Articles for April 14th, 2011
Borders at Preston and Royal is Officially Closed
If you were planning on stopping by the doomed Borders tonight for some going-out-of-business discounts, don’t bother. Preston Hollow People‘s Claire St. Amant is on the scene and reporting that the doors have been locked.
Did Drug Use Land Josh Hamilton on the DL?
Josh Hamilton is a helluva ballplayer. Alas, he spends too much time on the DL. This year, the team moved him from center to left field, with the hope that he’d be presented with fewer opportunities to dive for balls — and get hurt. Now, of course, he’s on the DL again because he broke a bone in his shoulder when he dove headfirst into home. The dude is incapable of loafing.
But the possibility exists that Hamilton’s injuries — at least this one — are part of the price he continues to pay for his much publicized past drug use. Here’s a study from a few years back. It found a lower bone density in people who had smoked meth. While Bobby Valentine is speculating about whether Hamilton’s drug use will affect his recovery time (because he can’t take palliative drugs), I’ve got a fellow who knows a thing or two about a thing or two when it comes to the cause of the injury itself.
Dr. Richard D. Reitman is an orthopedic surgeon at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Plano. He specializes in joint replacement surgeries. In an email, Reitman told me: “Substance abuse is a well known predisposing factor for osteoporosis. In particular, bone loss has been linked to recreational methamphetamine abuse in several published studies. Alcohol consumption has been similarly linked to bone loss as well. The World Health Organization defines osteoporosis as having bone mineral density lower that 2.5 standard deviations below normal, and this degree of bone loss is a strong predisposing factor to bone fracture.”
I didn’t want to hear that part about alcohol.
Breaking! What Number Am I Thinking Of Right Now?
Close. Try again.
Brees “Hopeful” on Lockout Dispute
NFL quarterback Drew Brees says he’s hopeful about an end to the lockout that’s threatening the league’s 2011 schedule. “I’m always hopeful,” Brees said in Dallas today. “We just want to get back on the field and play. That’s why we went to court in Minnesota.”
The New Orleans Saints QB (shown in photo by Jeanne Prejean) is one of several leading players who are plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit filed in St. Paul against the NFL. The antitrust suit against the owners is asking for an injunction that would let the players go to work.
Dallas-born Brees, a member of the executive committee of the NFL Players Association, made the comments before speaking at an annual fundraising luncheon for the Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center.
Dallas Lawyer Gets Continuance, Congratulations
Dallas lawyer Brian Erman had a problem – he had a case to be tried in federal court in Kansas, and it was scheduled to start two weeks before the due date of his first child. So he and his team asked for a continuance – which isn’t unusual. But the plantiff’s lawyers opposed it – something Judge Eric F. Melgren didn’t exactly cotton to, especially the part of their brief where they apparently questioned the date of conception of the Erman baby.
According to the New York Times, Melgren basically said the plantiffs were the kind of people who were unhappy, and the type to  “lose sight of their role as professionals, and personalize the dispute; converting the parties’ disagreement into a lawyers’ spat.” He then quoted Shakespeare, and pointed out that babies kind of have their own timetables as to arrival, and they don’t exactly share it ahead of time.
He concluded by ruling for the continuance, and added his congratulations to the Erman family.
Texas House Redistricting: Let the Games Begin!
Bud Kennedy beat me to it. I was just about to post about how the proposed State House District 88 on the redistricting map issued yesterday by Rep. Burt Solomons of Carrollton looks like…. well, since he beat me to the tweet, I’ll let the Star-Telegram columnist say it: Â ”Have you seen the proposed Texas House District 88? It looks like a triple score play in Words With Friends”
You can see all the bloody details of this, and other, proposed maps here. The DistrictViewer lets you overlay different plans to compare.
Dallas County loses two districts – due to relative lack of population growth – under Solomons’ map.
Calatrava Design Transformed Into ‘Zombie’ Bridge
The best headline about yesterday’s Dallas City Council vote to officially ditch the original fancier design and give Santiago Calatrava $10.7 million for a cheaper design for the second bridge in the Trinity River project is from the Archinect website: Â ”Calatrava’s bridge in Dallas shot down, back as zombie”
The forum for “progressive-minded” architects also casts doubts, as have plenty of others, on whether we’ll ever actually see even this revised version of the second Trinity River “signature bridge” built:
For a refresher, Santiago Calatrava, 59, has been in Dallas before. This is, was or might be the Valencian’s second bridge in Dallas’ Trinity Bridge project— his first bridge, the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, is expected to be open very soon.
Things to Do in Dallas Tonight: April 14
I received a new novel by serial memoirist Jen Lancaster yesterday. I am not above certain kinds of trashy literature, so I flipped through it, mildly intrigued until I hit an author’s note that read: “I feel like it’s important to note here that I love Stephenie Meyer. This might not make sense now, but it will later, I promise.” Boom. Automatically added to the stack of books on my desk that I will never read, joining two copies of something called “Getting to Heaven” and Rick Springfield’s memoir. What a waste.
Now it’s time for a poll. Show of hands if you’ve been able to visit the High Line park in New York. It’s a winner in a lot of ways, one being that it’s one of the least wasteful things in a city where it’s usually easier to just toss stuff out and start from scratch. Imagine my delight, then, when I realized James Corner, the principal architect on the project, is here in Dallas tonight for a talk with the Dallas Architecture Forum. He’ll discuss the High Line, of course, since the park is entering Phase II of the building process. But my sources tell me that whenever an architect does one of these lectures, he or she tends to expand on their most current projects – sharing information about the steps as well as designs that the clients might not have even seen yet. Corner’s lecture will last about 45 minutes, with 15-30 minute Q&A after. Someone please, please ask him for his thoughts on our planned “public green space.”
If you show up early (around 6:15 pm) with your drinking hat on, you can catch Corner at a cocktail reception in the Magnolia’s upstairs lounge. Ladies, I also hear that there are several attractive, gainfully-employed, single men who usually attend this sort of thing. You’re welcome. The adventurous might want to hoof it from West Village to try out Ketchup Burger Bar, a new burger joint that opened up in my neighborhood, but I’m feeling lazy today and the tacos de brisket from Taco Diner are calling my name.
For more things to do tonight, click here.
Is the Rangers’ Season Over?
Up till now, I’ve been pretty sanguine about the Rangers’ season. But yesterday they lost to the Tigers — again. That means they’ve lost two games in a row. Not only that, but Josh Hamilton will be on the DL for upwards of eight weeks. He griped about third-base coach Dave Anderson sending him home on the play that caused the injury, and then he apologized. It’s never a good sign when you’ve clubhouse discord this early in the season. So it’s time to face facts. The Rangers are 9-3 right now. I’m worried that they won’t win 10 games this year.
Leading Off (4/14/11)
Removal of Roses Costs Plano $18,000. Tall rose bushes at the Davis Library in Plano were creating blind spots, so the police asked the city of Plano to remove the bushes. Since there have been cutbacks to employees, the council asked a contractor to remove the roses rather than city workers. This cost $18,000 and as you can imagine, has led to a thorny situation. (Should I have gone for sticky there instead?)
The Bridge Must Go On. City council approved $10 million to go to Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava to redesign a less expensive bridge than what was previously proposed. (Half of that $10 million was given by an anonymous donor to the Trinity Trust.) While most city council members approved this measure, councilwoman Angela Hunt did not. Her concerns dealt with something about the economy and debt and being frug–wait, there’s going to be a bike and hike path?! Design on, Calatrava!
UNT Students’ Workouts Create Energy. UNT has installed ReRev, a $20,000 system that creates electricity from elliptical machines. The electricity will go back into the college’s recreational center’s power grid. The system has been installed in 36 machines. But here’s the kicker: the power that’s generated is 1 kilowatt hour of energy per two days. That’s the equivalent of vacuuming for 45 minutes. Or powering a laptop for 24 hours. Or keeping Tim’s Prius running for two miles.
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