Author Archives: Red from Texas

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About Red from Texas

I'm proud to be Red. I have lived most of my life in Texas and I love this place. Here are a few things you should know about me. 1. I am happily married and intend to stay so. 2. I live in a house that is older than you, unless you are really old. 3. I own 2 rifles and a shotgun. I think handguns are just trouble. 4. I have never killed a man, but have taken out some deer and hogs. 5. I was a good student, but never close to being valedictorian. 6. In no particular order I like the Houston Texans, San Antonio Spurs, Houston Astros, FC Barcelona, Tottenham Hotspur, Texas Longhorns and Houston Dynamo. 7. I hate Dallas but always have a good time when I go there. 8. I was a Dallas Cowboys fan for 26 years but declared that I was no longer a fan during the 1987 strike. 9. I don't own any pets. I like cats, and a good dog and I have met at least 3 of them in my lifetime. 10. I think the best part of Texas is west of I-35. 11. I own two pairs of cowboy boots, but don't wear them very often. 12. I don't have a pronounced Texas accent, but can affect one when needed. 13. My last meal would be fried shrimp with tartar sauce, a baked potato with all the fixins', a dinner salad with 1000 Island dressing, yeast rolls and chocolate fudge pie for dessert. 14. I'm an old Dad, but my children are none of your business. 15. I have two degrees from UT-Austin and somehow managed to fall in love with and marry an Aggie. 16. Most of my family are right-wing nut jobs but I love them anyway. 17. When I get to play golf on a regular basis, I shoot in the low 80's. 18. I don't get to play golf on a regular basis. 19. I think Fort Worth is the best town in Texas by a long shot. 20. I have a mean herb garden. Regards, Red P.S. Remember it's not a color, it's a state of mind.

Today in Texas History – September 25

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In 1922, radio station WOAI in San Antonio began broadcasting. It was the first station in South Texas. The station had an initial power of 500 watts. It grew to what was considered a powerful 5,000 watts by 1925 and eventually 50,000 watts allowing the station to be heard throughout most of Texas. The station later joined the world’s first communication network, the National Broadcasting Company.  Notably, WOAI was one of the first stations to employ a local news staff.  It is now given over to mostly predictable and pedestrian right-wing talk radio.  But,  on my radio dial, 1200 will never mean anything other than WOAI.

Today in Texas History – September 24

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In 2005, Hurricane Rita made landfall devastating Beaumont, Texas and portions of southwestern Louisiana. Rita was the fourth–most intense Atlantic ever recorded and the most intense hurricane ever observed in the Gulf of Mexico.  Although it began to rapidly weaken after making landfall, nine counties in the Texas were declared disaster areas after the storm.

Rita was almost as famous for what preceded it as for the destruction it caused.  Coming just three weeks after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the northern Gulf Coast, the prospect of another major hurricane prompted mass mandatory and voluntary evacuations in Southeast Texas. Somewhere between 2.5 – 3.7 million people evacuated the Gulf Coast region prior to Rita’s landfall.  This was the largest evacuation in US history and exposed major flaws in the system for evacuating mass numbers of people from the region.  The evacuation was rife with tales of 15-20 hours spent in cars traveling only 5-10 miles, many people simply giving up and returning home or running out of gas.  The debacle prompted new measures to ensure quicker evacuations.

NFL Predictions – Week 4

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I skipped the first 3 weeks of the season, but will try earnestly to make weekly picks for the remainder of the year. This year’s theme will be quotes from famous footballer’s past and present.

Quote of the Week:

“When it’s third and ten, you can take the milk drinkers and I’ll take the whiskey drinkers.”

 Max McGee, Green Bay Packers

I’ll always trust someone with that hairstyle.

Your Green Bay Packers Pick of the Week:

Packers over Bears.  I picked the Packers to make the playoffs and they are 1-2.  Of course, I picked the Bears to win the NFC North, so my hands are sort of tied here.  At this point in the season, this is an important match-up for both squads.  We have seen that the Bears have an offensive juggernaut that may just overwhelm a lot of teams this season.  They may end up with the best passing offense in the league with Cutler throwing to two brutally effective wide-outs and a running game that cannot be ignored.  Meanwhile, the Pack looks to be in disarray right now. All signs point to the Bears and even if they didn’t I should go with home field advantage when these two old rivals meet, but clearly that’s not my style.  This one has game of the week written all over it.  Green Bay 35 Chicago 34.

 Your Milk-Drinking Pick of the Week:

Texans over Bills. On Sunday, the Texans fell to earth which graciously accepted their lifeless corpse.  The Giants exposed the obvious flaws (turnover-happy QB, suspect front 7 against a running game, patchy special teams), but the game showed one thing and one thing only – the Texans are a different team when Arian Foster is in uniform.   They might be whiskey drinkers with him, but they have milk moustaches without him.  The Bills also returned to Terra getting whipped by the surprising Chargers.   Another mediocre match-up.  If Arian plays, he is the difference maker.  If not – all bets are off.  Houston 30 Orchard Park 20.

Your Whiskey-Drinking Pick of the Week:

Eagles over 49ers.  Going against the triple-reverse time zone hex this week to pick the Eagles on the road in California.  My pick to win it all has not disappointed so far, while the Niners look to be in disarray.  The only thing hard to believe is that the Eagles are second in passing offense so far.  The Eagles defense is somewhat suspect but should be good enough to handle the so-far anemic Niners’ second-half offense.  I am not a CK believer and he is showing me why right now.  I am calling for a major road-show ass-whipping and much whiskey drinking in Philly.  Philadelphia 45 Santa Clara 19.

Your Didn’t the Packers Always Beat the Cowboys Pick of the Week:

Saints over Cowboys.  Loyal readers know one thing – when I pick a Cowboys game, it is because I am picking them to lose.  The Saints will be the first real test for the Boys this season.  They will fail. New Orleans 17 Arlington 6.

Your Max Bet Pick of the Week:

Falcons over Vikings. Going to Vegas this week?  Here’s your bet – Falcons -3 on the road against Vikings.  Vikings will be lucky to score 3 points against even a pathetic Falcons defense.  They have no shot of keeping up with Falcons high-flying offense which should be good for 35 points on average this season.  Atlanta 42 Minnesota 13.

Your They Don’t Drink Milk with Whiskey in London Pick of the Week:

Dolphins over Raiders. Sometimes it’ hard to pick a really deserving Shit Bowl this early in the season as the really crappy teams have not revealed their utter crappiness yet.  Not this week.  Our friends at Wembley in London will have the rare treat of a completely legitimate, make no bones about it, sure-fire, run screaming from the telly, Shit Bowl on Sunday.  It would be hard to find two more deserving teams at this juncture in the season. The Raiders and Dolphins have the 29th and 28th worst passing attacks in the league.  Raiders have some defensive competence, but that is easily overcome by their offensive ineptitude.  Dolphins suck too (and have a looming quarterback controversy on their hands). But not quite as much as Los Raiders.  Keep the drain cleaner under lock and key if you dare to watch this Execrable Excrement Exhibition from England. Miami 26 Oakland 14.

Today in Texas History – September 23

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In 1972, the University of Texas’s dedicated a new modern scoreboard to former Longhorn football player Freddie Steinmark. Steinmark played defensive back for UT during his sophomore and junior years. As a sophomore he was the team’s leading punt returner. In December 1969, a mere six days after helping Texas defeat Arkansas in the “Big Shootout,” Steinmark was diagnosed with cancer in his left leg which had to be immediately amputated.  He went from starring on the field for a National Championship team to never being able to play or even walk normally again within a week.  He was on crutches on the sideline for Texas’ victory over Notre Dame in the 1970 Cotton Bowl.  He died in 1971.

For many long-time UT football fans, the Arkansas game in Fayetteville in 1969 is still the most exciting game in Texas history.  One of the first regular season games to be played in December, it pitted the top two teams in the country in a showdown for the National Championship.  It even featured Richard Nixon flying into watch the game and later declare the Horns to be the National Champions.  The excitement of that game was later tempered by the sad reality of Steinmark’s diagnosis and the end of his career.

The original Steinmark scoreboard was itself a victim of progress and has been replaced by a larger version.

Slippery Borders

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Is it Texas or is it Mexico? Sometimes it depends.

Andrew Sullivan's avatarThe Dish

Chazimal_dispute_map_01

In a fascinating history of the Chamizal dispute, Paul Kramer considers what happens when nature refuses to respect national boundaries:

The whole point of setting the border between Mexico and the United States at the deepest channel of the Rio Grande was that the river was not supposed to move.

That was the thinking in 1848, when, following Mexico’s defeat by the United States and surrender of its vast northern lands, boundary surveyors from the two countries were tasked with reinventing the border. The choice of the river for the boundary’s eastern half had been obvious: its use as a territorial marker stretched back into the region’s Spanish colonial past, and it was hard to miss and often difficult to cross. But even as he filed his report on the completed boundary survey, in 1856, Major William Emory cautioned that the river might be an unreliable partner in border making…

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Left Cold By Coffee?

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I’ve been trying to stay caffeine free on and off for about a year.  Maybe I finally have a good reason.

Andrew Sullivan's avatarThe Dish

A new study suggests heavy coffee-drinkers “find it more difficult to identify and describe their own emotions”:

“Alexithymia” – Greek for “no words for feelings” – is the psychological terminology for an inability to put ones emotions into words. [Researcher Michael] Lyvers et al did a survey study of 106 university students and found that alexithymia was correlated with the amount of caffeine consumed per day…. Lyvers et al say that

Alexithymics reported consuming nearly twice as much caffeine per day on average compared to non-alexithymic controls or those with borderline alexithymia.

As to why this is the case, the authors speculate that

Perhaps those with alexithymia consume caffeine more heavily than non-alexithymics in an attempt to optimize inherently low arousal levels.

Reviewing the results, Neuroskeptic stays true to his nom de plume:

My concern here is that because this is a self-report questionnaire, the [Toronto Alexithymia Scale] is…

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Last day of Summer

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There is nothing quite like a late afternoon swim on a late summer day in Texas.  The temperature is still plenty warm for swimming and the water is cool and refreshing unlike the bathtub water of late August.  There is a hint of coolness in the air as the sun sinks into the trees.  And most people have given up swimming after Labor Day so the pool is relatively tranquil and relaxing.  Now just clear out a lane so that I can swim.

Today in Texas History

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In 1964 the Nimitz Museum bought the Nimitz Hotel in Fredericksburg. The famous Nimitz Hotel was built on Main Street in the late 1840s and purchased by Charles H. Nimitz in 1855. The hotel had four rooms and a large central fireplace. Nimitz expanded the hotel to fifty rooms. The hotel may have had a casino at one time, and a bathhouse that reportedly offered the only hot baths between San Antonio and El Paso. Nimitz was an enterprising businessman who also operated a brewery, a saloon, and a general store at the hotel. The hotel had a rose garden, a vegetable garden, a grape arbor, and a stagecoach stop at the back protected by a high stone wall. Notable guests of the hotel over the years included President Rutherford B. Hayes, Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Philip H. Sheridan, Horace Greeley, William Sydney Porter, the explorer Adolphus W. Greely, William Rufus Shafter, Fitzhugh Lee, Earl Van Dorn and James T. Longstreet. Nimitz added the hotel’s steamboat-shaped superstructure around 1888. After several ownership changes, the hotel closed in the fall 1963 and was sold to the nonprofit Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz Naval Museum on September 22, 1964.

Fredericksburg has done a remarkable job in documenting the life and time of its most famous citizen.  The National Museum of the Pacific War is remarkable.  I could spend an hour just looking at the plaques of the ships on the wall between the old Nimitz Museum and the Pacific War museum.  One of the highlights is an entire Japanese mini-sub on display.