Lucky's in the news because he got hit by a car yesterday -- a university staffer took him to a vet but he didn't survive, the UNT Staff Senate said on Twitter. But there is hope! Central Track delved further to find that UNT has *plural* albino squirrels, since at least 2000. The first was named Thelonious,... Continue Reading →
Weekend things to do in B/CS
The terrific "Corps of Cadets Moms Updates" blog does a great job of mixing events, news and useful info. Here, republished with the blogger's permission, is a list she compiled of "stuff you can do on a non-football weekend." (I'm quoting the list directly, so modify "your cadet" to "your student" or "your friends" as needed!)... Continue Reading →
How to vote early in Brazos County primary
Don't wait - your vote in the Texas primary can count much more than in November. Texas can affect presidential races, most Texas statewide races are settled in primaries and a lot fewer people vote. The Brazos County polls close at 8 p.m. Friday for early voting in this presidential primary. Let's do this! Any... Continue Reading →
Just a protein out for a stroll
This animation of a "walking" protein inside a cell is going viral, and I became briefly obsessed with figuring out what's going on here. Behavior that looks conscious and deliberate can't, of course, be deliberate or conscious at the subcellular level. It's just as fascinating, though. What it is: A kinesin protein hauling a vesicle... Continue Reading →
Eyes: blue. Occupation: singer. Crime: seduction!
Sinatra's life makes an interesting way to look at 20th-century America. Just this famous mugshot shows things have changed a bit since 1938: The charge is seducing a single female of good repute. He was born in 1915 and died in 1998. Crowds screamed for him two decades before the Beatles. The documentary "Sinatra: All or Nothing at All" grounds young Sinatra in an America where race... Continue Reading →
Not-a-Dr-Pepper smoothie: Blackberries, cherries, raspberries, vanilla
This isn't a Dr Pepper smoothie, of course, because the ingredients in Dr Pepper are secret, right? (See below.) But it is a quite good smoothie that soothes my Dr Pepper cravings. 1 cup pomegranate-cherry juice, chilled 2 cups nonfat vanilla yogurt 1 cup frozen fruit -- H-E-B cherry/blueberry/currant mix 1 cup frozen fruit -- H-E-B... Continue Reading →
Glitter, flash and glow: Reflections on words about light
Glitter is sharp and bright and contains movement -- like the quick trip of its two syllables set apart by sharp little t's. One-syllable blink and wink are slow, but have movement, whether it's your eyes or a light doing the winking and blinking (though its pace picks up when it becomes a repeated/ongoing action,... Continue Reading →
Climb inside the workhorse that helped win World War II
http://youtu.be/UCBEA4aI0eU Got a chance to crawl around inside the type of bomber my grandfather flew, a B-24 Liberator, today as several Collings Foundation aircraft visited our town. America's most-produced plane of World War II, these heavy bombers typically dropped 5,000-pound loads of explosives deep behind enemy lines across Europe and in every theater. B-24s were... Continue Reading →
Fiddles, violins and Robert Keen doing good stuff for kids
Here's Robert Earl Keen as Antonio Vivaldi opening his eighth annual benefit in Kerrville for an organization he said "it's my passion to tell people about": the Hill Country Youth Orchestra. Keen told the crowd at the Feb. 21 show that on his travels around the country, he'll get to talking with people about the... Continue Reading →
Couple snapshots from New Year’s Eve in “FW-D”
A year kicked off with loved ones in Fort Worth is a year that's gonna go well. I grew up near here, love the city and was tickled to hear the Metroplex referred to on the radio as "FW-D." Sundance Square decked out for the holidays. It was barely above freezing, so nobody's loitering in... Continue Reading →