Articles for January 30th, 2012
Texas Rangers Manager Ron Washington Gets Two-Year Contract Extension
Seems about right. Â Take your team to the World Series two years in a row, even if your managerial decisions may have allowed for a heartbreaking Game 6 collapse, and you’ve earned two more years on the job. He should be in the dugout in Arlington through 2014 at least.
Congratulations, Wash.
We’re looking forward to more of this:
(Via Baseball Nation)
Ralph Isenberg Threatens To Sodomize Observer Writer
Last week, I asked one of our interns to count how many times in the past year that the Observer has put a story on its cover that has nothing to do with Dallas. Over the weekend, Observer editor Joe Tone tweeted at me: “This, @TimmyTyper, is how interns should be spending their time.” He included a link to this post on Unfair Park about Ralph Isenberg, a man who runs a legal clinic that helps deportees. I’ll just give you the one-sentence lead that Greg Howard wrote for his Friday blog post:
​So Ralph Isenberg threatened to fuck me in my ass the other day.
Yeah. It’s quite something — because of how Isenberg behaved and because of how Howard told the tale about how he behaved. If you haven’t read it yet, you ought to.
Dallas County Should Run the Texas DMV
So last week I dropped by the Record Building downtown to pick up new license plates. “Dropped by” is accurate: the entire transaction took about four minutes. Contrast that with the Department of Motor Vehicles, where a four-hour wait is the norm*.
Maybe John Ames, the county tax assessor, should be hired to reform how the DMV does business. Or Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels. The average wait in Indiana’s DMV is 6.5 minutes.
* I would love it if someone from the DMV would like to challenge that estimate. But they won’t. And the reason they won’t is that they don’t know if it’s true or not, because unlike Indiana, they don’t time their performance. They don’t time their performance because that would measure their performance. Of course, measurement is the first step to improvement. But don’t tell Texas that.
USA Today Says Baylor Health Care Has Gone ‘Down a Dangerous Road’ With Tobacco Ban
Baylor Health CEO Joel Allison
USA Today opines that when a company refuses to hire anyone who smokes tobacco it “crosses a troubling line.” The newspaper singles out Dallas’ own Baylor Health Care System, which formalized its anti-smoking policy as of January 1, in an editorial:
Treating smoking, in essence, like illegal drug use takes Baylor and an increasing number of other employers down a dangerous road, one that extends far too deeply into the private lives of prospective workers.
Joel Allison, the CEO of Baylor, discussed the ban with me during our recent breakfast at the Original Pancake House on Lemmon Avenue. The policy is not limited merely to smokers but includes use of any nicotine products:
“Is that legal?” I ask him, only half-serious.
“We would not do anything that would be considered illegal,” he says, completely serious. “We’re in the healthcare business, so we want people to practice good health.”
Allison also believes it’s important for Baylor to do what it can to keep its own costs down. Before this all-out ban, the company had already placed a surcharge on smokers who participated in its health insurance plan. “Five percent of the population uses up about 50 percent of the health care cost,” he says.
To which USA Today declares a SLIPPERY SLOPE ALERT:
Is Ed Young Really “Sexually Stunted”?
Over the last few weeks, pastor Ed Young and his wife Lisa, of Fellowship Church in Grapevine, have received a lot of international attention for their book, Sexperiment: Seven Days to Lasting Intimacy with Your Spouse, and their 24-hour bed-in on the church roof–promotion for said book. Most of the coverage has been relatively positive, because who doesn’t want to see a Southern Baptist preacher encouraging more sex? Well, the writer of this Salon book review, that’s who. The reviewer, Tracy Clark-Flory, is a self-described “arrogant, unrepentant atheist and fornicator” and she has major problems with both the content of the Youngs’ book (and another Christian “sex advice” book released this month) and with the way the media has covered them.
Says Clark-Flory: “Having actually read these books, I can tell you they are not the wild sex manuals the media frenzy suggests – in fact, they are treatises against homosexuality, pornography and premarital sex. None of this is exactly surprising, but amid the sexy buzz surrounding these books, it’s important to underscore just how sexually stunted they are.”
That’s just the beginning. She goes on to rip several Sexperiment metaphors as well as the anti-porn message. But she concludes the books “also answer questions that most Christians are too afraid to ask their pastors about whether particular sex acts are God-approved and, according to them, masturbation, anal sex, oral sex, menstrual sex and sex toys are A-OK (again, within the context of straight, married sex).” She sees that as “a slam against the Santorums of the world.”
Things To Do In Dallas Tonight: Jan. 30
Hard to believe that we’re already staring straight into the twilight of January. So long, and farewell.
It is a very Monday Monday. Luckily, Amphibian Stage Productions rescues us from the doldrums with a staged reading at the Modern in Fort Worth, the first of their new season. Lee Blessing is a rather prolific American playwright, but I can’t say I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing his work performed. Amphibian has chosen Two Rooms, Blessing’s drama about an American university professor kidnapped and held hostage in Beirut. Blessing takes us back and forth between Michael Wells, the hostage, and his wife at home in America, who must contend with a State Department official intent on keeping her quiet as well as a newspaper reporter who gets a little too close to her tragedy. It’s not difficult to guess why I’m interested. Many of my favorite places in Fort Worth are closed on Monday evenings, but Blue Mesa is always a solid standby for delicious guacamole.
Otherwise, if you have a soft spot for A Tale of Two Cities and some free time around lunch, head for SMU’s DeGolyer Library. In honor of Charles Dickens’ 200th birthday, they’re displaying more than 200 bits of memorabilia, including original editions of all of his major novels (who else loves Bleak House?), plus letters, translations, and old timey advertisements. The literary nerd in me is positively over the moon about this.
For more to do tonight, go here.
Sh*t Dallas People Say
It’s way, way too long.
Best line comes early. “Can you get me a Coke?” Â ”What kind?” Â ”Dr Pepper.”
But that’s not even really a Dallas-specific thing, is it?
(H/T: Pegasus News)
What It’s Like To Be an Intern at D
Michelle Saunders is one of our new interns. Her first day was Thursday. She seemed to do well. We’re working on getting our March issue out the door, so I didn’t have time to ask a lot of questions. But then on Friday, I had to tell her to leave (I feel guilty when interns work later than I do). She said she had just a couple more things to finish and she was only going to stay until 6 or so. I begged her not to, and then I left. I still haven’t asked her how late she stayed. I’m afraid of the answer.
However, she sent me a note this morning from her first day. It amused me, and I thought it might amuse you as well.
Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Michelle Saunders and I am one of the new spring 2012 interns here at D. Just how new, you ask? Keep reading and you’ll understand.Yesterday was my first day and it started off without a hitch, er with relative hitches, well…define hitch (oh wait, that’s my job!). I left my house in plenty of time and despite typical Dallas traffic, made it to the parking garage a couple of blocks from the office in just enough time to walk there. Although I’m growing increasingly nervous, I set off with a jaunty step, ready to edit, highlight, slash, and verify.
I call my mom to let her know I’m about to start and I talk to her as I walk…until I trip and eat pavement just one short block from the office. Did I mention I’m on Ross Avenue? In the heart of Downtown? During morning rush hour? Yes, Dallas, that was me, Michelle, who accidentally flashed you as I scrambled to retrieve the contents of my bag, my laptop, phone, and dignity (in that order). Luckily the light changed quickly so I couldn’t see your faces as you sped by me, smirking behind your tinted windows.
Leading Off (1/30/11)
DISD Teacher Calls for “Sick Out” Last week the Dallas ISD school board voted to close 11 campuses and extend teachers’ work day by 45 minutes without additional compensation. Now an anonymous teacher is trying to organize a “sick out” protest for February 29.
Mom Will Give Son Kidney: When Jace Glenn was four weeks old, he had both his kidneys removed. He has been on dialysis ever since, awaiting an age when he would be old enough to undergo a kidney transplant operation. Now three, all he needs is a donor. He found one in his mom.
Police Officer Saves Women From Car Sinking In Lake: Saturday night, Ngac Do and Nhi Tran took a wrong turn on Dalrock Rd. off I-30 and drove their Honda Civic into Lake Ray Hubbard. A police dash cam caught the rescue.
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