What happened to Laredo's Winter Texans?

Hundreds of RVs like this one visited yearly

I clearly remember, years back, the Laredo Civic Center's west parking lot being completely filled with Winter Texans' RVs. They would station themselves neatly in formation and, as far as I can tell, stay for weeks. The Public Access Channel offices were not at their present location yet and the RVs took up all the area from the entrance to Shirley Field in the South, to Garden street in the North and to Convent street in the West. This happened every year during the Winter and I really don't recall when it was that they stopped coming to town for the Winter. Now, it seems like they all head to the Magic Valley, RVs, money and all.

Bola de Burros !

Leave it up to the Republican-led Texas legislature to ensure that our state makes the necessary changes to raise the level of the quality of education in the Lone Star State. From, the looks of it, we're in good hands.
 DUH!!

How many people still drive around and look at Christmas Lights?

I heard a plug tonight on Pro-8 news for an online promotion. They are urging people to send in pictures of their Christmas holiday decorations. I guess this would include Christmas trees, lights, inflatable decorations and even manger scenes. They made a comment to the effect that if you like riding around looking at Christmas decorations, now Pro-8 news can have all that for you on their website. In orther words, no need in you riding around anymore, we got it all for you on your computer.

For those who might not be able to get out due to health, transportation and/or other issues, this does offer a nice alternative. For those who are fortunate enough to have the time, health and ability to get out, it might bea a good way to spend an evening, driving around with the family and taking in the sights and sounds of the season.

For some reason, I've always found it interesting to drive around the various barrios and see they display of Christmas spirit even in the most modest of homes. You almost always drive across a tiny, older house that might even be in need of substantial repair but yet manages to come across big in regards to exhibiting the hope and joy that is the Christmas season.

My review on the recently-opened Texas Road House restaurant

Oh yea, the waitresses dance a weird line dance every hour

Saturday afternoon, I got a chance to visit the newly-opened Texas Road House on North Santa Urusula. It occupies the location which formerly housed the Outback Steakhouse. The first thing, of course, was the wait to be seated. There were about 15-20 people (maybe 10 groups) waiting to be seated and so we were given a number. During the time we were waiting, the staff offered us bread while we waited. I said water would be fine. The total wait time before being called in was about 20 minutes.
Once seated, the booths were pretty comfortable, and set rather high-which is ok with me. The bread was ok but they served this strange cinnamon butter with it. I didn't like this twist and instead asked for regular butter. The house salad (side order) was really good. My other side order was green beans and I found them a bit salty. The steaks were done just as we liked them and were very tender and tasty. The toal for both plates plus 2 drinks (non-alcoholic) came to about $24, plus tip. I would say that I might visit the place again but perhaps not very often. It was a little bit too much Logans. They even did the "Yee-haw" birthday yell.

Park your car, support the Middle East

U.S.: a subsidiary of the Middle East

Friday afternoon, I was listening to the Standup with Pete Dominic show. One of his guests was Matt Taibi, an author of several books. His expertise is on the financial shenanigans which have been shaking the foundation of our country over the last few years. Although some of the outlandish financial dealings he writea about sounded far-fetched, they are well documented all substantiated.
He has written about many of the ways that wall street types have come up with is essentially the selling off our country's sovereignty. One particular case, which even I found hard to belive, is that some cities in the U.S. have been offered money upfront in exchange for up to 100 years of future parking fee revenues. One city, in particular he mentioned, is Chicago. It appears that some middle eastern consortium has bought the rights to next centurie's parking meter revenues in one of our biggest cities. To make matters worse, if there is a city/state or national holiday on which there is to be no charge for parking, then the city (or whoever entered in the deal) has to pay the oversees consortium big bucks for revenue lost for that day. The book is called Griftopia and is written by Matt Taiibi. This stuff sounds too weird to be made-up.

Zaffirini pushes the term "retarded" towards the "word graveyard"

Shhh....you shouldn't be saying that.

On Saturday, Nov.27th  Texas Tribune reports :

Disability advocates want Texas lawmakers to put the term "retarded" in the "word graveyard" with other derogatory terms.

Advocates gathered at the Capitol on Tuesday to support SB 26, filed by state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, which would require past and future state laws to replace terms like “crippled” and “mentally retarded” with phrases such as “persons with disabilities” or “persons with intellectual disabilities.”

“The term itself, when it was first started, was designed to be very professional and have a good connotation to it, but it digressed over the years, and it’s a term that is used to insult others,” said Gerard Jimenez, governmental affairs chairman for the Down Syndrome Association of Central Texas.

I recall taking an etymology (study of word origins) class with the late Dr. Briggs in which we covered how words can either be elevated in status or degraded. An example of a word being elevated is the word "wife". At one time, it simply meant woman. A fishwife was a woman who sold fish. With the passage of time, the word was elevated and came to mean a very special kind of woman, one that you would want to marry. On the other side of the coin, the word "knave" has deteriorated in meaning. At one point in time, it simply meant a young boy, or servant. Now the word has come to mean a dishonest person. It looks like the word "retarded" is another such example. At one time, it was a proper and accepted word. Now it has become a word that is to be avoided if at all possible, even if it takes a law to get rid of it.

Looks like a rollicking "Black Friday"

Hello Capitol One ? Yes, Can you uh..extend my credit limit??

If news reports from all across the country turn out to be accurate. Friday will probably turn out the the biggest days of the year for retailers. The Boston Herald writes "if last year's black Friday was shoppers gone mild, this year it's shoppers gone wild". Similar reports were filed throughout the country.
In driving around locally Friday, I did notice that there was brisk traffic at both Wal-Mart and Target. I didn't really bother to go to the Mall but it probably was more of the same. The consensus seems to be that there was quite a bit of pent-up consumer demand that was unleashed today. It might be that a lot of people were out shopping for something for themselves as a reward for coping with the downed economy for the last couple of years.
It will be interesting to see if this end-of-year spike in consumer spending carries over into the early part of 2011. You can bet your bottom dollar that the in-coming republicans are already trying to spin this apparent economic improvement to suit their needs. So what else is new?