Rooster (TV 2026)

Rotten Tomatoes

Rooster (TV 2026): Steve Carrell sitcom where he plays a professor at a small college where his daughter and his ex-wife also teach. Good ensemble cast. Nothing new in the formula. It's just a feel-good, throw-back sitcom trying to appeal to a wide audience. B+

HBO

Monday Night Follies at City Hall

Finally, progress on addressing housing needs in Richardson for Low and Middle Income families and on getting our Comprehensive Zoning Code aligned with the Envision Richardson Plan we spent so much effort on. It's about time. Two home runs.

Young Sherlock (TV 2026)

Rotten Tomatoes

Young Sherlock (TV 2026): Definitely not canon. Hoped for more sleuthing and more exploration of Sherlock's early relationship with Mycroft and Moriarty, but if you ignore that this is a Sherlock Holmes story, you might like it just as a family-based crime/mystery story. B-

Prime

POTD: Itchan Kala

From 2025 09 17 Khiva

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Itchan Kala. According to Wikipedia, "Itchan Kala is the walled inner town of the city of Khiva, Uzbekistan. Since 1990, it has been protected as a World Heritage Site. The old town retains more than 50 historic monuments and 250 old houses, dating primarily from the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries."

Bonus photos are after the jump.

POTD: Ulli Hovli

From 2025 09 17 Khiva

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Ulli Hovli ("Big Yard"), a restored 17th-century Turkmen fortress-settlement located in Uzbekistan’s Khorezm region. Originally built by the Khan of Khiva as a fortified outpost to protect trade caravans, it has been transformed into a living museum and popular tourist complex. We stopped for lunch...and camel rides.

Bonus photos are after the jump.

Council Recap: Greenwood Park PD

The Undercurrents Beneath a Unanimous Yes

The Richardson City Council approved the Greenwood Park Planned Development (ZF 26-02) application. It will raze a nursing home and build 40 single-family detached homes. The City received 5 statements in support of the request and 3 that were neutral. No one spoke in person for or against. That sounds like a nothingburger matter for a city council. And in the end, it was a unanimous yes vote, but one that several council members seemed less than completely happy with.

Flock Cameras are Watching Us

Flock Safety is a growing surveillance company. They are growing by selling their mass surveillance camera system to cities around the country. The sales pitch on their website entices cities with, "Join the Largest Fixed LPR [License Plate Reader] Network. With billions of monthly plate reads, Flock connects communities, businesses and law enforcement in a shared network built to stop crime." LPR is a bit of a misleading term. The technology does a lot more than read license plates. Elsewhere in the sales pitch, it says, "No Plate? No Problem. Capture more detail with Vehicle Fingerprint® and Flock FreeForm®. Turn images into actionable evidence — no plate required." Flock's website even includes a helpful webinar: "How to Speak to City Councils: Meeting the Moment with Confidence." That gives me a sinking feeling that cities across America stand little chance against Flock's smooth-talking salesmen. You see, fighting crime is a higher priority for voters than protecting privacy. Because council members have to, in turn, sell the systems to voters, they end up talking like Flock salesmen themselves and maybe even believing the sales pitch wholesale.

Remarkably Bright Creatures (2026)

Rotten Tomatoes

Remarkably Bright Creatures (2026): A warm-hearted story of an aging woman, a broke young man, and an aquarium octopus, all trapped in sad circumances in life. A series of lucky coincidences lead them all to help each other. Adapted from the 2023 selection of "Richardson Reads One Book." B+

Netflix

Halftime Score from City Hall

Source: City of Richardson.

May 11, 2026, marks one year since the current Richardson City Council was sworn in. That's the halfway mark of the 2025-2027 term. It's time to look at how this City Council is working. So, I asked ChatGPT to analyze the votes taken by the council, looking for coalitions and opposing factions. There were only nine contested votes all year. That's a small sample. Any analysis is subject to swings on the very next vote. Nevertheless, I found ChatGPT's interpretation of the voting results to be worthy of consideration. The following was written by ChatGPT.

POTD: Ruins of Toprak-Kala

From 2025 09 17 Khiva

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the ruins of Toprak-Kala (1st-5th century CE). A thousand years before Marco Polo journeyed the Silk Road, ancient cities like Toprak-Kala flourished. Wikipedia calls it "an ancient palace city and the capital of Chorasmia in the 2nd/3rd century CE, where wall paintings, coins and archives were discovered." The city was built from sun-dried mud bricks (adobe).

Bonus photos are after the jump.

POTD: Mass Transit in Tashkent

From 2025 09 15 Tashkent

Today's photo-of-the-day is from an underground train station in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The trains are clean, frequent, and fast, one of the good legacies of Soviet times.

Bonus photos are after the jump.

Wuthering Heights (2026)

Rotten Tomatoes

Wuthering Heights (2026): Not Barbie meets Frankenstein. Instead, a passionate love/hate relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff on the foggy, rainy moor. All of the characters are unlikable. The 19th century story was loaded with sex for a 21st century audience. C+

HBO

Book Review: The Trouble with Heroes

From The Trouble with Heroes, by Kate Messner:

Amazon

"I’ve had plenty of mean teachers, the kind who just want you to shut up while they drink coffee and wait to retire, and I can deal with that just fine. It’s the nice ones you have to watch out for."

The Worst Places to Eat in Richardson Last Month

Graphic by City of Richardson.

The City of Richardson is rightly regarded as having some of the best and most diverse dining options in north Texas ("Eat & Drink"). But that doesn't mean every restaurant in Richardson exceeds in every measure. Here is a list of the worst places to eat in Richardson last month, based on the City of Richardson's Health Department Restaurant Scores from inspections last month. Not all Richardson restaurants are inspected each and every month. Only those inspected last month are ranked here. Only the lowest scores are shown.

Traffic Snarl in North Texas (Government)

If you think traffic gets snarled, you should see the snarl developing in the alphabet soup of local government bodies intended to solve those problems. It's hard to say just what caused this current snarl in government, just like it is for many traffic snarls. But here is what I can see from my position way back here on the road.

POTD: Tashkent Luncheon

From 2025 09 15 Tashkent

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the kitchen at a luncheon in Tashkent at a Hilol-house, a Tashkent-based "Eastern house" offering traditional Uzbek cuisine, as well as master culinary workshops for national dishes.

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"Saffron rice glows bright,
Tender lamb and carrots sweet,
Plov, the food of kings."
— h/t ChatGPT

POTD: Nuts and Fruits and Meat and Plov

From 2025 09 15 Tashkent

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Chorsu Bazaar in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. It has everything. Nuts, and fruits and vegetables, meats, bread, and plov, Uzbekistan's legendary national dish.

Bonus photos are after the jump.

Random Thoughts: When Are We Going to Move On?

2026-04-01: Jason Kidd responds to Mark Cuban's comments on Luka Doncic trade: “When are we going to move on?”
Apparently not before Kidd himself moves on to another job. Why is he still in Dallas anyway?
dallasnews.com/sports/maverick...

Big Mistakes (TV 2026)

Rotten Tomatoes

Big Mistakes (TV 2026): Family crime comedy. A dysfunctional, barely competent family falls into the clutches of the mob and every attempt to escape just leads to more trouble. Dan Levy stars as a closeted gay minister, with a stellar supporting cast. B+

Netflix

BAIT (TV 2026)

Rotten Tomatoes

BAIT (TV 2026): Six episode look at a struggling actor who bluffs his way into an audition to be the next James Bond. His self doubt leads to his life spiraling downwards. A satiric look at the price of fame. B-

Prime