Articles for December, 2010
Leading Off (12/22/10)
1. Alan Peppard brings us a cool story today about Dallas and the Super Bowl. He writes: “Forty-four years ago, the seed of the big game was planted in secret in a parking lot at Love Field and incubated in a series of spy vs. spy meetings in Highland Park and North Dallas. As the sons of Texas’ two most famous oilmen tried to settle their differences, the modern NFL emerged and a national celebration was born.” Recommended reading. I wish they’d make that guy write more than just his column. He’s good at it.
2. Then there’s Charlie Perez, a thief who likes to break into cars. Cops call him a “one-man crime wave.” Yes, he’s a heroin addict. But he’s a lovable heroin addict. Like, one time, right after he got out of jail, Perez stopped by the police station to taunt the cops who had arrested him. Zac finally finished the cover story for our February issue yesterday. With that off his plate, I’m pretty sure he has time today to work on the pilot episode of the TV show based on Perez’s life. It’s called Smash and Grab.
3. Catfight! American Airlines and Orbitz are all kinds of pissed at each. Now American has pulled its tickets off the online booking service. Snap!
The Christmas Ties of Jerry Merwin, Ctd.
This Christmas tie was given to our old friend Jerry Merwin, security manager at St. Paul Place, a couple of years ago by a former assistant property manager for the building. She told Jerry that while she liked buying ties for men, she could never buy them for her husband, because he doesn’t wear ties. Jerry, on the other hand, wears one every day.
How Dallas’ Economy Depends on Deficit Spending
In the print version of FrontBurner this month, I write about the exhorbitant cost of the nation’s military spending and how much of that spending props up our local economy. My example is the F-35. The Pentagon has ordered 2,500 of the new aircraft at a cost of $90 million each (in its basic form; in its more extravagent form, it could cost as much as $200 million each). If the new Congress gets serious about cutting the deficit, the F-35 is a very good candidate for the first round of cutting. But if that happens — and it won’t — it would cost Dallas thousands of jobs and send our local economy spiralling into a second recession. I use that example to show how entrenched military spending, and the empire it supports, has become in the civilian economy.
Financial analyst Mike Shedlock posts today on “Why the USA Is Broke,” incorporating a number of recent articles about how out-of-control military spending has become. His post is also a lead item on BusinessInsider. But what neither he nor the authorities he quotes addresses is this interlocking relationshp between the economies of 435 Congressional districts and the Pentagon. The costs of empire may break our backs, but even if we know it and want to reduce it, I do not see how it can be done. Certainly the Democrats have not done anything but rubber-stamp Pentagon spending. Does anyone expect the GOP to cut it?
Jones: No Schedule for Stadium Naming Rights
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones says there’s no timetable yet for signing a naming-rights deal for Cowboys Stadium. Jones, who’d been mum on the subject, was reacting to press speculation that a corporate agreement worth as much as $400 million would be in place before Super Bowl XLV in February.
“It takes two to tango on that,” Jones said today at a holiday luncheon at the new stadium in Arlington. “I don’t have a timetable yet. I really don’t. We will get it done; there will be a [deal]. But for now it’s Cowboys Stadium.”
According to Google, Dallas Has Peaked
The new ngram tool from Google is the perfect Christmas time-sucker. As you probably already know, Google is busily digitalizing every book ever published. This tool allows you to enter names or phrases to see how many times over the years it has been mentioned in ten percent of the books — a good sampling — of the books they have done. I ngram’ed Dallas.
I started with 1842 when Dallas was founded. But George Mifflin Dallas was elected Vice President in 1844 with James Polk, so the early references are undoubtedly about him. I imagine the Mexican War led to a lot of books. The reason for the spike after 1963 is obvious — lots and lots of JFK books, both histories and conspiracy theories. Why Dallas would top out around 1995 and start a precipitous decline is mystifying, considering the books about GWB, but there it is. Somebody needs to do something about that.
Thanks to Census, Texas Gets Four More Seats in Congress
The population in Texas grew by more than 20% since the last decade, which means it gets four more seats in addition to the 32 it already has.
Let the redistricting begin. Ardmore Holiday Inn, you’re on notice.
Are the Rangers Really the Losers in the Free Agency Roulette?
That’s what Anthony Andro says. But isn’t it a little early to decide who the losers are? For instance, did the Phillies get Cliff Lee against the Yankees, or Cliff Lee against the Giants?
Listen, I know the Rangers need an ace. They also need more consistently hot bats. But what got the Rangers as far as the playoffs wasn’t Cliff Lee, but the lineup they still have – with the exception of Molina and possibly Guerrero. The Rangers have something the Red Sox and the Yankees do not – a solid, reliable farm system that regularly supplies the team with promising young talent. That is, if you will, the Rangers “thing,” just like spending ungodly amounts of money is the Yankees’.
And as if we all need reminding – the last time the Rangers deviated from that, they ended up paying Alex Rodriguez to play for the Yankees.
I’d be more interested, I suppose, in an analysis of the free agent wars a few months into the season.
Things to Do in Dallas Tonight: Dec. 21
The forecast high for today is 80 degrees Fahrenheit. These are the days that remind us why we’re willing to endure months of broiling summer heat. But weather like this shouldn’t be welcome mere days before Christmas. It spoils the mood.
Today you must do your best to escape the repressively comfortable temperatures and run for the cold. Yes, the Gaylord Texan’s ICE Exhibit continues so that you can witness the wonder of 2 million tons of ice having been used to sculpt the Peanuts gang.
Honestly, I don’t feel much like driving over to Grapevine either. That leaves your other option — heading to the American Airlines Center to watch some big guys skate around on ice when the Montreal Canadiens take on your Dallas Stars. Since my knowledge of hockey is limited (I still can’t quite grasp what “icing” is), I’ve decided to crowd-source commentary on tonight’s game.
I think Twitter user Adambath put it best:
Wow, #DallasStars have moved up to 4th in the league behind Philly, Detroit and Pittsburgh. That’s quite awesome.
That’s quite awesome, indeed.
Check out other, likely warmer, things to do in Dallas here.
Leading Off. Kind Of. (12/21/10)
1. There was a lunar eclipse last night. Tim went but he didn’t take any pictures. Justin Terveen went, and since Unfair Park is his personal Flickr account, his photos are there.
2. No link here, just an observation: if you are last-minute Christmas shopping, the mall may be a better bet than Target.
3. With their win last night, the Mavs swept the season series from the Miami Heat. Key player: Jason Eugene Terry. Related: I had a dream where I went over to JET’s house to watch a movie last night. Something in black and white, not sure.
Dwaine Caraway Plays the Race Card
In the comments to Leading Off this morning, someone asked why we hadn’t said anything today about yesterday’s front-page story looking into the finances of Councilman Dwaine Caraway, who led the fight against the recent vote to go wet. Sorry about the oversight. We’re already mentally unwrapping presents. Anyway, at stake is $6,500 that it seems was not properly accounted for. Caraway bristled at even being asked to explain how the money was spent. The money quote:
“It gives the perception of another African-American on the take. I ain’t no [expletive] sixty-five-hundred-dollar Negro.”
I hate when the paper does the [expletive] thing. I mean, I assume he dropped an F-bomb, but there’s really no telling. Caraway is a creative man. It wouldn’t surprise me if he dropped a bunker-busting hyphenated expletive that I might like to borrow one day. That’s the first thing that upsets me about this story.
The second thing that upsets me is Dwaine Caraway. You know what gives the perception of another African-American on the take? An African-American who plays the [expletive] race card when he’s asked a very reasonable question about how he’s spent a bunch of money.
The Christmas Ties of Jerry Merwin, Ctd.
Most of the Christmas ties of Jerry Merwin–we told you about him last week–are on the conservative side, if a Christmas tie can ever be described as conservative. But this one today is a pretty big exception. Jerry says he came home the other day and saw it laying on a table. His first thought was that it was “some sort of table decoration” his wife had picked up–like a runner or a place mat. “No, it’s not a decoration,” Mrs. Merwin told him. “It’s a tie. Merry Christmas!” She bought the tie at Kohl’s, where it was on sale.
Things to Do in Dallas Tonight: Dec. 20
OK, time to check our annual Christmas preparations list:
1) Watched A Charlie Brown Christmas? Check.
2) Watched the original animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas? Check.
3) Seen the classic Rankin/Bass Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? Check.
4) It’s a Wonderful Life? No doubt, though it may be worth seeing again on the big screen Thursday.
5) The Dallas Theater Center’s production of A Christmas Carol? No? Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s get to the Kalita Humphreys Theater for the show tonight. Hurry, before all the seats are sold.
Brett Shipp Gets Engaged
An alert FrontBurnervian points us to the Facebook page of Madeleine Johnson, whereon you will discover that she is engaged to newsman Brett Shipp. Johnson is in-house counsel for Southwest Airlines, but she used to work in the city attorney’s office in Dallas, which is where we presume the happy couple met — Shipp filing gratuitous open-records requests just so he’d have an excuse to visit Johnson and pick up the documents. If Zac weren’t writing the cover story of our February issue right now, I’m sure he’d give us the first couple pages of the meet-cute romantic comedy about Shipp and Johnson. Print deadlines are FrontBurner’s worst enemy. You’ll just have to make do with this Q&A Johnson did with Inside Counsel.
Leading Off (12/20/10)
1. The important takeaway from this report on the large raid on a cockfighting ring over the weekend: staging cockfights is illegal in Texas, but attending cockfights isn’t. Huh.
2. An armed standoff in the middle of the night between police and someone allegedly involved in a domestic dispute isn’t exactly far from normal. But my question: how did this person get into the basement of Iron Cactus downtown?
3. As the saying goes (or at least as someone once said to me): if you want to know the future of media today, look to Evangelical Christians and pornography. So what are the implications of this Grapevine megachurch having a 3-D Christmas service? I’m not sure. I hope it doesn’t mean more videos of preachers’ dogs eating Christmas presents, but it probably does.
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