Articles for March 30th, 2011
J.J. Barea is Dating Miss Universe 2006, Zuleyka Rivera
My fellow NBA-obsessed peeps keep sending me this link, along with messages I can’t print. An athlete dating a beauty pageant winner is not news. Obviously. The real takeaway from that is that the Mavs still list JJB as 6 feet tall. Which makes me 6-foot-4.
Dallas Observer Names New Editor — Maybe
Twitter’s back up. Spotted the following tweet from the Observer: “Village Voice Media veteran Joe Tone named Dallas Observer Editor http://bit.ly/eepmcj.” But the link doesn’t work. The post on Unfair Park has been taken down. Developing.
Update: Now the post is up. And I’m sorry, because I kinda buried the lead. THE POST WAS WRITTEN BY PATRICK WILLIAMS!
Twitter Fail Whale Frustrates More Than a Few
Twitter is down. Not only are you being forced to go without tweets from @TimmyTyper, you yourself can’t put anything up. We’re here for you. Consider this post your Twitter substitute. Have at it in the comments. Remember: only 140 characters.
Update: The whale was just replaced by a robot.
DISD Kids Plead With Governor Not To Axe Their Teachers
A parent named Erin Ryan Burdette, whose child attends Hexter Elementary (“Home of the Rogers Situation”) has penned an open letter to Rick Perry and others, making the case that education spending should not be cut as the state seeks to balance its budget. The open letter is punctuated with remarks from kids who attend the school. After the jump, I present the letter in its entirety.
Things to Do in Dallas Tonight: March 30
I almost – almost – wore my big puffy parka today. Wherever spring went, I’d like it to come back. But weather-related complaints aside, it’s Wednesday, which means the week is halfway over and there’s a whole host of interesting stuff going on tonight.
I blogged about it this morning, but New York Times columnist David Brooks is making a flying trip through town for a DMA Fresh Ink series event. He’s on tour promoting his latest book, The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement, which will be the focus of the evening’s conversation. I had the chance to chat with him via telephone last Friday, and not only did he reveal that he’s a longtime Cowboys fan, but he also had a few interesting things to say about Dallas after recalling his experience at last year’s Festival of Ideas.
He said that he was struck by “how well downtown seems to be reviving around arts and various things” but also by the fact that some people at the festival “didn’t have a clear sense of the Dallas identity.” Apparently, Brooks came in with a pretty clear sense of our identity, even stating at one point during the fest that “everyone knows the Dallas personality.” This was met with some confusion at the time, so I asked him to clarify. Good news, everyone, it’s mostly complimentary. We’re “self confident, risk-taking, brash, [and] oversized.”
If you haven’t read Brooks’ book, consider attending the talk anyway since there’s no real way to spoil the plot. Expect the conversation to liven up when it takes the inevitable politcal turn – that’s his primary interest, after all, and the real reason he got into all this touchy-feely social science in the first place. A couple things to note: the event takes place at First Presbyterian Church of Dallas, not the DMA. This gives you plenty of dinner options, like pizza at Campisi’s Elm Street location. Take your intellectual high to the bar at Charlie Palmer at the Joule for fancy cocktails post-talk.
For more things to do tonight, go here.
Video of the High School Hockey Brawl
If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the video that a lot of people are talking about. It shows the brawl between the teams from Keller and Arlington Martin last weekend. You can read more about what happened here. My take is that the kid in the black sweater deserved payback — but he certainly didn’t deserve to have his jaw broken. And, along with what the Musers said on The Ticket this morning, it’s an interesting question whether assault charges ought to be filed. You can bet that a civil suit is already in the works.
Update: The video has been taken down, as you can see.
Leading Off (3/30/11)
Dez Bryant Sued Again. According to this lawsuit, between January ’09 and July 2010, Colleyville’s Eleow Hunt gave the Cowboys receiver: 40 pieces of jewelry, worth $588,500; $26,000 in cash (for expenses and spending money); and $15,850 in tickets to various sporting events. Bryant was supposed to repay all this when he signed a pro contract. Hunt has receipts. The word Bryant is looking for is: guhhhhhhh. This quote from Bryant’s lawyer, state Sen. Royce West, doesn’t scream innocence: “What we’re seeing is Dez Bryant being singled out. There are lawsuits. They will be resolved.”
Plano ISD Laying Off Almost 350 Employees. Technically, their positions are being eliminated. More than 200 are teachers. The $26 million that saves still doesn’t cover the $65 million shortfall the district is facing in the next two years.
“Yarn-Bombers” Descend on Unprepared City. It’s pretty awesome. (Unrelated, but from the same site: So is this.)
Miniature Horse With Prosthetic Leg “Hitting His Stride.” You’ll know if you want to read more after this sentence: “In a scene worthy of a Walt Disney film, a trio of protective llamas, two curious goats and another miniature horse crowd around while a tiny prosthetic limb is fitted to Midnite’s deformed hind leg.”
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