Leading Off

1. I’m really confused by the big stories in the paper today. One suggests that cops are adding false violations to tickets, but it says no one knows how widespread the practice is — yet points out that one person documented ONE DOZEN such cases in an 18-month period. (Ooookay.) Another story suggests gas pumps are short-changing customers, which some are, occasionally, sure. But if you do the math, the agency that tracks such things got about four complaints a day from the entire state in a one-year period. (Mmmmkay.)

2. KeKe the elephant died at the Dallas Zoo yesterday. She was 39. She leaves behind a cellmate, Jenny, 31.

3. Richardson approved a smoking ban in most businesses, adding to the list of cities that Zac Crain will rail against from his front porch on Crazy Old Man Boulevard.

21 Comments to “Leading Off”
  • Marcus

    Keke was a she. She was living with Jenny, not that there’s anything wrong with that.

  • Tim Rogers

    “Her illness became critical Monday morning, when staff found her laying down.”

    Message to DMN copy editors: lying down. Send your thank-you note to my glass house.

  • Eric Celeste

    Roger that. Lesbian elephant gender corrected.

  • not william

    Is Crazy Old Man Boulevard one of the finalists for renaming Industrial?

    I like it.

  • Emilio Velasquez, Jr.

    Señor Eric, Dallas is the farmer, and we are the corn.

    And just look at what new uses for the corn the farmer has just found! Not ethanol, but traffic ticket revenue based on alternate lifelines we might have taken! Now I ask you, Señor, is that not thinking outside the husk?

    Emilio

  • Wes Mantooth

    Speaking of shaking a fist at the sky, where is Trey Garrison? Did he vamanos without so much as an adios? Or did he say adios and I just missed it?

    If I don’t hear differently, I’m sticking with my theory that he’s embedded among the Zion folks.

  • Daniel

    Yes, Wes, I, too, have noted the conspicuous absence of Trey Garrison — and also the “area of silence” that seems to surround said absence.

    Alas, we are left to our memories and to conjecture and wild surmise. Unless Tim or Eric care to clarify; ten, nine, eight, seven …

  • Eric Celeste
  • Tom

    I checked Trey’s status on the “Meet the Bloggers” page and found that it doesn’t exist: http://frontburner.dmagazine.com/bloggers
    Maybe he got picked up with Zac’s bulk trash.

  • Wes Mantooth

    It’s a notorious silence.

  • Gwyon

    Maybe we should ask the free market. It knows the answer to everything.

  • bill

    Well I guess this will probably force Pizza Villa to shut down.

    If you dont like being around smoke, go somewhere that doesn’t allow smoking.

    Let the market do what is best.

  • Huh?
  • Josh Pearson

    Sorry, Tom. We are working to restore that page (and a few others) right now. If I can just remember where I put that good hampster so I can switch them out…

  • Wes Mantooth

    I bet when Josh gets that page back up, it still won’t include Trey. Of course, if he’s gone undercover, that would be totally consistent with his cover.

    My other pet theory is that Celeste and Rogers killed him, stripped the flesh from his bones, and turned it into Trey Jerky and are busy consuming the evidence of their crime. The crime itself might have been punishment for changing the “D” painting to “H”. Or maybe it was Trey’s stubborn refusal to hew to the party line. Or just idle hands making the work of the devil. Who knows.

  • Brandon

    Haha Pizza Villa! I miss that place so much (I live in NYC). Selfishly, the smoking ban will be nice, for when I come home for a visit and go out to a Richardson establishment, my clothes won’t reek. But, I still disagree with the concept of a city-wide ban. If I am a proprietor, that building is MY building. It should be my decision if people can smoke or not. Of course, we should all still be thankful the city finally eased up on the dry/private license/Unicard thing.

  • Huh?

    The ban isn’t really a ban, in my opinion.

    If an establishment receives 70%+ of their overall revenue from alcohol, they can still permit smoking (isn’t this all bars?).

    If an establishment receives 90%+ of their revenue from tobacco sales, they can allow smoking (cigar shops and discount cigarette stores).

    And, if a restaurant receives 50%+ of it’s revenue from alcohol sales, and they have a separate entrance to an enclosed smoking section, they can allow smoking.

    So, smokers will just have to frequent places that sell a lot of alcohol. I’m sure most are okay with that.

  • Fairway Freddy

    Since the Zoo is not that far from Cedar Crest Golf Course could we have the burial for KeKe there. Hole 14 has design flaw (damn you DA)if you dont carry the the drive 250 yards from the tips the ball will end up across the cart path on the left side. A little mounding couldn’t hurt.

  • MIssing Dots

    Fairway Freddy, if you can’t carry the drive 250, then you shouldn’t be playing the tips.

  • Fairway Freddy

    I may not get it out as far as I did back when Eldrick was still wearing short pants, but I can get round “the crest” just fine. Don’t tell me what I should or should not be doing. I get enough of that from the wife. Burial is Sunday at dawn followed by a 7:00a tee time. I lew of flowers and the family has requested that a donation be given to your favorite bartender after the round.

  • Bill M.

    On plumped-up tickets. The practice is, or was, very widespread, but undocumented because such tickets, when challenged in court, are routinely dropped by the prosecutor’s office. I know. I got one. (No valid license, no valid insurance gratuitously added to a ticket for no front license plate.) I took it to court. Case dismissed. Of the two dozen or so tickets contested that afternoon, about two-thirds were dropped.

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