D

What Is Rick Perry Afraid of in the Willingham Case?, Ctd.

An alert FBvian points us to a post (featured as the lead, no less) on Open Salon that our own longtime commenter Bethany has authored about Rick Perry’s latest dastardly act. The post begins:

As we’ve discussed before, Gov. Rick Perry loves the death penalty. If he could, he’d swaddle it in the softest cashmere blankets and tuck it in every night, close to his hollow chest (where one’s heart is usually located) but nowhere near his impeccable hair.

Hitchcocktober at Angelika in Dallas and Plano

The Angelika Film Centers in Dallas and Plano are hosting “Hitchcocktober” this month. Plano plays the films of Alfred Hitchcock on Wednesdays, while Dallas will get them outdoors at Mockingbird Station — for free — on Thursdays, beginning tonight at 8 p.m.

We can debate whether one should ever pay to see films on the big screen when you can catch them in one of their many repeats on Turner Classic Movies. What we can’t debate is that Dallas (even with that free price) is getting the short end of the programming stick.

Plano gets Psycho, Strangers on a Train, To Catch a Thief, and Vertigo. Dallas gets The Birds, Rear Window, Psycho, and Dial ‘M’ for Murder.

Plano, I’ll trade you The Birds (way over-rated and a bit cheesy) and Dial ‘M’ for Murder (Other than Grace Kelly, what’s the point?)  for Strangers on a Train (under-rated and delightfully perverted) and Vertigo (Hitchcock’s greatest).

A Red Balloon Over the Nasher

In the current episode of the “print product,” there appear two stories about an experiment we ran to determine whether the forthcoming Museum Tower might possibly interfere with the Nasher Sculpture Center’s wonderful installation Tending, (Blue). You can read Willard Spiegelman’s sober, insightful account of our caper here. Me, I just write jokes. Anyway, I’d forgotten till now that I’d taken this picture. In the final scene of my story, when the DSO’s PR director, Stacie Adams, catches me standing in their backyard, here’s what I was doing:

KERA Goes Brit With New TV Blog

An alert FBvian points us to a new blog just fired up by KERA. It goes by the somewhat prolix name Tellyspotting–Your Brit TV Pub. Bill Young, KERA’s VP of television programming, will run the thing. He’ll hopefully get around soon to calling it just Tellyspotting.

Something I Think We Can All Get Behind: New On-Road Restrictions on Cell Phones

I know some people (*cough*TreyGarrison*cough*) will cry “nanny state!” when discussion turns to the push to restrict cell phone usage while at the wheel, at the state and federal level. NOT ME. If I had a nickel for every time someone repeatedly swerves into my lane and, when I catch up to that person, I notice they have a phone pressed to their ear or, more often, their head pointing down toward the blue glow of a text message, I would have approximately 4,090,518,641 nickels. I think you would agree that is a ton of nickels. It’s like the entirety of Coit Road is an AT&T commercial. Also, they’re paying so little attention to the road, they fail to see even one of my extended middle fingers, let alone both.

SMU’s Pony Boys Need to Pony Up Just a Little Bit Less

An alert FBvian draws our attention to this photo of SMU’s Pony Boys, the guys who tend to the school’s live mascot and who periodically, I guess, run said mascot across the field. Disturbing.

Hansen Amazed By Prices at Cowboys Stadium

With the “outrageous” price of everything at Cowboys Stadium, Belo8 sportscaster Dale Hansen isn’t surprised that ‘Boys owner Jerry Jones saw his wealth actually increase over the last 12 months (according to Forbes magazine, anyway). Though Hansen says Jones may never sell naming rights to the stadium–”How can a company justify spending [millions] for that, when they just laid people off?”–he’s impressed by gambits like Jones’ $29 “party pass” ticket. “Then they charge them $8 for a beer–and they’re all drunk,” said Hansen (pictured). “Hell, I’m not sure I could get a buzz on with $8 a beer!” He made the remarks last night before addressing a big charity crowd at Bentley Dallas.

Join the Discussion on the Reading Room Monday, October 5

The bad news is, you have only five days to read chapters 1-20 of Joan Didion’s Play It As It Lays. The good news is, in five days you can probably read the entire book 10 times over. (It’s a good, quick read.) The other good news is, Play It As It Lays is a lot better than Wonderful World, our first book. The Reading Room, D Magazine’s online book club, starts book No. 2 this Monday, October 5. You can purchase the book from Legacy Books in Plano for 15% off; just tell them you’re with us. Speaking of Legacy, in case you missed it earlier this year, check out Willard Spiegelman’s essay about the country’s largest independent bookstore.

What is Rick Perry Afraid of in Willingham Case?

If the evidence shows that Cameron Todd Willingham was guilty of arson, then why replace Forensic Science Commission board members two days before they were scheduled to hear from an arson investigator about the case?

Leading Off (10/01/09)

1. Jerry Jones stays rich. Andrew Beal gets rich. And pretty much everyone else got a little bit poorer this past year, according to Forbes. I wonder if those in that last category are blue.

2. According to an article by Sue Shellenbarger at the Wall Street Journal, Dallas is the No. 9 place to live after college. Although the article touts Dallas’ highlights, there is one teeny sentence about its downsides. “Dallas lacks a reputation as a youth mecca, and summers can be very hot.” Oh, really? It’s hot? I never noticed.

3. An Arlington mother turned herself in for the death of her toddler, who was left in the car for eight hours while the mother was at work. When the mother finally took her son to the hospital, his body temp was 107. It’s a sad case. And it just reaffirms item No. 2’s evaluation of Dallas. Even late summer can be very hot.