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Back in training camp Dez Bryant got into
trouble with his teammates on the Dallas Cowboys.
The first round draft pick out of Oklahoma State
refused to carry veteran receiver Roy Williams'
shoulder pads back to the clubhouse after practice.
It is one of the little hazing chores that veterans do
to rookies on the team. Other tricks include having
first year players sing their school songs after meals
to the entire squad of Cowboys. Bryant apologized later
to the team and to Williams, saying he did not know it
was a traditional thing. This past Sunday after the Cowboys
won their first game of the season, a 27-13 victory over
inner-state rival Houston, Dez took the entire team out
to eat at the Pappas Brother's Steakhouse. It turned out
to be a meal for all of his teammates costing Dez almost
fifty-five thousand dollars. Food and drink for all averaged
out at just over one-thousand dollars per man. You can
bet that Dez is out of the doghouse with his teammates after
this little gesture. The Cowboys have this week off to enjoy
that first win, and now they must prepare for the Tennessee
Titans the following week. Bryant is nursing a rib injury, but told his teammates he will be ready for the next game.
This is the new movie starring Ben Affleck that
opened today. One of the opening lines across the
screen read: More bank robbers and armored car
hold-up robbers come from one town.. the Boston
suburb of Charlestown. Anyone from this village is
called 'a townie.' Affleck is the leader of a four-man
group that specializes in holding up banks and armored
cars. After one such bank job, Affleck falls for the
female bank president, played by Rebecca Hall. Affleck,
who also directed this movie, plays the part of a
ruthless bank robber, BUT has never killed anyone. The
FBI is hot on the gang's trail and is led by a local field
agent, played by Jon Hamm, a golden-globe winner from
the TV series Mad Men. Affleck's character, Doug MacRay,
was deserted by his mother as a child, and his father,
played by veteran actor Chris Cooper, is currently in
prison. Doug MacRay was forced to move in with another
Irish family. The son in this family is MacRay's lifelong friend
and a fellow gang member. He is played by Jeremy Renner,
and I thought he stole the show with his bully ways. He
had served nine years in the joint and makes it known he is
not going back. The film is a loose adaptation of the book,
'Prince of Thieves' by Chuck Hogan. The Town is rated 'R'
for violence and language. Affleck is to be acknowledged for
such a good directorial debut, and Leonard Maltin of Entertainment
Tonight calls 'The Town' one of the best films of the year... I agree.
They say nothing last forever...and that may be
the case with Denison football. The Jackets have had
a storied past with championships rolling around with
the regularity of the Thanksgiving Turkey... BUT 2010
has thrown Jacket fans a bone to chew on. In their
first three games Denison has come up on the short
end of the scoreboard all three times. The last two
games have seen the opposition score over 50 points.
Denison's defense was called a stone wall two years
ago because of its impenetrability. Denison is in a
new district this year and the worse may be yet to
come. Still, the team can only get better and they
deserve to be supported for their efforts.
Singer Robert Plant just turned 62 years of age
this past August and today announced plans to
tour America in support of his latest album. Plant
was the lead singer for the group 'Led Zeppelin'
when they formed in 1968. While Plant was the
front-man for the group, he was backed up by
guitar virtuoso Jimmy Page on lead, John Paul Jones
on bass guitar and keyboards, and John Bonham
on drums. The group was such a collection of high
spirited talent that when they first formed up Keith
Richards of the Rolling Stones said they wouldn't
last long and would go over like a 'lead balloon.'
Plant and Page heard of the comment and named
their new group Led Zeppelin in response. When
Bonham died in 1980 the group went their separate
ways after selling over 111 million albums in the
United States and over 200 million worldwide. Plant's
new album is called Band of Joy and should be
released this Fall. I have included a couple of photos
of Plant. One when he was younger and then a
recent photo to show you the effects of forty years
of drugs and alcohol. Guess which is which !!
They recently held a car show in Monterey, California
and it was not for good looking automobiles, BUT rather
for ugly ones. California is sort of an odd state with some
outside the lines ideas,..but I thought this was a pretty
good theme. How many times have you seen some ugly
car under someone's car port,..or even worse,..a rusting
hulk just sitting in a backyard for all the world to see?
There were some entries that fit that category, but I just
want to concentrate on ugly cars that came from the
factory in the state of ugly. That first car was made in
America and was the brain-child of some guy named Davis.
The car was named a Davis Divan and only eleven of them
were built in 1949 before the company went bankrupt. The
second car comes from East Germany and is a 1962 Trabant P-50.
It was offered at the height of the Cold War and was simply
transportation for the people caught on the wrong side of
the wall. Car #3 comes to us from the United Kingdom and is
a 1974 Reliant Robin. The taxes in Great Britain for an automobile
were extremely high, so this car only has three wheels so it
can be classified as a motorcycle to avoid the taxes. Still, an ugly
ride! The final photo shows a 1959 Fiat 600 and I remember
seeing a lot of these in the sixties. It was Italy's answer to the
popularity of the VW Bug. Unfortunately, it was not as reliable
as the Volkswagen and parts were extremely hard to come by.
The show was reportedly very well attended, so maybe I was
wrong about our colleagues in the Golden State...then again maybe
they were simply hurting for someplace to go.
As the remnants of tropical storm Hermine makes
her way out of Texas, most of the state has recorded
some heavy rainfall. From Central Texas up through
North Texas, six to ten inches are being recorded.
Flooding was occuring in San Antonio, Austin, and the
Dallas-Fort Worth areas. I live in Denison, which is
right on the northern edge of Texas and we had heavy
rain all day long on Wednesday. Some wind damage was
reported, but luckily, no tornadoes. Wind blew over a
truck on U.S. Highway 75 just north of the Red River into
Oklahoma and the highway was blocked off for several
hours. Locally, my wife and I had to do some quick irrigation
changes to redirect the water from our backyard to a new
route down the side of the house. Most of the rain has run
its course now and the storm has moved on to Oklahoma,
Arkansas, and Missouri.
