Skattershooting while wondering why it is mid-November and not yet cold . . . .

• Did you see that the Red Cross is destroying hundred of thousands of pints of blood that it has no where to store, but refuses to tell the public exactly how much blood is being cast aside?
• Garth Brooks is now promoting Dr. Pepper? He is such an artist. A man  who never compromises his values in the face of commercialism.
• Pontiac is running a series of commercials showing how people react when given the opportunity to drive a Grand Am for a week. Most jump up and down like they won the lottery. Why? It's not exactly a Porsche they are getting free use of.
• The President addresses the nation the other night and only ABC covered it.
• That being said, I'm not sure why George Bush addressed the nation anyway. He spoke for 35 minutes and provided absolutely no information. If I'm ever a pastor or president (both of which I have equal odds of attaining), I'll never speak for more than 10 minutes at a time. And I'll be very popular.
• As crazy as it sounds, I think the American public will become bored with the events in Afghanistan.
• Denton prosecutors dismissed a drug charge against Michael Irvin after they discovered that the search of the apartment was illegal in that no search warrant existed. Excuse me? Before you haul off an indict someone, make the front page of every metro paper, and promise to bring him to justice, do you think you could have looked into the legality of the search?  It was the first thing I always did in reviewing a case.
• Michael Irvin, after having his case dismissed, holds a press conference with his wife at his side. Why do we care what an unemployed loafer has to say? (Based upon the number of media that showed up, not many people do).
• The Ticket radio station still pokes fun of Irvin by playing the audio of his comments immediately after he was arrested: "[T]hey found I guess what you would call a roach."  As if the term was very foreign to him.
• At his last home game, Texas QB Major Applewhite gets in to play the last few minutes of the game. At the one yard line, he changes the play sent in by Coach Mack Brown in order to allow him to score his final TD on a QB sneak. He scores and the crowd goes wild. So what does Mack Brown say to the media (not realizing that Applewhite admitted he changed the play): "We wanted to let people thank Major for what he has done. It was a special day. I don't think we could've scripted it any better." - Dallas Morning News, 11/11/01, Page 24B.
• Since we are talking football, I have never understood the concept of "scripting the first 15 plays" of a game. If on your ninth play of the game you are facing a third down and one inch, do you throw a bomb simply because that it what the ninth play had been scripted?  If you deviate, are you really scripting the first 15 plays at all?  These are the things in life that trouble me.
• I dare anyone to drive on Highway 121 from Grapevine Mills Mall to I-35 and then to the mall in Frisco. It will take you a day and a half.
• I could spend a day and a half in the Bass Pro Shop.
• There is now a new office suite from Microsoft named Office XP. That follows Office 95, Office 97, and Office 2000. Does each update justify its $250 price tag?
• Do you think the old Popeye cartoon would survive today's sensibilities. Let's see, the way to settle all your disputes is to eat spinach and then proceed to beat the crap out of the other guy.
• I had free tickets to the Stars hockey game the other night. The face value (and I am not making this up) was $135. (For you skeptics, I scanned the ticket).
• The American Airlines Center is certainly nice, but there have been some complaints that it doesn't exactly encourage fan participation. Heck, at $135 a ticket (or, alternatively,  finding a spot in one of the many luxury boxes), you don't have a lot of 20 year olds yelling their heads off in there.
• It's hard to believe that the O.J. Simpson verdict was handed down over six years ago.
• An email going around claims to quote Oliver North's testimony during the Iran Contra hearings. Allegedly, he warned of Osama Bin Laden as being the most evil man in the world. It appears to be a hoax.
• After the end of the HBO series about World War II, Band of Brothers, the network ran an hour and a half episode of  interviews of the actual veterans in a show called We Stand Alone Together. One of the men interviewed, J.B. Stokes, was working in Bridgeport when he was drafted. A story about him appeared in the November 11, 2001 edition of the Dallas Morning News. (He was assigned to the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army).
• 42,000 people a year die in automobile accidents.
• Yet another football note: Second year player Shaun Alexander of the Seattle Seahawks is having a banner year. Yesterday he rushed for 266 yards, the fourth greatest total in NFL history. Did you realize the Seahawks selected him in the first round of last year's draft with the pick they acquired from the Dallas Cowboys in the Joey Galloway deal?
• Last month I told you that I smelled a political rat when Rick Perry appointed David Dewhurst as chairman on the Texas Commission for Homeland Security. Dewhurst is, of course, spending a ton of money to become Lt. Governor. Well, it should come as no surprise that Dewhurst wasted no time in trying to capitalize on our national tragedy by boasting of his new title in a four page color spread in Texas Monthly.
• Dewhurst probably choked on his shrimp and lobster one day when he learned that his ad in the Texas Monthly which was supposed to depict a U.S. soldier was actually a photo of a German soldier. So does he come out and simply admit the mistake and laugh it off? No way. He's too good for that. Do not - I repeat - do not - vote this man into office.
• The Wise County on the Web home page received over 10,000 hits for the first time ever two weeks ago. It just happened to be the same week that the video of the Bridgeport-Decatur cheerleader shoving match was made available for download. Coincidence? Not a chance.
• In local politics, county commissioners Paul Wood and James Hubbard refuse to leave their souls on the political alter by seeking re-election as Democrats. Both deserve to be re-elected.
• Dallas councilwoman Laura Miller says she doesn't know if she will run for Dallas mayor. Was it just coincidence that on the day after Ron Kirk resigned she appeared on KRLD and KTCK just to say those words?
• Talk radio weirdness: For those as old as me, you would have got a kick listening to AM 1190 last Saturday afternoon. KLIF exes David Gold and Kevin McCarthy were co-hosting a show about nothing in particular.
• You know your getting old when you remember when ESPN was bad and MTV was good.
• Perhaps my favorite movie quote comes from A Few Good Men: "I have neither the time, nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it."
• Bill O'Reilly (of Fox fame) was invited on the Today Show to discuss his criticism of celebrities refusing to challenge the Red Cross on its failure to distribute funds to New York victims. He even went so far as to say that some of the celebrities had engaged in fund raising simply for publicity. Things got a little uncomfortable when host Matt Lauer pointed out that one of O'Reilly's demands before he would appear on the Today Show was that his new book, The No Spin Zone,  had to be mentioned.
• Having three high school teams from the same football district make the playoffs is very unstable. Consider Sanger which is 4-6 for the year and engaging in post season play.
• The Michael Jackson comeback is unstable.
• Two days ago, Michael Jordan missed the first 14 shots he took.
• Baseball stud Mark McGwire retired yesterday. So how did he announce it? A fax to ESPN.