Articles for March 16th, 2012
Where Oh Where to Watch Mark Cuban’s Greenville Avenue St. Patrick’s Day Parade
St. Patrick's Day parade thirst busters are stocking up
With beer trucks and port-a-cans hustling up and down Greenville Avenue, it looks like they’re in countdown mode for the Greenville Avenue St. Patrick’s Day Parade. People Newspaper‘s Brad Pearson has tips on attending the parade, but he doesn’t say where the best viewing spot is. Ozona’s? Lovers Lane corner? PetSmart?
Tight Races in Best of Big D: Food and Drink Poll
Can’t believe how close some of the votes are in our Best of Big D Readers’ Choice: Food and Drink poll. Especially the competition for best coffeehouse. That one looks like it’s going to come down to a difference of just a few votes.
If you want to ensure that your favorites win, remember to return once a day (including the weekends) to cast your ballot. We’re not shutting it down until March 25. Â And even if you’re not near your desktop or laptop computer, just pull out your smartphone or tablet device and you can vote just as easily.
D Magazine World Headquarters Swarmed by Bees
As if they’d heard me bad-mouthing their brethren, the bed bugs, they were waiting for me on my usual afternoon trip to 7-11. Right there at the entrance to our building’s parking garage.
(I know that photo just looks like a bunch of moss growing on the wall, but those are thousands of bees.)
Dallas-Fort Worth No. 7 (With a Bullet) on
National Bed Bug Infestation List?
The Dallas Business Journal refers to a press release from the pest control company Orkin in noting that Dallas-Fort Worth rose to No. 7 among American cities suffering from infestations of bed bugs in 2011 (up significantly from No. 50 in 2010).
The top 10 are:
- Cincinnati
- Chicago
- Detroit
- Denver
- Los Angeles
- Columbus, Ohio
- Dallas/Fort Worth
- Washington, DC
- New York
- Richmond/Petersburg, Va.
The list is based on the number of bed bug treatments performed by Orkin. Â So places where Orkin has tough competition in the pest control business are under-represented on the list? Or Orkin made the whole thing up, and the list just represents markets they most want to get a piece of?
I mean, I don’t know anybody who’s had bed bugs in Dallas. And if I can’t see it with my own eyes, why should I believe it?
Things To Do In Dallas This Weekend: Mar. 16-18
I already wrote a bunch of words, so I’ll spare you some sort of clever story and just get right to your weekend.
Friday
Music, music, music everywhere. The Prophet Bar hosts their second South By So What kick off party, thumbing their nose at the hoards descending on Austin this weekend. Raekwon of the Wu Tang Clan will be there, which I like for the obvious reasons and also because my soft spot for Staten Islanders is a mile wide. But personally, I’d sneak over to the Prophet Bar’s small room and check out Geographer, the last opening act for headliner Miniature Tigers. “Kites” is by far one of my favorite songs. For some reason, I really enjoy listening to it on my way to the airport. And as one YouTube commenter put it, “wait a sec….. i was in a horrible mood 4 minutes and twenty-two seconds ago…. but now i wanna dance around with a rainbow farts and ice cream monsters now. what just happened?” Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Also tonight, if we’re talking about things that make me happy, the Arts District museums are hosting their special spring break after-hours events. The Nasher has a free movie, but at the Dallas Museum of Art, the activities are inspired by Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. I love this book. When I was in third grade, I did some sort of project on it, and the whole thing got so elaborate that I made myself a Max suit and wore it to class. I believe I also played the song “Wild Thing” and did some sort of interpretive dance. (I will say that my costume design was eerily accurate to the one used in the the Spike Jonze movie so many years later.) Anyway, as a bonus, Laura Numeroff, author of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, will discuss her latest book as part of a kid-friendly Arts and Letters Live.
ESD Reaches Sex Scandal Settlement
Last year a jury awarded about $10 million to the family of a student who had had a sexual relationship with her teacher at Episcopal School of Dallas. Claire St. Amant told the tale of the whole sordid affair, and ESD’s attempts to make the matter go away quietly, in our October issue.
Today the Dallas Morning News reports that the family and the school have reached a settlement in the civil suit. Both sides declined to disclose the amount of the settlement, but reporter Diane Jennings notes that they had earlier agreed that $6 million might be more appropriate.
Grand Prairie Man to Swim Across the Pacific.
What the Hell Have You Ever Done With Your Life?
Ben Lecomte, a native of France who now lives in Grand Prairie, plans to swim across the Pacific beginning in mid-May. Â Yes, the Pacific Ocean. He already swam across the Atlantic in 1998. The Atlantic Ocean. The Star-Telegram reports:
The Pacific swim will start in Tokyo and end in San Francisco. Lecomte, accompanied by a five-person crew aboard a catamaran, plans to swim about eight hours a day, with a break every four hours. Crew members will toss him liquids every half-hour to keep him hydrated; every hour, he’ll receive an energy bar or the like. He’ll rest aboard the boat each night and take cover there when the seas get too rough.
As in 1998, a sonar device will be deployed to ward off sharks, and crew members will also keep watch.
“When I swam the Atlantic, I had a shark follow me for five days,” Lecomte said. “It’s not a question of if, but when.”
Much more about his plans on his website.
Hensarling Wants to Eliminate Your Dollars
Dallas Congressman Jeb Hensarling is sponsor of a bill to replace the one-dollar bill with a coin. The simple switch would save $5.6 billion over 30 years.
Americans for George is a coalition of labor unions (Engravers, Plate Makers), chemical companies, paper companies, and such upstanding American companies as Jeffrey Laundromat, Joe’s Party House, MJ’s Sports Bar, and Texas Aggieland Bookstores. They want to keep the dollar bill, for reasons obvious and obscure.
The Coalition just released a poll of Hensarling’s 5th District that claims 82 percent of his constituents oppose the switch. But it’s hard to trust a poll until you know what question it asked. Â ”If you knew that changing from a dollar bill to a dollar coin could save taxpayers $5.6 billion, would you support it?” versus “If you knew Congress was about to follow the discredited, socialist European model of currency, would you support it?” might produce dissimilar results.
Leading Off (3/16/12)
Dallas Drivers Are Renowned For Their Awfulness. Hey, you know what? Dallas drivers are pretty bad. How bad? They are the second worst drivers in the nation, right behind St. Louis, according to a ranking by Men’s Health. But you know what? I could’ve told you that.
TxDOT Finds $2 Billion in Couch Cushions. The miraculous windfall could mean that expansion projects like Interstate 35W in north Fort Worth and Interstate 35E in Dallas and Denton counties could get the green light. So basically, we’ll all have even more road to drive badly on.
Teacher Determined to Have Awesome Spring Break, by Hook or … well, pretty much just hook (allegedly). Teacher Felix Garcia was nabbed after he allegedly approached an undercover Dallas police officer Wednesday offering cash for sex. He was charged with prostitution, which is a Class B misdemeanor.
AA Terminates Flight Attendant for Videos. So if you’re home on medical leave, and your employer sends out memos, is your first instinct to dress in drag and make a satirical video? Because it was this guy’s. And now American Airlines has fired him, but his union filed a grievance on his behalf, saying people should be able to talk freely.
More Families Moving to Downtown. No longer the domain of the singles and couples, families are moving to downtown Dallas so their children can burn themselves on the playground equipment at the Main Street Gardens.
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