The Message Forum is an ongoing dialogue among classmates. The goal is to encourage friendly interaction, including interaction among classmates who really didn't know each other. Experience on the site has revealed that certain topics tend to cause friction and hard feelings, especially politics and religion. 

Although politics and religion are not completely off-limits, classmates are asked to be positive in their posts and not to be too repetitive or allow a dialog to degenerate into an argument. 

Forums work when people participate - so don't be bashful! Click the "Post Response" button to add your entry to the forum.

Lowell Tuttle

Just read the wrinkle for baseball.

As they start the 60 game season, it will be with 30 players on the roster (I am guessing pitchers.)

Extra inning games will start with a runner on 2nd base.

I think that's brilliant.  It will force the "long" games to be over sooner, I think.   Bring back the bunt, the sacrifice grounder. 

Which player position runner will start on 2nd base? 

With all the extra pitchers, I would assume they think it will be a lot of pitching changes extending games too long, so someone thought up this brilliant move....or at least I think it's brilliant.

Also, NL will have a DH.

David Cordell

Yikes! I stand corrected, Wayne. I'm sure that A&M attracts a much more conservative student than UT, and it probably attracts a more conservative faculty. At the very least, the faculty may not feel that they can go overboard in expressing liberal idealogy.

Texas Tech is also more conservative than UT. I remember that Tech was interested in the Bush Library when the idiot, arrogant faculty at SMU objected to it. 

By the way, I have visited the LBJ, Clinton, Bush 41, and Bush 43 libraries. Bush 43 is my favorite, . Clinton's was too partisan, and they wouldn't let you inside the Oval Office. At the time, there was a large exhibit of Oscar de la Renta gowns that Hillary wore. I visited Bush 41 about 12 years ago, and I was too rushed. Need to go back there.

Back to Jekyll and Hyde -- the woman who originated the role of Lucy was Linda Eder, who was married to the show's composer, Frank Wildhorn, although I am not sure if they were married when he wrote the show. 

We saw her in the Houston performance that I mentioned, and then saw her in concert at the Eisemann in Richardson. That was embarrassing  because we could see her offstage, ready to come out for an encore, but all the grey-hairs started to get up to leave. Ergo, no encore.

This song is sung by Lucy, a prostitute who wishes she could be with Dr. Jekyll, and not in a commercial transaction. There might be a Biden commercial stuck in the middle of this.  I think Linda Eder is as good as it gets.

Bob Davidson

Some comments:

Yesterday evening the Michael Berry radio show (based in Houston but nationally syndicated) had a segment on the topic of how politically correct and liberal Texas A&M has become.  The consensus of the old Aggies was that things went to hell when they stopped requiring ROTC.  I have no personal knowledge or opinion about the school, but I do remember that my high school friend Steve Bryant went to A&M and enjoyed it as much as I liked UT, even if he thougth it was funny to call me a teasip and say tu.

Last night I watched Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.  For those of you who haven't seen it, it's set in 1969 Hollywood and imagines in a dark comedic way the Manson Family Sharon Tate killers being destroyed by a stuntman played by Brad Pitt and and a cowboy actor played by Leonardo Decaprio.  This morning the news was on at home, showing some supposedly Black Lives Matter protestors trying to tear down a statue in a park.  I say "supposedly" because the ones they showed on TV were all white.

Thinking about them, it hit me that they were like the Mansion Family in the movie, with corona masks: a mixture of angry lost souls and ex-cons.

Hollis Carolyn Heyn

Hollis Carolyn Heyn

Wayne Gary

Bob.

With 65,000 students at A&M there is quite a bit of diversity. When UT won the Hopwood case where they could use giving preference to minorities for acceptance. A&M president Robert Gates looked at how to improve diversity and determined how to get more minorities and low income students was to give $25,000 "first generation scholarships" to anyone whose parents did not graduate from college because low income families could not afford to leave home for college. The rate of enrollment of white students that were accepted on merit was twice that of minorities.  A lot of well qualified students cold not afford to move away form home. State Sen. Royce West said that would not work only giving preference will work like at TU.  After 13 years of the 2 policies the effect is A&M over doubled the percentage of minority enrollment.  TU had no change in percentage, low income students could still not afford to move away from home.  This year when TU announced they were reducing tution for low income students someone asked in the Dallas News when A&M would do the same.  The answer was A&M did it 3 years ago.

Wayne Gary

Hollis

When Bush Approved the invasion of Iraq he had the support of over 21 countries including Great Britain.  Sadam Hussan had the entire world and even his own generals believing he had WMDs.  When a UN inspector interviewed the generals everyone of them said their command did not have WMDs but they new the other generals had them in their commands.  The whole world were doing what Sadam wanted them to believe his lies about WMD's.

At SMU the stated objection was they wanted "academic  freedom". Having the Bush library would have a conservative affect on their views. There goes academic freedom if it includes conservative views.

David Cordell

Hollis,

Really?? The Truman Library? Isn't he the guy who dropped the bomb?? How can you recommend his library? His  U.S statues should be torn down, like the  communists tried to do in Greece.  And JFK? Racist! Invaded an island of Hispanics. Obviously an animal hater since the invasion was at a bay named after an animal.

SMU is not a premier research university. The Bush Library is not just a museum. There are millions of papers available for research. SMU was very lucky to get that library. Also, it can attract dignitaries. I attended a function for Condoleezza Rice that was attended by President and Mrs. Bush and Dana Perino. Since they are all Republicans, that added to diversity on campus!!

Martha and Christopher attended a function for the Dalai Lama at the Bush Library. Also, a function with Sophia Loren -- not political, but pretty cool.

The opening of the library was attended by former US politicians and over 10,000 other invited guests, including dignitaries and ambassadors from about 50 countries. They included :

•  Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen from NATO
•  Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman of Saudi Arabia
•  Prince Salman Al Khalifa of Bahrain
•  President Mikheil Saakashvili and Mrs. Sandra E. Roelofs from Georgia
•  Former Prime Minister José María Alfredo Aznar López from Spain
•  Former Prime Minister and Mrs. Ehud Olmert from Israel
•  Former Prime Minister and Mrs. John Howard from Australia
•  Former President Lee Myung-bak and Mrs. Kim Yoon-ok from South Korea
•  Former Prime Minister Tony Blair and Mrs. Cherie Blair from United Kingdom
•  Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi from Italy
•  Former President John Kufuor from Ghana
•  Former President Francisco Guillermo Flores Pérez and Mrs. Francisco Guillermo Flores Pérez from El Salvador

Hollis Carolyn Heyn

Lowell Tuttle

And yet El Trumpo thinks W a loser.

David Cordell

Hollis,

I have expressed in this space that I thought Truman was right to drop the bomb. I have also defended his dropping the second bomb.

Was Bush right to go into Iraq? I don't know. It's clearly not a resounding "yes", but people seem to forget how bad Sadam Hussein was and how many people he killed and oppressed.

Regarding the Presidential Library, it doesn't matter. The decision-making stops with the words "Presidential Library". It isn't as if Bush were Hitler. He was a two-term President of the United States whose wife attended SMU.

Maybe the faculty should have lauded him for his extraordinary effort for AIDS relief in Africa.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President%27s_Emergency_Plan_for_AIDS_Relief

David Cordell

Police --

I was taking my dog for our normal two-mile walk this morning. It takes us onto the sidewalk on Independence (the Plano extension of Richardson's Waterview) for a couple of hundred yards. While on that short stretch, I saw in the distance a large number of police cars at the corner of Independence and Legacy, so we took a detour from our normal route to see what happened. There were over ten police cars at what appeared to be an ordinary auto accident, but police completely blocked the intersection. I asked a (black) policeman why there was so much police activity. He said there had been a police-involved "incident".

When I got home, I turned on the local news and found out that a policeman had stopped to investigate the accident. A woman who was involved in the accident stabbed the policeman in the arm and then stabbed the other woman involved in the accident. At that point, the officer shot and killed the woman. 

Besides the event itself, here is a very disturbing aspect of it. Martha and I both thought the same thing -- I hope the dead woman is white.

Lowell Tuttle

Sadam had also been an ally of the USA

David Cordell

Lowell,

Trump's continued insistence on insulting people is really disgusting. 

Here's something that might interest you a tiny bit as an Astros fan.  I'm going through a lot of items from my parents and Martha's mother. and came across the item below.

Martha's parents had season tickets to the Astros from the inception of the Colt .45s. Even though they lived 80 miles away in Bay City, Martha's parents attended every game, and Martha and her sister Margaret attended about half of them.Their box was eight rows back of home plate. The box next to them was owned by the club.

In 1965 the Astros' manager was Luman Harris, and his wife was at most of the games, sitting in the box right next to Martha and Margaret. Harris was fired as manager at the end of the season. His wife sent Martha and Margaret the Christmas card below. Mrs. Harris's comments are pretty interesting.

One other item from 1965. Here's Martha's ticket to see The Beatles.

Bob Davidson

David and Hollis,

I'm personally very grateful that Truman dropped the bombs:  my dad was in the invasion fleet off Japan when the bombs were dropped.  The Japanese were planning to fight to the death if we invaded and many millions of deaths were predicted.  George Marshall told Truman one to two million Americans and ten million Japanese would die.  Later, Dad was part of the Occupation.  His job as a military policeman was to protect the Japanese from the Americans.  He went to Hiroshima as part of MacArthur's entourage when the ground was still hot.

Lowell Tuttle

David, if you'll remember, there were Astros games on KTVt channel 11 in Dallas in those years.   I think it was Gene Elston and Lowell Pass as announcers.  The Astrodome opened in 1965, right?  So we were in 9th grade.  

The YMCA got a trip together for a bunch of us to head in a van down to Houston.  We went to an Astros game, spent the night at the downtown Houston YMCA, playing basketball and swimming there, amongst the downtown Y crowd, and drove to the beach in Galveston (I remember it was cold.)   It must have been just after the dome opened.  I am pretty sure it was 1965...

I think it included Fleming, Curtis, Combs, Zeiler and a bunch of others.  Not sure but Ed Ellis drove, I think.   Fielder, Twitchell...Irby...

It was the beginning of our Hi Y group.

The dome still had a glass ceiling and they couldn't field well due to losing flies in the white light.  I think they started out with real grass, which didn't work after they painted the ceiling.  That's when they invented astro turf. 

After moving to Houston in 78, I became an Astros, Rockets, Oilers fan instead of Rangers Cowboys because of Nolan Ryan, Earl Campbell, and later Hakeem.

Many games at the dome.  It was good, but only when it was full.  Too cavernous. 

In 1986, sixth game against the Mets in NL playoffs.  A friend called me from Grif's Irish Pub off Montrose downtown, about 5:00 (game started at 7:00) and said for $20.00 tickets, bus ride with the Pub and all the beer you could drink.  I went.  They had two busloads.  Left about 6:30.  No way to get there on time.  They had police escort.  Turned South on Montrose, went past the Museum and the Mecum Fountain...then, during rush hour traffic, went over to the wrong side of Main St and drove the buses on the wrong side of the road, rolling (police escorted) through all read lights on a streamline for The Dome.  They dropped us all off at the front West gate of the DOME, we walked in, got to our seats on time.  It was great. 

The Astros lost in extra innings.

The trip was too short for all the beer you could drink.  I can't remember how many I downed.

Hollis Carolyn Heyn

Jerry May

Lowell,

The "Gang" I hung out with would run down Forest Lane almost every Friday. Lance was part of the gang....but I don't know if he was with us one night. We were stopped for speeding......and the cop saw another friends' bottle of I.W. Harper!

The cop was pretty lenient considering. He was handed the bottle and said, "I drink this stuff....but not tonight.:" He then poured out the entire contents of the bottle in the grass. All he did was give us a warning that we go straight home......and "I don't want to see ya'll out here again!" He followed for a bit....and then turned around.

We were out there the next week! But I think in a different vehicle! 

I also can remember a cop stopping me at a "Gang Reunion" It was a Christmas party. Most of us were married and some had kids! I don't know why or how my ex let me out that night.....but I went and didn't get home until 1:30a.m.  I was following another member who was driving pretty fast! I was in an Olds 442 and we both were doing about 100 mph. down LBJ. A cop pulled me over.....and I thought..."Oops I'm history" (as in jail)

When I rolled down the window......I'm sure quite a bit of whatever I was drinking wafted out.

His words were: "Son, do you know how long it took me to catch you?And how much have you had to drink tonight?" My response was:"Plenty"

He left for a for a few minutes and came back and handed me my license. I will never forget the words. "Well I guess anyone driving that fast and still have control of his vehicle when he's clearly inebriated has got to be good (at driving) I want you to slow your ass down.....and I'm cutting you a break tonight! But next time, you are going to the slammer!"

The only thing I think saved me......was it was Christmas night and he didn't want to jail me! Talk about luck!!

I shutter sometimes. But I guess I didn't turn out too bad.......no booze in 22 years. So guess who often has been designated driver?......~j

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

So-o-o you hear it?  The number one word of the day?  Reimagine!  Reimagine policing!  Yea, reimagine being less safe, okay?  

If I've heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times today!

All we have to do is reimagine how policing SHOULD be, because we have never once gotten it right, have we?

It's so simple!  Just reimagine policing to be.........low key, and almost invisible?  Almost non-existant.  Is that it?

Yeahhhh, of course!  

Everything will be just fine now, don'tcha know.  Almost non-existant policing.......Yep!  That's the ticket!!!

But no one in plain clothes, no, no, NO!  That's not fair!!!

David Cordell

Still don't know much about the dead person, although she was driving a stolen car. This happened about a half mile from my house and probably a quarter mile from Phil Dyer's.

Wayne Gary

Lance, Lowell and others

Due to the efforts of MADD (Mothers against Drunk Driving) and law suits and others officers are strictor enforcing the DWI laws.  Over the years when officers would dirve a person home or let another person drive on numerous occasions the drunk person would get int a car after the officer had left and had an accident ant the city was sued. Now and officer has very little choice in letting a person pass. The things 30-50 years ago that happened may not have been a case of "White Privilage".

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

What are we supposed to believe the Democrats are trying to succeed in pulling off with their candidate for president?  Do they think the general public is going to elect a man who grows more and more incoherent every day?  A man who will not be able to converse with leaders of the world; a US president who will have the ability to control nuclear weapons and direct our military with commands?

Joe Biden is confused and has no clue what he's talking about.  This is why his campaign banned local reporters from his Lancaster PA event.  He travelled there to meet with families discussing Obamacare.  He went off the rails as soon as he veered off script.

"Unnecessarily now we have over 120 million dead from Covid," Biden claimed, with his face mask pulled down to his chin.

120 million DEAD?  That is one third of our population!

And the Dems giggle that, "You know how Joe is!  He makes gaffs constantly!"

These are the people who have been guffawing about Trump for years, yet the candidate they are backing is not even lucid most of the time.  I doubt that they will actually allow him to try to engage in a debate, let alone THREE debates.  He will have to read from a series of note cards, and if a pre-prepared question is asked out of order, the man will be thrown completely off course and will stare at the camera with fear in his eyes.

I'm surprised that Jill Biden is letting her husband be used in this way.  How humiliating for him!

Wayne Gary

With all of the destroying of statues and the Dixie Chicks becoming the "Chicks" I feel this is appropriate

Wayne Gary

Lance,

Glad life has been good to you.  Life for me has had it ups-and-downs (first wife died of MS) Hage good marrage for 25 years to Jo Ann.  We were able to retire this year.  Overall life has been good for me.

We need to get together.

Wayne Gary

 I noticed that in 2016  Ward 6 council member Charles Allen then offered a follow-up amendment to state that the “D.C.” in the new name would stand not for District of Columbia, as it has for the past 225 years, but for “Douglass Commonwealth” — a nod to the influence of abolitionist Frederick Douglass in the formation of the city.