DFW Population Growth #1.

We may not have the most visited tourist attractions in the USA but we do have the fastest growing metropolitan area. Or so we did in 2008. The result of job seekers, sun seekers, and babies, I assume. In one year DFW grew in population by 146,000 people. That's boom growth for an area our size. Three of the top ten growth areas are in Texas. Austin is number seven.

The north central USA continues to suffer, places like Cleveland and Detroit. It's the dynamic of a changing world and a changing economy, and they are suffering.

Our growth will not continue forever, but while it does we should be grateful for it and for a stronger than average local economy that attracts others looking for work and a great place to live.

Metropolitan area		Growth	Percentage change
DFW		146,532	2.4
Houston		130,185	2.3
Phoenix		115,978	2.8
Atlanta		114,989	2.2
Los Angeles		88,196	0.7
New York		84,227	0.4
Chicago.		72,771	0.8
Austin		60,012	3.8
San Francisco		58,406	1.4
Washington		55,835	1.1

My Favorite Movie of the Last 10 Years . . .

My son brought home a movie the other night that I had not seen in a few years, but that I had liked and watched many times. We watched it, and I am ready now, 9 years since its release, to nominate it as my number one and best movie of the last 10 years.

I am referring to Joel and Ethan Coen's, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou. My wife, son and I enjoyed it last night as if we were watching it for the first time, or more correctly, enjoyed it more than watching it for the first time.

The dialogue is perfect, from the first line, "any of you boys smithies," to the last.

One knows immediately who the main characters are, and what they are like. And what the conflict is.

The bad guy is bad.

It does not try to be funny. It does not try to be current or counter-current. It is not cute. The music is wonderful (Ralph Stanley, John Hartford, Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, etc) and new to one's ear. It is a joy to view and hear.

I can not think of anything I would change. It is movie perfection, at least to me. The Coen brother's translation of Homer's Odyssey (circa 850 BC) to the 1930's South makes it even more enjoyable as one looks for parallels (I have to admit finding only the most obvious).

I have liked many movies in the last 10 years. But I would put them in a "good" category, not great, when compared to Oh Brother, Where Art Thou. That's my opinion, but I am no film afficionado.

What's your favorite of the last 10 years? Maybe I have forgotten something?

But who can forget these lines spoken by George Clooney's, Ulysses Everett:

"Well, any human being will cast about in a moment of stress. No, the fact is, they're flooding this valley so they can hydroelectric up the whole durn state. Yes, sir, the South is gonna change. Everything's gonna be put on electricity and run on a paying basis. Out with the old spiritual mumbo jumbo, the superstitions, and the backward ways. We're gonna see a brave new world where they run everybody a wire and hook us all up to a grid. Yes, sir, a veritable age of reason. Like the one they had in France. Not a moment too soon."

"Tell me, Muse, of the man of many ways"

Marmite

Since I have had such a good supply of Marmite from Town Talk, I though I would look up their website.

Very clever -- and they have a section for Marmite haters.

www.marmite.com/love/history