bragging; bravado; bluster
Ah, the 3 "Bs" of Texas...or of Texans, actually.
I never had heard of this word before and I doubt that most of my fellow Texans have, either. It's not something we'd use in everyday speech, mainly because we'd somehow make those four syllables stretch into at least eight and take a minute - or longer- to say the entire word.
Besides, it sounds like it's some sort of rodeo event or a variation of the Two-Step...or maybe some sissy cocktail that only city folks would drink.
1. To eat greedily or ravenously.
That's one of those words we fat people like to use to describe our otherwise piggish eating habits. I "bumped" up this post because I'm now wondering if since legalizing pot, Colorado still has a low rate of obesity. Y'know, munchies and all that....
A Texan, upon his first visit to Paris, saw the Eiffel Tower and said:
"Say, that's a pretty good-sized oil rig!"
You Should Say "Bonjour"
If you were to visit Paris, you would really be interested in the local's perspective on things.
You don't want a tourist experience - you want a real experience. You want to eat where Parisians eat and do what Parisians do.
It's probably best if you brush up on your French a little before visiting Paris. You've got to speak it if you want to meet local friends.
Start with "Bonjour" and go from there. Before long, you'll know how to ask where the best pan au chocolat is!
I've been to the #1 steakhouse but I wouldn't say it's the best. It's an experience and a unique place, but best?
If you don't want to view the entire video, the winner was The Big Texan in Amarillo. The last time I was there, I took my British friend elle when she was here for one of her visits. We had the multi-meat appetizer and I talked her into trying the "calf fries" (which were about the worst I'd ever had, much worse than the ones I've eaten right off a branding iron stove w/ no salt except for what dripped off me on that long ago hot Texas afternoon) but she wouldn't touch the rattlesnake, which was pretty good.
I took an ex-g/f and her kiddos there once after an evening at Wonderland Amusement Park. My g/f's little girl was happy with her burger; her mother and I had chicken fried steaks which were good, but not the best I'd ever had. (the best one of those I ever had was at a crossroads cafe near Balko, Oklahoma.) Her 16 yr. old son sulked the entire time we were there because I wouldn't let him have a try at eating the 72 oz. steak. (he was already angry because we left the park after "only" four hours) I was doubtful that he'd eat it, but I knew he wouldn't even touch the other things you have to eat, such as the baked potato, the shrimp cocktail and especially not the salad that has to be consumed along with the meat and bread in under an hour. It certainly wasn't worth risking having to pay $72 if he DIDN'T finish it all in time.
(Her daughter was a sweet little girl, born on Feb. 29th, a Leap Year baby. She made me regret not having a little girl of my own. The boy, OTOH, made me glad I didn't have kids, at least having one like him. If he'd been MY child, I'd have sold him to the gypsies for less than $72.)
They have one of the steaks on ice in a display case as you enter and trust me, that's a huge chunk of meat. Just the weight - 4.5 lbs. - doesn't put the massive size of it in perspective. If you go to The Big Texan website, you can view a list of those who have successfully completed the challenge; I didn't see the information on the site (I'm sure it's there somewhere) but I once read a 70-ish grandmother scarfed one down and there has been at least one person who ate two! The site also has webcams that show a real-time view of anyone taking the challenge.
(EDIT to add: I found the Free 72 oz. Steak Facts page: the grandmother was 69, the youngest to eat it all was an 11 yr. old boy, and the fastest time by a human was 8 minutes and 52 seconds. I say "human", because a 500-lb Bengal tiger consumed the meat in less than 90 seconds. They didn't try to make him eat the potato or salad.)
4.5 lbs. of steak. I haven't had four and a half pounds of steak total in four and a half years!
From the site: Experience views of La Porte, Texas from the perspective of the San Jacinto Monument. Standing more than 567 feet tall, enjoy amazing views of the city, busy waterway and the Battleship Texas. The monument houses the San Jacinto Museum of History, which serves as the gateway to Texas culture.
ACME Planimeter has got to be one of the best online web tools I've ever used. I love to look at real estate ads, then find them on Google Earth or Bing Maps, but the Google Earth measuring tool has limitations - at least in the free version I use - in that I can use it to outline the dimensions of the property, but then have to use my calculator or an online acreage calculator to figure out the total area. That takes time and often isn't all that accurate, the cause of which is not completely my incompetence.
Well, I want to believe that, anyway.
Here's the outline of a property I'd love to own near Quitman, Texas. (home town of Sissy Spacek) The listingsays it's 50 acres and using the ACME Planimeter gives the exact same figure.
Drag the map with your mouse, or double-click to center.
Click on the map to place points.
The enclosed area is shown below.
The page remembers your most recent position/zoom/map-type for the next time you visit. If you haven't visited before, it tries to figure out your location based on your internet address. The area computation is done using spherical geometry, so it's correct for large regions.
This is a beautiful car with an interesting history; according to the listing on Streetside Classics, it was purchased new by a woman in California who drove it for 29 yrs., then donated it to a local museum where it was on display for another 20 yrs, protected from the elements and not racking up mileage. In '86, the museum collection was liquidated and the car fully restored.
This is truly one of those "only driven by a little old lady" stories about the sales pitch given by used car dealers
I don't have a clue as to what the value is supposed to be, but the Streetside Classics DFW franchise has it listed for $19,995. That seems more than reasonable for such a classic car. Sure, it's no Shelby Mustang or Corvette, but this car would probably be a great investment at that price.
Now, off to check my Mega Millions number for the drawing earlier tonight. If I won it, I know what one of my first purchases will be...IF the car stays for sale that long, that is. At that price, I doubt it will.
Stumbled across video while looking at Texas Panhandle tornado videos; I'm not positive, but I'm fairly certain this is east of Amarillo, between there and Panhandle (the town).
If that's where it is, it reminds me of the first time my British friend Helen came over to see me. Her flight was later in the day and by the time we picked up her luggage and got out of town, it was just about sunset and we were right at the same place on the road as in the video.
The traffic was much lighter than in that video and she commented on it. When, after about ten or fifteen minutes, the second or third car passed us going the other direction in the westbound lane, I joked and said the highway was starting to get busy. She thought I was serious, but I told her it was fairly normal for a weekday, plus the "rush hour" after 5:00 was already over and explained to her about the busy traffic early in the morning and at quitting time at the Pantex Plant and also how many people who worked there or in Amarillo lived in Panhandle or the small communities or clusters of houses nearby, making for a lot more traffic than at the current time of day.
We drove along for a while longer, not saying much and I was amused at her staring out the window at the scenery, such as it was. The landscape along that part of I-40 is apparent in the video; other than power and telephone lines and barbed wire fences and the occasional house, the view stretches nearly unbroken all the way to the horizon, nothing to catch the eye other than a few lights twinkling on top the cell towers.
After several minutes of silence, she said something to me, but I couldn't understand it so I asked her to repeat it. She did so, but I still couldn't understand the word she was using and had to tell her I still couldn't understand what she had said. She repeated it one more time, slower:
"It's. all. so. vahst." Vahst? What is that, I wondered, some sort of British slang?
From the site: One of the Expedition 36 crew members aboard the International Space Station, some 240 miles above Earth, used a 50mm lens to record this oblique nighttime image of a large part of the nation’s second largest state in area, including the four largest metropolitan areas in population. The extent of the metropolitan areas is easily visible at night due to city and highway lights.
The largest metro area, Dallas-Fort Worth, often referred to informally as the Metroplex, is the heavily cloud-covered area at the top center of the photo. Neighboring Oklahoma, on the north side of the Red River, less than 100 miles to the north of the Metroplex, appears to be experiencing thunderstorms. The Houston metropolitan area, including the coastal city of Galveston, is at lower right. To the east near the Texas border with Louisiana, the metropolitan area of Beaumont-Port Arthur appears as a smaller blotch of light, also hugging the coast of the Texas Gulf. Moving inland to the left side of the picture one can delineate the San Antonio metro area. The capital city of Austin can be seen to the northeast of San Antonio.
