Carrollton Company’s Con Corralled

Proving that no scam ever goes out of style and that P.T. Barnum was right, Barbara Sommer of Carrollton and her company, Ad Telamerica Inc., dusted off the old phony yellow pages invoice scam and were apparently doing all right with it. That is, until someone tipped off the Texas Attorney General’s office. Now Ad Telamerica is in the cross hairs for fraud.

Get Your Free Market Geek On

Click here if you want to watch Dallas Fed head Richard Fisher interview one of my favorite economists (did I just really say that ?), the late Milton Friedman. The interview, recorded in 2005, is broken up into nice little nuggets where Friedman and Fisher discuss everything from free trade to education reform.

Jason Heid Named Publisher of People Newspapers

Maybe Wick wasn’t kidding about wanting that ambassadorship of Costa Rica. Today he announced he has retired as publisher of People Newspapers. Put your hands together for the new guy in the corner office, Jason Heid (whose bio on their blog now needs updating).

Jessica Simpson to Star in Major Embarrassment

Go here to see the trailer for Major Movie Star, the forthcoming “film” (for lack of a better word) from Jessica Simpson. A few thoughts:

1. If I were casting a mash-up remake of Private Benjamin and Stripes, I don’t think Jessica Simpson makes the call sheet.
2. If the rest of the movie has anything at all in common with the trailer, I think audiences will join writers on the picket line. (Zing! That’s topical humor, people.)
3. There is not near enough Steve Guttenberg.

Don’t Stir Up the Baptists

Or do, if you want a brouhaha like the one over at the Park Cites People blog this week.

My Kind Of Job

The important thing about this news item is not that former Bush neighbor, Mark Langsdale of Dallas, will head the new Bush Library. No, the important thing is that the ambassadorship of Costa Rica is now open. Hel-lo. I’m over here.

Re: Deep Ellum’s Beat

I’d agree with Wick that Deep Ellum “is a shadow of its former lively self.” But I don’t think it’s because of the clubs that the landlords have allowed in. At least, not anymore. I think it’s because of all the clubs they haven’t let open up down there. If they’re worried about the wrong kind of club causing a crime problem — or worse yet, the perception of a crime problem — that ship has sailed. Using the SUP process as a hammer isn’t going to work. It’s just going to breed a new generation of Avi Adelmans that will use it to cleanse the neighborhood of anything they don’t like, which is pretty much everything.

The only way to give Deep Ellum life again is giving it more life — more clubs, which will bring in more people, which will bring in more restaurants. They have two choices at this point: Open the doors to more clubs, or sell off all the land to an outside developer and start over. I would hope it would be the former, but I also hoped that I wouldn’t have to burn down my house for the insurance money, and that’s not working out so well for me.

The Regular Season Doesn’t Matter, Until It Does

Virtually every preview of the Mavericks’ season was qualified with some variation on the idea that, in light of the dispiriting loss to Golden State, nothing the team did until the playoffs mattered. Totally understandable. I pretty much shared the sentiment.

Last night, the Mavericks beat Golden State on the road, in the same environment and against the same team they struggled so mightily against previously. Apparently, though, the team should have defeated the Warriors a bit more soundly. Yes, the fifth game of the season was supposed to be a Statement Game. Make up your mind, people. Either the regular season is meaningless or it isn’t.
(Don’t worry. I’m not going to post about every game.)

T.G.I. Friday’s Gets A Dallas Flagship

Today’s opening of the T.G.I. Friday’s at NorthPark Center–the 600th U.S. location for Friday’s–can be traced to the restaurant’s location inside Terminal D at DFW Airport. At a private reception at the new NorthPark restaurant last night, Richard Snead, CEO of Friday’s Carrollton-based parent, Carlson Restaurants Worldwide, recalled how NorthPark honchos had visited the DFW Friday’s a while back, and liked what they saw. (The chain has upscaled its menu and revamped its image in recent years, shedding the Tiffany lamps for more contemporary decor.) The eatery’s “willingness to try new things” was a key to landing the coveted location at NorthPark, next to the AMC Theatres complex, Snead said. Cost of the new digs, now considered the Friday’s flagship: about $1.5 million.

Keyes to Blockbuster’s Future

Some day, puns of Blockbuster’s CEO Jim Keyes will wear thin. As far as I’m concerned, today is not that day. But that’s not the point of this post. The point is to pass along this link, wherein Keyes opines on the future of the one-time video-rental giant. He hopes to reawaken it, primarily by turning renters into buyers.

KERA Joins Blogosphere

It took em awhile, but they finally got on the trolley. Check out Arts + Culture.

Gordon Gives Me a Shout-Out

Tim, please put aside your anger for Gordon for just four minutes and read his Quick column this week. It’s about the writer’s strike, and I make a very, very small contribution to it.

Deep Ellum’s Beat Doesn’t Exist

The place is a shadow of its former lively self. And that’s mostly due to the kind of clubs that landlords have allowed in. The Special Use permit process was begun by the Deep Ellum folks to control and limit those clubs so the area could attract back its former customer base — the one that frequented the many good restaurants and clubs that once thrived. If the city is not going to use the process to revive Deep Ellum, why have it?

Deep Ellum’s Beat Goes On

Michael Davis runs a blog called Dallas Progress. He’s also on the City Planning Commission. As he mentioned in the comments section of yesterday’s post, six of the seven bars facing Special Use Permit renewals got ‘em, with one getting an extension. That’s good news for fans of Deep Ellum. And, as Davis writes on his blog, the turnout yesterday at City Hall is good news for the future. The kids, they care.

Friday Fun

It’s Friday Fun time, and every now and then you need a laid-back, no-soundtrack, no-timer, don’t-even-keep-score Friday Fun. In that spirit, I present Trap the Cat. The game is about as self-explanatory as they come. Enjoy.

Leading Off

1. UT Southwestern has a VIP list of Dallas folks who can get special treatment. If you read the list, it’s an outrage. I mean, Wick is on it, but I’m not? I’m the one who makes out the list of what actually goes in the magazine! C’mon!

2. This Park Cities Christian Rock youth band (all members are 15 years old) is named Stanhope, after the street in UP one of the band members lives on. So they’re kind of the Gap Band in Bizarro World.

3. The Mavs beat Golden State. That is not a misprint.