Chelsey Plumlee started on Monday. I thought we’d get to know her a little better with a Q&A. And so:
Markets are way up today (as of this posting), but several FBvians have sent me this story that says Cuban foretold all the wild stock market action we’re seeing back in 2010. I would need to google this to confirm it, but if memory serves, he also predicted that the world will end in 2012. (Last Cuban post for the day. Promise. Unless he uses his insane wealth to quickly build an enormous space heater that is capable of pushing us above the 100-degree mark today so that we still have a shot at breaking the record. Because if he does that, I’m going to post about it.)
Is anybody else watching this? It’s only 96-ish degrees right now, and we’ve got a line of thunderstorms bearing down on us. Listen, I want the wet. But then there’s the record.
Remember the awesome almost-naked bicyclist I saw around Hall and McKinney couple months ago? I dubbed him the winner of my summer sexy cyclist contest even though the summer was clearly just getting started. For the record, I’m still good with my decision. But this morning I saw a guy peddling up that very same hill wearing a Dirk Nowitzki jersey and looking way too much like Drew “So Handsome, So So Stupid” Baird. In the alternate universe where this is a real competition and I’m not allowed to be the judge, he just might triumph.
Tonight seems to mark the beginning of many things, Theatre Three’s 50th anniversary season being one of them. Their first show, opening this evening, is Wild Oats, a Westernized retelling of an 18th century comedy of mistaken identities written by little known Irish playwright John O’Keefe and given the yee-haw overhaul by James McClure. Basic plot: The Thunder clan is reunited following the death of Loftus Thunder, who’s barely six feet under when everyone starts pulling out the six-shooters to squabble over everything under the hot Texas sun. Sounds like ridiculous fun.
On a more serious note, there’s a pretty great event happening at the Dallas Holocaust Museum. As you might know, during the 1980s, thousands of young men and boys fled their war-torn country of Sudan. Some wandered for years, many died. But eventually, a good number settled in the States. Four of North Texas’ own “lost boys” were the inspiration for a locally-funded, recently released graphic novel chronicling the horror they endured. Tonight, the authors will sign books and lead a discussion, and Angelo, one of the survivors, will tell his story in person. Art & Seek has an in-depth piece on how the novel came to be. An RSVP is required if you wany to attend tonight, so get to it.
For more to do this evening, which includes the kick-off documentary in the Texas Theatre’s Doc Weekend film series, go here.
He hasn’t even announced whether he’s running or not, but if Gov. Rick Perry does announce (rumor has it that he’ll make an announcement in the affirmative on Saturday in South Carolina), he’s got some momentum right now. A CNN poll has him two points behind the front runner for the GOP bid – Mitt Romney.
How many high-profile, take-your-breath-away announcements can North Texas stand from Bill Lively?
You remember him–the guy who raised all that AT&T PAC dough, headed up the Super Bowl XLV effort and then, klieg lights ablaze at a big coming-out party, took over the problem-plagued Dallas Symphony Orchestra … for about a minute, before health concerns were said to cause him to quit.
The latest announcement concerning Lively came this morning: he’s headed to the UNT System, where he’ll be Vice Chancellor of Strategic Partnerships under Lee Jackson. Lively took a “well-deserved break in Colorado” this summer, Jackson said. And now he’s, well, tanned, rested, and ready.
Of course, that’s what the folks at the DSO probably thought, too.
First he suggested that we end all software patents. Now he’s got a plan to create jobs. Cubes writes on his blog:
Democrats are right, we should borrow more money. The Dems are wrong that the government knows how to spend the money. The Republicans/Tea Party are right that we have a spending problem. The Republicans/Tea Party are wrong that cutting taxes will result in more jobs.
His solution? An online system that would allow companies to bid on government loans or even equity investments. I don’t know. Might work, might not. I’m more in favor of the tried and true method of reducing unemployment. I say we go to war with Germany.
Fabulous news from the Williams Institute at UCLA’s School of Law. 2010 Census data show that Dallas has the highest percentage of same-sex households of any city in Texas. With 15.01 same-sex couples per 1,000 households, we beat out Galveston (14.66), Austin (14.42), Pflugerville (13.44), and Kyle (13.29).
Parkland Under Fire. A two-week inspection last month prompted the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to send a letter stating that if Parkland doesn’t submit correction plans by August 20 (and then have them implemented four days later), the hospital won’t be part of the program. Medicare accounts for 16 percent of the hospital’s funding while Medicaid accounts for 32 percent. A spokesman said the hospital is taking the results “very seriously.” The hospital was given “immediate jeopardy” status. That just so happens to be the most severe finding a hospital can have. So. Yeah.
Toy Truck Saves Soldiers. Ernie Fessenden bought a Stampede toy truck made by Plano-based Traxxas. He then sent the remote-controlled truck to his brother who’s serving in the Army in Afghanistan. His brother loaned it to some friends who were on a mission to find bombs. The truck tripped a wire, which detonated 500 pounds of explosives and ultimately saved six lives. I have a feeling a lot more remote-controlled trucks are going to make their way to Afghanistan soon.
We’re Set To Break Heat Record. If things go as planned, we’ll break 1980’s record of 42 days over 100 degrees. If we hit 100 today, we’ll be at day 41. Pretty much everyone here at the office is rooting we break the record. I’m not. To me, if we don’t break the record, that means that it’s not as bad as it was 31 years ago. And we’re not all going to die because of the heat, because, well, they survived back then. Tim says that’s a dumb logic. But I’m sticking with it.
I put this footage of Ron Washington being the best on the D Magazine Tumblr — follow us! — but thought footage of Ron Washington being the best might want to hang out here, too. So, here is Ron Washington being the best, reacting to Josh Hamilton’s game-winning hit last night.
Okay, so here’s the real video. Yeah, John Wiley Price gives Brett Shipp a pretty good shove. But where’s the “split his throat” threat? Anyway, it’s fun to watch, but I don’t think it’s a very big deal. The best part is that Price really wanted to tell Shipp that the commissioner’s county office isn’t public property.
A soccer-loving FrontBurnervian passes along a link to this story on an SB Nation blog, about when U.S. men’s national soccer team coach Jurgen Klinsmann visited the West End when he was in town to play for the Germans during the 1994 World Cup:
Germany was in town to face South Korea. After a practice at the Cotton Bowl, Klinsmann and German team buddy asked if David [McNabb of The Dallas Morning News] could drive them to the Sixth Floor Museum nearby. It’s in the building where Lee Harvey Oswald, perched on the 6th floor, shot and killed President Kennedy in 1963.
David was happy to oblige. But here’s the real hoot:
The museum sits in a downtown restaurant area, and they happened to be staging a Hoop-It-Up tournament there at the time. Hoop-It-Up was (maybe still is, I’m not sure) a series of outdoor 3-on-3 basketball tournaments. And these were big events.
David is a tall fellow himself; he played basketball in high school. So there’s David and, as they got into downtown, literally thousands of basketball players, all milling about. As David said, a lot of “size 15 shoes.”
Klinsmann made a quick assessment of his surroundings: “You guys in Texas really are big!” he told David.
A mole at Channel 8 sent us the video of the alleged and so-called quote-unquote assault perpetrated on Brett Shipp by John Wiley Price. We can’t show you the video. It’s protected by copyright. So we created this reenactment of the confrontation, wherein Price “uses his arm and the heel of his hand to physically remove Shipp from his office” while threatening to “split his throat.” Standing in for Brett Shipp is Rangers radio broadcaster Eric Nadel.
We added some new categories to our Best of Big D issue this year, many of them geared towards families with children. One of these new honorees was Critterman, whom we named the Best Children’s Entertainer.
Intern Kelsy McCraw caught up with Critterman, aka Dave Kleven, to see how an ordinary boy from Minnesota came to delight Dallas-area kids with his exotic animals. Between shows for 100-plus children at the Rockwall County Library with his “Texas Tails” program, which features an American alligator named Steve and a ferret named Slinky, he explained why it takes a kid-at-heart to keep the attention of pint-sized audiences. Here’s the video Kelsy made:
Earlier this summer, Corporate Dr Pepper (also known as Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc.) sued Dublin Dr Pepper, saying the smaller, real-sugar-using bottler distributes far beyond the agreed upon boundaries. Now Dublin Dr Pepper has fired back, with a 64 page legal counterclaim that’s really more of a history lesson or a love story gone awry. Included is the story of how Dr Pepper was “discovered” in Waco, a recounting of the long — mostly adoring — relationship between Corporate and Dublin, photos of Dublin bottles, and a clipping from a March 2010 Texas Monthly (”The Bucket List”) in which Deputy Managing Editor Brian D. Sweany writes: “The ice-cold eight-ounce bottle proudly proclaims the signature ingredient, Imperial Pure Cane Sure. No need for the high-fructose corn syrup that has become part of the standard formula for Dr Peppers elsewhere. That simple tweak makes a Dublin—named for the city whose bottling plant has been producing the Texas-born refreshment since 1891—a throwback indeed.”