Eric, that $6.7 million was money recently raised. She already had $6 million in her Senatorial campaign account. So the lady starts with over $12 million in the bank. I may be struggling with my political pants, but I can count.
There was another bit of key news, btw. If I understand correctly, she will officially announce next month. That means she will resign. And that means the governor will appoint a new United States Senator. So Hutchison’s opponent will appoint Hutchison’s (temporary) replacement. This is getting fun. To hell with my political pants. I’m ready for this thing in my political underwear.
Hall-of-Fame commenter Wes Mantooth one-ups me with this:
Zac, if ever a post deserved comment-ability, it’s one with an issue as serious as this.
However, your list somehow avoids country-music singing blondes, a subset of the fairer sex to which both of his most recent exes belong (even if Jessica’s album was dreck — but to me, that describes her entire oeuvre). Your list should be more along these lines:
Taylor Swift (once she becomes legal)
Kellie Pickler (so much humor to be found in that last name)
Kate and Kacey (twins! Blondes! Huzzah!)
Holly Williams (granddaughter of Hank!)
Miranda Lambert (maybe he does better on Lambert Field. Doh!)
LeAnn Rimes! (Local angle! Questionable on the blonde part though.)My favorite choice though is Lady Gaga. Totally out of left field.
Mantooth, out.
Miss you, pal.
Now that the Tony Romo/Jessica Simpson split is semi-official, the question becomes: What wrecking-ball blond will the Dallas Cowboys QB date next? Because this is happening, people. It’s a pattern, and it is unstoppable. He can’t help himself. Even if the female in question seems rock-solid, their relationship will inevitably derail the upcoming Cowboys season, so let’s all just get comfortable with it and start coming up with a portmanteau to assign to it. A list, off the top of my ever-graying head:
• Hayden Panettierre
• Paris Hilton
• Kate Hudson
• Tila Tequila
• Lindsay Lohan
• AnnaLynne McCord
Bud Kennedy blogs the announcement of $6.7 million raised by her camp. Then she says, “I’m running.” Then she says the formal announcement won’t be until next month. Um, okay.
And, yes, that sound you hear is Wick struggling to get his political pants on. (He’s put on a few lbs since November.)
An alert FBvian points us to People magazine’s site, which is also now running the story. Geeze, first Billy Mays died. Now this.
While Dallas is indeed down 21.5%, as the Comptroller reported last week, a large refund from an audit bumped last year’s receipts for Dallas. Not including last year’s bump, Dallas is down 5.9% — which is still bad but not nearly as bad in comparison to the other major cities in Texas.
Courtesy of our friends at The Loft and the Palladium Ballroom, we have five pairs of tickets to each of the following shows:
• Broken Social Scene (8/7) (UPDATE: sorry — all BSS tix are now spoken for)
• Dungen/Woods (8/22) (UPDATE: and these are gone now, too)
• Fruit Bats (9/1)
I’m not going to break down each show like a fraction, but I will say I would probably go to all three. Anyway, here is the deal: send me an e-mail (with the subject line “thanks, economy”) listing your favorite un-ironic dance move and which show you’d like to go see. First come, first served.
They both make the top 25 of 100 towns listed. I don’t know much about Keller (No. 7), other than I like their hamburgers. Apparently it has “which boasts immaculate parks and a spanking-new town center,” which sounds sweet. Mansfield (No. 24), I hear from friends, is quite the rock and roll town. And the web site agrees:
It [Mansfield] hosts an annual art fair, music festival, and holiday parade; it’s also the home of the Hawaiian Falls water park and Big League Dreams ballpark.
(H/T: @budkennedy)
A question-asking FrontBurnervian checks in to ask this question:
While the situation is quite sad, they are seriously asking for donations to pay off the mortgage? What’s next — asking for donations to pay the taxes on the new house (since those will be a lot higher than the taxes now)?
The latter question, to me, has always been the quandary with a show like Extreme Makeover.
The eight-year-old, whose four-year battle with cancer was a source of inspiration to so many, died at Children’s Medical on Friday. His funeral is tomorrow at 10 a.m. at Prestonwood Baptist Church. From the teamconnor website:
Connor endured over 220 nights in the hospital, more than 40 blood transfusions, about 2-dozen platelet transfusions, 25 rounds of chemo, 14 surgeries, two bone marrow transplants and countless procedures with visits to specialists in Boston, New York, Houston, Dallas and Guatemala. Yet he didn’t complain. He was a fighter to the very end. When he checked into Children’s Medical Center about 10 p.m. July 9, doctors said he had about two hours to live. Connor took his last mortal breath at 4:47 p.m. July 10, 2009.
Our condolences to a very special family.
Here, then, is the Perez Hilton story about Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo breaking up. It says, in part:
Sources reveal exclusively to PerezHilton.com that the couple are on the verge of a break-up!
On the verge of a break-up? Doesn’t that basically describe every relationship?
Three tweets just made by Perez Hilton about J-Simp and Tony Romo:
I’m hearing loud “rumblings” of a major celebrity couple breakup! Looking into it.
And I’m talking B or C list! “Rumblings” are about Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo, though nothing confirmed yet. May be just rumors.
Oh, shiz! Getting more deets on Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo! It’s looking like it’s def true! Juicy info…coming up on the site!
So that’s pretty rock solid, right?
If you follow Zeus Comics owner Richard Neal on Twitter, this isn’t news to you. For everyone else, the Lemmon Avenue comics shop — a favorite of all the current and former comics nerds in the office; hey, Todd and Trey! — has been busy readying a web series called The Variants. Two episodes have been filmed so far, and from the sound of it, expect something along the lines of The Office in a comic book store, with Neal and his employees playing versions of themselves. Nothing online just yet, but at least a teaser should be up by the time of Comic-Con International in San Diego later this month.
(Random note, and full disclosure: one of the guys behind the series is Joe Cucinotti, a local actor and — formerly — a radio DJ. He is also the brother of an ex-girlfriend of mine. He’s good people.)
Yes, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is building a new crib for injured Dallas police officer Carlton Marshall and his family. But if you want to help out as well, Cheldan Homes has set up a fund to pay off the Marshall family’s current mortgage. Details follow.
Susannah Jacob graduated Plano West Senior High. This fall, she’ll head to Austin to start college. Right now, I’m not sure how she’s spending her time. But earlier this summer she tried her hand at waitressing. And then she wrote about it in the New York Times Magazine.
Jazz, Shazam, and Sheila, white lions seized from a Kaufman County wildlife exhibitor, are adjusting to their new home at In-Sync Exotics in Wylie. It’s probably going to take awhile, since they arrived there on Friday with pressure sores from lying in one spot, and so malnourished they have trouble eating or even keeping their heads up. “I’d call this probably the worst I’ve gotten,” Vicky Keahey, who runs In-Sync, says. But, she adds, at least they’re not scared of their new surroundings:
“With them, it’ll be an issue of getting healthy. Not being fed and [being] neglected leads to other problems.”
There is one bright spot for Keahey. At least she didn’t have to take in this White Lion.
1. Former Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill’s defense team will step up to the plate today. Their mission: cross examine an FBI agent about some taped phone calls that prosecutors say prove that Hill is guilty of extortion. Hill’s defense team says, not so fast–the prosecution isn’t telling the whole story, and those calls actually prove that Hill was doing his job. Hill’s wife’s defense lawyer Victor Vital actually puts it much more eloquently than I: “We’re going to flip the pancake and let the jury see the rest of what the government is not letting them see.” I like pancakes.
2. For a mere $15, you can now tour the new Cowboys Stadium. And although the locker room won’t become part of the tour until this fall, you can find comfort in the 18,000-square-foot souvenir shop super store. With that much square footage, there’s bound to be tons of fabulous merchandise. This might be the Christmas that you can finally realize Mom’s dreams of having a Troy Aikman fanny pack or a Tony Romo wine opener.
3. In television news, the Extreme Home Makeover production team is likely asking deep, existential questions such as, “Who was the genius that decided to take on a project in Texas in July?” The builders and crew actually working on police officer Carlton Marshall’s Lancaster home in the 100-plus-degree heat probably asked the same question may times during the weekend, but with a lot more fun words thrown in. You know who apparently doesn’t mind the heat so much? Host Ty Pennington who I’m told was working on his tan at the Ritz-Carlton on Friday.