Whether you’re drinking with politicos or dining with your parents, we’ll give you something to talk about to make you sound informed.
If you’re spending Friday happy hour with Texas politics junkies
Can’t get your table to shut up about redistricting? Try to inject some levity into the wonky conversation by starting a drinking game. To play, visit the new interactive online app, “What’s My District Now?” designed by the data gurus over at the Texas Tribune. Punch in your address, and, based on the interim maps (that are currently being appealed by Attorney General Greg Abbott to the Supreme Court), the site will tell you whether or not you’ll still be voting in the same house, senate or Congressional district as you did in 2010. Pass the phone around, and every time a person at the table finds out that their district is different, drink.
If you’re watching Houston–Southern Miss and Baylor–UT Saturday
Even if the University of Houston beats Southern Mississippi in the Conference USA championship on Saturday, the undefeated Cougars won’t have any chance of playing in the BCS championship game (instead they will end up in another BCS bowl). But record-setting sixth-year quarterback Case Keenum should at least be in New York City next Saturday as a finalist for the Heisman Trophy.
Does he deserve to win it? Not at all, says Darren Everson of the Wall Street Journal. “There are 120 teams in major-college football,” he wrote. “Eight of the 12 that Houston quarterback Case Keenum has faced rank 80th or worse in yards-per-play defense.” Remember that stat when you compare Keenum to Baylor’s quarterback, and fellow Heisman contender, Robert Griffin III.
If you and your teenage kids both love Gossip Girl
Then begin your preparations for the reprisal of Dallas. The cable network TNT unveiled a new online trailer for its reboot of the classic primetime soap opera on Thursday. As you can see in the photo above, J.R. and Bobby Ewing (and Sue Ellen) are now surrounded by a new generation of attractive offspring, two of whom spend at least one scene sexily covered in gushing oil. “Get ready to go back to Southfork,” the trailer proclaims, though the show still won’t air until summer.
If your wife says that new car you want is too expensive.
Tell her that it could be so much worse. You could have put yourself in debt for life with a $2.2 million Bugatti Veyron. Even worse, you could have driven it into water . . . on purpose. Matt Hardigree of Jalopnik recounted the long saga of Andy House, who drove his pricey car into some water near Omega Bay in Galveston two years ago. A bystander caught the whole thing on video, and now the Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Company is claiming fraud. House had originally claimed the accident happened because he dropped his cell phone and was distracted by the reflection of a “low-flying pelican.”
If you’re trying to get your parents to let you spend spring break at SXSW
Tell them about the Austin music and media conference’s newly announced keynote speaker, Bruce Springsteen. Parents love Bruce Springsteen. How can you get into any trouble with the Boss in town? As Dan Solomon of Culture Map noted, now the question is whether Springsteen will also also play in Austin; some keynotes have been known to do so, and Springsteen is also in the habit of making club appearances with friends and favorite bands, some of whom could easily be at SXSW already.
Stan Goldstein of NJ.com said Springsteen’s 2012 U.S. tour is rumored to begin in Denver on March 1. If that’s the case, the March 15 SXSW keynote could easily be a day off in between regular Texas arena dates. For what it’s worth, a commenter at NJ.com claims Springsteen is playing Austin on March 17.
