Repeat Tweets: #txhshoops is baaack!

Repeat tweets from December, 2015:

• 1 Dec 2015: Final: Naaman Forest 64, Berkner 52. #txhshoops is baaack!
• 2 Dec 2015: RT @SenTedCruz: "Scientific conclusions should be based on the evidence & data, not the wishes of liberal global warming alarmists." @SenTedCruz is trolling us.
• 2 Dec 2015: What's the difference between the KKK and the Irving anti-Islamists? One is a group of racist bigots and the other wears hoods.
• 3 Dec 2015: MT @cressman: "When you live outside the US you think Americans are nuts regarding guns." Inside the US you *know*.

After the jump, more repeat tweets.

Tree the (rest of the) Town

Remember "Tree the Town"? You know, the program with a goal "to plant 50,000 trees in Richardson during the next 10 years on private and public property." What's up with that?

Dallas Arboretum's 12 Days of Christmas

From 2015 12 30 Dallas Arboretum

The Twelve Days of Christmas, the second most annoying Christmas song ever, celebrates the twelve days between the birth of Christ (Christmas, December 25) and the coming of the Magi (Epiphany, January 6). The Dallas Arboretum celebrates the twelve days of Christmas from November 27 - January 3 (yeah, that's 38 days; I don't think they care). Scattered around the arboretum grounds are twelve Victorian gazebos each filled with animals and characters from the song. The DeGolyer house itself is filled with nativity sets. All in all, the best thing to ever happen to the song.

All photos from our visit to the Dallas Arboretum can be seen in Google Photos.

POTD: Black-Eyed Susan Photo Bombs the Badlands

From 2015 08 15 South Dakota

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Badlands National Park in South Dakota. The geology here takes center stage. But when a single black-eyed susan sticks its head up how can a photographer resist letting it upstage the multi-colored layers of rocks in the eroded hillsides?

Do I Sound Gay? (2014)

IMDB

Do I Sound Gay? (2014): Is there such a thing? Can it be changed? Does it matter? Surprisingly informative look at a cultural stereotype. B-

POTD: Lincoln's Craggy Face

From 2015 08 15 South Dakota

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota. It's a close-up of the face of Abraham Lincoln. According to a BBC story ("Abraham Lincoln: The enduring images"), Lincoln was the first president of the photographic era. Lincoln himself credited an iconic Matthew Brady photograph taken in early 1860 with making him president. It shows a clean-shaven, "sober, respectable, powerful intellectual who could become president." Four years later, another photograph tells a different story. "The Civil War was coming to an end and the enormous toll taken by four years of conflict is etched into the lines of Lincoln's craggy face." The granite of Mount Rushmore is the perfect medium to capture that Lincoln.

Yelp Reviews Get a New Useful Feature

You may like a Richardson restaurant for its food, but what do you know about its health inspection rating? Probably nothing. Not because Richardson doesn't conduct health inspections of restaurants, but because the city doesn't do much to make the ratings easily accessible to diners. That may be changing.

It's been a pet peeve of mine for years that Richardson promotes local restaurants with its "Dine Smart Dine Local" program, and Richardson publishes restaurant health inspection scores, but the city made no effort to tie the two together. The Wheel complained about it two years ago, and even pointed to a third party solution that promised to be cheaper and more useful than some in-house development by the city's IT department. That was two years ago. Nothing changed.

POTD: Go Tell It on the Mountain

From 2015 08 13 Mount Evans

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Mt. Evans. At 14,271-feet, it's one of Colorado's 53 "fourteeners." You can drive to the summit on the highest paved road in North America. Well, not actually the summit. To get to the tippy-top, you have to scramble up another boulder field.

Mr. Nobody (2009)

IMDB

Mr. Nobody (2009): 117-yr-old man looks back at his 9-yr-old self's big (in)decision in life. What choice did he make? Quirky sci-fi. B-

The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies (2014)

IMDB

Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies (2014): Over the top telling of a children's story. Jackson does CGI great, but Tolkien's charm is lost. C+