Goodbye, Eric Celeste

Longtime readers of this blog know the name Eric Celeste from his many blog posts and from his French cuffs. He started here three and a half years ago as our managing editor and then went over to work for our custom division about six months ago. He’ll still work with those fine folks, helping them help companies tell their stories and prosper. But as of today, Eric will no longer be in the office. He’s striking out to launch his own enterprise, the official name of which is still a hotly debated topic (my suggestion, Bearded Bald Man Media, has been rejected).

Eric is celebrating his tenure right now at the Monk (it is telling that only four co-workers showed up to celebrate with him). If you see him later tonight at the Candleroom, sucker-punch him in the gut for me. If you need motivation, here’s a pic of Eric to get your dander up (you can punch me later, too).

Open Letter to the Apple Store Employee Who Sold Me an iPad Today

Dear Apple Store Sales Clerk:

You were efficient and got me out of the store in a jiffy. I appreciate that. And you were right to ask me if I wanted a carry case. Because I wouldn’t have bought one without your suggestion, and now that I have it, I can see that I need it. Thank you for all that.

But why the hell didn’t you ask me whether I was running the Snow Leopard OS? Because, as you surely know, the iPad won’t sync with a computer unless it’s running the newest, fanciest, most expensive Mac OS.

So here my new iPad sits, on my desk. It’s very pretty to look at. But useless.

Let’s Play: Navigating Dallas Quickly

It’s Wednesday. It’s lunch time, and I don’t want to know if you could beat me in a fight, like Zac (short answer, yes, you probably could). Consider this a challenge, Frontburnervians. Factoring in traffic, could you make it from say, far northeast Plano to downtown Dallas in 20 minutes? If so, describe the route you would take.

I want lively debate.  The rules: No name calling, unless it requires a thesaurus. It must be travel in a car, and it must be a car you can actually own, not some fancy concept car you saw on YouTube.

Go!

Leading Off (4/7/10): The Inexcusably Late Edition

1. Blockbuster is not dead yet. Late yesterday, the struggling company, whose current business model relies on strapping Betamax tapes to carrier pigeons, announced that it had struck a deal with two more movie studios (Twentieth Century Fox and Sony) to give Blockbuster “enhanced payment terms.” You’ll recall that Blockbuster also recently struck a deal with Warner Bros that allowed the company to rent The Blind Side and Sherlock Holmes a month earlier than Netflix or Redbox got the flicks.

2. DA Craig Watkins’ public integrity unit served Precinct 3 Constable Ben Adamcik and three of his deputies with grand jury subpoenas. Adamcik says he doesn’t know why he’s being ordered to appear before the grand jury on Friday. But here’s an interesting tidbit: one of the deputies served is a woman named Bertha Roop. Last year, Adamcik fired her after a federal drug investigation turned up $70,000 in Roop’s bedroom. But the county’s civil service commission said earlier this year that there was no evidence tying her to the money and gave Roop her job back. Yeah, nothing suspicious there. I mean, there’s lots of stuff in my bedroom that doesn’t belong to me.

3. Two Dallas guys pleaded guilty to federal drug charges and admitted that they were part of La Familia, the Mexican drug cartel. Both have cool nicknames. Ricardo Hernandez-Cruz, 37, is known as “Rica.” Edgar Gomez-Huerta, 31, is known as “Chato.” Per a conversation we had in an edit meeting yesterday about how we all wish there were more TV shows these days named after their main characters (think Hardcastle and McCormick, Starsky and Hutch, Cagney and Lacey), I hereby task Zac with coming up with the plot for the first episode of the anti-hero series called Rica and Chato, about two lovable drug lords that are part of the La Familia cartel. Yes, they sell drugs. But they are good fathers and husbands, just trying to put food on the table the only way they know how.