Texas

Read the Fine Print On Your Whataburger

A sign on the front door of a combined gas station and Whataburger restaurant in Liberty City, Texas: By entering these premises you hereby agree to resolve all disputes or claims of any kind whatsoever, which arise from the products, services or premises, by way of binding arbitration, not litigation. No suit or action may be filed in any state or federal court. Any arbitration shall be governed by the Federal Arbitration Act, and administered by the American Mediation Association." Although I ... (read more)

SMU's Loss to UNT Its Worst Ever?

Covering last night's UNT-SMU game, Dallas Morning News columnist Gerry Fraley writes, "The alumni wanted coach Ray Morrison's head after the Mustangs lost the first game in school history -- at TCU in 1915." SMU had no alumni in 1915. That's the year the school opened. Speaking as a UNT homer, the rest of Fraley's commentary is equally sloppy. The North Texas team that beat SMU as a five-point underdog Saturday is one season removed from four consecutive Sun Belt championships. Though the ... (read more)USA Today is running a cover story on Patrick Cobbs and Jamario Thomas of the University of North Texas Mean Green, the NCAA-leading rushers in 2003 and 2004. They'll become the first season leaders to ever share the same backfield when my alma mater loses by several touchdowns to LSU on Sept. 3. ... (read more)

Loss in Ohio, Losses in Iraq

The Democratic activists of the Swing State Project, some of whom went to Ohio to work for Congressional candidate Paul Hackett, are celebrating after his surprisingly close loss to Republican Jean Schmidt. There is no doubt about it -- tonight's results represent a tidal wave in Ohio (and perhaps national) politics. In 2004, the Democrat running in OH-02 lost by 44 points. Tonight, the Democrat, Paul Hackett, lost by a mere 4 points -- just 4,000 votes out of over 114,000 cast. This was a lot ... (read more)To get around Bayesian filters, some spammers have resorted to ASCII art, spelling out words with characters and really small text. I've been online long enough to remember when people used to create ASCII babes you had to print to view. Back in the late '80s, whenever I retrieved a printout from the University of North Texas computer science lab, there were always a bunch of suggestive or even explicit ASCII trollops waiting to be picked up. It wasn't easy for the object of your affection to ... (read more)

My Friend the Warblogger

Michael Bolduc, one of my college pals from the University of North Texas, grew up to become a warblogger. This was, of course, a source of distress for mother and I. You do everything you can to raise them properly, but ultimately all you can do is love them, cherish every day together, and hope they make the right decisions. When Mike ventures into political subjects on his weblog, I'm pretty sure that we'll pick opposite sides whence comes the War of the Bloggers, then meet in a trench where ... (read more)

Seven Haiku at Night in a Convenience Store

The following poem was published in the 1989 edition of Green Fuse, the student literary journal of the University of North Texas. For years, fellow alumnus Wade Duchene and I have been threatening to go back to UNT in Denton, Texas, and find this poem, believing it has been unjustly forgotten. So we did. Seven Haiku at Night in a Convenience Store By Michael Mulder 1 Gimme some fuckin' Kool Filter Kings, you white punk. And some damn matches.   2 Can I use your phone? It's local. I'll ... (read more)

Luv Poem

The following poem was published in the 1989 edition of Green Fuse, the student literary journal of the University of North Texas. Believing that it has been unjustly forgotten, fellow alumnus Wade Duchene and I dug up a copy recently for republication here. Luv Poem By Mike Davis I love you so much That I would protect you From anything but bees. I'm allergic to bees. ... (read more)

Where Goverment Sites Go to Die

A letter I sent to the NT Daily, the student newspaper of the University of North Texas: As a UNT alumnus, I was pleased to read in the Washington Post on Oct. 21 that the university library is archiving federal government Web sites that are taken offline. As described in the article, the library's government documents department publishes the CyberCemetery, a collection of defunct agencies and commissions. Because the Web is so transitory, a considerable amount of material of legitimate public ... (read more)