Bag of Randomness

It feels good to be employed and go through a day feeling like you have purpose and are contributing to something. And you can tell a company cares for its employees when they provide Chinet paper plates in the break room.

So far, this seems like a great opportunity, and I feel respected and appreciated. It’s been 15 years since I’ve had a morning commute, and the 9 mile (20 minush) commute isn’t bad, and just three days a week. But, there are a lot of things about the morning drive I don’t miss. Parking isn’t bad at all. My total daily step count has increased by about 3,000 steps. Oddly, when I look at the org chart, I’m only four slots from the CEO of this huge multinational firm no one has ever heard of but ensures stability in our everyday lives.

Trivia night this week with some of my oldest and closest friends bummed me out. You’d think after 15 months of being unemployed, at least one of them would ask at least one question about my first week at the new gig. However, I have to be careful at putting any expectations on others.

Linus and Sally will never walk in a pumpkin patch again.

U2 fans now have something to look forward to.

U2’s New ‘Carnaval De Luz’ Album Will Feature a Dolly Parton Duet, Said to Be Her Last Recorded Vocal

For anyone waiting for years to get a U2 album again, it might have seemed as if the band was, you know, running to stand still. But the day is at hand, as the group’s first full-length recording in nine years, “Carnaval De Luz,” has been set for a Nov. 12 release, Interscope Records announced Thursday.

The concluding track on the album is a duet with Dolly Parton, “Torn,” described in a release as “what has sadly turned out to be her last recorded vocal performance,” put down on tape in June by the country superstar. The song was co-written by U2, Parton and Johnny McDaid, and is described as “a tender country song detailing broken family ties that holds wider resonances.”

Last month, I posted about Bono surprising Dolly Parton on her birthday, sending a kilted bagpiper to serenade her and a cake that read “Love… Bono.” As nice as I thought it was, I thought it was random, but with the news of the duet, it all makes sense. It sounds like the song will leave a lasting impression:

“When she got ill,” Bono said in a Rolling Stone story published shortly after news of the album came out, “she got out of her bed to sing this song. And you can hear that. And I can’t even listen to it now… She sang her heart out, and I cannot believe that’s an 80-year-old woman.”

Two of my favorite U2 songs are country collaborations with Willie Nelson (Slow Dancing) and Johnny Cash (The Wanderer). What I appreciate about those songs is that U2 didn’t lead with vocals; heck, they are barely noticeable.

The band released the single Silencio. You can watch the video here. I’m lukewarm about it.

Here’s the album cover.

But I like this Simpsons parody.

Here’s the track listing and some other details.

Crazy Canadian Football Rule.

After a completed pass, the receiver can barely punt and recover the ball, as long as it’s past the line of scrimmage.

The Dallas Morning News hasn’t had a restaurant critic in 14 years, but they have promoted Sarah Blaskovich, who calls herself a “modern restaurant critic.”

President Trump will be at the Texas vs. Tennessee football game this Saturday, and Longhorn Coach Steve Sarkisian provided some interesting insight on what it’s like to have a sitting president at a game.

“So you have to have a plan for that, if and when it happens, and you get no warning. It just gets cut out. So you have to have a plan to adjust if and when he comes in the middle of the first quarter, leaves in the fourth quarter, or decides he’s got to use the restroom, whatever that looks like. You’ve got to be prepared to have no communication for a short amount of time.”

Something related and funny:

Paxton has too much to lose and is too chicken to accept.

I worked with a guy at Southwest Airlines who told me his wife ran the marketing campaign when the company first became well known.

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Bag of Randomness
Monday, September 21, 2026

DaughterGeeding was a junior homecoming dutchess. Thankfully, her mum didn’t look like any of the ones above.

There are worse things in the world than the Cowboys not wearing their classic uniforms for their home opener.

It was pretty cool to see Dak wearing Roger Staubach’s jersey pre- and post-game, and even taking the time to inform a teammate about his greatness. Granted, even as old as Staubach is, I’m a bit surprised that every player on that team isn’t aware of the man.

He walks into the press conference room wearing Staubach’s No. 12 jersey. You guys should have seen the look in his eyes when Quinnen Williams respectfully asked who Staubach was and Dak proceeded to list all of his accomplishments – from the Heisman Trophy to serving his country in the Navy, to winning two Super Bowls, being in the Hall of Fame and, of course, Staubach’s off-the-field success in business.

Before the game, Jerry Jones was on the field with Jeff Bezos and his wife. After the game, Jerry told the reporters he had the quote of the day, “There is nothing more dangerous than an old man with money.” Don’t be surprised if some sort of big Cowboys/Amazon news is announced today.

Some photos I took inside a Grapevine athletic complex. The technology caught my attention, even the screen above the basketball goal that gives you real-time stats.

Nothing like Pete Hegseth going to Aggieland and bringing them some of that Trump bad luck. But give Kentucky some credit: when you block like this, it’s hard to stop an offense. You literally could drive a truck through that hole.

The current administration is throwing some shade, supporting racist comments from last week.

Owned.

The 90-foot bronze Hanuman “Statue of Union” is located at the Sri Ashtalakshmi Temple in Sugar Land, Texas. Unveiled in August 2024, the statue is the third-tallest in the US.

I watched a clip of an old interview with Stallone, Schwarzenegger, and Bruce Willis. One of them randomly mentioned the western genre, which got me wondering: have any of these three mega action stars even been in a traditional western? According to a quick AI search, no. I’m guessing that, between the three of them, that’s over a century of acting, and not one traditional western amongst them. Interesting.

A Southlake resident won a million dollars? Life’s not fair.

Dr. Jesse McGuire triumphantly sings rest of National Anthem after trumpet issue at Chase Field

One of the dumbest advertisements I’ve seen, giving away the twist ending to a great Twilight Zone episode.

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Monday, September 21, 2026

Bag of Randomness
Friday, September 18, 2026

I watched last night’s NFL game between the Lions and the Bills on a Canadian television channel. You have no idea how great it was not seeing a single political ad.

Earlier this week, I watched Rain Man. The last and only time I saw it was when I was 12. That movie hits a heck of a lot differently when you’re 51. For some reason, I vividly remember watching it with my father. Specifically, I can recall putting in the VHS tape and it starting off with a special message from Buick, as they provided the classic roadster, which was later bought by Dustin Hoffman.

I forgot how prominent Cincinnati was in the film. Maybe a quarter of it was filmed there, which was my father’s hometown. I’ve always felt the need to make a pilgrimage to the Queen City.

Hoffman, by the way, recently turned 89.

I couldn’t start my new job this past Monday because one of Equifax’s companies that verifies past employment, The Work Number, provided incorrect data during my background check, showing that I worked two full-time jobs concurrently. So, I had to provide proof to the two companies verifying my background as well as to The Work Number. Thankfully, I’ve kept all my offer and separation letters from every employer since I graduated from that little school in Abilene. So, now, my official start date will be this Monday.

The town of Sleepy Hollow has an obvious mascot. I can’t blame them, and it’s awesome.

On The Ticket, Craig Miller mentioned his kindergarten-aged daughter was gifted a Havanese puppy for her birthday. She named her Popcorn, though they call her Poppy.

Some of you may recall that DogGeedingII is of the same breed. God willing, he’ll turn 16 this December.

There’s college football teams in Japan? You can view their team’s website here and their X account has more highlights.

It remains to be seen whether Arch Manning’s on-field play will make him a legitimate Heisman candidate. But I’m curious how much his distasteful Holly Rowe comments will affect that. The Heisman electorate consists of 870 sports journalists, eligible former Heisman winners, and a collective fan vote.

As for the Rowe and Stark interview, would there be any outrage if a male reporter interviewed Stark? What does that tell us?

I purposely avoided it.

Weiss’ overhaul of 60 Minutes sees season premiere hit 25-year ratings – Among adults aged 25-54 ratings plunged by 33 percent, according to a report

60 Minutes opened its 59th season Sunday with its smallest premiere audience in at least a quarter-century following CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss’ overhaul of the flagship program.

About 7.9 million viewers watched the season premiere, down from roughly 10 million for last year’s opener, according to Nielsen data cited by The New York Times.

The decline was sharp among adults aged 25-54, a key advertising demographic. Preliminary Nielsen ratings, cited by Mediaite, showed viewership in that group fell 33 percent.

The Pentagon recently held a three-week Shark Tank Try It Before You Buy It drone competition to figure out who’s going to get a big purchase order. Each drone has to cost less than $4,000 and be made in the USA.

You tend to forget how they can lose signal flying through tunnels.

What caught my attention were two charts that listed all the companies in the competition. Of the nine listed, seven were privately held. Two are publicly traded. One had an IPO this year, and one is trading under $5 a share. Don’t take investing advice from me, but that’s a tempting stock purchase.

However, according to the Jerusalem Post, XTEND is an Israeli drone company that started to trade on the NYSE this year, and has a small Eric Trump advisor connection. As I stated earlier, the Pentagon stated the drones must eventually be made in the USA, so I guess it doesn’t matter that it’s a foreign-owned company. [Update: As I read on, the company moved its HQ to Tampa, Florida, where it has a production facility.]

In the future, don’t be surprised if you hear about a ship, especially an oil tanker, getting hacked and becoming weaponized by ramming itself into another ship or a port. Sounds like Iran was behind this hack of a South Korean tanker en route to Galveston. When I first saw this story, the ship was hacked for about 30 hours.

This should be a Texas Monthly gift link:

We Spent a Day at the Universal Kids Resort. Surely It Couldn’t Be That Bad? – At the new theme park in North Texas, my kids encountered a mute Minion and a near-dinosaurless Jurassic World.

The author states that, for security reasons, everyone entering the park needs to be photographed after their tickets are scanned. That will certainly gum up the line.

With the history of Dave Bliss, Art Briles, Ken Starr, Ian McCaw, and being located in the same city as the Branch Davidian Siege, it’s perplexing d how any Baylor fan can refer to another university as “evil.” That’s some audacity. But then again, I should lighten up.

Traces of Texas shares a great story of when Elizabeth Taylor was filming Giant, getting Stanley Marcus to send a plane to Marfa to pick her up to fly to Dallas, and opening the iconic Neiman Marcus in downtown Dallas on a Sunday, when it’s usually closed, and having the store entirely to herself. Well, it looks like James Dean tagged along; this is them boarding or departing Marcus’ plane in Dallas. It all started off with an innocent request.

I think I shared this story before, but my children’s maternal grandmother just so happened to be staying at the same hotel as Ms. Taylor during filming and got to spend time with the actress in her hotel room.

Don’t be surprised if you wake up one morning and learn the Kennedy Center was razed overnight.

Tarleton State is winning on the field, has over $200M in facilities upgrades and should be one of the next to land an FBS invitation

A month ago, I couldn’t even tell you who Abbott’s opponent was.

New poll shows Hinojosa ahead of Abbott for first time, Talarico leads Paxton

AUSTIN (Nexstar) — For the first time, a nonpartisan poll shows Democratic nominee for Texas governor Gina Hinojosa ahead of three-term Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. The poll also shows Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate James Talarico six points ahead of Republican nominee Ken Paxton.

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Friday, September 18, 2026

Bag of Randomness
Monday, September 14, 2026

Of all the memories I have of the days following 9/11/01, it’s the debate over postponing NFL games. I guess it’s obvious in retrospect, but my memory is that everyone was waffling on the idea until NY Jets starting QB Vinny Tesaverde flat-out said he wasn’t going to play and just wanted to be with his family. My memory could be wrong, and I can easily look it up or ask AI, but that’s how I want to remember it.

I was in elementary school on 9/11. This is my first hand account of that day.
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u/_kT_ in
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Barnes arrived at the stadium dressed up in matching Spider-Man outfits with his son:

At the start of every NFL season, I identify one commercial that gets old quickly because it’s overplayed. Jason Kelce and his wife’s NFL Sunday Ticket commercial is the top contender.

I don’t see Cam Skattebo lasting more than four years in the NFL.

As for the Cowboys: “You can feel the annual goodwill of training camp leaving the room like someone opened the door and let all the AC out.”

One thing about college football that grinds my gears is when the home crowd empties the stands and floods the field. It blew my mind that Michigan, of all teams, did this when they beat unranked Eastern Michigan. Funny, they didn’t do it after beating #11 Oklahoma. The Big House can be weird sometimes.

If there is ever a time for such a thing to happen, it’s when the home team makes a tremendous comeback and beats the number one-ranked team in the nation, specifically the one that has gotten your goat over the years.

This happened in Austin, but thankfully, my favorite team acted appropriately, and you didn’t see the stands empty onto the field. Also proud that my favorite university is willing to schedule tough opponents.

Texas is now ranked #1. I never like it when they are ranked first unless it’s at the end of the season. All it does is put a target on your back and offer distractions. I prefer to be ranked just high enough to get into the playoffs.

However, college football can use more of this.

I also thought the field looked gray. The only time it didn’t was when it was zoomed in on a player.

And how the hell did Texas win with Ted Cruz in attendance? When I saw him the 40 Acres during College Game Day, I for sure thought it was going to be a loss. One win doesn’t make him a good luck charm. He’s more like a turd that won’t flush. Bet most of y’all can’t immediately recall what movie that is from. Hint: Dennis Hopper said it.

I couldn’t help but notice this one community note.

No matter how much he tries, he’s definitely more Aggie than Longhorn.

Texas Republicans feel so secure in the conservative majority in terms of registered voters that they won’t even hide their racism. Keep in mind this man used to chair the Tarrant County GOP and is the party’s nominee for one of the state’s strongest offices.

Keep in mind he’s only doubled down on his comments. While many Texas Republicans have condemned the post, many have condoned it. I’m also guessing he’s not a fan of our current Second Lady, Usha Vance.

Does it not get more American than having people move to the great state of Texas and enjoy a football game?

Our governor couldn’t even condemn it. I knew he had a crushed spine, but it’s now confirmed he simply doesn’t have one.

At least Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw wanted to make sure folks didn’t forget this story about Bo French.

I’ll always be proud that I never voted for this madman. He made the audience take a pledge. Think about that. It’s bewildering that people chose to put him back in office.

Ryanair has some gumption.

THE PREMISE IS THAT THE MUPPETS ARE PUTTING ON A SHOW CALLED THE MUPPET SHOW!

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Monday, September 14, 2026