Samson's Wig

Also true.

So this email was sent this morning, with CC's for anyone who ever took this woman's dance class. Names and locations redacted for one reason or another. Has to be a top 5 all time crazy-town resignation letter. The bolded segments are the author's literary choice, not mine. Maybe this should be its own thread, but holy shit I couldn't believe it when my wife showed it to me. People like this walk among us. She was teaching a class full of mostly Jewish women for seven years, and this is what was festering internally.

"HIgh vaccination coverage among adults" and "accessible and equal access to health services for everyone" seem to be two very important qualifying phrases from that Norway info. Those two thing shift the equation quite a bit from what we're dealing with here.

Adams brought in most of their roster. One of Beards guys didn't play until the final three minutes. It's Adams' team. No reason to pretend otherwise.

You are correct. Calling that Tech team Beard's is nonsense. But only Hobbes knows anything about basketball around here, so you should wait for him to chime in before you're certain.

The slide in the line for the game agrees with you. This much hype definitely sets the game up for an upset.

If you don't see these things you either don't pay attention to basketball or are willfully blind. And I think that is the case for many Longhorns where basketball is concerned, unfortunately. He never addressed the tech fanbase when he left. A simple "thanks for the memories" speech would have prevented most of the vitriol. He bailed on UNLV without every really showing up at all. It's a pattern. As for lying, he misled both the administration and the donors right up till he called them from Austin. All of this is public information. Dude is not a decent guy. That's okay. He wasn't hired to be a decent guy. But I understand why tech fans hate him. He's also been masterful at working the media. One of the most image driven coaches I've ever seen. This can be a great thing when it's in your favor. But look at that tweet posted above of the life-size bobble head doll of himself Beard ordered with athletic department money before he skipped town for Austin. That's the ego we're working with here. When things are going well, awesome, but he can turn into a nightmare when things aren't going his way. One minor example: As for Tech having more invested basketball fans than Texas? Yes, very much so, and it's been that way for a long time going back way before Beard was head coach there. They hit a slump under Pat Knight, but all in all they've been much more invested in basketball as a community than Texas going back well into the SWC days (when Texas had better fan support than it does now). Texas will continue to get one-and-done big name recruits and have the occasional success in the tourney, because Texas, but that's not an indication of fan support. Just reading this forum, and how few post here that know anything about college basketball, especially anything that happened before five to ten years ago, is a solid indicator. Part of tech's basketball fanbase is probably due to so many miserable years of football, whereas Texas has had a couple of places to hang their hat on that front over the decades at least. Tech fans can enjoy even a mediocre basketball team. Then factor in what has happened to Austin in terms of growth. Austin isn't a college town anymore (and hasn't been for a while), which is generally required to fill up basketball games and build energy. Student bodies? Well, let's just say those kids hurling vulgar epithets at the bus in Lubbock are more likely to produce a rowdy basketball crowd than our collection of engineering and Plan II kids.

If he leaves with class, the way a coach, or any other employee, should do - they'll probably be fine. Those who ignore the way Beard left Tech without a word, lying his butt off to those on the inside, never addressing the fan base or students before he skulked away in the night, have their head in the sand. Beard is a snake. Fortunately, he can coach basketball. Those who think he wouldn't do the same thing to Texas if a true basketball blue blood comes calling are delusional. Longhorn basketball fans will handle it better than Tech fans in large part because there just aren't very many longhorn basketball fans. There's a right way and a wrong way to move on to a new job, and his track record with UNLV and Tech proves he doesn't have the EQ or whatever it takes to do it right. Here's hoping he has success before he ducks out or he is run off.

The butter story came from Fran Fraschilla. Beard has an ego. Big deal. Most coaches do.

Tech fans are funneling a lot of hate into this particular game, but I also don't know of any who would want to go back in time and have Beard decide to stay. Whether Adams turns out to be the better coach or not remains to be seen, but the DNA of the program didn't get on the plane with Beard either, and that is why they're fired up about Adams. Adams is having a a better first seasons than Beard had in his last two at Tech. They have good reason for being excited. Texas also has good reason for being excited, but the turnaround here may take more than a season or two. Cultural shifts don't happen over night. Adams was a big part of what Beard did in Lubbock, so he was able to build off of what was there (even though there weren't many players left). Beard is starting cold.

Some of you old guys getting so butt-hurt over what a bunch of teenagers from Dallas are shouting in Lubbock may need to take a break from basketball. The way the energy for this thing is trending, Texas should be the favorite to win this one. They haven't been this worked up about playing Texas in basketball in the past, because if we're being honest it's just not that big of a game most years. UT is a football school and likely always will be. All of the anger is about the way Beard left, which too many seem to be clueless about, and not about the Longhorns. Beard is a great coach but not a great guy. Both programs will move on after this month.

If we're being honest, it's way more likely that he gets run out of town in a few years rather than he quits to go to Kentucky or the NBA. History is history. Like most successful coaches, he's egotistical to a level most of us could never understand. That might cause him to leave of his own volition to a program with better fan support, but if he's winning he'll be money whipped into staying. If he's not winning he'll be shown the door. It's definitely got to chap his ass that he can go out to eat in this town and not a single person will have clue who he is, though. Not what he's been used to. Beard burned bridges with napalm in West Texas on his way out the door, including with big donors, and actively worked to undermine Tech's program after he left. Tech fans are right to be pissed at him. If he had left graciously there would still be some anger, but nothing like we're seeing. His latest media massaging with Rick Barnes' return to Austin has been comical, but it seems to be working with the idiots in the press. Barnes was run out of town, just like Shaka, and probably like Beard will be in a few years. Texas fans have zero reason for ill will towards Barnes, and a lot of time has passed. Trying to equate his return to what's happening tomorrow is ridiculous on its face. Beard will get booed and he will deserve it. That's likely all that will happen. His leaving was not a typical "just doing business" move. He made the right call in leaving, of course, but he didn't handle it well at all. The team he had in Lubbock were all about to bail if he stayed and his star was fading with the fans there with each passing year after that NC final run. This season would have been disastrous for him had he stayed. HIs leash would have been longer in Lubbock than the one he has now, however. That Lubbock arena is a tough place to play no matter who walks in. It was loud as fuck on Saturday night for Miss. State. It might be louder tomorrow, but not by much. Tech has their program rolling.

No true Texan would ever do that.

What kind of insane person ever turns their heat above 68 degrees?

Can't an Irishman get drunk and fight strangers without worrying about being stabbed anymore?

son of a bitch (at least it's not in the 1000s - yet)

I grew up in the country just outside of town, and asshole city folks dropped their unwanted dogs out there all the time, making themselves feel better by assuming some "kind country folk" would take them in. They packed up and roamed, and most ended up on the other end of a shotgun unfortunately. Anyone who would dump a dog, or any other domesticated creature, to fend for itself is a sick fuck. As for why the guy had a gun, I can't say, but I did live in New Mexico for one terrible stretch and the asshole across the street had a muscled up aggressive pit bull that got out of his yard on occasion. I didn't keep a gun on my belt when I went out to smoke, but I did keep a lead pipe right inside the garage door. Sure enough, the dog got out one day when my dog and I were in the garage, and it came tearing across the street and attacked my dog and me. Neighbor was really pissed when I dropped the dog on his porch. Threatened to shoot me. God I hate New Mexico.

Anecdotal and probably nonsense, but our neighborhood pooled and paid for private security patrols starting in December. Crime dropped to almost nothing, including the disappearance of porch pirates leading up to Christmas. Too many easier targets out there I guess. The police funding issue is obnoxious and the typical arguments involve one side not knowing that the police funding is intact (because of the state) while the other side pretends like the reduced police force, anti-police protests, and a complete wet rag of a DA have nothing to do with what anyone who lives here knows is a sharp uptick in property crime. We've collectively decided that property crime doesn't really matter, which is a lot like a handful of other cities I've lived in with similar politics. I don't like it, but accept it as the way it goes. Better than electing a bunch of Mackenzie Kelly types to run things.

Much of that land has not been annexed, and yes you can still bow hunt some of it (with permission from property owners). I'm surprised how many people who live in this area don't know this. However, based on the images of these deer it doesn't look like experienced bow hunters doing this. My money is on teenagers.

Lyme disease is real and increasing in TX. Deer spread it, along with a number of other diseases by way of ticks. I'm not advocating culling them, even though they are without questions a nuisance, but I think the people who think they're Bambi and feed them are naive.

There is private land where hunting is legal close enough that an arrowed deer could wander back into the city. I don't think that's what is going on here, but it has undoubtedly happened at one point or another. It's most likely kids or homeless folks, but could be some nutbag fed up with the deer feeding dumbasses in NW Austin who think it's cool to have a bunch of disease spreading vermin wandering around because they're cute. They need to catch whoever is doing this as it's cruel, but the enabling jackwagons who create the initial problem should also be held to task. They never will be, so some vigilante asswipe likely decided to do something about it but isn't any good at it.

This has a great breakdown, in Gladwell's simplistic style for dummies, on why this type of policing has been difficult to implement around the country. The concept has been around for a while, but most cities don't utilize it.

I think football culture as a deciding factor for academically driven kids is dwindling, as is greek culture on college campuses. Both of those had a major impact for a long time, and as fatty mentioned it plays out in hiring by those generations as well. Anyone who thinks an education from LSU, Alabama, or Aggie somehow equates to bonus points on a job application has clearly been brainwashed by football. But those types of folks won't be doing a lot of hiring for much longer.

Good thing we're criminalizing abortion again, letting criminals out on low/no bail, and putting lead back in our gasoline. Time to buy some firearms!