Scattershooting Again / A Former Cowboy Decides To Ride Back In

Here this writer goes again with another venture into this multi-tasking exercise known as Scattershooting, frequently right here on this cozy arcade called City-Data, where it's great to be alive. When you start to absorb this paragraph, then you can go to the next one. Good thing about America is, you can just take your sweet time as you read this.

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The fire is burning inside a guy who once played NFL football. The burn runs as deep as a cavern. Getting back to the playing field is what he wants very badly.

I've seen the mixed reactions, but the majority of opinions have been negative and skeptical. Such describes a former Dallas Cowboy tight end becoming a current Cowboy all over again. Jason Witten is coming back to play. Except, now, he may be focused a little more on the coaching aspect of playing. Skip Bayless of ESPN pointed out that Witten would be "good for the locker room." What the Cowboys don't really need is tight end-by-committee, but Witten is capable of also making plays as a lineman.

Even if the Dallas Cowboys do make the Super Bowl this next season, it could be done even without Jason Witten, but how can you resist? Witten will go down as one of the all-time greats for Dallas, but his tight end production had declined in the waning years of his playing days. Out of love for the game and, he believes, with a golden opportunity, he walks away from the broadcast booth after only one year to go back to the football field in a Cowboys uniform.

Said fire burning very brightly right now.

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Talk about a bluff being called. A few weeks ago, I stopped into a Lewisville Taco Casa one night to get some grub. Slight problem, however; the lights were on, but the people parked next to me tried to go in, and the attendant inside told them that the restaurant is closed. I asked them if this was permanent, and they said, "Yes". They told me not to bother going in. There were, oddly, no big pieces of paper saying FOR LEASE anywhere to be found. So I drove away.

This scene was a few weeks ago. Well, I drove by Taco Casa several more times in the coming days and saw cars parked there. The signs were very much still up. Maybe what happened a few weeks ago was (and I'm just speculating) the staff may have had a shortage that night. Or the machines were on the blink. Whatever the reason was (and the people parked next to me did not say what was wrong), this location survived. And Ol' Case was spotted at Taco Casa a few nights ago to grab some crispy beef tacos.........

...........as if they've never closed.

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A number of notable deaths have occurred in the last few weeks. You and I hate to see that, but then, this just happens to be part of life. Passings recently include:

Mac Wiseman - One of the most prominent of bluegrass artists, and also founded the Country Music Association. 93, kidney problems.

Katherine Helmond - Acted in a couple of high-rated ABC-TV sitcoms, "Who's The Boss?" and "Soap". Also had a sex symbol body, or she definitely gave the impression of that in the two real successful TV shows. A Galvestion native, she died at 89 from complications at the hands of Alzheimer's.

Doug Johnson - Those of you outside of Houston will likely not know who he is. For Southeast Texas TV viewers, he was the weatherman on weeknights at KPRC-TV (Channel 2), a role he held for 33 years. When he was on, you had to keep your eye on the Gulf of Mexico, as he had a knack for accurately predicting hurricane activity. Died right after New Year's Day at age 79.

And we've just had another one....

Luke Perry - I was as shocked as anyone else when I found out. Once a teen idol, he most recently starred in the CW series "Riverdale". His death stemmed from complications following a stroke suffered a week ago. He was only 52 years of age. That's way too young to go.

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The man of quotable quotes, one Benjamin Franklin, is someone whom you'd never think, "Well, he certainly didn't say that!" I just found this little snippet on the internet that proves that Ben Franklin, in fact, did not say the following quotes:

https://www.fi.edu/benjamin-franklin...lin-never-said

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Barry Corbin might not have gotten it right. We take too much for granted in Texas radio, but station KPLX-FM (99.5), known in Dallas as The Wolf, is not factually correct during the station identifications at the top of every hour. For years, the honchos have used the services of actor Barry Corbin, lending his voice for the good of the station.

"It's X o'clock in Texas". You fill your own number in.

There is, however, one problem: There are two time zones in the state of Texas. What the folks at KPLX forget is that El Paso is located in the Mountain Time Zone, while the other large Texas cities are in the Central Time Zone. So, in all literal sense, it's not 8 o'clock in Texas (as I write this column). It's just 8 p.m. in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Look, I hate to be technical, but....

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Highway news now: Interstate 49 in Northwest Arkansas may be effectively finished in that part of the world, but a lot of work still needs to be done between I-40 and Texarkana. And despite its incompletion, what is finished needs to be updated to current form. The aforementioned stretch of I-49 still has a mile marker configuration reflecting that of the old I-540 routing. It's high time that Arkansas transportation officials come to their senses and change the mile markers to what 49's future intended arrangement. At its completed form, the highway's mile markers should be up in the 200 range once you're up in the Fayetteville-Bentonville area.

Please, Arkansans, get the dang thing updated.

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Does anyone else believe that the Bryce Harper-Philadelphia Phillies contract deal is just way too excessive? Thirteen years on that puppy, with a cost of $330 million that the Phillies must shell out. What if Harper has a career-threatening injury at some point, and it's at a point long before his contract ends?? Deals like this one may be an attention-getter for baseball, but they're too risky. A simple five-year deal for a similar yearly amount would have been fine and easier to manage.

Harper will be a nice addition in Philadelphia, but if something bad should happen, then you'll hear it from their illustrious boo-birds.

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Here's something that Philly's boo-birds (and any others) should be giving the thumbs down to, and that's the stupid Green New Deal that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is proposing in order to take down our country. It's actually better to be called the Green/Yellow New Deal, as part of the plan involves recycling human urine. Oh, yeah, that's going to be real refreshing. That urine is to be intended for consumption. Makes me throw up at the very thought, as wince is not a strong-enough word here. It's bad enough that the left has an agenda to take your guns away, but now, you can add airplanes and beef to that list. That's right; AOC wants to outlaw planes and airports whenever we travel. Their ilk want to also take away your steaks and hamburgers because, in their eyes, "we're just eating too many of them anyway" under the guise of "saving the planet".

Well, the good news is that this plan might not be gaining the traction that was thought to be going on. Cortez was spotted recently with an associate at a restaurant. Guess what an undercover photographer spotted at the table? A hamburger. That's right, sports fans, the very thing that the left wants to take away from us in the Green/Yellow New Deal.

Nothing like left-wing hypocrisy to infiltrate the masses. This cancer has got to be stopped.

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It's never too early to think about summer, and Amazon just happens to come out with a deal on swimsuit fashions. Check this out:

https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/14...s-rave-reviews

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For so many years, I've missed out on Leslie Nielsen doing interviews on national and international talk shows. And there's a quirk I've never know for that same amount of time, and that's this: Nielsen neatly used flatulence during those interviews. No, he didn't really..................do it , but he brought a pooter with him to the events to mess around with the show hosts and see how they would react.

Don't believe me?? Fine, but I invite you to go on YouTube and check them out. Leslie Nielsen, the late great star of "Police Squad" and those Naked Gun movies, making flatulence..............., well, cool.

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Wouldn't you know it? McDonald's and Dunkin Donuts are getting into a kerfuffle over the former's new donut product, recently added to their repertoire.

https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/d...r-donut-sticks

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Can you imagine Willie...........and Bacharach..........together?

No, it's not happening right now (that I know of), but it's just an idle thought. Burt Bacharach and Willie Nelson, two musicians who couldn't have less in common, getting together for songs. I'm trying to picture in my mind Willie making an attempt at "Alfie". That'd be hilarious.

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On my impending East Texas trip in a couple of weeks, one of the places I hope to stop at is actually a chain, and one I never knew existed until recently.

That restaurant is a seafood place, The Catch. They'll have two locations in Tyler worth trying. Before I could get a chance to try the place out, their Flower Mound location just closed. Unlike the Taco Casa misunderstanding mentioned earlier, this situation here is for real.

https://communityimpact.com/local-ne...-flower-mound/

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Remember former TV great Gene Rayburn? I still sometimes see a little game show called "The Match Game", especially the version which played on CBS-TV in the 1970s, on YouTube. Who couldn't help but have a little fun with the blanks?

I saw the police officer helping the old lady cross the street all the way to the ____.

The sun is setting tonight, and you can see the different ____ on the horizon.

Blake's pet goat likes to eat everything. So Blake decided to put him on a ____.

The outfielder was chasing a fly ball, and he had trouble finding the ball. He said that the ____ was in his eyes.

Delilah could not convince Samson to get a haircut, and, so, Delilah got him a brand-new ____.

You know I couldn't help it!

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I'll leave you from this excursion with something Ben Franklin did say, and it still holds true today. Early to bed and early to rise makes a man (or a woman) healthy, wealthy, and wise. All the best from a guy with discovered electricity and knew how to fly a ____.

Where's Richard Dawson when you need him?

And there you are.