Last week Dallas school board member Dan Micciche had an op-ed essay in The Dallas Morning News urging people to push their City Council members and the mayor about the chronic under-funding of public libraries in the city. The numbers he cited for the city’s support of libraries were abysmal…
Saw in a local daily the other day there’s a plan to develop a bunch of raw dirt at the base of the city’s new fake suspension bridge downtown. Thought, “Hang on. Don’t I know that dirt?” Looked it up. Had to go way back. Yeah! I do know that…
Yesterday we got the ball rolling on our picks for the best musical cameos from The Simpsons’ first 25 years on the air, in honor of the show’s ongoing marathon of 552 episodes on FXX. We went through the first half of our list of 30 episodes, meaning it’s time…
How can I devote so many words here to housing discrimination in Dallas and not even mention poor doors in Manhattan? I can’t, even though I’m still not sure exactly what New York poor doors teach us. Maybe the lesson is just that pompous posturing assholes with thinly defended egos…
Can there be too much of a good thing? Perhaps. Fans of The Simpsons have likely been asking themselves that question for years now, given that the beloved Fox TV show has been on the air for 25 years now and, arguably, past its best for quite some time. But…
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s accusation of racial segregation lodged against Dallas has probably reached a point of incomprehensibility for most people, but there is still a simple question in it: What if it’s true? As far as understanding most of what they say now, the city…
Ran into a retired city department head on a parking lot in the afternoon heat yesterday, thought I was gonna die. This guy had an entire career’s worth of anger and frustration to unload, and there I was in the sun with my head uncovered. I think I lost a…
A great moment in music history. By Diane Martinez This summer marks the fifteen-year anniversary of the greatest song of all time. I KNOW. I couldn’t believe it either, but fifteen years have come and gone since the first time you heard “Smooth” by Santana, featuring Rob Thomas. FIFTEEN. YEARS…
This is the week something should happen in the now 5-year-old dispute between the city of Dallas and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development over HUD’s landmark segregation complaint against Dallas. HUD and the city have been jaw-boning each other for several weeks now over what Dallas must…
You could very well be a OneRepublic fan and not even know it. Or at least a Ryan Tedder fan. OK, you could be a fan of Tedder’s work and not even know it. You see, Tedder’s day job might be singing as OneRepublic’s front man, but it’s his side…
It’s Drinking Week at City of Ate, which means even more stories than usual about our favorite pastime. Check back for more stories about craft beer, killer bartenders and more. I had my first “custom cocktail” about four years ago. I was at new bar in D.C. called The Passenger,…
Sunday it was 7 a.m. California time when I called my brother in the Bay Area to ask if he had died in the quake. He said no. I thought he sounded sleepy, but he could have been serene. It’s hard to tell with those people. I asked if he…
Dear Steel City Pops, First, I want you to know I love you. On a hot day, one of your fruity pops is the pinnacle of refreshment; I can’t eat it fast enough. An avocado pop, with its creamy tang, would be a treat no matter the weather, and I’m…
Yesterday I said I would eat crow if Dallas Morning News editorial writer Rudy Bush turns out to be right and I turn out to be wrong about the outcome of the HUD racial discrimination complaint against the city of Dallas. Today after much more snooping around, I would offer…
The line that designates what is and is not country music is muddier than most of us are willing to admit. What is abundantly clear, though, is that country music appeals to more people than just rednecks and sappy beer drinkers. Taylor Swift may think she’s reinventing the wheel in…
Oh, man, I shouldn’t even tell you about this. I guess it’s me and Rudy Bush, “High Noon,” “OK Corral,” all those old movies. One of us has got to wind up on his back in the horseshit with his toes in the air. I promise I’ll let you know…
In President Obama’s 1995 autobiography, Dreams from My Father, one passage describes a day when he is still a kid in Indonesia, walking down a road with his Indonesian stepfather. His stepfather asks him how much money he has in his pocket. Then the stepfather asks how many beggars he…
If the editorial in The Dallas Morning News this morning has any credibility, and I am sure it does, HUD has agreed to throw the whistleblowers under the bus in the Lockey/MacKenzie racial segregation complaint against the city of Dallas. It’s not a surprising outcome, because paying off the two…
This is a first. In an editorial this morning The New York Times is defending Rick Perry. Sort of. They offer major caveats, calling him, “one of the least thoughtful and most damaging state leaders in America, having done great harm to immigrants, abortion clinics and people without health insurance…
At some point in the career of a band, the members of the group reach an impasse with their relationship and go their separate ways. Of course, there’s always money to be made, so the parties involved make the decision to hit the road and play their hits anyway. The…
If you haven’t heard the earth-shattering news, Taylor Swift, after the debut of the video for her new single “Shake It Off,” unceremoniously quit country music and announced that her new record was a pop album. Unfortunately for fans of Swift’s particular brand of folksy and boring love ballads, they’ll…
Something in the Ferguson, Missouri, story I keep looking for, waiting. My dad’s family is from St. Louis. Sorta. So anyway today I found an op-ed piece in The New York Times that maybe gets to part of it or somewhere in that general direction. Jeff Smith, a professor of…
