FRONTBURNER: STILL HAS A WAYS TO GO

If I understand this (and I’m fairly certain I don’t), FrontBurner owns 0.00047 percent of the Internet.

RE: FRONTBURNER TRADEMARK

In an era of intellectual property piracy run amok, a journalist like Andrew Zimmern should respect the trademark. Still, I must admit I like his FrontBurner logo much better than ours. Tim, can we get some flames?

RE: THE NEXT PERSON

That’s weird. I thought you set up the FB MySpace page, Tim.

RE: THE NEXT PERSON TO HEAR FROM OUR ATTORNEYS

I hate to play the heavy. Nonetheless, our esteemed legal counsel did, indeed, let Andrew Zimmern know that he can’t use the name “FrontBurner” for his blog (thank you, Haynes and Boone!). Here’s Zimmern’s response. Adam, he doesn’t seem to care for the MySpace page you set up. [giggle]

SPEAKING OF THE HOMELESS…

…a FrontBurnervian shares this New Yorker article by Malcolm Gladwell in which he wonders aloud, and with good evidence, whether it would be more prudent and cost effective (not to mention humane) to take the homeless off the streets, address their mental and/or addiction problems, and get them back into society rather than our current policy of paying billions of dollars in medical and social services just to allow them to stay, well, homeless.

RE: FIRST BAPTIST

Enough with the slams against the poor Baptists on the low-cost housing project. We had the same problem at Holy Trinity Catholic several years ago, where our St. Vincent Center for the poor was attracting a motley and sometimes scary group of men, who would then spend their afternoons loitering in the same area as Holy Trinity School. They didn’t just loiter. They drank. They yelled at passers-by and school children. They had sex in the parking lot. Eventually we figured out a way to serve one population while protecting the other (younger) population. First Baptist’s concerns were valid. The fact is, though, that the Central Dallas Ministries program is not for the “voluntarily homeless” (i.e. vagrants) but for people trying to get out of a bad situation into a good one. The two ministries, Central and Baptist, ought to be able to work through the concerns–but they definitely need to be addressed. Having a school like First Baptist Academy downtown is just as important as having low-cost housing downtown.

RE: FIRST BAPTIST

A very snarky FBvian says:

Looks like the Dallas City Council approved the new low-income housing downtown. Guess the parents at First Baptist Academy didn’t pray hard enough. Either that or God actually cares for the poor.

BEHNAZ IN THE HOUSE

Some of you may know who Behnaz Sarafpour is. If you do, you will be excited to know that the petite fashion designer is making a personal appearance at Stanley Korshak today along with her Fall 2006 collection. I sat down and chatted with her this morning. Click below to see what she thinks about Dallas, designing, and what every woman should have in her closet.
(more…)

FASHIONABLE FUN

Looking for something to do this week? Support local fashion designers, artists, dj’s, and models at the launch party for the March Fashion Market this Thursday at Splashlight Studios. Sip cocktails, dance, see a live runway show, and mingle with some of Dallas’ most stylish. A portion of the $25 admission fee will go towards supporting The Dallas Fashion Incubator, which is a non-profit organization that helps local designers get started. Click below for more details.
(more…)

PROTESTERS CONTINUE TO PROTEST

Rod called from City Hall. He guesses there are about 1,000 students down there, protesting again. For the most part, they are well-behaved, though some have gotten into the pond, which is a no-no. Developing.

Update: An alert FBvian lets us know that Drudge has linked to this. Apparently some of the protestors down at City Hall were injured.

DALLAS: WE’RE IN THE TOP 20! ER, MAKE THAT BOTTOM 20

According to a new poll by Sperling’s Best Places that rates the best cities in America, one of the biggest factors pulling Dallas down the list is our woeful crime rate. In fact, check out this list of the 100 best Major Cities for crime and you’ll see us sitting at no. 80 — below crime havens like Baltimore, Newark, and Detroit. Who’s No. 1? Nassau/Suffolk, NY.

TRINI FEGGETT’S VERY BAD HORRIBLE NO GOOD DAY

I’m late in coming to this. But it’s just too good not to mention. The Star-T brings us the wonderful story of Trini Feggett, the cop who was fired for–well, for many things. On one day, his squad car camera caught him:

–Running a stop sign on his way to conduct personal business, which was watching a football game.

–Leaving his patrol area to go meet a friend at a restaurant.

–Yelling to a man sitting in the bed of a truck, “Why you selling weed from the truck, n—–?”

–Challenging another officer to a race, reaching speeds of 102 mph.

–Speeding just for the heck of it, while not racing anyone in particular, reaching speeds of 117 mph.

–Telling a stranded female motorist to lock her car, promising her he’d return, then leaving the scene to conduct personal business and never returning.

You know what Feggett’s attorney, Richard Carter, had to say about his client’s behavior? “Few, if any, law enforcement officers are perfect, and just about all of them have a bad day occasionally.”

Awe. Some.

NO SCHOOL FOREVER!!!

On my way to work, I saw an unusual number of kids in school uniform loitering on street corners. Another day of immigration protests, you ask? Apparently so.

SIGN UP TO SLEEP DOWNTOWN

An alert FBvian lets us know that 263 have signed up to walk to downtown Dallas on April 29 and sleep in a parking lot, as part of a silent protest for the Invisible Children of Uganda. Of course, sleeping in public is against the law, so I say we turn the fire hoses on em.

SHAME ON YOU, FORT WORTH!

I have just returned from the Nasher Sculpture Center, where the North Texas Business for Culture and the Arts presented its 2006 economic impact study of the arts and cultural organizations in North Texas. Got all that? My very brief notes:
(more…)

RE: DALLAS’ SKYLINE

A self-identified native Texan FBvian shares his thoughts on Dallas skyline after yesterday’s discussion:

I’m always amused when I see photos of Dallas’ skyline that makes it look like it’s riverfront (NO, the Trinity Toiletway does NOT count… MAYbe someday after billions of $$ in tax money is spent developing the Trinity, but not in my lifetime.) Equally humorous are the photos with a herd of longhorns in foreground and Big D rising up out of the prairies. His description of DFW was so bogus that I took the next step to read just WHO it was that had named Bog D’s skyline as one of the top 20 in the WORLD!

Did you read Luigi’s bio? I only hope his ad hoc writing is NOT in English. PLEASE tell me that English is not his native tongue. I humbly admit that I have yet to master ONE language.