Articles for June, 2011
Leading Off (6/8/11)
Dallas Mavericks 86, Miami Heat 83. In what will be known as the Fever Game, Dirk Nowitzki — battling a sinus infection that had his temperature rising as high as 101 or 102, depending on the report — shook off early game struggles and once again took over the fourth quarter. He scored 10 points, including the game-winner with 14 seconds left. Tyson Chandler also came through with 16 rebounds. I did my part by staying ambulatory. The series is tied 2-2.
Carrollton Neighborhood Taken Over By Egrets. First, I owe myself $10 because I made a bet a few days ago I would never write that sentence. Second, “The city also told residents, next year they can try to prevent the birds from nesting by putting fake owls and fake snakes in their trees.” Just read it.
American Eagle Employee Investigated For Pocketing Fake Fees. Sort of a genius scam because it would certainly be hard to pick out fake overcharging from legitimate overcharging. If I went to airport and put on a blue blazer, I’m pretty sure I could get a few people to pony up a $14 ground to air conversion fee. In unrelated news, I will be out of the office today. And I need to borrow a blue blazer.
Also, I See You Big German. Yep.
Let’s Go, Mavs!
Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs! Let’s go, Mavs!
If It’s Tuesday, It Must Be Time for an Outburst at Commissioner’s Court
Some day, I think, voters will suddenly get very tired of theatrics in their county commissioners, and will instead want to vote for people who want to conduct business without, I dunno, calling people bobos.
And yet, today’s Dallas County Commissioner’s Court outburst is brought to you by Maurine Dickey, who was upset about a county redistricting plan. And listen, maybe it was a bunch of hooey and she was right not to like it. But bobos? And this:
“If you would like to drag me out, please do,” she said. “Do you want to haul me out? I’m ready to go to jail.”
So yes, sigh. For one thing, what does that even mean? Is she referring to an ethnic group from Burkina Faso? A boogyman from Egypt? A Chinese boy band? Or, uh, any of these meanings? And secondly, seriously? There wasn’t a more professional way to register her displeasure? Or for that matter, for any of them to voice their displeasure?
Things To Do in Dallas Tonight: June 7
Today shall hereby be known as the day that the Mavs game rendered me almost useless to you and the day I deleted all my Facebook friends. Honestly, if that stupid Breaking Dawn trailer shows up in my newsfeed one more time, I am not going to be responsible for what happens next. I really didn’t want to be party to the first twinkle of a cannibalizing vampire fetus in Robert Pattinson’s bloodshot eye, but thanks for not asking, every girl I went to high school with.
Once again, I refer you back to Raya’s excellent list of places you can view our imminent win. To that, I’ll add that the lounge at Eddie V’s is serving $5 Maverick Margaritas (they’re blue, what more do you want) and if we’re lucky, Neighborhood Services Tavern will recreate last week’s “Mavs-wich.” Ideally, this would be fresh-baked Zac and Tim (whole grain, in deference to Tim’s healthy habits) enfolding a certain sweaty German. But chicken fried ribeye on Texas toast will have to do.
And since the happiness of sports fans is really my only goal around here, I’ve dug up this miraculous event that won’t make anyone miss the game. The Flying Saucer on the Lake is competing in Stone Brewing Company’s “bitter bar” contest, so you can help them out by going and drinking an IPA or four while watching the boys do their thing on the Saucer’s TVs. The bar that serves the most IPAs in a single evening wins the competition, so they’re offering a delightful selection of Stone brews on tap (the Ruination IPA, the Double Arrogant Bastard, and the Cali-Belgique IPA, to name just a few) and the opportunity to take some home with you. It was suggested to me only last night that I’m just a tad bitter in general thanks to my well-known propensity for silly grudge holding, and it just so happens that the IPA is my beer of choice. Must be fate.
Oh, and Nancy has the scoop on a Texas wine Tweetup/tasting. I never advise drinking and Tweeting, but I’m assuming that’s inevitable tonight anyway. If you really, really need more ideas for what to do with your evening, you can always go here.
Leading Off (6/7/11)
Trailer Stolen From Scouts. Sometimes I wonder what it’s like to be a thief. I wonder if, after you steal something and you read about the next day, and discover that it was a sick kid’s bike, or, say, a Scout Troops’ trailer, you feel bad. I think I would. Regardless, Troop 1999 now has to replace a trailer (for a second time). Surely, we can all help them out, right?
Multiple Fort Worth Schools Expected Unacceptable. Last year, three schools were rated unacceptable in Fort Worth. This year, that number will be 22. But the numbers aren’t really telling the truth as last year, a TPM provision made it possible for more schools to be acceptable. The provision was pulled this year due to lawmakers complaining that instead of test scores, it gave schools credit for expected gains. I like Fort Worth Superintendent Melody Johnson’s response, “It is very demoralizing for these schools. But the bottom line is we make no excuses. We own our results, and we always have. And we have always looked at progress not based on the TPM but on the test results.”
Go, Mavs! The game’s tonight at 8. And while out-of-town sportswriters complained about the freezing weather during the Super Bowl, they’re now complaining about the high temperatures during the Finals. I don’t think J. Michael Folgoust and I would be friends. It looks like he’s not a fan of Dallas.
Alan King Named DISD Interim Superintendent
Word comes down that the Dallas ISD school board just named district chief financial officer Alan King as interim superintendent (so that means no Nolan Estes). King was named CFO last December, and prior to that oversaw the finances of Lewisville ISD for 13 years.
Mayoral Debate Sways One Voter, At Least
Attorney William T. Burke, who works downtown at Republic Center, was undecided about which candidate to support in Dallas’ mayoral race when he showed up at 11:45 this morning for the Belo Mansion debate between runoff hopefuls David Kunkle and Mike Rawlings. “We have two good candidates,” he said, digging into his selection from the lunch buffet, waiting with about 60 others for the bar-association event to start.
Burke, who’s with the Wright Ginsberg Brusilow law firm, filled out an index card for the audience-Q&A portion of the debate that said something like, “Downtown is dying. What can be done to bring it back?” Then he listened to Kunkle, the former police chief, and Rawlings, the ex-Pizza Hut CEO president, duke it out for awhile, answering his as well as other questions posed by Dallas South News editor Shawn Williams, who moderated the event. And, by the time the thing was over, Burke had decided which candidate he would vote for to be Dallas’ next mayor.
Nolan Estes Returns! Hold On to Your Wallets!
Oh, joy. Among the candidates for interim DISD superintendent is none other than Nolan Estes. For eight halycon years in the late 70’s, Estes increased the DISD budget by ten times while enrollment fell by more than 10,000 students. That was great salesmanship, and Nolan Estes is nothing if not a great salesman. But it was his novel sense of personal entitlement that charmed me. There was the 75-horsepower outboard motor he borrowed from the district: it turned out he had “borrowed” it for eight years. There was the auction of valuable antique schoolhouse furniture: except the auction was never publicly announced, and the only bidder was Nolan Estes. And then there were the land buys next to sites where DISD was about to buy or expand. Former political reporter Phillip Seib published the details of those in the September, 1981, issue of D Magazine. An excerpt:
It isn’t easy to determine how much money Estes made or will make on these deals, since the deeds for many of the properties merely indicate “all cash.” One holding for which complete financial records are available shows that Estes knows how to turn a profit; a property he purchased in November 1978 for $4250 was sold in September 1979 for $18,000. The property is three blocks from J.H. Reagan School -a school that in the summer of 1979 received an allocation of $2.2 million, using almost half of the remaining funds from the 1976 bond money to renovate several schools.
Then there was the Foundation for Educational Quality, a scam Estes founded with the late James Bond. It was supposed to build a private-public complex called the Eastern Gateway. It ended up costing the district hundreds of thousands, but Estes somehow managed to use it to get a personal contract with EDS for software development. And, of course, we can’t forget the consultant scam. Estes would hire as a “consultant” a superintendent from another big-city school district. Soon enough, that district would find a pressing need to hire Estes as a consultant. But no worries: he assured us his “consulting” was done on private time.
Now its board is seriously thinking of inviting this fox back into the hen house? Fabulous! The good times, they are coming back!
Things To Do in Dallas Tonight: June 6
The strangest way to start a Monday morning: wake up with the Rednex’s “Cotton-Eyed Joe” stuck in your head. I’m having flashbacks to 4th grade gym class. It’s as traumatic as it sounds.
Fortunately, there’s nothing country-western about tonight’s show. Beirut is taking over South Side Music Hall, accompanied by Twin Sister, an electro-pop group out of Long Island. I have a weird nostalgic affinity for Beirut, mostly because I had their song “Postcards from Italy” on repeat for a good six months, but also because a couple summers ago I got to know the girlfriend of one of the musicians. It’s the combo of Balkan folk music and pop that really does it for me. If you’re headed to Bonnaroo, consider this a preview. They’ll be there, too.
I called around this morning, and sadly, both booze-y events tonight— Whiskey Cake’s dinner and The Common Table’s beer/wine showdown— have sold out. But don’t despair: it’s First Monday over at Screen Door, which means free tasting plates. They’re actually pretty substantial, and after two, my entree went largely untouched. You could definitely get in and out of there for just the price of drinks. Plus, I need something more comforting after this morning’s weirdness, so an IPA and Shelley Carroll at the Amsterdam should do the trick. His set in our office a few months ago was pretty darn amazing.
Do you have beautiful friends? Sure you do. Enter them in our 10 Most Beautiful contest. And for more things to do this evening, go here.
Now Accepting Nominations for the 10 Most Beautiful Women in Dallas 2011
Bina Palnitkar Patel, a winner from 2010 (photography by Bode Helm)
The nomination process has begun to find the loveliest ladies for 2011’s 10 Most Beautiful Women in Dallas competition. Here’s how it works:
You send us all the beautiful people in your life by filling out nomination forms (one per nominee). On July 1, we’ll stop accepting nominations and narrow the list down to 20 lovely ladies who will be featured online. Voting ensues. A batch of five women will be available each week for your click of approval. The twelve with the most votes will make it to the final round for one last week of voting. The top 10 women will be featured in a gorgeous spread in the December issue of D Magazine. (Check out last year’s feature.) So, go ahead. Nominate your hot mom, beautiful sister, goddess girlfriend, etc. We’ll be waiting for them.
Leading Off (6/6/11)
Mavs Drop Game 3: There is plenty to slice and dice in how the Mavs ended up with a two-point deficient Dirk couldn’t miraculously (again) pull them out of. But I just want it to be clear that if (and it is still an if) the Heat pull this one out that history remembers that LeBron James was a very good basketball player who couldn’t win a title so he went to Miami to have Dwayne Wade win one for him.
Hinojosa Signs $237K Deal with Atlanta district: It’s official, Dallas ISD superintendent Michael Hinojosa has signed a deal to join the Cobb County school district, earning a base salary of $237,000 with upwards of $28,000 in annual perks. That’s actually a pay cut from his Dallas gig. Over behind the DMN’s pay wall, we learn that the district may name an interim superintendent tonight.
Ben Fountain Tips Hat to Kessler Theater in NY Times: The TV show Dallas (the next generation) should start shooting soon, and writing in the New York Times, Dallas attorney turned author Ben Fountain says that it will like put this city’s clichés on display again:
Big deals, big egos, big hair, big bosoms, big and bigger to the nth degree. For locals, that’s what made the show such wicked fun, cringing and snorting as the city’s most cherished clichés got abused in ever more hamfisted ways.
But for a real slice of Dallas life, Fountain says, check out Oak Cliff’s Kessler Theater, a small, community-conscious development project that has brought life to the city in a way, Fountain continues, the big-dollar Trinity River Project still only promises to do. And speaking of the Kessler, don’t forget to stop by the theater June 16 for FrontRow’s latest film series.
Local Photographer Shoots Jewel’s Baby Shower
For those of you who voted in the Big D Reader’s Choice Poll – specifically, the Services round, you may recognize Sugar Photography as one of the finalists. Sugar’s proprietor, Jennifer Weintraub, recently took a top-secret, hush-hush trip to the home of singer Jewel and husband Ty Murray in Stephenville, to shoot Jewel’s baby shower. And this isn’t the first celeb gig for Weintraub – she’s made at least one trip to LA, where her work was featured on People.com, Roger Staubach and family, and has also shot at least one NBA star and his family.
You can see the pics (and if you scroll down far enough, Weintraub’s photo credit) here. The winners of the Reader’s Choice polls will be revealed in the August issue.
Dallas Zoo’s German Speaking Elephant Cheers On The Mavs
This is not that elephant. This is a picture of a 150 million year old dinosaur wearing a Mavs hat. But if that wasn’t enough, the living, breathing animals of the Dallas Zoo want in on this Finals action, too. The zoo is throwing a pep rally that starts really bright and early (er, 9:30 am) with my favorite part of this whole thing: lions attacking meat-filled melons painted up to look like the Miami Heat. Bloodthirsty. I like it. Stumpy, the zoo’s big German-speaking elephant, will be live-Tweeting the proceedings.
Anyway, if you show up in Mavericks gear, you get $3 off zoo admission and 10 percent off food and drink. The deal, which started yesterday, lasts until we win the big honkin’ trophy.
Dallas Mavericks Return Triumphantly to Love Field. And Then Sneak Past Waiting Fans.
D Magazine intern James Bright went out to Love Field to see the crowd greeting the Dallas Mavericks when they arrived home from a Game 2 victory this afternoon. Below is his story. (Even if you don’t like to read, there’s a bonus video after the jump.)
Fans chanting “beat the Heat” and “it’s our time” were hoping to greet the Mavericks as they arrived from Miami this afternoon at Love Field, but a misunderstanding left the Dallas faithful with only each other to talk to.
Temperatures rose into the mid-90s, and more than 150 people braved the heat and circled a driveway leading to the tarmac as several jets landed and took off from the Mavs’ expected arrival area, but Jason Terry was not among them.
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