Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings is allowed to ramble on at some length about public schools in a blog piece by Robert Wilonsky on today’s Dallas Morning News web page. It’s a Q&A. Rawlings comes across, as usual, as a smart decent man who cares. But is he the right smart…
You wait. When this whole presidential election gets rolling in earnest, pensions are going to be a whole lot sexier issue than condoms. People just haven’t figured it out yet. Josh Gotbaum, director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., is quoted in a Q&A in The Dallas Morning News today…
Not much sleep last night. Wide awake at 4 a.m., hiding beneath the sheets. A pretty sad state of affairs when a fellow of my years has to hide under his own bedding to avoid being bitten in the face by a dog. But there you have it. Rescue dogs…
Dear Grilled Chicken Sandwich, You suck. I mean you really, really suck. I’m not just picking on The Blackfriar’s version pictured above — the McKinney Avenue pub just happened to be the unlucky subject of this food critic’s rant — I’m talking about all grilled chicken sandwiches everywhere. All of…
Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. A huge idea turned up at City Hall yesterday. Huge. This is like a Blue whale beaching itself on the banks of the Trinity River. I’m afraid City Hall is going to send a crew out there and chop it into…
Dear Mexican: I’m so perplexed by my Mexican neighbor. For one, he already has four girls, and I just saw his wife — and she looks like she’s pregnant AGAIN! What really bothers me is that I live in an affordable housing unit. The rent is cheap and based on…
This is a very Harry Potter-like story, and, even though as a writer I shouldn’t telegraph my punches, I’ll go ahead and tell you that it has a happy ending. In fact, I’m so happy about it I’ll go ahead and tell you what the ending is. I obtained a…
Welcome to Local Music ‘Mericans, where we get to know the people behind the scenes in Dallas/Fort Worth music. In 2009, KZPS-FM 92.5 fired Derek Walker from their promotions crew. Unfortunately, he was sorely misunderstood by the marketing department’s then-head honcho, and was let go after going shirtless for a…
Two stories in the news just now offer encouragement on the bullying front. In today’s New York Times is an account of a new policy adopted by a big suburban school district north of Minneapolis. Christian conservatives there had been fighting against an effort to protect gay students from beatings…
Yeah, OK, OK, I get that GCB is going to be a send-up of drunk bitchy Christian women in the Park Cities. I’m all for that. I just hope the comedic voice of the TV series doesn’t serve to obscure the fact that it’s true. Alan Peppard had a funny…
Oh, ouch. That was a liberal ouch, by the way. Even as a liberal, I can see this as the Next Bad Idea snouting its way up over the far horizon: telling the suburbs they have to bail out the cities. Ain’t … gonna … happen. David Firestone, a young…
Today on The Dallas Morning News op-ed page we find a piece by Ethnic Tidying Kompaniechef Tod Robberson demanding that the Bulldozers of Compassion take down a car wash in southern Dallas, putting some poor son of a bitch out of business. And that would be why? The business needs…
I wanted to sign up and pin nothing but hoagies. I found buns, “hoagie dip” and earrings instead…
Here we are, with the biggest Medicare fraud in history going — so we are told — and The New York Times devotes its front page today to a story about Medicare fraud carried out by organized Russian gangs in … oh, guess where! … New York City! What can…
Dear Mexican: Aunqué soy Boricua, mi corazón está al lado del pueblo mejicano, aquí en Arizona. ¿Porqué no hablas contra “La Bruja Mala del Oeste” Gobernadora Jan Brewer, “El Leon Cobarde” Ex-Senador Russell Pearce, “El Hombre Hecho de Lata” Alguacil del Condado Maricopa Joe Arpaio, “El Hombre Hecho de Paja”…
Last Sunday The Dallas Morning News published a special section designed as a program/brochure for all the parties planned next weekend, anchored by a Lyle Lovett concert, to celebrate the opening of the city’s new Santiago Calatrava bridge over the Trinity River. But the bridge won’t open Friday. It isn’t…
If I were a male cowboy-boot-wearing Republican in Texas, I might feel pretty chapped right now by all the attention paid over the last week to the Virginia ultrasound bill. Talk about some limp legislation. Yesterday those wimps in Virginia voted up a pared-down version that will allow women undergoing…
Welcome to Local Music ‘Mericans, where we get to know the people behind the scenes in Dallas/Fort Worth music. Jamie Kinser started booking shows after shaking hands with Ernest Tubb’s nephew, Lucky Tubb. Before long, a handshake turned into a partnership. Next thing you know, Kinser’s original endeavor of booking…
Work has started on the Fort Worth JFK tribute, a memorial plaza to be dominated by a larger-than-life statue of President John F. Kennedy with his hand extended for a friendly shake. What a difference a half-hour drive makes. When complete, the Fort Worth memorial will serve as stark contrast…
Does public housing, including Section 8 vouchers that help poor people pay rent, and other “dispersal” programs, cause crime? A reader commenting on an item posted here at the end of last week cited an article published in The Atlantic magazine in 2008, called “American Murder Mystery,” saying pretty much…
Steak steak steak steak steak steak steak. The Dallas Morning News published a Pavlovian steakhouse slideshow the other day, with pictures and a link to a story published two summers ago that ranked Dallas’ best steakhouses. There are some sexy shots in that slideshow, but they invoked deja vu: D…
Who’s a liberal these days, and who are the conservatives? I look in the mirror, I don’t even know. I look in The New York Times this morning, I’m even more confused. The Times has a story out of Miami about major cuts in federal housing subsidies. The story calls…
