This day in Texas history...WTF?

The new Dallas Cowboys head coach is named, and it is Wade Phillips. I think if you're going to hire somebody who will only be known by those who have an NFL season pass on tv, he at least ought to be young. We've gone from the well-known mediocre to the unknown mediocre. I don't understand this at all, but then I'm not a guy with an NFL season pass. Oh well.

In the only news that could possibly overshadow the selection of the head coach for the Dallas Cowboys, Anna Nicole Smith is dead. You may rightly ask why anybody cares, and why I'm even mentioning it. Obviously, it's because as soon as you heard you went online and looked up a bunch of Anna Nicole Smith pictures. Don't lie.

Seriously, I can't ignore news like this when Texans are intrigued over things like who'll win American Idol. I could spend yet more time lamenting the Iraq war, lamenting the lack of coverage over ill-advised American intervention in Somalia, the disappearance of New Orleans, or even Rick Perry's love of mercury, but honestly, the number of searches this post is going to garner is too tempting!

By the way, on this day in Texas history:

Violence presages end of notorious red-light district
On this day in 1887, "Longhair Jim" Courtright, former town marshall of Fort Worth, was killed in a gunfight with Luke Short. This was one of the most famous gunfights in western history--and, contrary to the movie legends, one of the few face-to-face shootouts. The duel was the first of two events that drew increased hostile attention to the hive of brothels and bars known as Hell's Half Acre. The second was the discovery of a murdered prostitute named Sally, two weeks later. Before these violent occurrences, even legitimate businesses had resisted reform of the Acre because of the money it brought in. But the deaths of Courtright and Sally brought renewed and ultimately successful cleanup efforts.