Playoffs: Berkner 81, Mesquite Horn 54

The Berkner Rams men's basketball team defeated the Mesquite John Horn Jaguars 81-54 Friday in the second round of the Texas UIL state playoffs. It's a great time to be a Ram!

Update: The Richardson Eagles advanced to the third round of the playoffs also with a thrilling, buzzer-beating, back-court basket by Nylan Yancy. Watch it here.

S2L77: The Plains of India

From 1977 03 02 India

The highway down the Himalayan mountains is serpentine and slow. Whereas in Nepal the mountains are everywhere hemming in the land, at the bottom is the flat plain of northern India stretching out endlessly, filled with villages and fields. At night, you see the harsh lights of gas lanterns in the unelectrified villages that line the highway. "Highway" is a generous term. Cars and buses must share the road with ox-drawn carts, bicycles and, sometimes, working elephants.

More photos after the jump.

Ft Worth Feels Snubbed by "Dallas 2024"

International Olympic Committee rules say that bids must come from a single city, but events can be organized regionally and held outside the city. So, the name "DFW 2024" won't do. Nor will "NorthTexas 2024" or "Metroplex 2024," which would never do even if the IOC was OK with it. So, "Dallas 2024" it is. The organizers are trying to be inclusive. They have pretty pictures of the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, and Pizza Hut Park in Frisco. They sound like civic boosters for the whole area.

The Dallas 2024 Committee is a grassroots organization formed by area Olympians, business leaders and other members of our community who share a common goal of engaging all of North Texas with the ideals of Olympism and are preparing to initiate an Olympic bid on behalf of the City of Dallas and all of North Texas.

Source: Dallas 2024.

What's to get offended about? There's always something. After the jump.

The Race So Far

The deadline is March 1 for candidates to file to run in Richardson's city council election of May 11, 2013. This will be the first time in memory that the mayor's position will be popularly elected. After the jump, how all the races are shaping up with only a little over a week left to file.

Fatal Shooting Outside Ice Rink

A man was fatally shot Sunday night outside an ice rink in Richardson, Texas. Three people are being questioned.

"It looks all of them knew each other and had been together earlier in the night," [Richardson Police Department spokesman Sgt. Kevin] Perlich says. A fight broke out, he says, though "over what it's not totally clear yet. We have two, three different versions of what took place, but we're sorting through it. But there is no other threat out there for the public to be concerned about."

Source: The Dallas Morning News.

"there is no other threat out there for the public to be concerned about."

This was probably just a little careless wording on Sgt. Perlich's part. He probably meant to say something like, "this particular shooting does not pose an ongoing threat to the public."

After the jump, the other threats out there.

Texas, Guns, and Politics

Jerry Patterson

So soon after the Newtown gun massacre, which took the lives of 20 children and six adults, only in Texas could a candidate for statewide public office think the ad at the right helps his election campaign. (And only in Texas would he probably be correct.)

S2L77: Pokhara, Nepal

Pokhara, Nepal
March 1, 1977

I sat out on the deck listening to the distant dogs, looking at the stars, and brooding on the mountains.

Source: Personal travel notes.

From 1977 02 21 Nepal

The trip from Kathmandu to India is only a few hundred miles by road. The bounty of sights makes it seem much longer. Nepal is mostly a high mountain valley with spectacular scenery. Outside the cities, people are sparse, most engaged in small-scale farming. In spring, Nepal has warm days and cold nights. Spending the night in Pokhara, sitting outside under a clear sky with a waxing moon, contemplating the eternal mountains, well, that's just about the closest thing to communing with nature that I can imagine.

More photos after the jump.