Like many of my friends, I have been playing The Facebook game listing 10 concerts.  Good timing.  After the weekend, I will have a few more artists to add to my master list, and hopefully more good stories.  (More on that in a second …)

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My morning bicycle ride through a wooded park on the way to the Trinity River was virtually uneventful, except for the very, very large woman feeding her very tiny baby at the park bench — the absolute closest bench to the trail, as conspicuous as possible. So genteel and subtle:)

What’s the old baseball joke about that? … “Two out, one man on” or something like that .. I digress …

On I sped, peddling away.

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“Bomb City” Entourage

If you hang out at a film festival it’s only a matter of time … right place, right time and you will meet celebrities … The PingTeam has been fortunate enough to rub shoulders with a number of stars in our Sundance Film Festival excursions … hah … one chance meeting almost landed us in an episode of “Entourage.”

Drama At Sundance

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Did the city of Waco, Texas have any role in the inception of the worldwide phenomena that is Magnolia Market, Magnolia Bakery, Magnolia Farms and of course, TV juggernaut Fixer Upper?  It’s incredible!  Regardless … what a boon to Waco.  I have seen the show a few times, and I always walk away thinking “Why in the world are all those house-hunting folks moving to Waco?”.

Have you seen the show? ( … Asking the guys … Women, I know you have.)

https://magnoliamarket.com/a-peek-into-our-past/

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For the first time ever, I really struggled with heading out to work at “The Dirty Gig” the other day. Our disaster recovery team is working healing magic on a hospital.  And sure, I was tired from long hours and lack of sleep, but it was something else slowing me down.  I made the mistake of turning on a classic movie channel during breakfast.  Before I knew it, I was engrossed in one of the best movies of my childhood — “The Flight Of The Phoenix” … not the recent cheap imitation, the original with Ernest Borgnine and Gary Stewart.  Darn it.  Just as the toy airplane mechanic was about to snap as the stranded men doubted that his German engineering skills could lift their crashed airplane out of the Middle East desert … I had to go to work.

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I just heard that Norma McCorvey passed away, perhaps best known as the “Roe” of the landmark Roe vs. Wade case, which of course paved the way for millions of legal abortions in The United States.

In the late ’90s, I got to visit with Ms. McCorvey when I gave her media training in Dallas. She was not the person I have read about today in some of the articles about her life. I will always remember how she spoke of being misled and even railroaded into her dubious position as the poster child for the abortion movement.

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I am late to the party — a day late and a dollar short — to wish Lubbock’s Joe Ely a happy 70th birthday.  It sounds like quite a party they have planned down in Austin … jealous.

Let’s talk Ely. 

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Last night my two high school spinal injuries were talking to me, keeping me awake past the normal cut off point for my day.  I counted sheep … well, no, I didn’t.  I am lying.  I read Facebook and Twitter and such.  No likes. No dice.  Still awake.  Then I decided to fire up an HBO movie in bed with my AppleTV unit.  Was that Costner?  Some detective show was just about to suck me in, when the picture froze, the scene buffered, and I began to curse AT&T Uverse Wi-Fi for the poor reception way back in the bedroom.

Naturally, I headed to the kitchen to see what’s to eat.

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Two minutes left in the game and 75 yards of natural turf ahead of you … who would you want as your field general? The two-minute drill. Many might say Graham Harrell, if they have seen the replay of arguably the biggest come-from-behind upset in college football in the last 10 years.

Harrell On The Offensive

That was the scenario at the 2016 Zaxby’s Heart Of Dallas Bowl matching the West Point Black Knights of Army against the North Texas Mean Green Eagles … only this time Harrell was offensive coordinator, rather than the quarterback who threw that famous touchdown in ’08 to Michael Crabtree vaulting the receiver to instant stardom and a lucrative NFL career.

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