2010 March | FrontBurner

Articles for March, 2010

When You Don’t Really Need A Good Dry Cleaner

Spotted in a strip shopping center on Campbell Road in Richardson, next door to the excellent Mumtaz Indian restaurant.

My other suggestion is, “We’re not great, but we’re okay.” But I’m sure the FrontBurner Nation can do much, much better.

KSCS Jock Terry Dorsey to Change Name to TexasMotorSpeedway.com

Well, looks like I might have been wrong this morning when I said Terry Dorsey wouldn’t take Eddie Gossage’s offer to change his name TexasMotorSpeedway.com for one year for $100,000. According to this Facebook page, Dorsey is taking the cash. The Dallas Morning News (via Channel 5) is reporting it as fact. As ESPN notes, however: “The possibility exists that this could be an April Fool’s Day stunt. Both Texas Motor Speedway and the radio show have pulled off separate stunts in the past.” I’ll believe it when I see it.

Update: In the comments, JR points us to the news that Gossage has admitted it was an April Fool’s joke. Question: when did they move April Fool’s Day to March 31?

You Can’t Stop the Baptists

I was looking at what our neighbors, the folks at First Baptist, are planning to build down here, and it reminded me of Tiger Woods.

Huge. Quickly.

Yes, The Dallas County Constables ARE Pulling People Over

As Tim mentioned in Leading Off, Dallas County is facing a ginormous shortfall — $56 million, to be exact. And he joked that the constables would be out in force, writing tickets.

Only it isn’t so much a joke. Lemme explain my commute to Plano for work. I drive up Walnut Hill a piece, then turn left on Midway, up Midway to LBJ, LBJ to Central, and so on. Only today, I turn onto Midway, drive a few feet, and there’s a constable. At first, I think he’s just waving at me. Friendly. I wave back. He waves again. I wave back, hoping he’ll get out of my lane soon because, dude, I’m late for work.

Then I realize he’s not so much waving as motioning. Toward this side street. So I pull in. And he informs me I was going 29 miles per hour in a school zone. Which seems a little unfathomable since I had just come from a dead stop, but whatevs. He asks for my driver’s license and proof of insurance. License, I had. But insurance, well, I had, but the proof was tucked in a cute Kate Spade purse about a half mile from where we were sitting. But didn’t this whole driver responsibility whatsit mean he already could tell if I had insurance because of special genie magic Texas Chuck Norris ninja powers?

Apparently not. I got a warning for the speeding, because I haven’t had a ticket since 2005. I got a ticket for not having proof of insurance. I can take a little trip to some JP’s office in Richardson and wave my insurance card around and get that dismissed though, so it’s almost like it never happened.

But fair warning: Radar gun-wielding constables are out there, and evidently even economy cars can indeed hit redonkulous speeds rather quickly.

Local Group To Go For Kickball Record in Rowlett

A local charity called the Mercy Project (which rescues children from around the world from slavery) is hooking up with the World Adult Kickball Association to try to play kickball for 50 hours straight in Rowlett. If they succeed, it’ll be a new Guinness record. The event, called Kickin’ It 4 Captives, starts at midnight on April 9. I feel sorry for the teams that have to play around 4 a.m. Fuller details after the jump.

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The Washington Post Review of Erykah Badu’s New Album

Let’s get past the badukadonk, as Erykah Badu’s nude derriere was termed by DGirl in our comments section (if you don’t get the joke, chances are you’re white). Let’s talk about the new album, New Amerykah, Part Two: Return of the Ankh. Because the thing is, this stunt of hers wouldn’t have caused such a ruckus if Badu weren’t an immensely talented recording artist. Chris Richards in the Washington Post starts his review by saying the album title “might sound like some C-grade mummy movie starring Brendan Fraser.” Which is pretty funny. But then he goes on to heap much praise on it. The stunt will be a minor note on the Wiki page in the years to come. The music will make a bigger impact. (Okay, just a little more badukadonk. Here’s Robert Wilonsky talking about it on NPR yesterday. Two things I enjoyed about the interview: 1) Robert said he was the first person ever to interview Badu. I don’t care whether that’s a fact or not. I just love that Robert worked it into the interview. And 2) Robert seems to be doing his impression of Eric Celeste doing his Robert Wilonsky impression. Very meta.)

Why Leppert Is “Moving Toward” Re-election

According to just about everybody, Kay Bailey will announce this morning that she is staying. The mayor’s only chance of getting her Senate seat was a special election, which would be, in effect, a bi-partisan free-for-all (there is no party identification on the ballot). In a pure Republican primary, a reasonable, get-it-done guy like our mayor would not stand a chance. So it is time to stuff all those polls and county-by-county voting charts into a manila folder and file it away for another day.

Leading Off (3/31/10)

1. The New York Times today runs its obit of Ted Pillsbury. I knew, of course, that he was from the family responsible for the Pillsbury Doughboy. It was a surprise to learn, however, that he was also related to John Deere, of farming equipment fame.

2. Today we’ll find out whether KSCS jockey Terry Dorsey will change his name to TexasMotorSpeedway.com (and get a tat) for $100,000. The offer comes from TMS president Eddie Gossage. (Spoiler alert: Dorsey ain’t gonna do it.) Question: who is the savvier promoter? Eddie Gossage or Erykah Badu?

3. Remember that insider trading case involving Mark Cuban and Mamma.com that was dismissed by a federal judge (and which the SEC is appealing)? Cuban is now accusing the SEC of witness tampering and acting in bad faith. Given the way the case has gone so far, my money’s on Cubes.

4. Dallas County is facing a $56 million shortfall. You know what that means: those pesky constables will be out in force, looking to write about $56 million worth of traffic tickets.

5. Diodes Incorporated announced the release of its AP5100 step-down converter. Not sure how that escaped me yesterday. I was busy, but that’s no excuse.

Author: Blame Wall Street, Not D.C., for Meltdown

Like Tim hinted, the ridiculously talented author/journalist Michael Lewis doesn’t blame the financial meltdown on Washington’s rules pushing homeownership, as many conservatives (ahem) have been inclined to do. At a luncheon in Dallas today Lewis (pictured) called that explanation a red herring, saying what D.C. didn’t do about subprime mortgage loans was more to blame.

“The brief for [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] was expanded, but there’s a lot of telling numbers that suggest it wasn’t the explanation for the crisis. In fact, [Fannie and Freddie's] percentage of the market went down between 2003 and ‘06,” said Lewis, author of a new book about the meltdown called The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. “Private capital markets were so hungry for raw material, they replicated synthetically the worst” of the subprime loans to make more loans–and more money.

If you’re going to fault Washington, he added, fault it for not looking closely enough at credit default swaps–and for allowing the credit-rating agencies to run amok. “The [financial] machine had a life of its own,” Lewis said, “apart from Washington.”

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Robert Wilonsky Owns the Erykah Badu Naked Video Story

Earlier today, someone from NPR’s All Things Considered called me, seeking an interview about Erykah Badu’s controversial new video for her song “Window Seat.” I said sure, and we talked for about 10 minutes or so — about the video, about her standing in Dallas, about community reaction to it. Et cetera and so on. He told me he had to go talk to his editor and he would call me back to let me know when it was going to run. He did call back, except it was to tell me that his editor had been seeking comment on his own, he’d found someone else, and they were going with that. No big deal.

There were options as to who that mysterious someone could be: Hunter Hauk of Quick, since he nabbed an exclusive interview with Badu; Pete Freedman, since he’s the music editor of the Dallas Observer and, I believe, was one of the first to post the video; and Robert Wilonsky, also of the Observer, since he’s Robert and always seems to be the guy tabbed for things like this. If you asked me to put money on it, I would have said it would end up being Wilonsky, though they might call Pete first. (I had discounted what would be the most likely source in other major cities, Dallas Morning News music critic Mario Tarradell, since he still uses words like “groove-alicious.”)

And I was right:

Peep NPR’s All Things Considered today for Wilonsky talking Badu’s “Window Seat.” WHICH WAS MY INTERVIEW THAT HE TOTALLY STOLE. Half-joking.

Pay me my imaginary money.

Mayor Tom Leppert “Moving Toward Going Forward” On Second Term

At least that’s what he told Gromer Jeffers, after telling Tim he’d take him to the woodshed on a basketball court. “Moving toward going forward” is the most confirmation he’s given thus far, if you can call that kind of non-answer answer confirmation. Say he actually does run again, should Dallasites vote him back into office? Let’s look at the pros and cons of his first term.

PROS: Does what he says he’s going to do, generally, even if it isn’t the greatest idea in the world (moving forward with the Trinity road, convention center hotel); brought the pinstripe, 1930s gangster suit back into fashion; given us an endless stream of jokes relating to his enormous paws

CONS: Does what he says he’s going to do, generally, even if it isn’t the greatest idea in the world (moving forward with the Trinity road, convention center hotel); brought the pinstripe, 1930s gangster suit back into fashion; isn’t me

What say you?

Mussolini Reincarnation, Continued…It’s HOA Day on Dallas Dirt

Yes, every buyer should have received — and READ — a copy of the homeowner association rules on David Bagwell’s five Colleyville communities and know who the heck was on the architectural control committee crafting the look of their new home. But what really scares me is that under Texas law, HOA’s can foreclose on a home for failure to pay HOA dues… and more.

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