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Friday, January 31, 2014

WHITT'S END: 1.31.14

      Whether you're at the end of your coffee, your day, your week or even your rope, welcome to Whitt's End:

   *Where does Michael Young rank on the list of all-time greatest Rangers? ...

   *Another sappy Super Bowl commercial that makes zero sense and a ton of dollars ...

   *Something we were shocked to see none of in Australia was ...

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Thursday, January 30, 2014

WHITT'S END: 1.30.14

      Whether you're at the end of your coffee, your day, your week or even your rope, welcome to Whitt's End:

   *The one thing Dirk didn't do in last night's loss to the Rockets ...

   *Wanna make a quick, easy $300+? Here's how ...

   *What do they call Burger King in Australia? ...

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Wednesday, January 29, 2014

WHITT'S END: 1.29.14

      Whether you're at the end of your coffee, your day, your week or even your rope, welcome to Whitt's End:

   *So the Cowboys' solution is more cooks in an already clustereffed kitchen? ...

   *This unlikely duo shockingly beating The Ticket's BaD Radio in December ratings ...

   *Something I've said all my life, but probably will never utter again ...


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Tuesday, January 28, 2014

The South Pacific's Wide World of (Very Un-American) Sports

   ... Annnnd we're back.
   So last night my new newly minted wife and I were re-entering North America's atmosphere after 18 days abroad when a couple things hit me:
   *Taking off from Fiji at 9:45 p.m. on Monday, flying for 13 hours, and then landing at Love Field at 7:45 p.m. on, um, Monday is just plain weird. My head and my iPhone's clock/calendar are still spinning.
   *It's extremely rude for DFW to welcome us back with wind chills in the teens. One day we're on the beach in 92-degree heat and humidity; the next same day our shorts and sunburns are shivering.
   *Whatdya know, it's Super Bowl Media Day.
   As Americans we're pretty confident the world rotates around our axis. And to some degree it does. There are four McDonald's in Tahiti and Kim Kardashian's ass-et graced the cover of some magazine in Fiji. But one thing became abundantly clear as we vacationed our way through Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, New Zealand, Australia and Fiji - the rest of the world (or at least the South Pacific) doesn't give a Bula! about sports in the United States.
   Instead, they're consumed with ...

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Monday, January 27, 2014

VACATIONWEDDINGHONEYMOON - DAY 18* - FIJI to LAX to ALBUQUERQUE to DFW

   Because we kinda like each other and because I love punching holes in conventional wisdom/cliched thinking such as "Don't dip your pen in the company ink!", Sybil and I fell in love in radio and are now getting married in paradise.
   Our South Pacific wedding/honeymoon will take us south of the Equator, east of the International Date Line and across 6 countries, 10 time zones and 11 airports over 18 days. By the time we return we'll have gotten hitched, seen a major sporting event, gotten totally confused by our tweaked and then re-adjusted clocks/calendars, and likely be zapped of both money and energy.
   There'll be pics and stories and more pics on this here blog when we get back in late January. Until then I'll provide a pseudo-itinerary and outline of where we'll be and perhaps what the what we're planning on doing.


   Mind. Double. Blown.
   Remember back on Day 8 when we sorta absolutely lost a full day traveling over the International Date Line on our way from Tahiti to New Zealand? Yeah, well, this is where we get that time back.
   And where it becomes the longest "day" of our lives ...


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BEST OF: Nope Springs Eternal 3.4.2010

   Just because Sybil and I are out frolicking in the South Pacific, couldn't leave you guys hanging. So while I'm gone let's do what the syndicated radio shows do. Yeah, a little "best of ..."
   I'll post some of my favorite stories from the past and before you know it I'll be back live and in living color with tales from abroad.
   Thanks again for your patronage, your patience and your understanding of my honeymoon sabbatical.


NOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL
By Richie Whitt
Dallas Observer
March 4, 2010

   Having survived diabetes, a lower leg amputation, a hernia, kidney transplant and eight years in the National Football League, this is merely a trifle on Ron Springs’ medical odyssey.
    Simple surgery to remove a quarter-sized, sebaceous, benign cyst from his left forearm? Just another mundane errand on life’s to-do list.
   “Don’t worry,” Springs tells his wife, Adriane, on the afternoon of Oct. 12, 2007, “we’ll be home in time for dinner.”
   And with that, at approximately 4 p.m., Springs is wheeled into a Medical City of Dallas’ Building A, third-floor operating suite. Springs waits patiently in room No. 14 until he is greeted around 4:15 by plastic surgeon Dr. David Godat.
   “How ‘bout Stanford beating USC?” the doctor offers on last weekend’s major college football upset. “Crazy.”
   As Godat leaves for a short break in his office before the scheduled 5 p.m. procedure, Springs contemplates his pickle. He’s not exactly nervous, but pensive. Anxious, even.
   The problem area is more of a chronic, necrotic wound – a by-product of diabetes – that’s been bugging him for months. About an inch deep, it resides near Springs’ elbow, constantly irritating and itching and sometimes secreting a thick, yellow, fungal discharge. It’s as pesky as it is gross, but it’s about to be scraped to smithereens.
   Springs, whose hands and arms have curled into almost useless claws as a result of diabetes, seeks relief from a contractures specialist, but Dallas’ Dr. Bo Frederick refuses to perform the surgery until the potentially infectious spot is permanently removed. Eight days ago Springs consulted Medical City wound care specialist Dr. Laurie Aten, who referred him to Dr. Godat.
   The cyst was almost debrided twice in the last week (once in Dr. Aten’s office and once in Dr. Godat’s), but on both occasions Springs was unable to tolerate the pain despite Dr. Godat administering a local anesthesia to the arm. Surgery is the last resort.
   At 4:20 Dr. Joyce Abraham of the Texas Anesthesia Group arrives. She called Springs’ Plano home last night, but since the couple was out to dinner at Luby’s she merely left a message about today’s proceedings. She elects general anesthesia and prepares to induce Springs via LMA (Laryngeal Mask Anesthesia).
   Easing Springs’ mind is the fact that Dr. Abraham and Dr. Godat have worked together in concert approximately 25 times over the last three-plus weeks. His transplant and amputation surgeries were performed without hiccup at Medical City. And besides, he is one of the hospital’s poster boys – a former Dallas Cowboys’ hero and a nationally lauded recipient of the first kidney to change bodies from professional teammates, donated by former Cowboy and close friend Everson Walls.
   What could possibly go wrong?
   At 4:37 Dr. Abraham places an IV in Springs’ neck, prepares a knockout cocktail of Propofol, Lidocaine and Fentanyl, and commences anesthesia …
   The cruel irony to this all-time feel-good-to-fucked-up story:
   Springs’ left kidney works just fine ...


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VACATIONWEDDINGHONEYMOON - DAY 18 - FIJI

   Because we kinda like each other and because I love punching holes in conventional wisdom/cliched thinking such as "Don't dip your pen in the company ink!", Sybil and I fell in love in radio and are now getting married in paradise.
   Our South Pacific wedding/honeymoon will take us south of the Equator, east of the International Date Line and across 6 countries, 10 time zones and 11 airports over 18 days. By the time we return we'll have gotten hitched, seen a major sporting event, gotten totally confused by our tweaked and then re-adjusted clocks/calendars, and likely be zapped of both money and energy.
   There'll be pics and stories and more pics on this here blog when we get back in late January. Until then I'll provide a pseudo-itinerary and outline of where we'll be and perhaps what the what we're planning on doing.


   As we're only days away from trading Utopia for Uptown, what a better place to check out than the ...


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Sunday, January 26, 2014

VACATIONWEDDINGHONEYMOON - DAY 17 - FIJI

   Because we kinda like each other and because I love punching holes in conventional wisdom/cliched thinking such as "Don't dip your pen in the company ink!", Sybil and I fell in love in radio and are now getting married in paradise.
   Our South Pacific wedding/honeymoon will take us south of the Equator, east of the International Date Line and across 6 countries, 10 time zones and 11 airports over 18 days. By the time we return we'll have gotten hitched, seen a major sporting event, gotten totally confused by our tweaked and then re-adjusted clocks/calendars, and likely be zapped of both money and energy.
   There'll be pics and stories and more pics on this here blog when we get back in late January. Until then I'll provide a pseudo-itinerary and outline of where we'll be and perhaps what the what we're planning on doing.


   It's a long-ass flight from Down Under to Back Home, so, I know, let's stop for a couple more play days in Fiji ...

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Saturday, January 25, 2014

VACATIONWEDDINGHONEYMOON - DAY 16 - SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

   Because we kinda like each other and because I love punching holes in conventional wisdom/cliched thinking such as "Don't dip your pen in the company ink!", Sybil and I fell in love in radio and are now getting married in paradise.
   Our South Pacific wedding/honeymoon will take us south of the Equator, east of the International Date Line and across 6 countries, 10 time zones and 11 airports over 18 days. By the time we return we'll have gotten hitched, seen a major sporting event, gotten totally confused by our tweaked and then re-adjusted clocks/calendars, and likely be zapped of both money and energy.
   There'll be pics and stories and more pics on this here blog when we get back in late January. Until then I'll provide a pseudo-itinerary and outline of where we'll be and perhaps what the what we're planning on doing.


   Gotta spend some quality time on famous Bondi Beach, home to ...

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Friday, January 24, 2014

BEST OF: I Smell A McRat 11.23.2006

   Just because Sybil and I are out frolicking in the South Pacific, couldn't leave you guys hanging. So while I'm gone let's do what the syndicated radio shows do. Yeah, a little "best of ..."
   I'll post some of my favorite stories from the past and before you know it I'll be back live and in living color with tales from abroad.
   Thanks again for your patronage, your patience and your understanding of my honeymoon sabbatical.


I SMELL A McRAT
By Richie Whitt
Dallas Observer
November 23, 2006

   First, a rat. Next, a load of bullshit.
   Can't wait to see what McDonald's serves up for Thanksgiving.
   See, Chrissy Haley isn't suing the Southlake McDonald's and its corporate parent for $1.7 million just because she and her nanny found a dead rat in her Bacon Ranch Salad last summer. It's because, in the aftermath, the restaurant spouting family values has acted conniving, uncooperative, ignorant, apathetic and downright dishonest, almost as if it didn't give a rat's ass about customers.
   All the wife of Dallas Cowboys assistant coach Todd Haley sought was an acknowledgment. An apology. Some peace of mind. But given McDonald's indifference, Chrissy's left with physical side effects from drastically altered eating habits, psychological side effects from the uncertainty of diseases the rat carried and, in the end, a drastic attempt to challenge the credibility of one of America's most powerful and popular institutions ...

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VACATIONWEDDINGHONEYMOON - DAY 15 - SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

   Because we kinda like each other and because I love punching holes in conventional wisdom/cliched thinking such as "Don't dip your pen in the company ink!", Sybil and I fell in love in radio and are now getting married in paradise.
   Our South Pacific wedding/honeymoon will take us south of the Equator, east of the International Date Line and across 6 countries, 10 time zones and 11 airports over 18 days. By the time we return we'll have gotten hitched, seen a major sporting event, gotten totally confused by our tweaked and then re-adjusted clocks/calendars, and likely be zapped of both money and energy.
   There'll be pics and stories and more pics on this here blog when we get back in late January. Until then I'll provide a pseudo-itinerary and outline of where we'll be and perhaps what the what we're planning on doing.


   One of the things I love about Sybil is her sense of adventure. She gets bored easy, but she's get jazzed by trying anything new ...


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Thursday, January 23, 2014

BEST OF: Gunning For A Change 12.15.2012

   Just because Sybil and I are out frolicking in the South Pacific, couldn't leave you guys hanging. So while I'm gone let's do what the syndicated radio shows do. Yeah, a little "best of ..."
   I'll post some of my favorite stories from the past and before you know it I'll be back live and in living color with tales from abroad.
   Thanks again for your patronage, your patience and your understanding of my honeymoon sabbatical.

GUNNING FOR CHANGE
By Richie Whitt
CBSDFW
December 15, 2012

   Things I desperately do not want for Christmas:
   1. A gun.
   2. Bullets.
   3. Another mass murder of innocent Americans.
   4. More guns.
   5. A gun.
   I acknowledge and respect that I’m smack dab in the red-state, red-blooded center of God ‘n Guns Texas, where we’re brainwashed from birth into thinking you’re only a macho man’s man if you drive a pickup equipped with a gun rack. But if last Friday’s mass murder in Newtown, Connecticut isn’t the tipping point for – at the very least – a legit, open-minded referendum on gun control in America then I cringe at what it will take ...

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VACATIONWEDDINGHONEYMOON - DAY 14 - SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

   Because we kinda like each other and because I love punching holes in conventional wisdom/cliched thinking such as "Don't dip your pen in the company ink!", Sybil and I fell in love in radio and are now getting married in paradise.
   Our South Pacific wedding/honeymoon will take us south of the Equator, east of the International Date Line and across 6 countries, 10 time zones and 11 airports over 18 days. By the time we return we'll have gotten hitched, seen a major sporting event, gotten totally confused by our tweaked and then re-adjusted clocks/calendars, and likely be zapped of both money and energy.
   There'll be pics and stories and more pics on this here blog when we get back in late January. Until then I'll provide a pseudo-itinerary and outline of where we'll be and perhaps what the what we're planning on doing.


    Do we spend the day seeing all the stuff that's there? Or spend a day seeing all the stuff that's not there? ...


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Wednesday, January 22, 2014

BEST OF: Shush Martin 7.30.2009

   Just because Sybil and I are out frolicking in the South Pacific, couldn't leave you guys hanging. So while I'm gone let's do what the syndicated radio shows do. Yeah, a little "best of ..."
   I'll post some of my favorite stories from the past and before you know it I'll be back live and in living color with tales from abroad.
   Thanks again for your patronage, your patience and your understanding of my honeymoon sabbatical.


SHUSH MARTIN
By Richie Whitt
Dallas Observer
July 30, 2009

   Russ Martin is a jackass.
   He’s a vulgar, passive-aggressive, pompous bully who for years physically and psychologically tormented his Dallas radio co-workers to gain fame and fortune.
   “Stuff he’d say to us on the air he wouldn’t say to us in the hall, because he’s a coward,” says J.D. Ryan, Martin’s radio right-hand man for 25 years. “To him everything was a bit, but eventually he crossed the line. It became personal. He made it clear that being successful wasn’t enough. For him to be truly happy, those around him also had to fail miserably.”

   Russ Martin is a hero.
   He’s a talented, wildly popular, temporarily shelved talk-show personality and tireless philanthropist who for years promoted animal rights and raised money for the families of fallen policemen and firefighters.
   “I consider him a friend, and I’ve always respected his unique style,” says Dallas Police Chief David Kunkel. “He always came to the defense of the cops, sometimes when nobody else was. Sometimes even at the expense of his own popularity.”

   Russ Martin is a criminal.
   Charged—via Cause No. 1120508—with kicking, pushing and pulling out the hair of ex-fiancée Mandy Blake in July 2008, Martin pled “no contest” to misdemeanor charges in Tarrant County on July 10. Initially arrested for felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, he for months boasted his innocence. But, according to two sources close to Martin, after a brief reconciliation during which Blake moved into his $3 million Frisco mansion and wore his $30,000 engagement ring the couple broke up in late June, injecting him with fears of her “loose cannon” element on the witness stand. By accepting a plea bargain of deferred adjudication and two years’ probation, Martin avoided a trial and possible jail time but also absorbed the stigma of guilt in that he did not, after all, refute the charges against him. If he completes his probation – which includes a $1,000 fine and battering intervention counseling – there will be no conviction on his record.
   “When we’re able to work out a plea to get someone counseling, we’re going to take that position,” Tarrant County District Attorney’s Family Violence Unit chief Sean Colston said after the deal. “We consider a situation where someone is going to be monitored for two years a good resolution.”

   But above all else, Russ Martin is an enigma. ...

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VACATIONWEDDINGHONEYMOON - DAY 13 - SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

   Because we kinda like each other and because I love punching holes in conventional wisdom/cliched thinking such as "Don't dip your pen in the company ink!", Sybil and I fell in love in radio and are now getting married in paradise.
   Our South Pacific wedding/honeymoon will take us south of the Equator, east of the International Date Line and across 6 countries, 10 time zones and 11 airports over 18 days. By the time we return we'll have gotten hitched, seen a major sporting event, gotten totally confused by our tweaked and then re-adjusted clocks/calendars, and likely be zapped of both money and energy.
   There'll be pics and stories and more pics on this here blog when we get back in late January. Until then I'll provide a pseudo-itinerary and outline of where we'll be and perhaps what the what we're planning on doing.


   A 90-minute flight east will take us to the most populated city in Australia - Sydney ...

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Tuesday, January 21, 2014

BEST OF: Only The Good Die Young 8.15.2005

   Just because Sybil and I are out frolicking in the South Pacific, couldn't leave you guys hanging. So while I'm gone let's do what the syndicated radio shows do. Yeah, a little "best of ..."
   I'll post some of my favorite stories from the past and before you know it I'll be back live and in living color with tales from abroad.
   Thanks again for your patronage, your patience and your understanding of my honeymoon sabbatical.


Only The Good Die Young
By Richie Whitt
Avid Golfer
August 15, 2005

   Hug your kids and hold on to your faith.
   Because sometimes, defying infinite odds and surely God’s will, very bad things happen to very good children.
   “Chandler lived so fast, played so hard, loved so much,” trembles the voice of father Rick Jackson between trickles of tears. “It’s like he knew he was a special angel … one that would only be on this Earth a short time.”
   Chandler Hugh Jackson hit, caught, threw, dived, kicked, leaped, rolled, birdied, danced, sang, prayed, joked, laughed, loved and crow-barred 12 lifetimes into his 12 years.
   Then, just like that – before you could comprehend his present or calculate his future – he was gone. In a tree-lined Kentucky ditch on a July 6 blackened with morbid misery and mind-boggling mystery, Chandler instead became the next All-American Tragedy ...

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VACATIONWEDDINGHONEYMOON - DAY 12 - MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

   Because we kinda like each other and because I love punching holes in conventional wisdom/cliched thinking such as "Don't dip your pen in the company ink!", Sybil and I fell in love in radio and are now getting married in paradise.
   Our South Pacific wedding/honeymoon will take us south of the Equator, east of the International Date Line and across 6 countries, 10 time zones and 11 airports over 18 days. By the time we return we'll have gotten hitched, seen a major sporting event, gotten totally confused by our tweaked and then re-adjusted clocks/calendars, and likely be zapped of both money and energy.
   There'll be pics and stories and more pics on this here blog when we get back in late January. Until then I'll provide a pseudo-itinerary and outline of where we'll be and perhaps what the what we're planning on doing.


   After a day in and around Melbourne Park, I'm feeling a night of sightseeing from one of the tallest, coolest, scariest observation points in the world ...


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Monday, January 20, 2014

BEST OF: Special Delivery 3.5.2009

   Just because Sybil and I are out frolicking in the South Pacific, couldn't leave you guys hanging. So while I'm gone let's do what the syndicated radio shows do. Yeah, a little "best of ..."
   I'll post some of my favorite stories from the past and before you know it I'll be back live and in living color with tales from abroad.
   Thanks again for your patronage, your patience and your understanding of my honeymoon sabbatical.


SPECIAL DELIVERY
By Richie Whitt
Dallas Observer
March 5, 2009

   My new hero is Eric. He plays for my new favorite sports team: The special education squad from DallasConrad High School.
   Seemingly an odd choice, because this year Eric probably won’t score many baskets and Conrad likely won’t win many games. Utterly immaterial, because they’ve already completed a perfect season.
   Autism be damned.
   I went to the Texas Special Olympics/ Dallas Area basketball tournament last weekend in Allen and Lucas seeking a good story from what I figured was a great cause. What’d I find?
   A whole, new perspective ...



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VACATIONWEDDINGHONEYMOON - DAY 11 - MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

   Because we kinda like each other and because I love punching holes in conventional wisdom/cliched thinking such as "Don't dip your pen in the company ink!", Sybil and I fell in love in radio and are now getting married in paradise.
   Our South Pacific wedding/honeymoon will take us south of the Equator, east of the International Date Line and across 6 countries, 10 time zones and 11 airports over 18 days. By the time we return we'll have gotten hitched, seen a major sporting event, gotten totally confused by our tweaked and then re-adjusted clocks/calendars, and likely be zapped of both money and energy.
   There'll be pics and stories and more pics on this here blog when we get back in late January. Until then I'll provide a pseudo-itinerary and outline of where we'll be and perhaps what the what we're planning on doing.


   I'm an admitted tennis geek. I love to play and watch and attend. Been to the U.S. Open. Been to Wimbledon. And, as of tonight, I'll have been to the Australian Open ...


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Sunday, January 19, 2014

VACATIONWEDDINGHONEYMOON - DAY 10 - MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

   Because we kinda like each other and because I love punching holes in conventional wisdom/cliched thinking such as "Don't dip your pen in the company ink!", Sybil and I fell in love in radio and are now getting married in paradise.
   Our South Pacific wedding/honeymoon will take us south of the Equator, east of the International Date Line and across 6 countries, 10 time zones and 11 airports over 18 days. By the time we return we'll have gotten hitched, seen a major sporting event, gotten totally confused by our tweaked and then re-adjusted clocks/calendars, and likely be zapped of both money and energy.
   There'll be pics and stories and more pics on this here blog when we get back in late January. Until then I'll provide a pseudo-itinerary and outline of where we'll be and perhaps what the what we're planning on doing.


    Topless tourists Down Under? ...

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Saturday, January 18, 2014

VACATIONWEDDINGHONEYMOON - DAY 9 - NEW ZEALAND

   Because we kinda like each other and because I love punching holes in conventional wisdom/cliched thinking such as "Don't dip your pen in the company ink!", Sybil and I fell in love in radio and are now getting married in paradise.
   Our South Pacific wedding/honeymoon will take us south of the Equator, east of the International Date Line and across 6 countries, 10 time zones and 11 airports over 18 days. By the time we return we'll have gotten hitched, seen a major sporting event, gotten totally confused by our tweaked and then re-adjusted clocks/calendars, and likely be zapped of both money and energy.
   There'll be pics and stories and more pics on this here blog when we get back in late January. Until then I'll provide a pseudo-itinerary and outline of where we'll be and perhaps what the what we're planning on doing.


   Too bad Australian Rules Football or "Footy" is in its off-season here during the summer, because I'd totally go to a game featuring the world's best athletes. Instead ...

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Friday, January 17, 2014

BEST OF: Mark Cuban's Having a Ball 2.13.2000

   Just because Sybil and I are out frolicking in the South Pacific, couldn't leave you guys hanging. So while I'm gone let's do what the syndicated radio shows do. Yeah, a little "best of ..."
   I'll post some of my favorite stories from the past and before you know it I'll be back live and in living color with tales from abroad.
   Thanks again for your patronage, your patience and your understanding of my honeymoon sabbatical.


HAVING A BALL
By Richie Whitt
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
February 13, 2000

   Mark Cuban has enough dollars to afford the world's largest
living room. Even more valuable, he has enough sense to know how to live in it.
   One of the countless "oh-my-gosh!" gaudy rooms in his $16 million,
24,000-square-foot mansion, the formal room is as big as a high school gym.
It has an intricately designed marble floor, ornate wood columns stretching to a 20-foot ceiling, a fireplace big enough to hold a Hyundai and two blinding crystal chandeliers.
   But nothing says more about the new owner of the Mavericks than the only
furniture in the room: a $1.99 plastic yellow Wiffle-ball bat.
    "This is home plate," Cuban exclaimed, pointing to the corner, "and anything off the chandelier is an automatic homer." ...



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VACATIONWEDDINGHONEYMOON - DAY 8* - NEW ZEALAND

   Because we kinda like each other and because I love punching holes in conventional wisdom/cliched thinking such as "Don't dip your pen in the company ink!", Sybil and I fell in love in radio and are now getting married in paradise.
   Our South Pacific wedding/honeymoon will take us south of the Equator, east of the International Date Line and across 6 countries, 10 time zones and 11 airports over 18 days. By the time we return we'll have gotten hitched, seen a major sporting event, gotten totally confused by our tweaked and then re-adjusted clocks/calendars, and likely be zapped of both money and energy.
   There'll be pics and stories and more pics on this here blog when we get back in late January. Until then I'll provide a pseudo-itinerary and outline of where we'll be and perhaps what the what we're planning on doing.


   Mind. Blown.
   If you've ever said "Man, I just lost track of time," try this one on for size:
   We're taking off from Tahiti's Papeete Airport at 2 a.m. on January 17, flying five hours and landing in Auckland, New Zealand at ...

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Thursday, January 16, 2014

BEST OF: Wishing Well 7.8.2012

   Just because Sybil and I are out frolicking in the South Pacific, couldn't leave you guys hanging. So while I'm gone let's do what the syndicated radio shows do. Yeah, a little "best of ..."
   I'll post some of my favorite stories from the past and before you know it I'll be back live and in living color with tales from abroad.
   Thanks again for your patronage, your patience and your understanding of my honeymoon sabbatical.


WISHING WELL
By Richie Whitt
CBSDFW
July 8, 2012

   It started with a night of smooth sailing.
   And intersected – some 20 years later – after some slight swelling.
   “C’mon,” Troy Aikman said persuasively, “it’ll be fun.” The year was 1992 and Aikman was the star quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys. Charged with documenting his every move, sneeze and blink, I served as the tag-along, the gullible-yet-giddy reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Next thing I knew we were on a huge boat, enjoying a sunset cruise on Lake Ray Hubbard.
   Aikman was a VIP, a powerful personality who lent his influential name and considerable finances to the North Texas chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. We dined. We drank. We sailed. We met numerous children with wide-eyed grins that camouflaged their dead-end prospects.
   “I think it’s important for those of us who are blessed to take the time to give back,” I remember Aikman telling those aboard the boat.
   I was hooked. I was also, as a 28-year-old sportswriter, flat-ass broke. Nonetheless, I wrote a $100 check and made myself a promise that night: If I ever have a sliver of fame and/or fortune, I too will make a dream come true for a child burdened by a life-threatening illness.
   While I soon forgot that mission while busily navigating life’s materialistic journey toward bigger houses, flashier cars and designer sunglasses, 15 years later a boy in Carrollton would have his life shaped into both a mysterious illness for him and a jolting wake-up call for me.
   “He was a normal, healthy, happy kid,” says Nancy of her son, Jackson. “One day I noticed some swelling – just a little puffiness – around his eyes. That was it. We had no idea our lives were about to change forever.’’ ...

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VACATIONWEDDINGHONEYMOON - DAY 7 - TAHITI

   Because we kinda like each other and because I love punching holes in conventional wisdom/cliched thinking such as "Don't dip your pen in the company ink!", Sybil and I fell in love in radio and are now getting married in paradise.
   Our South Pacific wedding/honeymoon will take us south of the Equator, east of the International Date Line and across 6 countries, 10 time zones and 11 airports over 18 days. By the time we return we'll have gotten hitched, seen a major sporting event, gotten totally confused by our tweaked and then re-adjusted clocks/calendars, and likely be zapped of both money and energy.
   There'll be pics and stories and more pics on this here blog when we get back in late January. Until then I'll provide a pseudo-itinerary and outline of where we'll be and perhaps what the what we're planning on doing.


   Last day on this leg of the trip. By now Sybil will definitely be ...

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