Leading Off (1/27/09)

1. I’m currently reading Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage. This approaching “ice storm” today doesn’t scare me. First, no matter how hard the commute gets this evening, no one in North Texas will be charged by a vicious 1,100-pound leopard seal. Second, we’ve got toilet paper.

2. Via a reader, J-Floyd floats this excellent suggestion as a way to wrap up this hubbub about the 100-to-0 girls’ basketball blowout (or, as I prefer to call it, the Greatest Game Ever Played): why not have the two squads meet for a friendly? Mix up the teams? Have a barbecue afterward? Great way to bury the hatchet. And it would generate a fresh round of good publicity for both schools.

3. Dave Levinthal is reporting that Dallas City Council member Carolyn Davis used $189.03 in campaign finance money to fix the brakes on her car. Yes, it’s a small matter. Yes, we still need an official ruling on whether that’s a violation of state ethics rules. But come on. It’s a JV move any way you look at it. Councilwoman Davis, step up your game.

16 comments

  1. How does one “burry” a hatchet?

    @ 9:01 am on January 27, 2009
  2. It’s bad for your re-election campaign if you have run over a constituent due to faulty brakes.

    @ 9:01 am on January 27, 2009
  3. Boy, Tim, you’re going to feel pretty silly when John McCaa leads off tonight with the tragic story of the weather related leopard seal mauling of 26 customers at Albertson’s as they lined up to buy their allotment of “storm of the century” loaves of bread, aren’t you?

    @ 9:03 am on January 27, 2009
  4. Perhaps the girls could barbecue some leopard seal.

    @ 9:07 am on January 27, 2009
  5. I’ve always had the feeling that when you walk in Floyd’s house she has The Sound of Music looping on the TV.

    And when the weather is bad she pulls down window shades that show it to be sunny outside with hummingbirds at her window.

    @ 9:11 am on January 27, 2009
  6. Leopard Seal. The other other other other white meat.

    @ 9:18 am on January 27, 2009
  7. Wow she got her brakes fixed for just $189??? I just want the name of her mechanic…

    @ 9:18 am on January 27, 2009
  8. @ Grammar Police: I wrote that with the soot from my blubber fire, while sitting on this ice floe. Gimme a break.

    @ 9:25 am on January 27, 2009
  9. @Amandax9362

    No kidding, last time I had mine fixed it was over $500.

    Regardless, while it may run close to an ethical violation I really don’t have a problem with it. There is not a doubt in my mind that the far majority of her car use relates to her job and her campaign, I think she should get a pass on it this time with a warning not to do it again plus maybe pay back the money but I hardly think it is anything that makes me distrust her.

    @ 9:26 am on January 27, 2009
  10. Anyone catch the D Mag tv spot featuring the vocal stylings of Tim Rogers? Is the D empire struggling? Has the economic turndown forced D to use salaried employees for VO work? Tim, love your print work. But don’t quit your day job.

    @ 9:28 am on January 27, 2009
  11. I think all of the Dallas Morning News columnists…Barry Horn, Jacquielynn Floyd, the mallet-wielding ironist Rod Dreher, and Rod Dreher writing as the anonymous editorial page editorialist…should be granted the exclusive rights to create an endless feedback loop to discuss the Covenant affair in order to justify their salaries and benefits while all the rest of us just listen to them and eat barbecue.

    @ 9:28 am on January 27, 2009
  12. I believe Carolyn Davis (no relation) made an honest mistake; she reported the dollars. She wasn’t trying to hide anything. Councilmembers spend a lot of money driving all over the district. I’m sure she’ll pay it back and don’t think we should take her through the wringer for $180.

    btw, if your brakes cost $500 and you didn’t get rotors you got ripped off..IJS

    @ 9:37 am on January 27, 2009
  13. @ the cynic: Anytime you want me to whisper sweet nothings in your ear buds, just let me know. I’ll cut you a personally tailored mp3.

    @ 11:06 am on January 27, 2009
  14. ooo, Tim, you give me goose bumps, you tease.

    @ 11:37 am on January 27, 2009
  15. @ Michael Davis

    No kidding. Highland Auto on Garland Road. New pads and machine your rotors (provided they aren’t too trashed and need to be replaced) for $140. The only way I’m paying $500 for a brake job is if it includes rotors made of pure titanium and handcrafted by the ghost of Henry Ford.

    @ 11:57 am on January 27, 2009
  16. 1) I can say this because I’m not sitting next to an ice floe: Keep your leopard seal; I’m more worried about the harried Mom talking on the cellphone while driving in her Excursion (trying to get home as quickly as possible) with a carful of tweenies (tweeners?). Makes me break out in hives just thinkin’ about it.

    2) Burying the hatchet? I probably missed the part about how the two teams now hate each other. I kinda thought the teenage girls had moved on. (Isn’t it we grownup who haven’t let go?)

    @ 1:13 pm on January 27, 2009