Articles for January, 2009
Richardson #2 In Google Searches for Suicide Methods
I don’t know what this means, so I leave it to you to speculate. Are the high-tech and cell phone industries in that bad of shape? Meanwhile, Dallas is #3 in Google searches for 401(k)’s.
Local Poker Expert Dan Michalski Not So Local, Not So Expert
Those of us who know Dan Michalski and who used to have the pleasure of playing cards with him weekly were a bit surprised to see him quoted as an underground-poker expert in this front-page story on Sunday. First, Dan lives in Las Vegas. Second, as evidenced by his play at our home game a few weeks ago while he was in town visiting, he ain’t no poker expert. Third, about two years ago, I assigned Dan a story about the demise of the underground poker scene in Dallas. I’m still waiting for him to turn it in.
Leading Off (1/26/09)
1. The Covenant School coach whose girls’ basketball team beat Dallas Academy 100-0 was fired yesterday, after he sent out an e-mail earlier in the day disagreeing with the apology by the school’s headmaster. Boy, that escalated quickly. I mean that really got out of hand fast.
2. Add quinceañeras to the list of things ruined by the global economic crisis. That’s bad news for a ton of stores on Jefferson Avenue. Not to mention my magic show business.
3. And finally, what heart-warming story do you want to end with: the Richardson basketball player born with only one hand who has had to overcome that as well as a shaky home life, or the Grand Prairie kid who moved to the U.S. five years ago knowing only Spanish, and will graduate No. 1 in his class with full-ride offers from MIT and Rice? Congratulations. You get both.
Jerry Jones Digs John Legend
Guess who was at the official John Legend after party last night? Besides John Legend. Oh. Right. I gave it away in the title of the post. And the picture. There’s Cowboys owner and GM Jerry Jones, posing with three members of D’s online staff and a couple of their friends. Here’s John Legend.
Dallas Couple Of The Day: Glamma And Papa Doc
Ann Zimmerman at the Wall Street Journal has a nice front-pager today about how Boomer grandparents want cooler names than Grandma and Grandpa. (My father is a perfect example: He wanted to be called grand-pere, even though he’s of Italian descent. My daughter calls him Grandpa Mark, which I’m sure drives him nuts.) The couple featured in the article hails from Dallas. Susan Kandell Wilkofsky goes by “Glamma” (for “glamorous grandmother”), and her husband Steven, a doctor, goes by “Papa Doc.” My favorite was Saturday Night Live writer Alan Zweibel, who gave his grandson the option between “Lefty” or “Sheriff.”
Friday Afternoon Random Question: High-Five Edition
Can you find a local connection in this, the latest in the series of Funny or Die’s High Five videos? If not, I may be in trouble.
HIGH-FIVE INAUGURATION! – watch more funny videos
(My answer, for now: didn’t the inauguration affect us all?)
Cuban Officially Not Owner of the Cubs
Lots of Chicago-based, Dallas-related news today, apparently. Though Cubes held out hope that the Cubs would come crawling back given the volatile economic climate, it’s not going to happen. The Tribune Co. has decided to sell the long-suffering team to the Ricketts family from Omaha, who made their fortune from brokerage firm TD Ameritrade, though I’d be lying if I acted like I had any idea who they were before Wick sent me that link.
TheaterJones.com Aims To Fill Theater Coverage Void
As has been discussed before, the area dailies are joining forces in arts coverage, which leads to less—not more—arts coverage. So two theater critics are doing something about it. PegasusNews has the goods on TheaterJones.com, a venture by Elainer Liner and Mark Lowry. Break a leg.
Major Thumbs Up To Parkland ER
Yesterday Allisonette #3 had a seizure at school (she’s fine now). Paramedics rushed her to Parkland ER, where she was met by a team ready to go to work. Within three hours every conceivable test had been done, she had been examined several times by sets of doctors and interns, and visited by a neurologist, pampered throughout the process by nurses and volunteers. None of this was special status: they could not have cared less who I am or who she is. It is a level of trauma care that is simply outstanding. I’m telling you, if you’re ever in a car wreck or in a life-threatening situation and the EMTs ask you where you want to go, say “Parkland.”
Catchy, Tara Conner, But Not A Hit Country Single Yet
Dallas native and former Miss USA Tara Conner is a contestant on the new season of CMT’s Gone Country, which premieres Saturday night. She and other celebrity contestants will compete to write a country song for the show’s host, John Rich. She tells Access Hollywood about the lows she hit during her drug-use scandal and before her stint in rehab. She’s better now:
“I feel so much [now],” she said. “When it hurts, it hurts really bad but when it feels good, it feels good!”
Add a half-empty bottle of Beam, a beat-down pick-up truck, and a dog that don’t know its name no more and you’re on your way, Tara.
Listen to Charity Beaver on FrontBurner For Your Ears
In Episode 6 of FrontBurner For Your Ears, Eric Celeste interviews Charity Beaver, who’s a trainer at the Dallas Country Club. Also, Adam debuts a new segment called “This Day in Dallas History.” Click, playa.
Jeremy Halbreich Named To Chicago Sun-Times Board
Dissident shareholders won their battle last weekend to take over the newspaper and will promptly install their own board, which includes Halbreich, the former DMN executive who founded and sold his own newspaper group, departing last year. The new board will have its work cut out for it: the struggling paper’s shares are now worth about $.09 each. For those who care, Newsosaur reflects on the paper’s sad history.
Did T.O. Keep Jason Garrett From Getting the Rams Job?
That’s what longtime NFL writer John Czarnecki says here. Good read because it gives some insight into why Owens is more well-respected than Romo in the locker room, why the players regard Jason Witten as a snitch (even though he wasn’t the source for the story for which they blame him, according to Czarnecki), and why Garrett should have been more like Cardinals offensive coordinator Todd Haley, who took no guff from T.O. when Haley was the Cowboys receivers coach. (H/T: Profootballtalk.com)
Who Exactly Is to Blame for Officer Norman Smith’s Death?
The Morning News today recently published an editorial titled “Drug Users Share the Blame in Officer’s Death.” It begins:
This is for anyone who even occasionally uses drugs and for the people in their lives who –- even if they disapprove –- ultimately do nothing to stop the drug use: you have blood on your hands.
D Magazine contributing editor Trey Garrison had something to say about that on his blog. Go ahead. Guess whether he agreed with the editorial.
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