Austin F1 track will benefit Texas

The Circuit of the Americas race track being built in Austin has, like any other major project, proponents and detractors.

As a Texas racing fan who doesn't live in Travis County but likes the exposure special events bring to Texas, here's a few comments about the track and its funding.

The $25 million that is offered to the F/1 track is from the Major Events Trust Fund. The state offers $$$'s to groups trying to bring in the Super Bowl ($32 million to Arlington for the 2010 Super Bowl), NCAA Final Four ($13 million to Houston) and other special events. It's an ADVANCE against the increase in sales taxes in the area that will be generated by the event. The money is to be PAID BACK and everything above the amount generated will be put into the state's general fund - and that pays teacher salaries.

The track in Austin will have a FAR great impact on the Texas economy than any single football or basketball game, rodeo or horse race.

I have been to Austin twice to lobby on behalf of teachers this term. My OWN future employment as a teacher is on the line here, too.

If the Powers That Be (Lt Gov David Dewhurst, St Sen Dan Patrick, Comptroller Susan Combs, et al) continue to sell the line to voters this money is taking away from education and other funding, then shame on them. They need to make the tough decisions to fund education (which they have failed to do!). Their jobs and decisions aren’t easy, but they sought their positions and we elected them to do so!

I'm sure Gov. Perry is all over the track project about creating jobs in Texas - it will create 1,200 - 1,700 jobs of varying degrees, short term and long term.

For more information, Joe Raymond wrote a great piece in the Austin Post and I've pulled some of my info from his piece (and used it to further research my writing) ...

http://www.austinpost.org/content/f1-metf-fact-vs-fiction

Space Shuttles land but not in Houston

Houston, Tranquility base here, the Eagle has landed ... Apollo 11

Houston, we have a problem ... Apollo 13

Houston, you won't be getting a retired space shuttle ... NASA Admin Charles Bolden

The campaigning is done and the decisions have been made. The retired NASA Space Shuttles will be going to the Intrepid Air and Space Museum in New York City, the Smithsonian (actually the Udvar-Hazy Hangar in Chantilly, VA), the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and perhaps the biggest surprise, to many air and space fans, the California Science Museum in Los Angeles.

The placement was geographical, but it also comes down to numbers. The sheer numbers of people who live nearby. The number of people, national and international, who visit the selected areas. Those numbers can't be overlooked by the losing areas, even Houston.

You can't argue with the Smithsonian or Kennedy selections.

The Intrepid leads the way as a carrier based museum (ones in San Diego, Corpus Christi, Charleston, and even Mobile with it's retired battleship, look to it as the leader). It has a sleep aboard program and education center and a number of planes on display. The water-based facility built a special site for its retired Concorde (one of the two in the US). That location was justified as nearby Kennedy International Airport saw the most SST flights of any US destination.

The California site could be questioned. Opened in 1998, it is the youngest of the aviation sites considered. Current plane displays include the Bell X-1 used as the prop in the movie "The Right Stuff"(yawn), a reproduction of the Wright Glider, an F-20 prototype (a plane that never made it into production), a DC-8, and an A-12 Blackbird (okay - cool!). Although near the Douglas and several other aviation plants, it is hardly the in the same collection or historic league as Seattle, Dayton, or Houston (or Chicago, Pensacola, or Huntsville, AL). Reports are it attracts 1.4 million visitors annually, and there is no charge for admission.

To be fair, the Shuttles should be spread out. At least one should be west of the Mississippi. Had it gone to Seattle and the Museum of Flight, it would have joined a retired Air Force One, a retired Concorde, and a number of assorted military and commercial planes, including 747 Number One and 727 Number 1,000. The Museum is a well established attraction and has the backing of Boeing.

The US Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, OH would have been a logical choice. As the home of the Wright Brothers and only miles from Neil Armstrong's home town, it would be a more central geographic choice. It has an aviation history and it's an established attraction with an airplane collection second only to the Smithsonian (and that could be debated). The Air Force connection with the shuttle program is deep. Reports were the Air Force already had $14 million in its next budget to house a shuttle.

Houston's Space Center Houston attraction is more Disneyland entertainment than full of history, more playful hands-on than thoughtful mind-challenging. It is one of the youngest. While the Johnson Space Center is the training home of NASA, the 750,000 visitors pale with the numbers visiting the other three sites. There are a couple of space capsules, the lunar rover and lots of rocks, and a Saturn V rocket (lying on the ground).

All are justifiably disappointed.

Most were hoping Shuttle placement wasn't politically motivated, but it is hard to look past the politics. California has the political clout (as does New York) and Texas does not (and apparently, neither did Washington or Ohio). It also has a payback factor. Had this decision been made a few years ago, with a Texas president in the White House, would things have turned out differently?

Then again, look how the NASA domain is spread out and why.

The Johnson Space Center is in Houston largely because of Senator (and the Vice-President) Lyndon Johnson, and representatives Albert Thomas, Olin Teague and Sam Rayburn (who was Speaker of the House).

The other facilities, situated hither and yon, were part of a political payout and compromise in the late-1950's and early-1960's ... including Huntsville (AL), Stennis Space Center (MS), Langley and Wallops (VA), Ames, Dryden and Vandenberg (CA). These choices were made more because of the strong political influence, to spread out tax dollars, and create jobs, than the often heard "strategic protection purposes."

There's even a NASA facility in Fairmont, WV.

One just has to wonder ... had Sen. Robert Byrd still been alive (and Sen. Jennings Randolph for that matter), one of these space shuttles might have landed today in Huntington, Morgantown, or even Elkins!

Okay - enough grumbling that I can't make a 45 minute trip to see a shuttle up close. I'm packing my bags. One shuttle is near my daughter in Southern California, the other near my parents in Florida. I've never been to the Smithsonian or Intrepid museums. Maybe this WAS the political motivation after all - to keep us traveling with high fuel prices!

Super Bowl XLV Recap

Some thoughts on Super Bowl XLV from afar ...

It was a good game for someone who had no bets, no squares, and no vested interest in either team.

I'm glad it finally warmed up enough for the Metroplex to put on a good show. I'm sorry the snow and ice and cold interfered with the football parties and lessened the economic impact. Maybe the NFL won't pick such a northern spot for this February shin dig and put it back in Houston (or hello - San Antonio's Alamodome ... the party place of Texas). Oh wait - the NFL has already tabbed Indianapolis and NYC for future games ... in February??? Wonder how ice and show will affect the game in Indy and the Meadowlands (the latter being played without a roof!!!)??? Brrrrr ... might as well give Green Bay one, too! They had better weather this past week than Dallas ... errr ... Arlington. Plus Green Bay has snow plows!!! It would save travel expenses for Cheeseheads!

I liked half-time music show ... but I've liked them all (McCartney, Stones, Prince, Petty, Springsteen, The Who) since the wardrobe malfunction in Houston. The lighted uniforms and staging was great. Special "surprise" guests were good. Will.i.am did a great job getting all those songs in such a short time.

But we all know we watched the game for one reason - commercials!

Car ads took the first 7 spots on my list.

Topping my favorite commercial list was the two minute long Imported from Detroit by Chrysler. No, I'm not an Eminen fan and I probably won't go buy the new Chrysler 200 (although it would fit well in my projected age demographics). The spot was well photographed, well written, well photographed, well produced, and did I say well photographed. And here's my personal bias - growing up in the Motor City, I had been to every place in the spot. It touched me. Looking on Facebook, it seemed to be a hit with most of my friends from high school as well. We can only hope it translates into sales and helps Motown!

Spots 2 through 7 on my like list were also car companies ... VW's Darth Vader, BMW's Made in the USA, Mercedes Benz's Car Gathering with P. Diddy, Lexus' Escape to New Luxury, Chevy's Facebook Cruze and Hyundai's Change all being touching/funny/creative and worth the money spent ... and my time to watch them.

I've bought cars through CarMax and maybe those spots will work with the used car king. As much as we like cars, most of us hate playing the negotiating game. CarMax does give me a good feeling, but maybe not all the ones chronicled in the commercial.

Doritos had some good and bad spots. Their "Resurrection" spot was cute but licking it off fingers and pants was "ewwww."

Pepsi was obviously playing to the "guy crowd" with their three Pepsi Max spots. I liked the automatic ice chest launcher even if it included the time-honored-never-fails sight gag of guy-getting-hit-in-crotch-is funny ... plus the bonus "geeks/underdogs rule." The couple on a date where she's thinking of "everything" and he's thinking of "one thing" was so cliche and was another guy put down. But we can laugh at ourselves (especially during Super Bowl ads). I'm not so sure their spot with the arguing couple taking out the fellow jogger with a thrown can is all that funny? Especially in this day and age of random assaults and attacks on women. Sorry. Not good.

What can you say about the king of Super Bowl advertisers - InBev/Anheuser-Busch? No amount of advertising is going to make me drink their Bud Light but they had a couple of chuckles in their spots. I'll enjoy the Clydesdales in an ad every time. I don't know what they were saying in the Stella Artois commercial but anything in a "furrin language" sounds good to most of us.

Speaking of "guys" and "worn out cliches" ... there was GoDaddy.com teasing us with sex (and a sexy Joan Rivers!). No, I did NOT go to their web site to see how it ends ... even though my domain names are registered through them (I do appreciate their sponsorship of Mark Martin and Danica Patrick in auto racing).

The commercial that WILL make me go to their web site is HomeAway.com. As a travel person, that sounds somewhat intriguing.

Props to Papa John for getting us all to "like" them and having our FB and email addresses in their computer. They did not run a spot in the actual game but had it gone into overtime we'd all be getting free pizza!

Finally, I enjoyed sharing the Super Bowl with my folks in the warmth of Florida instead of tromping around Arlington (as I might have been). We had great munchies, cold drinks, and a very good time!