Articles for September 8th, 2011
Two Thursday Things Mostly About Last Night’s Debates
As Zac mentioned in Leading Off, a debate was had for all twelvety hundred Republican presidential candidates. I watched it, and man, they really don’t like Obama. You know who was the second person to get the most verbal slapping? Rick Perry.
The Dallas Morning News‘ Trailblazers blog offers up this picture. Yes, it looks like Perry and Ron Paul were getting in to it. But better than that, Bruce Tomaso gave us a new phrase when he said, “So maybe the governor was hissed?” I am now totally going to use this. Last week, I got hissed at the post office for not holding my mail for the third time. Tuesday I got hissed at the traffic and this guy in an SUV that tried to hit my car. See how that works? What gets you all hissed?
And then, on a semi-related note to the debates, is this. Have a happy 45-minutes-left-on-your-workday, friends.
On the F-Word
Earlier this week, I fielded a call from an upset subscriber named Susan. She had read our John Tesar story (the entirety of which is now online), and she was appalled by the number of f-bombs in the story. Not only where there three of them in the lead, but there was also a p-bomb (which was modified by one of the f-bombs).
Now, it’s our policy to print the f-word (and other such vulgarities) sparingly, usually only if it is in a direct quote and then only if no fewer than three offensive letters are dashed out. Like this: f – - – . Or: s – - – . (You’ll notice that WordPress doesn’t know how to handle the dashes.) There have been exceptions, and, interestingly, all those exceptions, without exception, appear to have been made in 1996. That year, in January, Eric Celeste wrote a story about gang culture that included the following line: “Members of the FSU (Fuck Shit Up) gang, for example, took to wearing Florida State University (FSU) attire.” Glenna Whitley must have thought it looked fun because the very next month, she wrote a story that contained this line: “When the officers ask the man for the car’s license plate number and other information to make a report of the robbery, he gets nasty, telling the cops to ‘get fucked.’” In September, Skip Bayless came along and wrote: “Even after the Cowboys had improved to 10-2, matching Kansas City for the NFL’s best record, Aikman stunned me by losing bis temper and his usual cool, charging that my sources were ‘a fucking joke.’” Our search engine is good but not perfect. Perhaps we’ve printed the un-dashed f-word elsewhere. That’s all I could find.
Our Dallas Summer Heat Was Worse Than The Dust Bowl
We’re No. 1!
Texas just finished the hottest June through August on record in the U.S., the National Weather Service said Thursday.
Weather service meteorologist Victor Murphy told The Associated Press that Texas’ 86.8 average beat out Oklahoma’s 85.2 degrees in 1934.
That Dust Bowl year is now third on the list for the three-month span, behind No. 2 Oklahoma’s heat wave this June through August (86.5 degrees).
Yeah, so, remember The Grapes of Wrath? Worse than what caused that.
Things To Do In Dallas Tonight: Sep. 8
The Fashion’s Night Out megashopalypse is upon us. Pretty much every shopping center around town is participating, so you can’t really miss it. Unless you’re at home, composing a funeral dirge for Conde Elevator and watching The Devil Wears Prada.
Anyway, we’re all over this Miranda Priestly-approved evening. Raya Ramsey over on ShopTalk has thoughtfully compiled your best bets, which include NorthPark Center, Forty Five Ten (especially good for those who can’t resist a pop up shop), and Stanley Korshak. StyleSheet weighed in yesterday with a detailed itinerary. And obviously, there’s no good reason not to stop by Jimmy Choo in Highland Park Village, where Raya and our StyleSheet photographers, Kristi and Scot Redman, will be hanging out for a good portion of the evening. We’ll have Trailercakes cupcakes and wine, and it all kicks off around 6 PM. Should you need a Most Eligible Dallas fix, Drew Ginsburg and Tara Harper (one of our 10 Most Beautiful finalists) share host duties at Tootsies.
If you’re more worried about leaving the bars lonely than snapping up a limited edition Chanel nail polish, The Library Bar has your ticket. And 1310 The Ticket. The folks from the Hardline will be broadcasting live starting at 3 PM, and giving away stuff like VIP tickets to the upcoming Cowboys vs. Redskins game. The drink and food specials last all night, so don’t feel like you need to leave work early or anything.
For more to do this evening, go here.
10 Most Beautiful: Who Will Make it to the Finals?
It’s the last round of voting before the finals. This week we have Charlene, brunch and bacon lover; Candice, big heart, big eater; big Texas-haired Tiffany, exotic model Carol, and Christina, Season 1 American Idol finalist. Go vote. You will determine who makes it to the final round, which begins Sunday at midnight.
Is Your Doctor on the Dole?
An alert FrontBurnervian sends along a link to a new ProPublica database filled with data about doctors and pharmaceutical companies. Says ProPublica:
Drug companies have long kept secret details of the payments they make to doctors and other health professionals for promoting their drugs. But 12 companies have begun publicizing the information, some because of legal settlements. ProPublica pulled their disclosures into a database so patients can search for their doctor. Accepting payments isn’t necessarily wrong, but it can raise ethical issues.
You can search your doc’s name. Or you can just search for everyone in Dallas and then order the results by amount of payment, which is what I did. Have a look for yourself. Congrats to Dr. James Dale Griffin, the top individual on the Dallas list. Last year Dr. Griffin took $122,000 in cash from Pfizer for speaking. Quite a haul.
Update (11:31 a.m.): As several people have pointed out in the comments, I missed some money. Dr. Griffin took some meals and travel from Pfizer, too. Tack on another $26,452 for a total of $148,452 in 2010. Nice!
Do Not Click the Following Link to Kissing Suzy Kolber
If you’re not familiar with Big Daddy Drew’s work on the blog Kissing Suzy Kolber, then chances are your heart is cleaner than mine. Big Daddy Drew is filthy and full of profanity and other stuff that isn’t appropriate for polite company. Certainly not appropriate for this blog. What he likes to do is write plays featuring NFL personalities, especially Rex Ryan. Because Rex Ryan has a filthy mouth so it’s fun to imagine stuff he says. Plus he (Ryan) has a foot fetish. That’s fun, too. Okay, anyway — man, I really shouldn’t do this — today’s installment from Big Daddy Drew is all about the Cowboys-Jets matchup and how Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan is going to use his football powers (and filthy mouth and other body parts) to outsmart his brother Rex. The play features Jason Garrett and Jerry Jones, too. But like I said, it’s filthy-dirty.
Zac dared me to post a link to it. I don’t turn down a dare. But in the name of all that is right and holy, do not click that link! Especially if you’re at work!
In other news, it’s been nice working here. I’ll miss you guys.
Ticket Giveaway: Plano Balloon Festival
Hot air balloons are pretty to look at, but I have about zero intention of hopping in some wicker basket that’s just ready to strand me in Oz. I’m also deathly afraid of heights. Which is why the Plano Balloon Festival is great– there are plenty of opportunities to see the balloons go up, and no pressure to go for a ride what with all the fun stuff going on on the ground.
Interested in attending, perhaps with kiddos in tow? We have tickets to give away. The first five (5) people to enter will each win four (4) tickets. Click here. Pronto.
Once you’re hanging out at the festival, feel free to stop by the D Family booth, grab a complimentary copy of our special family-oriented issue, and register to win an excellent holiday “staycation” at the Gaylord Texan. The potential for free awesome stuff abounds.
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