Skattershooting:

• I saw Chicago the other day at the theater. Not bad. I'm not sure your average guy would like it, but its a pretty good musical as far as musicals go.
• Kidnapped teenager Elizabeth Smart is found in the custody of a couple that tend to wear flowing robes and act a little nutty. And the police were looking for them. Question: How hard would they be to find?
• Speaking of Elizabeth Smart, her father gives me the creeps for some reason I can't really explain.
• A national Amber Alert plan (as advocated by Elizabeth Smart's dad) is a stupid idea. If the alarm is sounded for every child that is abducted in California, Georgia, Montana, etc. then it because the equivalent of a car alarm that everyone ignores.
• Lake Bridgeport is about nine feet low as of this writing. If they don't have some abundant spring rains, it's going to be ugly this summer.
• How did Mark Cuban make so much money? I watched the Mark Cuban Show the other day and the guy is simply goofy.
• I've used Yahoo Bill Pay for about three years now. I'll never leave it (especially since you can schedule automatic monthly payments for your fixed monthly expenses).
• Did you see that Bill Clinton and Bob Dole have signed up for 60 Minutes' "Point/Counter Point" segment. It is a 10 week deal for $1 million a piece. The entire segment runs for one minute only.
• QB Jake Plummer signs a $40 million deal with the Denver Broncos. He has been stealing money for years.
• The movie Bully, a flick that none of you have probably ever heard of, is dark, crazy and based upon a true story. It was never circulated in wide release.
• I know most of you Wise Countians love George Bush, but do you actually believe he hasn't decided whether or not we are headed for war?
• Did you know Christopher Reeve cannot breath without assistance?
• Former police officer Shane Hale agreed to a plea bargain of 40 years in prison yesterday. Some of you know that I represented the co-defendant (via court appointment). In my case, the defendant pled guilty and had the jury assess punishment. (He received 35 years when the punishment range was 5 years to life). Hale's case did not involve a confession and had some risk for the prosecution. Knowing that, I offered to have the co-defendant testify against Hale if the government would agree to reduce the sentence from 35 years to 25 years. I never heard a response.
• I finally saw Shallow Hal the other day. Pretty good.
• The photo associated with the capture of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed reminds me of a drunk John Belushi from Animal House.
• Gas prices are high, but I still remember paying $1.40 a gallon in 1978 when I was sixteen years old. Now that was a crisis!
• Back then, when gas prices cracked $1.00 a gallon, none of the pumps were capable of handling the price change. (The manufacturers never dreamed of gas exceeding a buck a gallon). So to solve the problem, the merchants simply set the pumps to half of the price of a gallon of gas (i.e. 70 cents) and then you paid double the price listed at the pump.
• The web site listing Yahoo's "most emailed photos" is pretty interesting, but I've noticed that scantily clad women sure seem to make the list quite often.
• Who would have ever believed that American Airlines would be on the brink of bankruptcy?
• You would not believe the number of 17 inch and 19 inch flat screen monitors in the courthouse.
• Do any of you ever read the inside celebrity question and answer section  in Parade magazine? It seems to have become a bit more callous lately.
• Do you ever drive by the Beechwood hotel across from the Texas Motor Speedway and think "How do they keep that place filled up?"  Then again, maybe they don't.
• Ranger owner Tom Hicks is arrogant.
• Did you see that Diana Ross, diva supreme, was ticketed for driving a vehicle with an expired registration? She was driving a Ford Taurus. That's right, a Ford Taurus.
• I can't stand Nancy Grace. She is a former prosecutor who now works for CourtTV and is a frequent guest on Larry King Live.  Case in point: She so much as convicted Richard Ricci of the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping on Larry King according to the transcript: "So right there, I see a major inconsistency and tonight Mrs. Ricci said something I thoroughly agree with. She pointed out her husband is almost 50 and is not changing his ways now. We know that he has gunned down a cop in order to steal. He's burglared (sic) the Smart home before. So the Elizabeth Smart incident is not that much of a leap of logic."
• Bobby Knight gives up a small portion of his income, $250,000, because he is not pleased with Texas Tech's basketball performance this year.  He probably doesn't need it, but it's still a quarter of a million dollars that could buy a quarter of a million dollars worth of stuff.
• We are prepared to go to war because Iraq ignores the UN by not abiding by a UN resolution to disarm. If the UN does not vote to authorize the war and we decide to "go it alone", will the United States be ignoring the UN, too?
• Wasn't the Soviet Union, during the cold war, a far greater threat than Iraq is today? I wonder why we never invaded Moscow?
• Want to go to the Big 12 Basketball Tournament in Dallas? Prepare to pay $12 to park.
• British Prime Minister Tony Blair is a gutsy guy for his unwavering support of the U.S. Too bad it will cost him his job.
• Yeah, I know I'm an old guy trying to hang on to his youth, but 50 Cent's song, In Da Club, isn't half bad. However, I don't buy his PR machine's claim that he is such a gangsta that he has been "shot nine times."
• I go crazy whenever I hear "why" the stock market performed the way it did on any particular day. For example, the market tanked last week over "investor jitters over the prospective war". Today the market was up over 200 points because "stocks rally on speculation of short war".  Come on.
• Napter's replacement, KaZaA, is a far greater threat to the music industry than Napster ever was.
• How many people know that the Dixie Chicks' Landslide was actually recorded first by Fleetwood Mac in the 1970s?