Texas Giant Shuts Down Mid-Ride For the Second Time in Three Days

If you were already too scared to ride the world’s tallest hybrid roller coaster before this weekend, this story will guarantee you won’t be jumping on anytime soon. Six Flags officials are reiterating that the ride is safe and was only stopped as a precaution, but an operator heard “a loud noise” and halted the ride at the highest point, forcing the already very warm thrill seekers to walk down 153 feet of stairs to the ground. Forced exercise at a theme park. Now that’s scary.

Homeless Man Takes Exception to Hunt’s “Bum” Comment

Interesting profile in the Dallas Morning News about one of the men pictured in a photo Angela Hunt posted in her now-infamous tweet about the bums of  Main Street Garden (yes, it’s behind a paywall) .

It seems that Julian Arredondo, 72, feels that he is not a bum. He says he goes to the park to sit for a spell, maybe buy a sandwich – all of which are things even I have done at Main Street Garden. He says that being in that picture (with its subsequent re-use in news stories) has been “demoralizing” because he IS a client at The Bridge, and by all accounts has been making strides toward independence – or whatever his $10,000 a year retirement income and elementary school education can get him. His caseworker at The Stewpot says he doesn’t drink, do drugs, or panhandle – all the things that people will probably say are the common irritants they think of when thinking of bums.

So I guess that’s my question – how do you know who is a bum and who is an elderly man in shorts with a backpack? How do you determine the nuisance without the back story? I mean, the picture of Arredondo is of three men standing and sitting at the park. How do you even know all of them are homeless?

Recap of Today’s Texas Rangers Press Conference

Nothing brings out the national media types (re: USA Today, NY Times, the big guns at ESPN) like a horrific tragedy. Today’s press conference in Arlington was a somber affair. Even the ever-stoic Nolan Ryan sounded emotional as he talked about his phone conversation with Jenny Stone, the widow of Shannon Stone, the man who fell to his death at last night’s baseball game. And even more so when Ryan talked about how when he was a boy attending baseball games, how badly he had hoped for players to toss him a ball. “It’s part of the culture of baseball,” he said. Ryan also asked the media not to show footage of the fall, and explained that while the team doesn’t have any specific plans to change the stadium (or postpone tonight’s game), they did put up a tarp over where the accident occurred, as he said, “out of respect for the family.”

The team is also establishing a foundation to benefit the family, noting that the organization “is about building memories, family entertainment.” He explained that the players would all have the option of taking some time off, and that he didn’t want to single out Josh Hamilton, who tossed the ball to Stone. He said he hadn’ spoken with Hamilton, but that he expected him to play.

Ryan also talked for a moment about what he was doing at the time of the accident (and he reiterated several times that this was “definitely an accident”): He was sitting with Laura Bush. He said he followed the ball into the outfield, but then turned back to Laura. When he heard the crowd gasp, he asked a Secret Service agent what had happened. “He said a man fell from the stands.”