FrontBurner: The Week That Was

Things we learned this week:

• Why many (but not all) people hate our Southlake cover.
• But we loved the media frenzy. Oh, and scoreboard.
• Mark Cuban will in no way (nudge) embarrass himself (wink) on Dancing with the Stars.
• Cuidado, DISD. Wick is on the case.
• Dallas, Dallas Stars are funny.
• Local golfer is good. Local airline? Not so much. But it is on time … ish.
• Thanks, Tristan!
• Matt Zoller Seitz can really type.
• Pony up! No? Yes? Maybe?
• The week has been reshuffled.
• Lord…
• Looking good, Plano! Feeling good, Billy Ray!
• Everyone has a Charley Pride story. Or an urban legend.

Have a good and/or safe Labor Day.

Attn Judges: Turbans Are Not Hats

So says the ACLU of Texas. Seems the Honorable Albert Cercone told Amardeep Singh to take off his “hat” before the trial for Singh’s traffic violation got started back in 2006. Singh refused. The judge threatened to throw Singh in jail. Singh capitulated. The ACLU filed a lawsuit today.

Adam Has Apparently Decided to Pony Up

A Hilltop-working FBvian sent over a t-shirt for Adam. Looks to me like he’s pretty ponied up. Now if he’d just ditch the hipster Lisa Loeb/Buddy Holly glasses.

Re: CD You Should Own Now

As long as you’re at Amazon ordering a copy of “the black Woodstock,” a band-leading FBvian suggests you try a little tenderness and add this to your shopping cart. I can’t disagree.

Tom Bodett Won’t Leave The Lights On For You

The Richards Group radio campaign for Motel6 is one of the most enduring, and endearing, in modern advertising history. Tom Bodett tells how it happened here.

Everyone Cross Your Fingers: Another Von Erich Joins the Wrestling Business

Uwe Blog has word that Lacey Von Erich has signed a deal with WWE. Besides being … let’s just say, attractive, yes, she’s one of those Von Erichs — specifically, the daughter of the late Kerry Von Erich, and niece of the late David, Mike, and Chris. I hope she has a better experience with the wrestling business than the rest of her family. And I hope (but doubt) that Vince McMahon and WWE don’t exploit that aforementioned tragic legacy.

Open: The Club

Meet the chef with the best name I’ve heard lately: Vincenzo Indelicato, exec chef at The Club, a newly opened restaurant in the old Draelion space in the Centrum building. Last night was the grand opening par-tay, and they even found a red carpet to roll out for the occasion.

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St. Vincent Has Not Seen Star Wars

The singer reveals that and more in her patient interview with Pitchfork. Perhaps most interesting: the reason she called her album Marry Me.

Dallas Stars Have Themselves a Funny Ad

An alert FBvian points us to the story on ESPN.com:

As part of the team’s “come into the cold” ad campaign to sell seats for 2007-08, the Stars took a shot at the NBA’s referee scandal on a billboard near the American Airlines Arena, the building the Stars share with the Dallas Mavericks.

The message? “The only thing our refs shave is the ice.”

[standing, clapping] Not sure whether the credit goes to Brad Alberts or Jim Lites or who. But that’s some good work, Stars.

Gordon Keith Takes Cheap Shots

If you followed my live blog yesterday evening from Victory Park (thank you, iPhone!), now you can watch the video from last night’s Gordon Keith Show. It’s further proof that Gordon is an ambush artist who has no scruples. I was really offended that he made fun of my thinning hair and left me hanging on a high-five.

Plano, You Are So Money, Baby

Plano weighs in with the highest median household income for a city with more than 250,000 people, according to CNNMoney.com, coming in at $77,038. That’s ahead of San Jose ($73,804) and San Francisco ($65,497), and well above the national median household income of $48,451.

Re: Party With MADD

An FBvian also fed up with the Labor Day MADD hype sends us this from a magazine I’m subscribing to by the end of the day — it’s a guide by a former cop on how to avoid getting a DUI and an interview with the author. Good lunch reading.

CD You Should Own Now

Some called the Wattstax festival at the Los Angeles Coliseum on August 20, 1972 — organized by soul/R&B powerhouse Stax Records — the “black Woodstock.” Some would say it was even better than that. Hear for yourself now that a new three-disc deluxe edition of the concert has just been made available. Among others, it features Isaac Hayes, the Staple Singers, the Bar-Kays, Carla Thomas, and the late, great Johnnie Taylor.

Latest Soccer News: Brazilian Finds Way to Frisco

Of course, if you care, you probably know already. But if you do and you don’t (care/know): Brazilian soccer star Denilson joined FC Dallas this week. He might even play for the Hoops tomorrow, now that he has a work visa. Denilson is kind of a big deal. Or was. In 1998, he was the most expensive player in the world — or so says Wikipedia.

Shoe Lovers

For all you shoe addicts, one of my favorite websites, shuzsociety.com, is giving away a pair of designer (Christian Louboutin, Missoni, Moschino, Marc Jacobs, or Strutt Couture) shoes every Friday this September. Good luck.

Be the Grand Prairie Police Department’s Friend!

From the Houston Chronicle (via the great Grits for Breakfast) comes word that the Grand Prairie PD has set up its own MySpace page for recruitment purposes. I’m on record as being a fan of the social networking site, so the fact that said page exists doesn’t bother me. As for the page itself, Grits’ Scott Henson rightly notes that it wasn’t the best idea for the department to post photos of its officers wearing masks (bringing to mind the outlaw culture of the old “Tulia-style drug task forces”). Me? I’m more concerned about the page’s apparent theme song: Nickelback’s “If Everyone Cared.” Ugh. Also, the rotating smiley face in the “mood” section seems a bit flippant. At least give it an eye patch or something.

Update: I’m a moron. Eric already got there, even with the same Nickelback joke. Off my game today. I think it’s because I accidentally shaved off my beard.

Re: Adam’s Failure To Pony Up

Adam, please see my new Fantasy Football team name in our poker league. For those of you who read his earlier post, it won’t be hard to figure out. Two words. Ends with McGill.

Time for a Boycott of Area Minyard Locations?

Reading Michael Davis’ post over at Dallas Progress about the substandard Minyard location at Marsalis and Illinois being robbed at gunpoint reminded me of this incident at the now-defunct Lakewood location. That store, besides for lacking any sort of security, also wasn’t exactly what you’d classify as “at the forefront of supermarket technology.” I know it’s a small sample size, but that’s enough for me. Minyards in the Dallas-Fort Worth area: You are officially on notice. It’s about time to pony up.

It’s Because Media Are Lazy. Duh.

From an exasperated FBvian:

For the second morning in three days, Channel 8 has made a big deal about kids getting off at the wrong bus stop in HEB. While I sympathize with the parents, this is NOT news. This is something that the parents and the school district need to work out. The whole hyperlocal thing has just gone too extreme. I half expected to see a news crew when I burped after eating my sausage biscuit on the way to work this morning.

I hear you, brother. Speaking of, my brother got on the wrong bus his first day of first or second grade. Spent an hour traveling about all parts of the city. It was scary for a few minutes, but, you know, he got on the wrong bus. What’re you gonna do? Tell him to ranch up and get on the right one. Same thing as when I whizzed my britches the first day of first grade. If that happened today, there’d be a five-car pile-up of news vans on the way to the school to figure out who to blame.

Let me use your point to go off on a rant, here. The reason this happens is the daily media have no idea how to cover public schools, or education in general. It’s hard. There are big issues to tackle. It’s complicated. And, believe me, test scores RARELY tell the story. It’s like trying to explain the complexities of a city by looking at its bond rating. Any parent knows this. So you get multiple screaming reports about $200K misspent in a $1.8 billion budget, stuff like that. Oh, and then you get letters to the Morning News censored when people complain about this. Like the one after the jump.

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Those Women at MADD Sure Know How to Party

With Labor Day closing in on us like GOP senator in a one-stall public restroom, attorney/blogger Robert Guest breaks down the standard pre-holiday press release from the always reasonable, never hysterical folks at MADD. Good stuff here.

Great Local Real Estate Tool

You want to know how Eric is going to spend the rest of day? The man addicted to real estate porn (aka looking at houses for sale that he can’t afford) will be fiddling with our new Ebby Halliday search tool. We’re the only media outlet in town offering the entire MLS database through our site. Seriously good stuff.

Farewell, Pops Mensah-Bonsu. We Hardly Knew You.

Promise this is my last sports post for a while, ladies. I just couldn’t let Pops Mensah-Bonsu’s release from the Dallas Mavericks’ roster pass without comment, since he was my favorite scrub on my favorite team. (You have to love a guy who tries to block every shot taken and attempts to dunk no matter where he is on the court.) Hope you catch on with another team, Pops, as long as it isn’t the Spurs. Or the Heat. Or the Warriors. You know what? Maybe you should find a nice European squad.

Oh. So That’s What Susan Powter Looks Like These Days

For some reason — and really, who needs a reason — Gawker played a game of “Where Are They Now?” with former Dallas aerobics teacher slash dietitian slash Stopper of Insanity Susan Powter. They found her, surprisingly enough, at her official Web site. Powter writes poetry and does videocasts of herself eating a nectarine and other, presumably, doing other things. Enjoy.

Dallas-based Lone Star Tries to Cut Accredited a Deal

In June, Lone Star offered to buy Accredited Home Lenders for about $400 million. Then the subprime mortgage market blew up, and Lone Star tried to back out of the deal, much to the chagrin of Accredited and its lawyers. Now, Lone Star says, “Fine. We’ll still buy you, but only for $214 million,” which makes sense since Accredited fired about 60 percent of its employees and isn’t making any new loans. At least Accredited isn’t based in Korea. Speaking of the Korean Stock Exchange, Lone Star will soon get $5.5 billion for its stake.

Pony Up: I Surrender

Trust me, I’m as tired of the topic as you are and I’ll try not to post about it again. But I did want to clear some things up from my over-the-top, poorly worded, hangover-addled post yesterday, especially for all of my new friends at PonyFans.com. First of all, I’ve long since known about and learned to embrace my inner dorkiness, but I appreciate everyone over at the PonyFans forum pointing it out. (Until now, I’d never before been called “Dillhole McGill.” So, um, thanks?) And I shoulda thought better of declaring my wife’s hotness in such a public shout-out. I was trying to be sweet and still think she is, but I’ll keep it to myself next time. And, I wasn’t the one with SMU elitist image concerns; that was an emailer. Finally, in a nutshell, my problem with the Pony Up campaign was and is this: On a billboard, a pony with an arrow next to it looks like it’s giving bad directions to the stadium. I should have left it at that.

That said, I hope plenty of SMU fans can find their way to Ford Stadium on Monday before the 3 p.m. kickoff against Texas Tech. What is a “Red Raider” anyway? And what kind of slogan is “Git Yer Guns Up”? (Don’t answer that, Trey.)

Pony Up, if you are so inclined.