Articles for July 23rd, 2009

Jon Stewart Is Most Trusted Newscaster In Texas

jon-stewart

From Time polls. The results for Texas: Katie Couric 6%, Charlie Gibson 23%, Brian Williams 31%, Jon Stewart 41%.

posted by Wick Allison | July 23rd, 2009 7:31pm | filed under Media |

Sell Naming Rights To Dallas City Parks?, Ctd.

A FrontBurnervian responds:

Why not sell naming rights to Dallas parks?  Because that is how we end up with Superpages.com Center, whatever the hell THAT is.  Viagra Dealey Plaza?  Red Bull Audubon Nature Center?  Smirnoff Music Hall?  Oh, wait, I think we already tried that last one.
Point-set-match.
posted by Wick Allison | July 23rd, 2009 5:31pm | filed under Urbanism |

Beer Pong!

It was while perusing this site, which promotes a beer pong competition at Lee Harvey’s on August 22, that I saw this video. I am in awe.

posted by Tim Rogers | July 23rd, 2009 3:23pm | filed under Sports |

Conduit Gallery Celebrates Its 25th Anniversary

The shindig happens on Saturday at the gallery from 6-9 p.m., and features music from Buttercup. The after-shindig is at Sons Of Hermann Hall, with the Deathray Davies (featuring Conduit assistant director/Project Room curator Danette Dufilho’s husband, John), more Buttercup, and Salim Nourallah. If you go to both, you get into the Sons show for $5.

posted by Zac Crain | July 23rd, 2009 2:50pm | filed under Arts |

John Cornyn Really, Really Likes Lockheed, Ctd.

To my friend Wes Mantooth:

“…we haven’t had any of our soldiers or Marines killed by enemy air since 1951 or something like that. It’s been half a century or more since any enemy aircraft has killed one of guys.” — Former Air Force Chief of Staff General Merrill McPeak (Ret.), July 17, 2009

Sorry for abbreviating and therefore mischaracterizing the fact.

posted by Wick Allison | July 23rd, 2009 2:40pm | filed under Politics |

A.H. Belo up 26% Today, 70% For Week

My Belo-tracking FrontBurnerian has just sent another alert.ahcstock 

Now, I don’ t claim to know anything. But I do know Brian Ferguson. So let’s ask him. Hey, Brian! How’re things going?

posted by Wick Allison | July 23rd, 2009 2:30pm | filed under Business, Media |

Celeb Sighting: The Office’s Jenna Fischer at a Richardson Starbucks

A first-and-last-name-having FBvian sends us this:

I saw Jenna Fischer at Starbucks in Richardson earlier today. Near Campbell and Coit. She was really nice to everyone that said hello to her.

I guess she’s doing some wedding planning. But seriously: no pic? Who doesn’t have a camera phone these days?

posted by Zac Crain | July 23rd, 2009 2:03pm | filed under Celebrity |

John Cornyn Really, Really Loves Lockheed, Ctd.

Don’t shoot the messenger, Wick. I am only passing along this e-mail. Your fight is with (former) five-star commenter Wes Mantooth, who checks in with this:

“4. No U.S. military personnel have been killed or wounded by an enemy’s air force since 1951.”

Really? Who’s drinking the kool-aid, Cornyn or Wick? Cursory research reveals Wick’s contention as, at best, sloppy, and at worst disingenuous:

http://air-combat.suite101.com/article.cfm/us_aircraft_lost_to_the_soviets

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Rolling_Thunder

It might be fair to say that the USAF has not suffered a combat air loss since the end of the Vietnam War, but that’s a significantly more restricted statement than what Wick wrote.

And I think this is why we can’t have nice things.

posted by Zac Crain | July 23rd, 2009 2:00pm | filed under Politics |

Paul Giamatti on Jessica Simpson’s Soul

From The New Yorker’s Talk of the Town:

“I can’t get a read off of her, which is why I’m curious. Her soul might just be a tape measure.”

I’d give you the context, but I’m not positive it would help much.

posted by Zac Crain | July 23rd, 2009 1:16pm | filed under Celebrity |

On Scantily Clad Co-Workers

The folks at Androvett send out a newsletter periodically, trying to drum up pub for the lawyers they represent. In the edition that just went out, there appeared the following:

Fashion faux pas in the workplace can spike in the summertime as modesty often takes a back seat to comfort for many. But scantily clad workers in a professional setting can create real dilemmas for employers, says labor and employment attorney Audrey Mross of Dallas-based Munck Carter. “A coworker who is revealing a little too much can make colleagues uncomfortable or, intentionally or unintentionally, attract attention that forms the basis of a harassment claim,” Mross says.

I mention this for absolutely no reason at all. I swear.

posted by Tim Rogers | July 23rd, 2009 12:27pm | filed under Law |

Texas Tribune Buys Texas Weekly

From now on, Texas Tribune — the internet startup headed by Evan Smith and financed by John Thornton and friends — goes in italics. That’s because the online venture just became a print venture, buying the venerable Austin-based political newsletter owned by Ross Ramsey, who will become managing editor of the new venture.

OOPS: Forget that cute little thing about online becoming print. Ross reminds me that Texas Weekly has been online only since 2004. What’s embarrassing about that is I already knew it.

posted by Wick Allison | July 23rd, 2009 12:08pm | filed under Media |

Chief Kunkle’s Tat, Ctd.

The news of the Chief’s Road Runner tattoo got me thinking: what other local notables have semi-secret tattoos, and what are they of? Since I’m me, I’m going to throw out some wildly inaccurate guesses:

• Mayor Leppert has the exact same tat, in the same location, as Golden State Warriors forward Stephen Jackson
• Mark Cuban has a Ziggy cartoon on his right shoulder blade
• Jerry Jones has “Mayhem” in Gothic script across his stomach
• Angela Hunt has a Grateful Dead “dancing bear” at the base of her neck

Let’s hear your guesses/tips in the comm–

Just go ahead and e-mail me.

posted by Zac Crain | July 23rd, 2009 11:41am | filed under Local News |

Chief David Kunkle’s Tat

Yesterday I said that I thought Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle’s tattoo was of Woody the Woodpecker. Not so. Mrs. Kunkle corrects me: the tat is of Road Runner, on account of Kunkle’s having run 35 marathons. Which to me just sounds like showing off. Be that as it may, I apologize for getting my fowl confused.

posted by Tim Rogers | July 23rd, 2009 11:00am | filed under Police |

John Cornyn Really, Really Loves Lockheed

The company’s $37,500 in campaign contributions to our junior Texas senator since January  is money well spent. Now John Cornyn wants the U.S. to allow Lockheed to sell the F-22 to allies. I am agnostic on that question. What I enjoyed was the first paragraph of his statement:

(more…)

posted by Wick Allison | July 23rd, 2009 10:37am | filed under Politics |

Texas’ Two GOP Senators Vote For More Government Waste

The next time John Cornyn or Kay Bailey Hutchison sends you a mailer or runs a campaign ad decrying waste in government, remind yourself of the F-22. Neither Cornyn nor Hutchison could muster the courage to cut a measly $1.75 billion in Congressional spending for a bunch of planes Defense Secretary Robert Gates derided as unneccessary.

“Irrespective of whether the number of aircraft at issue is 12 planes or 200, if we cannot bring ourselves to make this tough decision, where do we draw the line?” Gates said. “If we can’t get this right, what on earth can we get right?”

Yes, the good senators were voting to keep jobs in Texas. But let’s look at it another way. They were voting to take money out of your pocket to put it in someone else’s pocket (the workers and executives of Lockheed Martin). For no good reason whatsoever. And Republicans call Barack Obama a socialist?

Here’s Fred Kaplan on the runaway defense budget and why the F-22 vote was important. To think, there used to be this thing called fiscal conservatism.

posted by Wick Allison | July 23rd, 2009 8:41am | filed under Politics |

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