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Around 1:30 p.m. this past Sunday, drivers on the Taconic State Parkway in upstate New York noticed something odd.  A minivan was slowly nosing its way onto an exit ramp.  Four signs lined the entry to the exit ramp with two emblazoned with “Do Not Enter,” while the other two stated “One Way.”  The minivan continued on.  At least six drivers called 911 about the errant minivan.  The minivan maintained its speed in the inside lane while oncoming drivers swerved to get out of the minivan’s way, flashing their lights and honking horns.  Exactly 1.7 miles from where the minivan began its wrong-way trip, it crashed head-on with Chevy Trailblazer, killing the three men inside as well as all five occupants of the van including the driver.  The sixth occupant, a five-year old boy, survived but is in critical condition.  Now comes the slow, painful investigation into how this horrific accident occurred. (more…)

Oh man, the Amarillo Court of Appeals handed down a minor howler yesterday in Jarrett v. State, No. 07-08-0277-CR.  Two issues were raised.  Both claimed constitutional denial of effective assistance of counsel when the trial court “precluded” defense counsel from questioning jurors on issues of fact and when it permitted a witness for the State to read from the contents of documents which were admitted without objection.  Of course, the court affirmed but a little reading between the lines provides just the right touch of the absurd to the whole affair. (more…)

Hack has it on very good information that the defense and prosecution have qualified 32 venirepersons and are collectively working their way to a grand total of 50.  The magic number when developing a pool of potential jurors would be 44 (fifteen strikes apiece and allowing for two alternates) but the sides decided to give themselves some wiggle room; hence 50.  It’s a tough bit to ration out peremptories on this kind of scheme when you have to anticipate how you’ll use them at a future date.  Man, good luck on getting a capital jury in Lubbock.  I would think there’s real yeoman’s work involved there but certainly couldn’t be any tougher than selecting a death penalty jury in Amarillo.   

Harry Patch, the absolutely last British Army veteran of World War I, died this past Saturday, July 18 at the age of 111.  The only other surviving British veteran of the war who lived in Britain, Henry Allingham, died a week ago at the age of 113.  That now leaves American Frank Woodruff Buckles of Charles Town, West Virginia as perhaps the sole living veteran from WWI.  Neither France or Germany has any living veterans.  No word at all from Russia but then again, how you could you rely on any information coming out there.  There is some basis to suggest that Claude Choules of Austrailia may be the last soldier who served in the British armed services during that war.  It is believed that Choules served in the Royal Navy sometime during the war. 

Patch was a plumbers’s apprentice who got called up for service when the British Army was suffering horrendous losses during the first two years of the war.  After training, he was sent directly to the trenches as a machine-gunner.  A few weeks later, in the bloody struggle at Ypres, he was blown up with three of his best friends.  They were killed but he survived with serious wounds.  Returning home, he healed, married, went back to work as a plumber, raised a family and refused to speak about his war experiences over the course of the century, only breaking his silence within the last two years.  He came to believe that the conflict was simply not justified under any analysis.  He summed up his 80-odd year assessment of the war with a simple, “It wasn’t worth it.” 

WD-40. The name inspires reliability, versatility, ubiquity.  It is said to be in 80% of all American homes.  I would wager it’s greater than that.  Everyone knows what it looks like, sitting there on the garage shelf in the distinctive yellow and blue can.  And everybody has their own anecdotes about what WD-40 is good for.  Of course, it lubricates squeaky hinges, removes tar from the sides of cars and protects tools from rust.  But did you know it’s good at lubricating tuba valves, preventing squirrels from climbing into a birdhouse or, the very best, useful in removing a tongue stuck to cold metal?  The man who brought you WD-40, John S. Barry, is dead at the age of 84. (more…)

Congress is in the midst of hearings, the subject of which deals with something called “handset exclusivity.”  It sounds boring and it kind of it because it deals with the issue of whether Apple’s IPhone exclusivity contract with AT&T is anti-competetive or otherwise in violation of anti-trust legislation. 

So, Washington is interested.  You know, sometimes it actually gets things done.  The latest accomplishment along these technological lines was when Congress mandated carriers to honor phone-number portability, simply meaning that when you change carriers, you can take your old cell number with you.  That’s good.  But do we really care whether Verizon or Sprint can offer the frigging IPhone?  What about the other nefarious, unfair business practices the cell phone conglomerates implement to separate you from your last dollar?  Here’s just three.

Text-messaging fees

The price of text messages, if you don’t have an open-ended menu (like I have but I nevertheless pay for it, believe me - that’s another story), has doubled over the past few years.  Why?  All the big four U.S. carriers raised their rates at just about the same time.  Hmmm.  And why are text messages treated so differently from, say, e-mails, when choosing a plan with a cellular carrier?  Remember, e-mails, which require the inclusion of much more data on each communication, are included with standard Internet service but text-messages are considered an “addition,” priced at single use or in blocks.  Again, considering the cost of sending the e-mail with all of its attendant electronic baggage, the carriers cannot seriously argue that texts are more expensive.  One enterprising blogger (http://bit.ly?gHkES) calculates the date in a text message costs the user about 61 million times as much as the same message sent by e-mail. (more…)

Summer may be the time for chilled white wine but the debate rages on about which one is better for you - red or white.  Some studies have shown that red wine has more healthy compounds than white wine, among them resveratrol, a heart-healthy substance derived from grape skin.  Because white wine’s production depends less on extracting those ingrediants from the skin, including flaonoids, antioxidants and  those bitter-tasting tannins which are all linked to cardiovascular health, it seems the white has perhaps gotten a bad rap on this end of the health debate.  But the truth is that there are few real legitimate studies that have paired up the two.  And of those studies, half favor red while the others have not.  It actuality, it’s a toss-up.  One study came up with a tentative conclusion that red wine drinkers had a significantly lower risk of colon cancer compared to white wine drinkers but then the researchers seemed to put an asterik on those findings by noting that white wine drinkers were also more likely to smoke.  How they came to that conclusion was not explained. 

The bottom line, I’m sorry to say, isn’t really a bottom line at all.  On red v. white, the results are mixed at best.  Choose your poison.

Everyone has complained at one time or another about the lousy service provided by regional airlines but recent revelations about low pay for the crew and non-existent rest standards for the pilots, have raised serious questions about the overall safety of these regional carriers.  Even Congress is making noises about getting involved with hearings.  Many companies are surveying their employees about their views on this issue.  It appears that to the average business travelers, they would gladly pay more for a ticket if it can assure them that the person in the cockpit is making more than the guy who just made their Frappuccinno Blended Creme in the airport Starbucks. 

Since the crash of the Colgan Air flight, operating under the auspices of Continental Airlines, followed up with hearings which suggested that the pilots were at fault because of simple lack of sleep due to a grinding schedule, more and more travelers are becoming wary of the small commuter plane.  And this is no trivial concern because of the huge number of business travelers who populate these regional carriers.  At present, there is some proposed legislation which would mandate identifying the actual regional carrier who is operating a flight and would tighten up hiring practices and safety standards. 

Even so, this doesn’t stop the input of those very travelers whose lives are on the line every day as they negotiate these regional flights and the difficulties accompanying them.  Twitter has been, for lack of a better term, atwitter with all kinds of suggestions geared toward creating a safer flying environment.  An award should be handed out for one enterprising soul who came up with this jewel: set up a crew tip jar at the point of deplaning. 

Back when I served on the grand jury, there was always one guy who would invariably ask, “Does this guy have a criminal history?”  As if that were the sole criteria upon which to vote for a true bill.  But pretty soon it may become necessary for the prospective homeowner to ask the seller or realtor if the house itself have a criminal history.  Rhonda and Jason Holt now wish they had asked. (more…)

OK, quick, just who was the greatest horse ever to hear his hooves rattle over the dirt on a Saturday afternoon?  Secretariat?  Bold Ruler?  Affirmed?  Man O’ War?  Forego?  Maybe Citation, Spectacular Bid or Swaps?  All true champions in their own right.  But for my money, the greatest horse had to be Dr. Fager.  Never heard of him?  It must be because of some conspiracy that has relegated the guy to the dustbin of racing history.  So, rather than listen to me, consider this from the legendary turf writer, Charles Hatton, writing about Dr. Fager in his “Profiles of Best Horses” column in the 1969 American Racing Manual, an influential publication that continues to issue year after year:

Dr. Fager was a singular performer as a four-year old in 1968.  He was appropriatedly awarded Horse of the Year honors, which is the ultimate accolade, and excelled in more departments and divisional titles than any other horse since THE DAILY RACING FORM and The Morning Telegraph poll was instituted in 1936.  William McKnight’s Tartan Stables homebred [Florida] also was proclaimed the handicap, turf and sprint champion all rolled into one.

Dr. Fager set and tied records from seven furlongs to a mile and a quarter, slashing the world mile mark to 1:32 1/5 en route.  He did everything with flair, though he was not tested at cup routes and his stamina was not incorruptible by the iconoclasts.  His prodigal wire to wire speed, his impartiality concerning track conditions, his bravery under fire and his ability to make light of enervating weights, elicited widespread acclaim.

In the course of the ‘68 season, Dr. Fager won the Roseben, Californian, Suburban, Whitney, Washington Park Handicap, United Nations and Vosburgh, and placed in the Brooklyn.  He won from seven furlongs to a mile and a quarter, under weights ranging from 130 to 139, carried 134 pounds a mile in 1:32 1/5, winning the Washington Park Handicap by 10 astonishing lengths, and gave Advocator 22 pounds and a beating in his only start on grass in the United Nations.  It required the combined efforts of Damascus and his surrogate, Hedevar, to negotiate his defeat in the Brooklyn, run in 1:59 1/5 for the 10 furlongs.  At three, the Tartan flyer won seven or nine starts, including the mile and a quarter New Hampshire Sweepstakes at Rockingham in track record time of 1:59 4/5. 

Conceivably, Dr. Fager was his own formidable foe.  Except for being at once arrogant, conceited, impetuous and ingenuous, he might have never known defeat.  A rank, headstrong individual who was a hard puller with a hard mouth, he always led trumps.  Little Willie Shoemaker, with his delicate hands, never really fit him.  Braulio Baeza got on fairly well with him, through cajolery and exercising care not to antagonize him.

Dr. Fager could never tolerate following a rival or stalking the pace once his blood was up, and his impatience had a low threshold.  Rival riders knew this and in the Woodward, when he was three, they made a dead set at getting him on the muscle early in the race, yelling alongside him and slapping their whips to excite him into excessive use of his resources.  Somewhat similarly, Hedevar had only to prompt him into the first turn to set him up for Damascus in the ‘68 Brooklyn. 

[Trainer John] Nerud was delighted, naturally, to find the colt had phenomenal speed at two - and he made the most of it.  Could he have foreseen what manner of horse Dr. Fager would become, the trainer might have endeavored to teach him to wait, rating behind horses in his work.  But then this tactic often hs the effect of confusing and at length discouraging a horse so taht he does nothing well. Considering Dr. Fager’s nettlesome, volatile nature, it is quite possible he would have been utterly spoiled and too hostile for any use.

So, that’s my choice for the greatest thoroughbred of the 20th century at least and all on the accomplishments of that one year of racing - 1968.  He won at any distance on any surface, carrying the unheard of weights of anywhere from 130 to 139.  Trainers today scream bloody murder when racing secretaries assign 120 pounds in a handicap race.  Dr. Fager would have taken the heads off the best runners if he were to go up against them today.  Tell me that horses don’t have the will to win.  Dr. Fager - #1.