Leading Off (5/13/11)

Ron Springs, Nov. 4, 1956 — May 12, 2011. Former Dallas Cowboy running back Ron Springs died Thursday, never regaining consciousness after falling into a coma nearly four years ago. Springs went into a coma in 2007 after complications from a surgery to remove a cyst from his arm. It was the same year that former teammate Everson Walls donated a kidney to Springs.

Boom Goes the … Applesauce? Bruce Ankenbrand hardly fits the stereotype of a terrorist. For one thing, he’s 7 months old. Nonetheless, his antics were indeed uncovered by the TSA screeners at DFW International, who allegedly found traces of explosives on the jars of his fancy-schmancy organic baby food he and his parents were trying to bring in to allegedly feed him. Word has it the real bomb was to occur two or three hours after ingestion, but could easily be contained within a size 4 Pampers.

Here We Go Again, Southwest. Oh, Southwest. I know you keep getting positive rankings for your customer service, and for good reason. But when you apparently screw up, you do it so gloriously, and with the same subject. I admire your consistency.

No Cutsies – Especially at In-N-Out. So Dallas Observer food writer Jenny Block went to Frisco to snag some In-N-Out, and waited for a very long time (for a burger) with a lot of other people to get in, because the line (for a burger) was really long (for a burger) apparently and the wait for your burger was also very long after you ordered. So everyone apparently didn’t cotton to four guys who tried several times (and ultimately succeeded) to cut in line (for a burger) instead of wait several hours (for a burger). I still do not understand why you’d wait this long and do all this work, for a burger. Is a Double Double made with unicorn meat and buns concocted from grain hand-polished by mermaids before being ground into flour by a stone pulled by a centaur and mixed with tears from that 197os littering commercial Indian chief? Because if so, I’ll take it. If not, I’ll wait a few more weeks and go through the freaking drive through like a normal person eating a hamburger.

Let’s Play a Game. Where am I? And was I aware that I would be flying back to Dallas on Friday the 13th? Am I scared?

Leading Off (5/12/11)

Another Key to the City Is Handed Out. It seems like everybody’s getting a key to the city these days. Last weekend, Angela Hunt made a few announcements about a “colleague” and his lack of judgment when handing out a key to the city to Michael Vick. Well. Then she gave an edible key to a bait dog that was rescued from Vick. That poor dog. He’s in such an awkward position right now. That’s one of those gifts where you debate whether or not you should eat it. On the one hand, it’s a key to the city. On the other, it’s edible.

Girl Gets Her Money. Jason asked how long it would take this girl to receive her money. Turns out, it took just a day. And, through the generosity of others, she’s received at least double what she turned in.

55 Years Later, Student Graduates. Burlyce Logan is one of 11 black students who enrolled at UNT after it was integrated. But the reception the students got was not great. So after two years, she left. It’s taken quite awhile for her to get back to UNT, but Logan says she knew she wanted to get her degree from there. On Saturday, she’ll become the third of the original 11 to graduate.

Study Says Dallas Is a Bad Transit Area. Right. We already knew this. But now there’s a study that proves it. The study, done by the Brookings Institute in Washington, says that for as many jobs as Dallas and surrounding areas have, only one out of five is accessible by public transit. The study ranked Dallas 89th out of 100 metropolitan areas (Hey, we beat Miami!). The study cites a large land area and multiple entities providing services as two of the problems in providing public transit. The study did not look at the quality of service given by these entities (DART, T in Fort Worth, and Denton County Transit Authority), just merely accessibility. And speaking of accessibility, you have to be a subscriber to view that story. See what I did there?

Robert “Tractor” Traylor, Dead at 34

Not everyone can imagine a time when Dirk Nowitzki was not a Dallas Maverick. But once upon a time, he was not. In fact, the Mavericks traded 6th overall draft pick Robert “Tractor” Traylor to Milwaukee in exchange for Dirk in 1998, paving the way for Big German to become number one in our hearts, if not our programs.

Traylor has been playing in Puerto Rico recently for the Vaqueros de Bayamon, who reported this morning that Traylor, 34, was found dead in his apartment.