientific studies have suggested that sans-serif fonts such as Calibri are indeed easier to read for those with certain visual disabilities.

Today I Learned:  Venus flytraps are only found in North and South Carolina (within 100 miles of Wilmington NC), and nowhere else in the world.

At my darkest, I wish I had heard someone tell me, “You’ll figure it out.”

Her message resonated with me, though I don’t think I could have ever come up with it myself. But what I take from it is that the next time I talk to someone in despair, I’m going to tell them, “You’ll figure it out.” For me, the message is two-fold: you give them hope in their temporary turmoil, you let them know you believe in them, and that they are smart and strong enough to get through this. Can’t tell you how much it means when someone lets you know they believe in you.

I guess the only caveat that I’d add is to say, “And I’m here to help, if you need it.”

This isn’t new music, but it’s new to me, and I can’t stop listening to it.

This arrived in my mail. I included a couple of bananas for scale.

An “action shot” I took of BoyGeeding at a chess tournament earlier this week. He’s an eighth-grader playing on the varsity team. He was bothered by his loss in his last match. I had to remind him that his opponent was almost a foot tall and literally had a beard. But in case you are wondering, he won the match in the photo below.

If there’s one thing I go way overboard on, it’s replacing the registration sticker on my car’s windshield. Decades ago, I’d struggle to scrape it off with nothing but a razor blade, but years later, I bought a special super-duper scraper. But glue residue is still left, and that’s unsightly, so I have to use a chemical like mineral spirits or acetone to remove it. That leaves one corner of the windshield clean, and I just can’t let that be, so I have to clean the inside of the windscreen, which means I also have to clean the outside. Now, it’s finally time to place the sticker on the inside of the windshield. Still, I can’t stand it if it’s even slightly crooked or placed too high or too low, so I make a painstaking effort to ensure it’s parallel and perpendicular using imaginary x- and y-axes.

The rest of the Cowboys’ season:

On a whim, I decided to watch The Great Escape for the first time. While I enjoyed the film, I really enjoyed reading the backstory and trivia behind it.

Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” remains the top holiday song in Dallas, the state and the rest of the U.S.

• Burl Ives’ “Holly Jolly Christmas” came in third, while Michael Bublé’s version ranked eighth.
• Brenda Lee’s “Jingle Bell Rock” ranked fifth, followed by Bobby Helms’ version.
• Jackson 5’s “Santa Claus is Coming To Town” was seventh, followed by Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree.”
• Wham!’s “Last Christmas” and Andy Williams’ “It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year” round out the local Top 10.
• José Feliciano’s “Feliz Navidad” is ranked third in Texas but didn’t make Dallas’ Top 10. It’s L.A.’s top holiday song, per iHeart Radio.

That last song is my kryptonite. For a year or two in college, I worked at Coach House Gifts in the Mall of Abilene, and that song seemed to play on repeat in our store nonstop.

Texas might get a new Interstate that could cut through East Texas and connect DFW to Amarillo, providing a more direct trade route between the Texas coast and the Panhandle.

Just an observation: You never hear the term “going postal” anymore.

The President changed the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, and then named the United States Institute of Peace after him?

Zohran Mamdani and the Louvre make the list of most mispronounced words of 2025

But this is what got my attention:

In a pronunciation surprise of the year, actor Denzel Washington told late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel that he was named after his father and their first names are actually pronounced DEN-zul. But, he said, that became confusing so his mother decided to pronounce her son’s name Den-ZELLE.

Texas pastor advises young, single, unmarried women to ‘lose 20 to 30 pounds’

The area is north of Austin.

Joel Webbon, senior pastor at Covenant Bible Church and founder of Righteous Response Ministries—which he founded to advance theonomy, or the modern imposition of divine law as portrayed in the Old Testament—offered advice for women who “want to be married but feel like they’re being passed over” on a Wednesday episode of the ministry’s “The Live Stream” show.

This song may be old to you, but it’s new to me, and I can’t get enough of it.

How a bald coach solved volleyball’s ponytail predicament

That story has a local “tie.”

full clip with inputs from nebraska, louisville and tcu players #whatstartsherechangestheworld https://t.co/rhqjvheR3p pic.twitter.com/k00DEJOhRj

— cardiac longhorns (@scorsesebdd) December 1, 2025

full clip with inputs from nebraska, louisville and tcu players #whatstartsherechangestheworld https://t.co/rhqjvheR3p pic.twitter.com/k00DEJOhRj

— cardiac longhorns (@scorsesebdd) December 1, 2025

The mayor of a small town in Kansas risks being deported over allegations that he voted in American elections illegally.

I really wasn’t looking forward to Thanksgiving this year. It wasn’t my year to have the kids. One Thanksgiving that happened after my family was broken up, I didn’t want to be alone like I was the previous year, so I somewhat invited myself to a Thanksgiving dinner. I hated that meal, but the people were loving and caring, which I appreciated. First of all, when I walked in, I noticed an anti-Fauci book prominently on display, so I had to be very careful about what to talk about, and I hate being around people with whom I have to think before I speak to avoid any friction, instead of just being able to be myself. Also, there was nothing traditional about the meal. We ate a baked chicken breast. There was no stuffing, mashed potatoes, dressing, gravy, or even a roll. I left that meal thinking that spending holidays all by my lonesome might be better than the alternative. And, it’s something I’ve started to embrace. Again, that lesson a friend taught me, “Acceptance is the answer to all my problems,” proved true.

This year, my good friend, whom I’ve reconnected with, invited me to Brownwood, but they were having their dinner on a Tuesday. I politely declined and told him I was making a turkey dinner for one this year and planned to lean into it. I’m glad I stayed put, because the day before Thanksgiving, the mother of my children called, saying she needed to fly to one of the coasts as a member of her new husband’s family was going into hospice, and asked if I could take the kids, as she didn’t know when she might be back. Well, of course, the kids are the priority in my life. An hour or so later, BoyGeeding and DaughterGeeding were at my house, and I was off to the grocery store to shop for ingredients to cook a Thanksgiving dinner for three.

I’m grateful I had this opportunity, even if it wasn’t the whimsical experience I was hoping for. My children are teens now, and their attention is on other things; they don’t always have the best attitude when it comes to making the most of an unfavorable situation. And there was an expression of feeling like dropped-off luggage or being boarded up as a pet, rather than feeling like a priority in their parents’ lives. At least I was able to get them to drive with me to my parents’ grave at the DFW National Cemetery and place an American flag and some poinsettias on it.

DaughterGeeding wanted to binge the latest season of Stranger Things. It was much better than I anticipated. I really got into it.

Three weeks ago, a good friend and I were talking about the upcoming Aggie vs Longhorn game. All he could talk about was the Aggies’ undefeated season and how they looked unstoppable. I told him to bet the farm on the Longhorns because everything was setting up to be a typical Aggie letdown. It’s just in their DNA. They still haven’t been to an SEC Championship game, and Texas made it in their first year. However, Texas has to call Georgia “Daddy” because they can’t get past that powerhouse.

As for if Texas should get into the playoffs, I find arguments on both sides completely valid. I’m torn, though my heart leans a tad more one way than the other. While the Longhorns may feel great beating both the Sooners and Aggies by double digits, it would be strange for them to make the playoffs and Texas be sidelined. They have proven they are the better team.

Talk about a bad Thanksgiving.

College freshman deported flying home to Texas for Thanksgiving, despite court order

A college freshman trying to fly from Boston to Texas to surprise her family for Thanksgiving was instead deported to Honduras in violation of a court order, according to her attorney.

Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, 19, had already passed through security at Boston Logan International Airport on Nov. 20 when she was told there was an issue with her boarding pass, said attorney Todd Pomerleau. Immigration officials then detained the Babson College student and within two days, sent to Texas and then Honduras, the country she left at age 7.

Texas teen uses candle business to pay off school’s lunch debt

Rock Mistaken for a Gold Nugget for Years Turned Out to Be 4.6 Billion-Year-Old Meteorite

Yesterday, a CBS Sunday Morning segment began with a young woman who obtained her commercial driver’s license through a scholarship set up by the heavy metal band Metallica. It turns out, the lead singer’s father was a truck driver, and it was one way he wanted to give back. The rest of the segment focused on their foundation, which helps people attend trade schools, become laborers, and feed the hungry. It all started because they didn’t know what to do with all the leftover food after one of their concerts.

Bay Area teacher wrongly ID’d as convict, pulled from class due to last name ‘Smith’

Magician forgets password to his own hand after RFID chip implant

This video has some great aerial shots of the Baker Hotel in my hometown of Mineral Wells. It’s a bit slow, but you get a history and a bit of an idea of the progress of the restoration. It’s obviously narrated by AI.

@jonny.goodday

Beneath the Dust is the story of @thebakerhotelandspa in Mineral Wells, told from the inside. We walk the lobby, climb to the top, and trace how a spa town built a landmark, how it thrived, why it went quiet, and what it will take to bring it back. This is the past, the present, and the future of a Texas icon. If this story speaks to you, share it with someone who remembers the Baker or wants to see it come alive again. #bakerhotel #mineralwells #texashistory #historicpreservation #architecture #spanishrevival #abandonedplaces #documentary #jonnygoodday #texasfilm

♬ original sound – Jonny Goodday – Jonny Goodday

I’m sure I’m the only person interested in this video, and it’s only because my father worked in this building for over 20 years when the Palo Pinto Community Service Corporation called it home. At the time, the Catholic church owned it, and Dad told me that the church leased the building for one dollar a year to the non-profit, which I thought was cool.

@jonny.goodday

Nazareth Hospital: From Lifeline to Legend in Mineral Wells | A seven story brick landmark once delivered babies, fought polio, and sheltered the poor of Mineral Wells. Then modern medicine moved on, the lights went dark, and the legends took over, fires, basement wards, and the elusive Blue Nun. This film traces Nazareth Hospital’s full arc: hopeful 1930s origins, four decades of nonstop care, abrupt shutdown, brief haunted-house experiment, and its uncertain future as a protected, but padlocked, historic site. Stick around to the end of the film to hear a custom song I created with suno just for this story. Every lyric and note is drawn from the building’s century long pulse. Disclaimer: All interior footage was recorded during an authorized visit. Nazareth Hospital is private property, structurally unsafe, and secured against entry. Trespassing is illegal and dangerous, please respect posted warnings. Share the video if you think this slice of Texas history deserves fresh eyes. And if you’d like to fuel the next deep dive for just a buck, my Facebook page offers a $1/month subscriber option that keeps the camera rolling. Thanks for coming along.. plenty more untold Texas stories ahead. fyp urbex abandonedplaces hauntedtok texashistory mineralwells nazarethhospital ghoststories historytok urbanexploration

♬ original sound – Jonny Goodday – Jonny Goodday