Texas’ 32 Democratic Super-Delegates

The list, after the jump, courtesy of Time (go here for full list of all 795):

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Texas Sportswriter Of The Year

The Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association (NSSA) announced today that DMN baseball writer, and my BFITWW, Evan Paul “Grumpy” Grant, is the best sportswriter in Texas. Way to go, Grumpy. Live it up in Surprise!

Watch Guys Beat Each Other Up for a Good Cause

In completely uncontroversial news (fingers crossed, anyway), Schlegel Sports is hosting the fourth annual Pros vs. Prospects Charity Classic March 21 at the Dr. Pepper Stars Center in Frisco. The game puts hockey pros against—you guessed it—prospects from the Texas Tornado hockey club. This year’s celebrity roster of players and coaches will include Brett Hull, Luc Robitaille, Benoit Hogue, and Neal Broten. Proceeds go to benefit the Frisco Education Foundation and the Boys & Girls Club of Collin County. Tickets are now on sale through the Texas Tornado ticket office or online at www.tornadohockey.com.

Night of the Living Dead Lives On

You are no doubt familiar with and excited for AFI Dallas, which runs March 27 thru April 6. Lots of great flicks headed this-a-way for the festival. (Full disclosure: D is the magazine sponsor for AFI.) But the festivities start even before the festival does. As Big Bob pointed out, Landmark’s Inwood Theater has a special 40th anniversary screening of Night of the Living Dead next Thursday, Feb. 21, with George Romero in attendance. Romero is still making movies, of course. Today, he kindly asks the MTV kids to go out and see Diary of the Dead.

Update: An aware FrontBurnervian writes: “There’s also a cool zombie party tomorrow night at the Absinthe Lounge. Starts at 8 p.m. The art collective sponsoring it has dubbed the evening, “Night of the Loving Dead.”

Where Have You Gone, Club Babalu?

In news that hasn’t already been reported by Trey, driving back from Jake’s this afternoon, a few of us noticed that Club Babalu was being deconstructed. “Nooooo!” we wailed in a collective cry of despair. “Where will we go for Ladies Night every Saturday night, where ladies get in free before 11??” Fear not, FB Nation. A call to The Bab revealed that they’ve just moved to a “bigger and better” location on Gaston Avenue. Crisis averted.

Where You Should Be Eight Days From Now (Next Saturday)

Short answer: Highland Park Village. Slightly longer answer: Highland Park Village for a D Magazine marketing event called A Stroll Through Highland Park Village. A longer answer as well as the identity of the handsome gentleman pictured at left and why he’s showing off that new shirt: (after the jump)

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Latest Polls On Texas Democratic Primary

Clinton leads statewide, as expected.

McDonald’s No. 9 Grilled Chicken Sandwich: The Choice of Stranded Chinese Acrobats

What do you do with 16 young Chinese acrobats who show up at your doorstep? Bill Thompson found out this week. Thompson’s the executive director of the Union Gospel Mission homeless shelter in Dallas. On Monday, a group of 13 to 20-year-old acrobats, who make up the Shanghai-based Guanhua Acrobatic team, flew into DFW with one-way tickets. They were scheduled to begin a cross-country performance tour, but a scheduling snafu with their circus promoter left them high and dry.

With nowhere to stay, a chaperone called Thompson, who took the crew to McDonald’s where, oddly, they all ordered the No. 9. The group stayed at the shelter for a few nights, but have since been relocated to a ranch near Dallas, presumably until they leave to go on tour. The team put on an impromptu show on Wednesday for reporters which included cartwheels (!), flips (!!), human pyramids (!!!), and “tossing straw hats like boomerangs” (eh). Seriously, how did we miss this??

Re: Two Men Who Nearly Ruined Dallas

A slow clap for commenter Bob Stoller, who sums up my initial response:

I guess that Mac Taylor (the original desegregation judge) and the thousands of white-flighters in the ’60s and ’70s aren’t responsible for any of these consequences.

Forney High Students Now Roaming Area Antique Shops

Because a bomb threat has chased 1700ish students into the greater Forney area.

Lee Harvey’s Changes Name to PegasusNews.com Conviviality Centr

Genius. Oh, and look for a story about Lee Harv — I mean, the PegasusNews.com Conviviality Centr in the March “print product,” on newsstands next week.

Two Men Who Nearly Ruined Dallas

Lori Stahl writes rhapsodically today in the News about retiring Federal Judges Barefoot Sanders and Jerry Buchmeyer. It is less a news story than an editorial, and a highly selective editorial at that. Nowhere does it mention that as of 2006, due to Judge Sanders’ social engineering over 30 years, only 7,821 of DISD’s students were white, comprising just 5% of the district’s total students when whites make up 49% of the district’s residents. And while the article touches gingerly on Judge Buchmeyer’s well-known affinity for the bottle, it nowhere asks how his disease might have contributed to a sense of personal grandiosity that led him to overturn an election and impose a 14-1 City Council system on a city that had rejected it, leading to graft and corruption on a scale Dallas hasn’t seen since the 1930s. In other words, the article is nothing more than an exercise in myth-making, praising noble intentions and ignoring actual results. But social engineering has always been about being “fearless” and feeling noble and never concerned much with actual results. So if today, after 30 years of Judge Sanders’ micromanagement, only 6% of DISD’s students are “college ready” it’s not his fault. After all he’s noble. And if 14-1 has created a ward system where intimidation and payoffs are the price of doing business, it’s not Judge Buchmeyer’s fault. He’s “fearless.” Such is the power of myth, brought to you courtesy of your local daily newspaper.

Glenn Hunter’s Bob Lutz Quote Makes FrontBurner Quasi-Famous

A couple of weeks ago, Glenn posted a recap of his private-ish lunch with GM heavy Bob Lutz. Maybe it was because Glenn posted late in the day. Maybe it’s because Glenn put the good stuff after the jump. For whatever reason, it took a while before Lutz’s claim that “global warning is a total crock of ****” to make its way around the blogosphere. But, boy, has it traveled. Jalopnik picked it up. And Popular Science. And Wired. And AOL leads with it today (linking to this story). Not to mention scores of other forums and car blogs. Way to go, Glenn. You’re all big-time, now.

Belated Valentine’s Day

Those playing along at home know that our photographer, Elizabeth Lavin, is down in Honduras photographing open-heart surgeries (and other stuff). In her last dispatch, we met 7-year-old Eduardo, who had a hole in his heart. Below, and image from his surgery. After the jump, a little something from Elizabeth.

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Golf Bars

The March issue of Golf Digest names the country’s 50 best 19th holes. Our only local contribution? The Tribute out in The Colony. I seem to remember the bar at Dallas National being mighty nice. Bent Tree’s, too. And Preston Trail’s. Duffers and drinkers feel free to nominate your own faves.

Friday Fun

Today’s Friday Fun is called The Fancy Pants Adventure: World 2, and you almost don’t even need to play it to have fun. I mean, isn’t it fun just knowing there’s a game called The Fancy Pants Adventure: World 2? In it, you run around (in your fancy pants) knocking a big squiggle all over the place. Have fun.

Leading Off

1. As Adam first mentioned yesterday afternoon, a creepy man is approaching girls at SMU and saying he is an MTV producer. He then asks to take their picture. He then tries to convince them to pose nude. Two things: He is NOT who he says he is, and, trust me, this does NOT work.

2. A cold front with heavy rain is moving in today. Please check out the good weather work at Channel 11 or Channel 4 for the latest weathery news.

3. When this Fort Worth pit bull attacked another dog, the dog’s owner tried (in vain) to get the pit off his pet by striking the pit in the skull with the hammer. A happy ending, though: the pet survived, and the pit was plugged by a cop.