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Great Interview With Former DMN Photographer Damon Winter

You may remember New York Times photographer Damon Winter’s work from his shots of President Obama during the campaign. (They did win Winter a Pulitzer after all.) I didn’t know until I read his interview with the blog Too Much Chocolate that he actually got his start at the Dallas Morning News. Worth a read — unless you’ve already checked it out, which is possible, since I’ve seen this link retweeted about 50 times today.

Please, Will Someone Just Give Willis Willis His Money Back? COME ON.

Or not. Because then I won’t be able to see stories that start like this:

Willis Willis has an idea how he can get his money back from the store clerk who authorities say stole his $1 million winning lottery ticket.

“Just get me in a room with him for two minutes,” says the 67-year-old Navy veteran.

Or end like this:

Willis told reporters that he is willing to be patient. If it takes a year, he won’t give up, he said.

He also won’t stop playing the lottery. In fact, he bought five Mega Millions tickets Tuesday, he said.

“See if I can pull one more rabbit out of a hat,” he said.

Name That Post-Apocalyptic Setting

After traveling past Which Wich University, through darkness, I feared I had arrived in a Stephen King novel, or a zombie movie. In front of me, two dead escalators. An unfriendly elevator. Utter quiet. No sound but my own heartbeat. No alternative but retreat.

While 95 Percent Shun the Polls, A Burmese Immigrant Actually Wants to Vote

Speaking of that 5 percent-6 percent voter turnout yesterday, sometimes it takes a legal immigrant to put us “citizens” to shame. It happened yesterday at our polling place in Merriman Park, where SweetCharity and I proudly voted for insurgent DISD candidate Bruce Parrott (Zac!). Ahead of us in line was a new neighbor we’d met Halloweening with his family last Saturday–a legal U.S. resident from Burma/Myanmar by way of Thailand. Trying to communicate in broken English, the Burma native was showing his I.D. card and pleading with the poll official to let him vote. After the official explained that one needs to be a citizen to cast a ballot, our neighbor finally “got it” and walked away, dejected but smiling. Ironic to be reminded about the importance of voting by a guy from Burma–a police state marked by political repression, forced labor and ethnic cleansing.

Arts of Collin County Bids First Phase

If you’d like to construct a 2,100-seat theater near the intersection of Custer Road and the Sam Rayburn Tollway in Allen, the Arts of Collin County Commission opened bidding on the project today.

It’s just the first phase of a grand performing arts center that Plano, Frisco, and Allen have united to build. Mike Simpson, the former mayor of Frisco and current executive director of the Arts of Collin County, met with  a small group of Collin County leaders and potential arts patrons last night at Gleneagles Country Club in Plano. I was also invited.

The update that Simpson gave was very much what I explained in August. Simpson told me that the ACC commission has a fiscal responsibility to bid out construction  now, while costs are as low as their likely to get. ACC leaders hope the first phase will come in under $80 million.

In their best case scenario then, they’ll bid the project and find they’re $7 million or $8 million away from being able to pay for it. They’ll have a few months once the bids are finalized to secure all the necessary funding before they can award a bid. (They’ve raised less than $10 million in four years of concentrated effort to this point). (more…)

Dirk Nowitzki Talks About Taking a Game Over

No, in the quote below, Dirk is not talking about last night, when he grabbed the game by the throat, turning a double-digit deficit into a double-digit win going away. Before InsideCorner took a dirt nap, I had been spending some time at Mavs practices and so on, trying to play the part of professional sports blogger. On one such occasion, Dirk and I were talking, specifically, about his 50-point performance against the Phoenix Suns in the 2006 Western Conference Finals and, generally, about what it’s like to go on rushes like that. So I think it’s applicable this morning.

I’ve had games where I’m stiff in shootaround, can’t make a shot in warm-ups, and all of a sudden, you get to the basket one time. You get fouled. You have an “and-1.” And all of a sudden, every basket you get, the basket seems to get bigger. I had other experiences where I felt like I could jump out of the gym in the mornings, and I miss my first six, seven shots. The game’s weird like that. I’ve had games where I wasn’t feeling well, and for some reason you can’t even get a rebound; somebody seems to tip it, and you end up with zero rebounds. You’re 7-feet — how the hell you not getting one rebound? And then that night, against Phoenix in the playoffs, it just seems like the ball is coming to you. I was getting offensive rebounds. I was getting good looks at shots. I was driving. I was getting to the foul line. It’s just funny how sports works. Sometimes it works in your favor and sometimes it doesn’t.

NYT Editorial on Dallas Tickets for Drivers Who Don’t Speak English

The New York Times today runs an editorial about the 39 tickets that Dallas police officers have issued to drivers since 2007 for not speaking English. My heart swells with pride.

Leading Off (11/4/09)

1. A lot of you people didn’t vote yesterday. The big decisions were with the DISD board, where Edwin Flores kept his seat but districts 3 and 9 will have a runoff December 3. A little more than 5 percent of registered voters turned out. So the good news is, everyone (in those two districts at least) gets a second chance to participate.

2. Dirk Nowitzki went for 29 last night — in the fourth quarter. Somebody ought to do a story on that guy. I don’t know, like an appreciation piece, something that reminds people just how special Dirk is and what he’s meant to this team and city. I’m going to pitch that idea is this week’s editorial meeting. Glad I thought of it.

3. Wait, wait, wait. A few weeks ago, they threw a party on the Continental Bridge to celebrate an anonymous $10 million donation that would transform it into a “living bridge” for pedestrians only. Now, though, comes news that they’re thinking about about putting a streetcar line across that bridge — which says neither “pedestrian only” nor “living” to me. WTF, mate? Does this mean that if they decide to change their minds, we can have another party? Oh, okay. Never mind then. Proceed!