Oak Cliff People has the full interview with DISD board trustee Jerome Garza.
I hope not. I’m not sweating Jerry Jones’ willingness to keep the Death Star booked. He paid a ton, and an empty calendar won’t keep him in stacking money. Rodeos, monster truck shows, boxing matches — whatever. Keep it coming. I just think he’s missing opportunities for so much more. He’s approaching this like any venue owner would. Joint is big — exploit that! So here are two ideas I just came up with, and Jerry can have both of them for free. I just want tickets.
– If you happened to attend the NBA All-Star Game or the UNC-Texas test run, you know that Cowboys Stadium is almost too big for a basketball game. My idea: fill that empty space with a second basketball game. There is enough room for two courts and four fan bases. I’d also run a third game — which, ideally, would be played on the field at Rangers Ballpark — on the big screen.
– Building on that, something a little more chaotic. I call it the Sports Smorgasbord. Divide the field area into thirds. In the middle, basketball. On one end, arena football. On the other — and yeah, it would take a bit of engineering, and it probably would not be regulation size — hockey. Tip off/kick off/drop the puck on all three simultaneously. Encourage crossover wherever possible. For instance: in the arena football game, the ball stays live no matter which playing surface it ends up on.
Former Morning News scribe Bill Marvel has co-authored a book with a Marine named R.V. Burgin called Islands of the Damned. It’s described as “an unvarnished and moving memoir of a Marine veteran who fought his way across the Pacific Theater of World War II — whose story is featured in the upcoming HBO series The Pacific.” Well, tonight at 7 p.m. Marvel will do the author thing at the Preston-Royal Borders. If you’re curious, go on out and see the man. He won’t bite.
– Thirteen is obviously an unlucky number. But! The team the Mavs face tonight at the AAC, the New Jersey Nets, are almost historically bad. At 7-56, they are just slightly — slightly — ahead of Philadelphia’s record-setting 9-73 pace. So, you know, they should be fine.
– Speaking of the Nets: does anyone want to take back their opinion on the Jason Kidd/Devin Harris trade? Kind of working out in the Mavs’ favor so far.
– Still speaking of the Nets, but decidedly not related to basketball: noted comics fan (and Nets center) Brook Lopez paid a visit to Zeus Comics yesterday and bought a ton of books. “Super nice guy,” says Zeus owner Richard Neal.
– The Mavs have a ways to go before even approaching the Los Angeles Lakers’ record 33-game winning streak. But they’ve already set one record: most wins in a row by 10 points or fewer. You could either say they’re clutch or lucky. I prefer the former.
– Finally, when the Mavs played the Nets in December, this happened:
Roddy Buckets!
Think you’re smarter than a 5th grader? OK. How about smarter than a group of Dallas-area pre-teens who call themselves XS NRG? They’ve just told Dallas-Fort Forth International Airport how it can save money and be greener by reducing jet-plane fuel inefficiencies. SweetCharity’s got the details.
A commenter by the name of Matt (tip o’ the hat) pointed us to the below video of local celebs singing Faith Hill’s “This Kiss” by way of promoting Super Bowl XLV. Pretty funny stuff. A few observations and questions: 1) Dirk and Romo appear to have the most fun with it. Good on them. 2) If I wanted to see Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck make out with a woman who I assume is wife, I would put a surveillance camera in their breakfast nook. Please: no more. 3) Who is the white guy in the TCU hat? Neither Zac nor I could ID him. 4) Similarly, who is the black gentleman of generous proportions? 5) How much did Scott Murray pay to be included in this video? (Update: Apologies to TCU football coach Gary Patterson. But yours is not a face, apparently, that we can pick out of a lineup. Even when you’re wearing TCU gear. Apologies, too, to Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief, whose mustache I should have recognized with my eyes closed.)
1. Bill McNutt, the fruitcake scion who was arrested for mysterious reasons on SMU’s campus, has stepped down from the office of deacon at Highland Park Presbyterian Church. This leaves only the Dallas Country Club and Blockbuster as the only two influential Dallas organizations untouched by the scandal.
2. Is it legal? Hey, who cares? The city has tapped millions of dollars from the Trinity River bond funds to fix the sorry levees. Remember the Trinity lakes? The City Council is set today to snatch $4.75 million tagged for them and apply it toward the levees. And guess what? Councilman Dave Neumann says he thinks the levee repairs will require a bond election of their own. I love it when a plan comes together.
3. This is a great piece of journalism by Matthew Haag and Selwyn Crawford about Robert Mustard Jr., the troubled man who shot two financial advisors and then himself in a North Dallas office on Monday. The story takes a look at Mustard’s life, trying to explain his final act (Mustard is not expected to survive). One of the most curious details, to me, is this quote John Dycus, UTA’s retired director of student publications and former advisor to the student newspaper, the Shorthorn, where Mustard worked: “I know that he enjoyed newspaper work, and he wanted badly to be a professional copy editor on the big stage.”