![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Chuck Norris? Really Is a Texas Ranger.
Oct. 4th, 2007 04:34 pm* Broke my 9 minute mile two days ago! It was 8:56, but still less than 9 minutes.
* Writing my research paper for Texas Government has been as amusing as it is appalling. My topic is the Texas Rangers, and the stories about them are hilarious. During the Mexican War, they were incredibly irregular and disorderly, pillaging and plundering like modern day pirates on land. The Mexicans (and some Americans) referred to them as "los diablos Tejanos", the Texas devils.
General Taylor used their fighting skills shamelessly, at one point telling them to go take a town and hold the line, planning to bombard the town with ammunition. The Texans ignored this and not only took the town, but overran its inner defenses too. Taylor was so annoyed he bombarded it anyway, figuring they'd get out of the way.
Then the Texans turned around and raided a town, and when Taylor ordered them to stop, the entire set of companies ignored him and kept on going. The regular army was so afraid of the Texas Rangers, Taylor had to rescind his order to stop and pretend that he wanted them to do it all along.
Just as he was about to get frustrated to no end with them, the Rangers told him that a drunken senorita let slip that there was a Mexican trap at Agua Nueva, and he should go to Buena Vista. Taylor did, winning a major victory and basically guaranteeing himself as president.
When he went to thank the Texas Rangers, though, they'd already gotten drunk in celebration, picked a fight with the regular army, and started a riot that took hundreds of state police and an entire troop of calvary to control.
Then, of course, there's the tale of the infamous Governor E.J. Davis, who took hold during Reconstruction and refused to leave office, so the new Governor, immediately after being sworn in, had to create the Texas Rangers just to take his rightful office. Governor Davis ended up sneaking out the window and leaving the state in disgrace.
I love Texas history.
* I went to see my niece yesterday! The new one, obviously. She's small and red and has dark blue eyes, like most babies. Mike said that when she was coming out, her forehead looked like a Klingon's and he was really worried they'd have to rename her Worf.
* Mike also saw the Batmobile two days ago, the old Adam West one, traveling on 1604. He called me up yesterday and asked me to e-mail Aaron (who's in Iraq right now), and "tell him about the baby, and the Batmobile!"
Apparently he called Matt yesterday and said, "The best thing just happened!"
And Matt said, "The baby was born?"
Mike replied, "No, better!"
Mary Ann was not as amused as we were.
* We just got a message on our answering machine that's this poorly recorded techno music. And it just keeps going! For like three minutes, it just goes on! So hilarious. No talking, no dialogue, just... music. And then it suddenly cuts out.
* Writing my research paper for Texas Government has been as amusing as it is appalling. My topic is the Texas Rangers, and the stories about them are hilarious. During the Mexican War, they were incredibly irregular and disorderly, pillaging and plundering like modern day pirates on land. The Mexicans (and some Americans) referred to them as "los diablos Tejanos", the Texas devils.
General Taylor used their fighting skills shamelessly, at one point telling them to go take a town and hold the line, planning to bombard the town with ammunition. The Texans ignored this and not only took the town, but overran its inner defenses too. Taylor was so annoyed he bombarded it anyway, figuring they'd get out of the way.
Then the Texans turned around and raided a town, and when Taylor ordered them to stop, the entire set of companies ignored him and kept on going. The regular army was so afraid of the Texas Rangers, Taylor had to rescind his order to stop and pretend that he wanted them to do it all along.
Just as he was about to get frustrated to no end with them, the Rangers told him that a drunken senorita let slip that there was a Mexican trap at Agua Nueva, and he should go to Buena Vista. Taylor did, winning a major victory and basically guaranteeing himself as president.
When he went to thank the Texas Rangers, though, they'd already gotten drunk in celebration, picked a fight with the regular army, and started a riot that took hundreds of state police and an entire troop of calvary to control.
Then, of course, there's the tale of the infamous Governor E.J. Davis, who took hold during Reconstruction and refused to leave office, so the new Governor, immediately after being sworn in, had to create the Texas Rangers just to take his rightful office. Governor Davis ended up sneaking out the window and leaving the state in disgrace.
I love Texas history.
* I went to see my niece yesterday! The new one, obviously. She's small and red and has dark blue eyes, like most babies. Mike said that when she was coming out, her forehead looked like a Klingon's and he was really worried they'd have to rename her Worf.
* Mike also saw the Batmobile two days ago, the old Adam West one, traveling on 1604. He called me up yesterday and asked me to e-mail Aaron (who's in Iraq right now), and "tell him about the baby, and the Batmobile!"
Apparently he called Matt yesterday and said, "The best thing just happened!"
And Matt said, "The baby was born?"
Mike replied, "No, better!"
Mary Ann was not as amused as we were.
* We just got a message on our answering machine that's this poorly recorded techno music. And it just keeps going! For like three minutes, it just goes on! So hilarious. No talking, no dialogue, just... music. And then it suddenly cuts out.
