Articles for June, 2010
What To Do in Dallas Tonight: June 7, 2010
Neil Young is in town for a show tonight at the Meyerson. Insiders say he’ll be performing a few tracks that have never been heard before, so fans will want to check that out. A few tickets are still left.
This is very important. If you haven’t been to 48 Nights yet, the fabulous charity dinner featuring a new chef that happens twice a week for 48 nights, tonight might be your last chance. All the dinners are sold out EXCEPT FOR TONIGHT’S at 6:30. There are three spots left (as of 10:18 am). Any guesses on the chef? The menu is after the jump. Go!
The 10 Most Beautiful Women in Dallas Competition Starts Now
And as usual, we want your help rounding them up. Don’t worry, though. Our trips to the grocery store, dinners at Mi Cocina, and nights out on Henderson tell us this won’t be difficult for you. Good-looking ladies abound in our fair city. Your nomination(s) can be your friend, your lover, your best friend’s girlfriend, or your uncle’s second-cousin’s daughter-in-law. Just send us your finest. All we ask is that they can legally order a cocktail and live in North Texas. The best of the beauties will be featured in the December issue of D Magazine, so start your nominations. You have until July 2.
Leading Off (6/7/10)
1. One takeaway I had from the Dallas Morning News’ two part story (part 1 and part 2) on “black flight,” the steady decline in the number of African American students attending Dallas Independent School District schools: maybe the concept of geographically based public school is outdated. Is there an argument here for a re-segregation of public schools, with distinctions not drawn up along racial lines of distinction, but on need-based lines? Say we reorganize the district so that some schools specialize in raising math skills, some in reading skills, and some in language skills. There could be some schools that specialize in engaging immigrant families in their children’s educational experience and others that specialize in engaging families in certain social-economic situations. This might end up looking like racial segregation, and it opens up tons of room for abuse (cough, cough, Preston Hollow Elementary), so I’ll leave you to tell me why it’s a dumb idea in the comments.
2. After shooting John F. Kennedy (allegedly, right?), Lee Harvey Oswald hopped a bus to cross the Houston St. viaduct, but when it got caught in traffic, he jumped off the bus and hailed a cab. That cab had been in the collection of the now defunct Pate Museum of Transportation. On Saturday, it was auctioned off and sold to an Illinois museum. It’s not exactly our Elgin Marbles, but I hate to see that one get away.
3. And file this good news story under “Thank goodness there are people like this out there”: a couple in Azle, Texas, used money from their savings to buy a five-bedroom home and take in five special-needs foster children, because some people are just awesome like that, I guess.
Water, Water Everywhere And All the Streets Did Shrink
Don’t know about the rest of you, but if I lived in the CBD area, I would be building an ark. Another water situation takes place.
Glub!
Grrrr! Unleashed Park to be Curbed June 13
Area dogs are down in the dumps (pictured). Just got word from the canine grapevine that Unleashed Park will close June 13. Opened a year ago March, the 50,000-square-foot facility in East Dallas was the country’s largest indoor pooch park.
Reason? Another victim of the recession.
Growl.
A Jim Schutze Story You Ought to Read
Jim Schutze has written a few stories about the old creeks running through East Dallas that we long ago buried and tried to forget. Here’s another in the series. It’s lyrical. It’s important. Give it your eyes.
Finally, There Are Only Four in the D Magazine Words With Friends Tournament
We started on Tuesday with 64 players. Sixty-four players, united by a dream: to dominate the competition and to be declared the Best Words With Friends Player in Dallas. Today only four remain in the D Magazine tournament:
- Rhett Miller, age 39, musician
- Trennis Jones, age 28, sports agent
- Rich Goff, age 42, promotions manager
- Chris Cree, age 55, local businessman and Scrabble bigshot
More to come next week before Wednesday evening’s semifinals and finals. It’s important to note again that the matches that remain will be played in a one-minute-per-turn format. The championship is there for the taking, for any of these competitors.
Congratulations to each of them for their performances so far. And thanks to all 64 of our players. We have some lovely parting gifts for you.
Rhett Miller of the Old 97s Punches the Last Ticket to the D Magazine Words With Friends Semifinals
Fresh off his show at the Belmont Hotel last night, musician Rhett Miller handily beat Jeff Cheney, the mayor pro tem of Frisco in our tournament. The margin was 429 to 303. Cheney was quick with the excuses:
I was certainly hit by a train today. Rhett distracted me by having me download all his albums from iTunes. He may have a future in music. I knew the game was over when i had to play “bro” as the opening move.Thanks for the tourney. I had a blast!I was certainly hit by a train today. Rhett distracted me by having me download all his albums from iTunes. He may have a future in music. I knew the game was over when i had to play “bro” as the opening move.
But Rhett says it was a closer match than the score suggests:
I got lucky and started rolling. I never had a bad rack. Most of the S’s, both blanks at once, a TLS for the Q.
I had a T left in my rack when Jeff resigned. I guess that cost me a few points on my final score, but I got no beef with the guy. It’s no fun losing.
I must admit that I was inspired by a tweet from a Friscoite suggesting people follow me in order to gloat when I lost. I hope they don’t unfollow me now that I won.
Miller advances to our semifinals on Wednesday. Jump for the final board.
Sports Agent Trennis Jones Ruins Lauren Lapeyre’s Day at the Beach to Advance to Words With Friends Tournament Semifinals
Don’t feel too bad for Lauren Lapeyre of the Ritz-Carlton. She was already down on the coast for some early weekend fun as she ran up against sports agent Trennis Jones in the D Magazine Words With Friends Tournament and suffered a 460 to 311 defeat. Here’s Trennis’ account of the match:
Lauren and I went back and forth with 40-50 point words for the 1st 6 plays or so…she had some great plays with “Pugh”, “Mowed”, and “Bulls”….I countered with “Zincs”, “Dobies”, and “Amirs”. Though I was lucky enough to win and advance, I was very jealous of her; as I was playing her from work and she was on the beach in South Padre.
Trennis has made our Finally Four and will compete in the semifinal showdown on Wednesday. Congratulations to him.
See the board after the jump.
Scrabble Champ Chris Cree ‘Bags’ His Way into D Magazine Words With Friends Semifinals
In a not-at-all-surprising result, Chris Cree — local businessman and master Scrabble player — punched his golden ticket to the Finally Four of the D Magazine Words With Friends Tournament today with a 463 to 328 win over the exuberant Luis Ellis. Tuxedo-clad Jesus apparently wasn’t on Luis’ side today. Here’s Cree’s breakdown of the action:
Luis made very nice plays with PEON and BOLETI and is obviously another very good player. The match turned on WITCH and Luis not having the case S and then me getting both the X and Z and then a third bingo (TEARABLE). This could best be described as a “bagging”. I got both blanks and had reasonable balance toward the end when the bag was vowel heavy.
Our first semifinal, to be played live as a speed match on the evening of June 9, is set. Chris Cree will face off against Rich Goff.
Jump for the Cree-Ellis final board.
DISD Scores Big Improvement on Test Scores, But Hinojosa Needs Schooling
An alert FrontBurnervian has asked that draw attention to today’s front-page story about DISD’s improved TAKS scores. This is good news, indeed — although it must be noted that the test changed this year, and everyone statewide seems to have made similar dramatic improvement. Superintendent Michael Hinojosa was cautious to crow too loudly about the results, which I appreciate. What I didn’t appreciate was the way he said it:
“You always are skeptical when these numbers come back, especially the dramatic gains. That’s why you don’t want to celebrate too early. My first comment was, ‘All data is relative; I’ve got to compare it.’”
Yes, he’s right. All data ARE relative. Am I a bastard for pointing this out?
Eric Celeste Starts to Feel His Oats, Ctd.
Danny Clancy’s campaign was apparently amused by Eric Celeste’s comparison of DA Craig Watkins and Kobe Bryant. Clancy’s spokesman, Brian Mayes, sends along this response:
“Craig Watkins’ performance as DA more closely resembles the career of Shawn Bradley — all hype, no game. But at least Shawn Bradley played. Craig Watkins has never even tried a case as our DA choosing instead to dismiss more than 5,500 criminal cases, putting many violent offenders back on our streets. Sounds like our Shawn Bradley-like DA is afraid to take it to the basket.”
I think I can speak for Zac Crain when I say we’ll all be stoked if, from now till November, the two sides continue to use basketball analogies to conduct their campaigns.
Chace Crawford Has a Smokin’ Hot Mugshot
I remember running into Chace Crawford at the Black Friar once. I’m surprised we didn’t get baked together. Because he was arrested early today for possession of weed in the parking lot of a place called Ringo’s Pub in Plano. Gotta say the dude has a sexy mugshot. Rrrawr!
Time Running Out to Vote in the Best of Big D Readers’ Choice: Services Poll
You’ve still got today, tomorrow, and Sunday left to cast one ballot a day, each day in our Best of Big D Readers’ Choice: Services Poll.
Tell us who’s the best pet groomer, the best painter, the best auto mechanic, and the best car wash, along with many other categories. Among the closest races going are the contests for the best hair salon, the best place for waxing, and the best lawn care company. A handful of votes could make the difference.
So hop to it.
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