Turkey Trot Chaos

This year’s Thundercloud Turkey Trot accidentally being cut half a mile short by a wrong turn reminds me of the scene in Animal House where Stork leads the marching band into an alleyway. The ensuing confusion is hilarious, unless you happen to be the first place runner or the guy whose trombone gets bent.

Given how many runs close our streets during the spring and fall months, it’s a wonder nothing like this hasn’t happened before.

The flea market's on fire

Just moments ago, Kate and I were driving home from lunch with Rachel and David Wyatt when we saw a large cloud of smoke to the east. Apparently, the Austin Country Flea Market on U.S. 290 is on fire. That is no good. I used to love buying used vinyl, Mexican vanilla and silly T-shirts out there.

UPDATE (8/3/09, 11:50pm): Although about 200 booths were destroyed in Saturday's fire, the Austin Country Flea Market plans to reopen this weekend.

Taking the low road

Years after the highway department gave up on rebuilding the low-lying stretch of Texas 87 between High Island and Sabine Pass, plans are afoot to move the Caplan-High Island stretch further inland from the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of Hurricane Ike.

In the interim, work is underway to raise Texas 87 between Port Bolivar and High Island to a lofty six feet above sea level so Bolivar Peninsula residents have more time to get out when (not if) there's another storm. This would presumably include odious state Rep. Wayne Christian (R-Center), who slipped an amendment into a bill during the 11th hour of this year's legislative session that would allow him to rebuild his Ike-razed vacation home on what is now public beach.

Texas 87 detour photo - pre-Rita and Ike - from texasfreeway.com

US Airways pilot-turned-hero a Texan

The ace pilot who managed to ditch a bird strike-imperiled US Airways A320 into the Hudson River yesterday without killing anyone is now the most famous person to come out of Denison, Tex. since Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Austin to Alamo City

Greetings from San Antonio. I'm here for the National Public Health Information Coalition's annual conference, where retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré of Hurricane Katrina renown gave this morning's keynote address.

Based on his CNN persona, I half-expected Honoré to call someone out for yawning or not silencing a cell phone, but he was relatively subdued. While I subscribe to his notion that the U.S. can do a much better job at disaster preparedness, I'm not sure how I feel about his idea about using RFID chips to keep track of us during evacuations. The only way I'd agree to get such a chip implanted is if it came with a coupon for free fries.

Kate's parents threw us a wonderful Texas post-wedding party at the Driskill Hotel on Saturday. It was great introducing the family to all our Austin pals who couldn't make it to Massachusetts for the wedding. I probably shouldn't have stuck my tongue in the chocolate fountain, but at least I had the common decency to wait until almost everyone had gone home.

A hero among the Savages

Aside from the triple digits, you know it’s August in Austin when stories about the 1966 UT Tower shootings make their annual anniversary rounds. Most of this coverage is rote to anyone who has lived in Austin for awhile, but today’s John Kelso column is a real eye-opener.

Kelso reveals that Artly Snuff from longtime local comedic rock troupe the Uranium Savages was one of the brave souls who went into Charles Whitman’s line of fire to rescue pregnant shooting victim Claire Wilson James from the scorching South Mall pavement. James was profiled by Denise Gamino in Sunday’s Statesman.

Tom Eckman, James’ boyfriend, had been shot and killed right next to her. Those familiar with the shootings will recall news footage of a bloodied Vietnam veteran who carried Eckman’s body away from the scene. 17-year-old Snuff (real name: John Fox) and his friend James Love carried James to safety. Sadly, she later lost her baby at Brackenridge Hospital.

Snuff, who is also a curator for the South Austin Museum of Popular Culture, has known Kelso for years, but he never said anything about his involvement in the Tower shootings until this weekend. Although Snuff has no way of proving that he was one of the men in a still video frame of James’ rescue that ran on the front page Sunday, you’d have a hard time not believing it after reading Kelso’s column.

The 10-Cent Beer Night Riot

Here's a great story by ESPN's Paul Jackson on the 34th anniversary of a (ahem) great moment in the mostly hapless history of the Texas Rangers baseball club – the 10-Cent Beer Night Riot in Cleveland.

On June 5, 1974, the Cleveland Indians decided to sell cups of beer for 10 cents to increase attendance at their game against the Billy Martin-managed Rangers. Although the behemoth Cleveland Municipal Stadium could've held about 70,000 fans, the 25,000+ that showed up for 10-cent beer proved more than enough.

With each inning, the stadium descended further into chaos. Chairs were thrown, genitals were bared, reporters were punched in the face and bases were literally stolen as the stadium organist tried in vain to calm the drunken mob by playing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." As fans invaded the field and players brandished bats for their own safety, the umpires called the game and awarded a forfeit win to the Rangers.

"If the fucking war is on tomorrow," groused infield umpire Nestor Chylak after the game, "I'm gonna join the other side to get a shot at them"

The Randomizer

Austinist published an open letter from Factory People insinuating that SXSW somehow orchestrated the city’s permit raid rampage on SXSW after-parties last weekend. While the fruits of FP’s open records request remain to be seen, my hunch is that their $250 white leather belts are cinched a little too tight. It sucks to have a show or party shut down by the cops and/or fire marshal, but don’t hate on those guys too much because all it takes is one of these to ruin the party forever.

Late Night with David Letterman icon Larry “Bud” Melman (born Calvert DeForest) has died at the age of 85. Melman appeared on Letterman's NBC show starting in 1982. Because NBC owned Late Night, Melman had to start using his real name when Letterman jumped to CBS in 1993. I loved when they got him to hand out hot towels at the Port Authority bus station. His cameo in RUN-DMC’s “King of Rock” video is also priceless.

Good golly, Little Richard is playing a free show here this weekend! The rock pioneer will be at UT’s 40 Acres Fest on Saturday with the Jungle Rockers, Black Joe Lewis and the Weary Boys. The show starts at 6:30pm on the South Mall in front of the UT Tower.

UPDATE (3/23): It turns out SXSW sent the fire marshal’s office a list of non-SXSW parties, which the fire marshal’s office took as an official complaint. Assistant Fire Marshal Don Smith told News 8 Austin's Andy Langer he was unsure if SXSW's complaint led to the Factory People shutdown, though. I can understand why SXSW thinks non-festival parties should have to adhere to the same regulations as official venues. It's also important to recognize that the quickest way to kill off all the non-SXSW events is for SXSW itself to fail. The after party circuit exists because of SXSW, not the other way around. That said, I don't like the idea of SXSW pointing the city toward non-SXSW events for code enforcement. Whatever competitive parity might've been gained through such a tactic is likely to be offset by the unsavory public reaction to it.