James Chippendale Has a Little German in Him

One of our contributing editors, Pamela Gwyn Kripke, has a delightful piece in the Times today that I’m just now getting around to reading. James Chippendale, Dallas insurance guy, gets life-saving bone marrow donation from stranger in Germany. Sounds like a ho-hum feel-gooder, you say? Well, check out what Chippendale did to say thank you. Good stuff.

Mico Rodriguez Out at M Crowd

M Crowd co-founder Mico Rodriguez has left the company. The circumstances surrounding his departure remain a bit murky. But here’s the official statement from the M Crowd:

The M Crowd Restaurant Group announces the appointment of CEO Greg Good, a 16-year restaurant icon and veteran of the highly successful Cheddars concept. “I am thrilled with the opportunity to join the M Crowd family,” he said. Good will work with original partners Ray Washburne, Dick Washburne, and Bob McNutt overseeing M Crowd Restaurant Group’s concepts, which include Mi Cocina, Taco Diner, Mainstream Fish House, The Mercury and The Mercury Chophouse. One of the original partners, Mico Rodriquez, remains a shareholder of M Crowd Restaurant Group but is now pursuing other restaurant ventures.

I’ve heard that Mico’s wife (from whom he is separated) has broken ground on a new joint in Preston Royal. But no word yet of a new Mico restaurant — or whether he’s under a non-compete and will have to cool his heels awhile. Developing …

My Sister Walked Sixty Miles to Raise Money for Breast Cancer Research

My family thought my sister Amy (far right) was nuts when she announced she was in training to walk sixty miles over three days to help raise money for Susan G. Komen breast cancer research. She is not only crazy, she is pregnant and the trek would involve sleeping on the ground for two nights. But she, and 3,200 others, started Friday in Parker and finished yesterday at SMU. There were lots of tears at the finish line and they weren’t for the blisters or the leg cramps–they were tears for the $7.9 million dollars they raised in honor of the friends they have lost to breast cancer. Way to go, girl.

What’s Really Happening Inside DISD

Every so often we publish a special 13th edition of D Magazine dedicated to a single topic. Careful readers will remember such a special edition we did on the Trinity Project a couple years back. This year we tackled Dallas public schools. You can read it all here. The issue will be mailed to 30,000 D subscribers, 15,000 D CEO subscribers, and about 100,000 others we’ve identified as influencers. The issue just went out, but feedback is already trickling in. To wit:

This has got to be the finest publication put out by D — ever. This is a classic. Punchy. Uplifting. Readable. Beautiful. This publication needs to go to every person living in Dallas. How can that happen?

You have done your city a very great service. Just to see all the quiet people making things happen! Wow! This is a crowning achievement in my view.

Get everyone in Dallas to read it? Well, those who have $5.95 to spare and prefer cellulose to bytes need only e-mail Amy Jesionowski to get their very own copy (discounts for bulk orders).

Retailer Sees The Good Side Of A Bad Economy

Even economic downturns have their silver linings. At the grand opening of a new Sheplers western-wear store in Frisco Saturday, Sheplers CEO Mark Syrstad said the financial crisis means the growing company is ponying up a lot less money to open new stores around the country. “In the last 90 days,” Syrstad said, “real estate prices [in general] have probably dropped 30%.” The 30,000-square-foot store near Stonebriar Centre gives Sheplers three outlets in DFW; the other two are in Arlington and Mesquite.

Re: Weekend Birding Project

Thanks to all who participated in the guess-the-bird-in-the-picture sent in by a FrontBurnervian Birder. I guessed it was a Pine Warbler, but Mr. Matt Mendenhall, associate editor of Birder’s World, differs:

It’s definitely a warbler, but there’s so much direct sunlight on that bird that it washes out a lot of color and field marks. It’s possible [Pine Warbler], but it looks to me like the undertail coverts and belly are yellow, and on a pine warbler, those spots should be white. To my eye, it looks like a female Yellow Warbler.

So Anne, way to go. You win. Next?

My New Favorite Bar: The Goat

I wondered in this space last week about a bar on Gaston that I’ve passed for years but never tried. On the strength of what you fine FrontBurnervians said about the establishment in the comments section, I stopped in on Friday afternoon to check out the Goat.

It made me sad. Sad to think about all the years of drinking in that place that I’ve missed. I’ll never get that time back, you know?

The curvilinear bar mended in spots with red tape (pictured), the sassy bartendrix who demanded to see my ID, the unsteady drunk admonished by same to leave a visitor alone, the cheap longnecks, the solid jukebox — the Goat is a bar worthy of inclusion in the pantheon. I hereby pledge to do everything humanly possible to make up for my previous lack of patronization.

Was Your Weekend As Bad As Marty Turco’s?

And, that happened. (H/T: Deadspin.)

Casey Thompson is “Taller, Slimmer,Taller”

That is what Amy Severson says.

Texas Lege: A 75-75 Tie?

It’s down to the provisional ballots in one Texas House race. Paul Burka on whether Republican Speaker Tom Craddick is to blame.

Bob’s in Grapevine Hosts Celebrity Dinner

I got a call last night (during Dexter!) from a party-goer attending a dinner at Bob’s Steak & Chop House in Grapevine. Here is what I remember: it was a lively soiree, a pre-charity-golf-tourney dinner attended by local golf pro and D Magazine contributor, David Feherty, George Lopez, Samuel L. Jackson, and Andy Garcia. Feherty and Lopez, “The Spic and The Mick”, have formed the Lopez-Feherty Foundation and each year they play an “anti-pro-am” at the Vaquero Club to raise money for “the prevention of teen pregnancy, gang violence, and stupid names for Mexican fast food.” Anywhoo, I can’t find an updated link to the event but it sounds like an invitation-only game for “rich people” and good lord willin’ and the clouds don’t part, they will play golf today. Tonight? Perhaps the guys will get foot massages.

Leading Off (11/10/08)

1. It’s stories like this one — about the hubbub surrounding Dr. Robert Jeffress’ “Why Gay is Not O.K.” sermon at First Baptist Church of Dallas yesterday — that make me miss Bible Girl. I’m sure Unfair Park does, too; that column was a comment machine. I imagine losing that, traffic-wise, would be like if Wick told Tim that he couldn’t take and post camera phone photos of Eric anymore.

2. Really good piece in the DMN about the 1988 Carter High Cowboys. Never understood why no one ever wrote a book about the controversial squad, as it would have been a nice bookend to Buzz Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights, written about that same year’s Odessa Permian Panthers. Turns out Gary Edwards finally has. And I completely forgot Royce West’s involvement. Anyway, good stuff.

3. And finally: boom goes the dynamite.