He Was Gonna Stay Out of Jail, but Then He Got High.

Lot to get to today kids, so try to keep up.

First off, let's throw Texas Governor Rick Perry his second surprising shout out in the last couple of months. Last week Gov. Perry granted a conditional pardon to one Tyrone Brown.

Mr. Brown had been placed on probation in 1990 for his part in an armed robbery in which no one was injured. Mr. Brown was a teenager at the time, and with teens being stupid he smoked a little reefer and failed one of his court-mandated drug tests.

Ooops....guess what that meant.

Probation revoked!!! Mr. Brown, you are now sentenced to LIFE IN PRISON!!!

Incidentally, the amount Mr. Brown acquired in the robbery for which he was initially convicted was....2 dollars.

(Somewhere a paperboy is chasing John Cusack through the streets.)

Fast forward 17 years and Mr. Brown was still in prison, being sentenced to life and all, for stealing $2 and testing positive for marijuana once. Now, in an un-related story Mr. Brown was and is a poor black man living in Texas.

In a story even less related, let's look at the case of John Alexander Wood. Now, Mr. Wood stood before the same arbiter of justice as Mr. Brown, that being one Judge Keith Dean. Mr. Wood was just a little bit better connected than Mr. Brown, so he did not have his probation revoked for a positive drug test.

Now to be fair to both Mr. Wood and Judge Dean, there were differences between the cases of the two men. Let's list them:

Mr. Brown - Tested positive for weed once. Mr. Wood - Test positive for cocaine multiple times.
Mr. Brown - No other violations. Mr. Wood - Numerous other violations.
Mr. Brown - Guilty of stealing $2. Mr. Wood - Guilty of MURDER.

Holy Shit!

You know, I'm gonna give Gov. Perry a little credit for this, but Stevie "Fuckin" Wonder could have figured this one out. Wonder what the governor prior to Rick Perry was thinking. Or maybe wasn't.

All right, NCAA Tournament Update Time...

For those who read my blog leading into the tournament, you know my upsets didn't all turn out. Fear not good friends. I went 23-9 in Round 1, which is okay but not great. However, with 13 Round 2 games in the books, I am currently at 11-2 for the round. My two losses were by Maryland and Virginia, each of whom lost by 3 points and had a shot at the buzzer to tie. So I'm feelin' pretty good. As long as Nevada upsets Memphis I stand a good shot at having 14 of the Sweet 16 teams correct.

All of this is academic however, as my primary competitor is my baby brother Joseph who, despite my advice, took Wisconsin as his champion. I, on the other hand, correctly picked Wisconsin to lose to UNLV in Round 2.

Quick question....I entered into this debate with some co-workers. I argue the Reuben sandwich to be one of the greatest inventions of all times. My co-workers didn't necessarily argue the greatness of the Reuben, as that would have been a losing battle, but rather my labelling of the Reuben as an invention.

Am I wrong here? Webster's defines invention as an original contrivance or construction. That would seem to fit the Reuben. Also, unlike all other sandwiches eaten the world over, there is a clear path for the Reuben, from originator to your local restaurant.

The recipe is also fairly universal. It's a grilled sandwich on rye bread, with corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Russian dressing. Some restaurants may substitute 1,000 Island dressing but other than that the Reuben is universal.

So it's an original contrivance with a clear history and a universal makeup. That screams invention to me.

Okay, finally a quick word on the concert the Lovely Brook and I attended the other night. We were lucky enough to catch the Scissor Sisters at the Pageant in St. Louis last week.

If you're unfamiliar with the band, they have a 70's disco and glam vibe going for them, channeling parts of Elton John, Bryan Ferry and David Bowie for both their sound and stage presence.

As you might guess from that, and the lesbian sex act their name makes reference to, they also have a large homosexual following. This left me with the hope that I'd see hot chicks making out on the dance floor. That, of course, did not happen. I did unfortunately see a few chickenhawks that might have a conversation with Chris Hanson in their future trolling for fresh meat. Sadly, I was unable to secure a good price for my baby brother.

Opening for the band was an act called Wigs on Sticks. The act consists of three wooden sticks with wigs perched atop them. Songs akin to female pop acts of the 50's and 60's are then played, interspersed with bickering and wisecracks from the "ladies." It was actually one of the more funny and entertaining opening acts I've seen in some time.

The main act took forever and a day to take the stage, but once they did the crowd was treated to about 90 minutes of pure androgynous fun. It's hard not to move with their infectious beats and the banter between band members, particularly co-lead singers Jake Shears and my all-time favorite pseudonym Ana Matronic, kept the show even more lively.

Okay, that's all I got and it's twice more than any of you read.

I swear next time I'll have a Today's Motherfucker for all of you, but today I'm too cooled out by the joy that can only be shorts weather one day after a freak snow flurry.

JeffRey