Leading Off

1. Carrollton Mayor Becky Miller has led an interesting life. She sang backup for Linda Ronstadt and Jackson Browne. And she was engaged to Don Henley. At least that’s what she’s been telling people for years. Turns out, she’s been telling dirty little lies. The DMN has its dirty little fingers in everybody’s pie. That paper loves to cut people down to size. It loves dirty laundry.

2. Seven middle school students in McKinney went on a crime spree that included 18 home and vehicle burglaries. People, it’s not too late! There is still room for you. Move back to the city, where it’s safe!

3. PETA, which owns 190 shares of Brinker International, will submit a shareholder resolution asking the company to compel its poultry suppliers to use “controlled-atmosphere killing.” The PoultrySite News Desk calls it “the least cruel method of slaughter available.” But I don’t know. Have they tried death by chocolate as a slaughter method yet?

29 comments

  1. The Carrollton Mayor has a rally planned for the week-end.
    Headlined by Jason Castro singing
    and for security she has hired the
    rebels who were firing at Hillary and Chelsey Clinton in Bosnia

    @ 7:01 am on May 7, 2008
  2. I thought that the PETA acronym stood for People Eating Tasty Animals!

    All kidding aside, chickens are raised in mass packed containers and are pumped up with various hormones/chemicals to enhance fast growth so they can be slaughtered in minimal time. Shouldn’t PETA be concerned about their lifestyle along with their execution?

    @ 8:02 am on May 7, 2008
  3. Oh, I love waking up and seeing someone’s life unravel on the front page of the paper. What a glorious Wednesday! “I never said I was engaged to Don Henley…we dated.” Date = listened to his music and he talked to me…he really, really talked to me.

    Thank you DMN. Pure gold.

    @ 8:15 am on May 7, 2008
  4. Did Jerry Jones have something to do with this?

    Arlington looks at ban on plastic grocery bags

    @ 8:44 am on May 7, 2008
  5. Dated can also mean:
    “I went to his concert and he looked in my general direction for 5.2 seconds, but having never been on a concert stage, I have no idea that the lights generally blind you to actual faces in the audience.”

    “I sent him a fan letter, and he sent me back this picture that says, ‘All my love, Don.’ See? He loves me! ALL his love.”

    “I showed various and assorted body parts to a roadie to get backstage, where I wept and blathered disconcertingly for five minutes while Mr. Henley walked past on his way to the dressing room.”

    Next? What “I sang backup for Linda Ronstadt” can mean.

    @ 8:48 am on May 7, 2008
  6. It means hairbrush in front of the mirror while the cassette played.

    @ 9:11 am on May 7, 2008
  7. Like Don Henley is going to remember every girl he “dated.” I sang backup for Linda Ronstadt on my coffee table with a wooden spoon as a mic.

    @ 9:12 am on May 7, 2008
  8. Ms. Miller’s past is complicated to trace because, in her Henley days, she inexplicably went by the name Liz Albanese. Sad to think someone is boasting that she slept with a man more readily available than well drinks in Vegas. As La Nichols might warble to some sorry sou chef, “Desperado”.

    @ 9:22 am on May 7, 2008
  9. Isn’t PETA trying to make spa day for all farm animals? Seriously, this organization kills more dogs and cats than they’d like anyone to know. For PETA, its all about raising money, more like People Emptying Their Accounts (as in bank)…

    @ 9:29 am on May 7, 2008
  10. Mayor Miller reminds me of Kristin Wiig’s character Penelope from SNL
    http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/play.shtml?mea=227154

    @ 9:48 am on May 7, 2008
  11. I once saw my wife, Morgan Fairchild, naked.

    @ 9:52 am on May 7, 2008
  12. Death by chocolate might be crueler than you think, Tim:

    http://www.hulu.com/watch/16999/saturday-night-live-death-by-chocolate-2

    @ 10:03 am on May 7, 2008
  13. Far sadder than lying is the fact that she chose Don Henley to lie about. I mean, Jesus, people.

    @ 10:04 am on May 7, 2008
  14. It’s alright Daniel. She also reputedly ‘made out’ with Menudo.

    @ 10:06 am on May 7, 2008
  15. Safe? I know it’s a running joke on the blog, but would someone please start a conversation about the rash of burglaries going on in and around the East Dallas area? I personally know of three that happened in Lakewood alone in the past two weeks, not to mention an armed robbery of an 18 year old this week. We can get red light cameras to catch those all-too-dangerous red light runners, but we can’t get anyone to address actual crime that is going on in the neighborhood! Come on, people!

    @ 10:38 am on May 7, 2008
  16. Is Robbie Van Winkle Mayor Miller’s campaign manager? Nice, nice, baby.

    @ 10:48 am on May 7, 2008
  17. 2) As I mentioned in a recent commentary, the sense of what is ’safe’ and ‘dangerous’ is many times more perceived than actual. LoC:Per my story, my stepfather moved from his ‘dangerous’ block in the 1970s between Hall and Peak Streets near Baylor Hospital (where he was never burglarized nor harmed) to a lovely home near White Rock off Winsted (street name withheld to not unintentionally malign Lakewood, one of my favorite Dallas areas) and was robbed and murdered in his ‘easy chair’ recliner. So when people ask me if I feel ’safe’ where I live in my (low crime w/o a homicide in the quarter century I have lived there) southeast Dallas neighborhood, I politely answer, ‘compared to what?’

    @ 10:55 am on May 7, 2008
  18. I’m baffled by this Becky Miller. She spins tales of life in the music biz that can’t be verified, but fails to mention her years of work as a meterologist for Channel 5?

    @ 11:18 am on May 7, 2008
  19. I’ve certainly made the same distinction to my wife about the lack of true danger from people really just looking to take stuff that isn’t theirs, but the recent events have gotten more and more bold – middle of the day, kicking down doors, loading their trucks full through the garage – middle of the night, disarming alarm systems, holding people at gunpoint. I love Lakewood, too – lived there for five years now – but one can only take so much before starting to wonder about staying around.

    @ 11:25 am on May 7, 2008
  20. My house in Lakewood was broken into and robbed yesterday (with the alarm going).

    /So was my neighbor’s.

    @ 12:01 pm on May 7, 2008
  21. Oh yeah? My house was broken into, robbed, and then burned to the ground by Don Henley and all the Eagles, and Linda Ronstadt called 911 and you know who helped put the fire out? NBC anchorman Brian Williams, who is a volunteer fireman. I used to cut his hair, you know.

    @ 12:10 pm on May 7, 2008
  22. Mayor Becky = greatness.

    @ 12:22 pm on May 7, 2008
  23. Jesus, man, can you change the station?…i’ve had a rough night and i hate the effin Eagles, man

    as for the recent rash of break ins: we’re in the last throes of a long eight years of GOP rule and lots of folks are getting hungry and desperate and stealing TVs, stereos, coin collections, etc. is their only way to make a buck, if you will

    the past few years have reminded me of the late ’80s early ’90s in that regard

    when folks get kicked in the teeth for years by a government they feel has abandoned and/or neglected them, those that feel most betrayed turn to petty crime to take out their frustrations…just my opinion and no where near a thesis or anything

    @ 12:27 pm on May 7, 2008
  24. So, jrp, would you say that the current economic climate is enough to make a person a Desperado?

    @ 12:39 pm on May 7, 2008
  25. From His Greatness…Mojo Nixon:

    This is the sound of my brain.
    Then I said, this is the sound of my brain on Don Henley!

    Then I said, 1 2 3 4…

    He’s a tortured artist
    Used to be in the Eagles
    Now he whines
    Like a wounded beagle
    Poet of despair!
    Pumped up with hot air!
    He’s serious, pretentious
    And I just don’t care
    Don Henley must die!
    Don’t let him get back together
    With Glenn Frey!
    Don Henley must die!

    Turn on the TV
    And what did I see?
    This bloated hairy thing
    Winning a Grammy
    Best Rock Vocalist?
    Compared to what?
    But your pseudo-serious
    Crafty Satanic blot
    Don Henley must die!
    Put a sharp stick in his eye!
    Don Henley must die!
    Yea yea yea

    Quit playin’ that crap
    You’re out of the band

    I’m only kidding
    Can’t you tell?
    I love his sensitive music
    Idiot poetry, swell
    You and your kind
    Are killing rock and roll
    It’s not because you are O L D
    It’s cause you ain’t got no soul!
    Don’t be afraid of fun
    Loosen up your ponytail!
    Be wild, young, free and dumb
    Get your head out of your tail
    Don Henley must die!
    Don’t let him get back together
    With Glenn Frey!

    Don Henley must die!
    Put him in the electric chair
    Watch him fry!
    Don Henley must die
    Don Henley must die
    No Eagles reunion
    The same goes for you, Sting!

    @ 1:08 pm on May 7, 2008
  26. For jrp: Just my opinion, not a thesis or anything, but I submit that your sort of thinking will be the end of civilization as we know it.

    Let me get this straight — the folks committing crimes aren’t at fault at all. Rather, it is the fault of our Republican president (but apparently not our Democratic Congress). When, if ever, would you ask someone committing a crime to take personal responsibility for that action? Possibly when you (or someone you actually care about) are the victim, if I had to make a guess.

    I suppose the “logical” extension of your argument is that these “petty crimes” are just a form of political protest speech and would therefore be protected by the 1st Amendment.

    Give me an f—ing break!

    @ 1:43 pm on May 7, 2008
  27. “The DMN has its dirty little fingers in everybody’s pie. That paper loves to cut people down to size. It loves dirty laundry.”

    DMN readership would be way up if it had more stories like this(i.e. interesting tales about interesting people who live among us).

    Tell me you wouldn’t have had a lot of fun with a story like this if it occurred in your readership area.

    @ 3:41 pm on May 7, 2008
  28. Bobby T:

    “We got our dirty little fingers in everybody’s pie
    We love to cut you down to size
    We love dirty laundry” — Don Henley, “Dirty Laundry”

    Don’t worry. I did the exact same thing Monday to MushMouth.

    @ 4:28 pm on May 7, 2008
  29. look, man, i’m saying when times are tough people get desperate and i think it’s safe to say not everyone is living high on the hog these days…and it’s not about who’s fault it is nor am i condoning crime as an inherent freedom, man, that’s ridiculous.

    in November someone kicked my front door in and stole my DVDs, digital camera, spare TV and coin jar

    and you know what? i don’t care. period. sure it sucks and my wife felt scared for a month or so, but the DPD caught the guy and life goes on

    everyone is responsible for their actions, including criminals, that’s a given, it’s just been my experience that break-ins and petty thefts seem to occur at higher frequencies when we’ve got a lame-duck GOP POTUS in office. go look at the stats and prove me wrong if you want

    it was real hard finding working as a 19 year old in 1991 and i bet it’s tough now for kids that age. kids that i believe are extremely susceptible and impressionable to societal whims they don’t understand yet and are more apt to steal a bunch of DVDs and sell them to Half-Price Books for $100 than apply for a job at WMT or McD etc.

    @ 10:50 am on May 8, 2008