BADDY, WHERE’S OUR CAKE?

WAYNE BROADWELL: FROM CATFISH TO CANNELLONI

This just in:

Anita and Gaetano Riccardi announced today that Wayne Broadwell has joined the management staff at their fine dining Italian restaurant located on 2800 Routh Street in The Quadrangle. “As Director of Operations, Wayne will be an asset in the training of the dining room staff, assisting the sales and marketing department, and overseeing the daily operations of the restaurant,” said Owner Anita Riccardi. Wayne has 7 years compilation of Italian dining experience. Wayne was Maitre’ d of The Mansion on Turtle Creek for over 15 years and most recently assisted in the opening of the new Catalina Room located on Lemmon Avenue.

Hmm. Just a couple of weeks ago Mr. B claimed his gig at Catalina was “the best job in the world.” Perhaps he’ll call and spill the fava beans.

RE: BEHNAZ IN THE HOUSE

A frustrated Nick “Baddy” Badovinus had this to say in response to the Fashionista Foodie’s comments:

What up with the fashionista foodie player hatin’ our spots and most importantly, my wig on the ‘Burner?…In a delish case of FrontBurner Irony, T Boone Pickens had diner @ Hibiscus last night. I guess when you set the record for highest one-year income only one place in town really hits the spot. He was in a great mood but didn’t appear to be “swooning”. Take a long position on “worn-out sleeves”.

We over here at D still love you Baddy and think you and your blonde locks are super goody. We look forward to more of your delicious creations.

NANCY HAS A NEW PLACE TO HANG

So my favorite wine bar/retail shop on the planet, the Wine Therapist, also known as the extension of my living room, is opening a second location on Lovers near Inwood, next to the Sonny Bryan’s space. Now Nancy can spend as much of her disposable income in there as I do. Phillip, don’t say I didn’t warn you. And don’t forget to send us an invitation to the grand opening!

RE: THE KNIGHT RIDDER EFFECT

James Surowiecki, the financial columnist of The New Yorker, has his own take on the state of newspapers. The medium’s future is not so bleak, he writes in his typical, scary-good way.

NO, NO, NO, NO, NO

An informed FrontBurnervian passes along this news: Jessica Simpson wants to adopt. Troubling.

MY NEXT JOB

News publisher Jim Moroney has decided to create the position of president and GM of the DMN, because, among other reasons, he hopes to “alleviate some of the decision-making congestion in my office.” Dude, I can totally do that.

The full memo, forwarded by a concerned FBvian:
(more…)

DEPT. OF WORD CHOICE

I suspect Adam is moonlighting at the Advocate. Not because of his sexual proclivities (his wife is smokin’) but because of his taste for the pun. The current issue of the national mag features a cover story about Dallas’ own Tom Malin, the District 108 candidate who, it was discovered, had turned tricks. (By the way, the photos were taken by the lovely sometime D Mag contributor Allison V. Smith.) The article contains the following two lines that caught my eye.

1. At one point, speaking to the fact that it was probably a fellow gay Democrat who leaked the story of Malin’s past to the News, Malin is quoted as saying, “Why would the gays eat their own?”

2. Later on, the story’s author notes, “The president can be a recovering alcoholic with a DUI arrest; the vice president can accidentally shoot a man–all is forgiven. But if a person takes money for sex, the taint may be inescapable.”

Really solid work, Adam.

WATCH OUT MOMS, THE DMN IS COMING FOR YOU

AdAge.com bring us news of something called the “Newspaper Next” project. Backed by $2 million from the American Press Institute, six newspaper companies will get help with developing ideas for improving their business. If you figured the News would be all over that, you’d be right:

Dallas Morning News, part of Belo Corp., wants to develop a one-stop resource for busy mothers to find trusted recommendations to help in parenting.

Right now, someone at Dallas Child is cursing.

RE: T.BOONE’S BIG BUCKS

It’s worth remembering that Mr. Pickens made that $1.5 billion by betting that the world oil supply has peaked. Last summer, when James Howard Kunstler’s The Long Emergency was first terrifying people, T. Boone was already subscribing to the peak oil thesis now moving (though not as much as Avian flu) into the mainstream press, and he’s kept doing it (scroll down to the fourth paragraph).

It’s also worth remembering that years before Salon noticed it, he started buying up land on top of aquifers. Got a canteen?

RE: BEHNAZ IN THE HOUSE

A FrontBurnervian Fashionista Foodie reports:

I saw Behnaz and a whole crew of Stanley Korshak folk and friends dining at LOCAL restaurant tonight. The mood was incredibly festive. A few other diners joined the party after recognizing someone they knew in the group. Behnaz was very modest and quiet, comfortably sandwiched between two chatty women on the banquette. And, of course, everyone was just raving about the food! (I still maintain that Chef Tracy Miller’s food is some of the BEST in the city…and the restaurant itself the city’s best kept secret.) The party sat on the raised platform seating area, tucked away on the expanded side of LOCAL’s gorgeous new wine-bar. For anyone silly enough to shy away from Deep Ellum because of the press reports (or because they’re still swooning over whatever Tristan Simon and his blonde-haired sidekick keep pulling out from under their worn-out sleeves), the fact that Behnaz and the crew at Korshak chose LOCAL should say one thing: they have great taste.

And Behnaz knows a thing or two about taste.

WHY I LOVE ALLEN GWINN

Gwinn runs a site called DallasISD.Com. There he publishes some fascinating material about two DISD school board members, Lois Parrott and Ron Price, both up for re-election May 13. The former appears to have perjured herself. The latter has been convicted of beating his wife. Gwinn’s file on Parrott, particularly, shows some pretty solid research. The guy ain’t just sitting around, complaining about elected officials. He’s bringin’ it.

D DIDN’T MAKE LAURA KOSTELNY SICK. BUT I MIGHT HAVE.

Flu season passed through these halls recently. The cold I suffered was far less malevolent than Laura’s, who could be heard coughing up chunks of gunk on a daily basis. I blamed it on the closeness–the clamminess, if you will–of our cubicles. Turns out I shouldn’t have.

The sick-building syndrome is a farce, this study concludes. What causes flu symptoms at work aren’t the flu symptoms of your co-workers. It’s dissatisfaction with your co-workers.

Which makes me wonder: Since Laura was sicker than I was, and since we sit next to each other, was she–is she–dissatisfied with me? Even after all those funny jokes?

THE KNIGHT RIDDER EFFECT

Shareholders were hoping that the much-anticipated Knight Ridder sale would lift Belo’s sagging stock. It didn’t. The low price paid by McClatchy, coupled with Belo’s missing analysts’ targets for the first quarter (and it’s not the first time that’s happened), have dragged down the price to its lowest in two years.

RE: EVIL TABC

A card-playing FBvian lets us know that our infamy has spread:

I was just listening to this weekend past’s edition of the NPR News quiz show Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me on the iPod, and our beloved city was featured for–that’s right–the crackdown on drinking in bars. So now all of NPR-dom is aware of this idiocy. Just what we need, another reason for coastal elites to brand us rubes. Huzzah.

T. BOONE HAD A BOFFO ‘05

Apologies for just now getting around to this story. Billionaire T. Boone Pickens got more billionaire-y last year, thanks in large part to his “long crude” position and rising oil prices. Trader Monthly estimates Pickens pocketed $1.5 billion last year, setting a record for the highest-ever one-year income. Not too shabby.

IMMIGRATION RADIO

The radio talk shows are full of immigration chatter, but I tuned in this morning–accidentally, I admit–to “The Voice of the People,” KNON, 89.3, where it was going hot and heavy on Worker’s Beat, hosted by Gene Lantz. The same 8-9 a.m. segment features John Wiley Price on Thursday and Tavis Smiley on Friday. Callers were vigorously both pro and con re the pending, and punitive Congressional bill that has drawn out student protests here the last couple of days. Best line of the morning: “Don’t forget Texas was founded by illegal immigrants.” I know. I had a relative at the Battle of San Jacinto. Don’t send me back to Ireland.

WHAT’S UP WITH HISPANICS?

Depending on how you look at it, this is very amusing or very troubling: the recent nationwide protests by Hispanic groups caught everyone by surprise, even mainstream media, who were scrambling to explain what was happening. As the San Jose Mercury News explains in this story, the protests were organized weeks in advance by Spanish language media, particularly radio. In Dallas, that audience is huge. KESS-FM 107.9 “La Que Buena,” owned by Univision, pulled a whopping 5.7 rating to win the Spring 2005 book and consistently lands in the top three stations. Was this protest a portent of a new activism among local Hispanics? Those who want to know better stay tuned in to Spanish radio.

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.