Dear Readers: In honor of April Fools’ Day, I’m turning over the column this week to those who think America can stop the Reconquista. Following are the winners of my challenge to Know Nothings a couple semanas back asking people to explain in 100 words or less how they can…
For 11 years the Dallas Observer has been reporting the existence of serious, fundamental life-and-death design errors in the Trinity River project, a huge public-works undertaking to rebuild the river through downtown Dallas alongside a new highway and parks. Above all else, this was to be a flood-safety project, but…
Steve Blow writes today on The Dallas Morning News’s Metro Blog about Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert, the Trinity River toll road and Blow’s own support of Leppert in the past:Yet I don’t feel misled by the mayor. In thinking about it, I finally hit upon the pertinent word for me:…
By now I’m way way too deep into the story of the Trinity River Corridor Project. I have actually developed a kind of side interest — a hobby, maybe — involving the history of the Trinity River Project. I’ll know it’s time to see a doctor when I start collecting…
Whether you’re at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *It hit me this week: More than the Mavs being psychologically gutted from playoff failure or inherently soft or whatever, the thing that has stunted their growth is the regression of…
Mayor Tom Leppert and The Dallas Morning News are hell-bent for leather to invest half a billion bucks in public money in a city-owned convention “headquarters” hotel downtown to save the city’s convention business. But should we stop and reflect on the fact that the decline in the city’s convention…
Dear Mexican: Why is it that when I go to the Mexican supermarkets to buy productos femeninas, fully 98 percent of the aisle provided for such things is composed of maxi pads and the limited selection of tampons are in dusty boxes with a sell-by date of 1986? I assume…
This one – for damn sure – can’t be explained away by sonic boom. A slamming door and vibrating wall that wakes me from a sleep? Maybe. But a noticable, audible swaying of a kitchen pot rack when I’m awake and alert? I dunno. You tell me. Perhaps Craig T. Nelson…
Whether you’re at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *I promise to watch Terrell Owens’ reality show on VH1. Provided that I get to see the unedited footage of T.O.’s reaction when agent Drew Rosenhaus calls with the four most…
New Crum Center. Same crummy results. In Matt Doherty’s first season as SMU basketball coach back in 2006-07, the Mustangs started 9-1. A victory at Oklahoma would’ve likely propelled the Ponies into the Top 25. Instead, SMU was humbled in Norman by 27 points, and it’s been all drastically downhill since…
Dear Mexican: Not sure if this has been asked before, but how do you feel about Arizona’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio? I think the guy’s a fucking racist who’s just out to get Mexicans to fulfill his racist agenda. He’s been relevant lately due to the protests in Arizona against Section…
In reading the latest news about flood dangers downtown and the Trinity River Project, it’s important to know that this is an 11-year-old story that Dallas officials and The Dallas Morning News are just now being forced to acknowledge. And even at that, the acknowledgment is grudging and slow to…
In 1990 I finished the White Rock Marathon. And it almost finished me. This year, I get my revenge: Back then I was a 26-year-old flatbelly, just a couple years removed from competitive cross country and a full-speed dork who would precede Saturday morning flag football at The Village Country Club with…
To the 289 dear, sweet Friends of Unfair Park who’ve forwarded along the Billy Bob Bain-created “Shutze vs Price” Wordle based upon Steve Blow’s whatchamacallit yesterday, thanks. ‘Preciate ya, pal(s). Here it is for those who’ve missed it. Shutze … pardon, Schutze has already made it his computer wallpaper. And…
Dallas Morning News Metro columnist Steve Blow talked bad about me in the paper Sunday, so now, I guess, the laws of newspaper combat dictate that I must talk bad about Blow. I shall.But first, I remember this scene from way back in my newspaper childhood. Back in the late…
Whether you’re at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *If you’re breathlessly waiting to hear Mickey Spagnola’s take on the Cowboys cutting Terrell Owens, you’ll have to go here. Because, alas, The Ticket’s beloved “Ranch Report” is no more. Remember, Mickey was/is…
Someone not named “Jim Schutze” just posted the above video to YouTube — just in time for the Friends of Unfair Park who’ve not yet read Schutze’s very related column in this week’s Observer. An excerpt, to whet your appetite:At the end of last week, I had a detailed and…
Now that the truth is finally coming out about the Trinity River toll road project, it makes a difference to remember who said what two years ago. And not just as gotcha. The Trinity River toll road is in trouble now because the basic due diligence on it never took…
Dear Readers: Before we move on to your spicy preguntas, a bit of housecleaning. Primeramente, gracias to all the Know Nothings who responded to my 100-word-essay challenge asking them to justify loving legal Mexicans but not the illegal ones; I will publish the best entries on the April Fools’ edición…
The real tragedy of the Inland Port situation is illustrated by the sound file you can listen to at the bottom of this item — an excerpt from Cheryl Smith’s long-running program Reporter’s Round Table on KKDA-FM (104.5). If you listen to this carefully, you will discover some important things…
If we lived in California there’d be an easy explanation: Earthquake. But we live in McKinney, so there’s no logical reason why our house mysteriously shook this morning at 6 a.m. I was yanked from my sleep by what sounded like the loud, violent slamming of a door, followed by the rattling of…
Last night, after that town hall meeting, I spotted Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price standing alone outside the Harold Wendell Lang Middle School. I approached him, because the commissioner had been ducking my calls and e-mails for a couple months, and I had some business to transact with him.As…
