Articles for August 13th, 2012
Dallas ISD Communications Chief Jennifer Sprague Isn’t ‘For Sure’ About Much at First Board Meeting
You’ve probably heard about the criticism new Dallas ISD superintendent Mike Miles received about some of his hiring choices. Possibly the most criticized was choosing the relatively inexperienced Jennifer Sprague to be the district’s communications chief at a salary of $185,000 a year.
Anyway, missed this Morning News post on Friday afternoon, because we here at D Magazine were all out celebrating International Biodiesel Day, but Tawnell Hobbs has a terrific blow-by-blow of Sprague’s first board meeting. She didn’t do herself any favors with her performance:
Trustee Nancy Bingham, who chairs the board’s personnel committee, announced an agenda item that consisted of a recommendation to accept a donation from the AT&T Performing Arts Center to partner with six DISD schools.
Trustee Bernadette Nutall wanted to know the names of the six benefiting schools. Bingham asked who would provide information on the initiative. Typically, by this point, the administrator over the department would be walking towards the horseshoe.
Miles gestured to someone in the audience, presumably Sprague, who left her seat in the audience and took a seat at the horseshoe, sometimes called “the hot seat,” because it’s where administrators can be grilled by an ever diligent cast of board members.
Sprague took a seat and wondered which donation the board was referring to. After trustees got her on track, she said, “I’m not for sure right now as far as exactly how those donations were disbursed,” and she deferred to a district administrator who happened to not be in the room.
Tux Challenge Day 13: Dressed to Ski
I have anticipated your questions about this installment of the Great Tuxedo Challenge of 2012, and I will answer them in the order that they popped into your sweet little noggin.
– Cypress Springs. Buddy of mine by the name of Mark Laske has a house out there.
РNo. We went skiing around noon, which I thought was a little early to be drinking Patron XO Cafe. To me, Patron XO Cafe is more of an evening drink, perhaps an apr̩s-dinner cocktail thing.
– Yeah, the entire weekend, except for one hour of exercise on Saturday (swimming) and, of course, after 8:45 p.m. And that includes when we rebuilt his boat deck on Saturday.
– No, I brought two tuxes with me. The fine folks from Al’s Formal Wear — the same fine folks who will be only too happy to help you with all your formal wear needs — gave me a “stunt tuxedo” for water skiing, with the understanding that it might not be returned in tip-top condition (or even returned at all). Though the tux looks black in this photograph, it was actually brown. And pin-striped. And surprisingly heavy when it got wet.
Quintuplets Born at UT Southwestern
Three boys and two girls, all delivered in less than five minutes. There were more than 50 UTSW “specialists” on hand, including nurses, doctors, therapists, and, I assume, at least one person responsible for counting the babies. The Jones family, Christian missionaries, has a blog about the quintuplet adventure here. Correction: As pointed out by the fine folks in the comments, that was the wrong religious Texas quintuplet family.
A Chat Session With a MyPlates.com Saleswoman
An alert FrontBurnervian noticed that MyPlates.com sells a license plate for the Texas Stars, which he found curious. So on his lunch break, he got online with a MyPlates.com sales rep to figure out what the what. The full transcript:
info: Please wait for a site operator to respond.
info: You are now chatting with ‘Victoria’
Victoria: Thank you for visiting MyPlates.com. I’ll be happy to assist you with your personalized license plate today online. May I please have your first name?
Roger: Hi Victoria. Did you know it should be Dallas Stars?
Victoria: Can you please clarify your question.
Victoria: We have two Dallas Cowboys plaets.
Roger: http://www.myplates.com/DesignSeries/PLPD205
Victoria: plate*
Roger: Your site has a Texas Stars plate. There is no team called the Texas Stars. It’s the Dallas Stars.
Victoria: Texas Stars is a minor league Hockey Team.
Roger: So they are. Do you have a lot of takers for those?
Victoria: We do have lots of Hockey fans.
Roger: A lot of Texas Stars fans, though?
Victoria: Yes, of course.
Victoria: What message are you interested in today?
Roger: I was interested in Dallas Stars…you don’t have that, though, correct?
(more…)
Garland Company Goes to Mars
An alert FrontBurnervian brings to our attention the fact that a Garland company manufactured part of the Mars Curiosity rover. From the release issued by Micropac: “The Mast Cameras (Mastcam) uses Hall Effect position sensors to provide precise indexing of Mastcam’s filter wheel to align 1 of the 8 filters to the lens assembly.” If you’re Micropac, you gotta be kicking yourself for those seven filters that got away from you. Full release after the jump.
Ghosts of Dallas: White Rock Spillway, 1952
“Finding a cure for the 90-degree heat prevailing in Dallas is no problem to these Woodrow Wilson juniors cavorting about the spillway at White Rock Lake. Frolicking in the water are Anne Heddens, Kathleen Davis, Carolyn Roderick, Avalou Calavan, Beverly Ingram, Carolyn Wadsworth, Carol Hinson, Beverly Allen and Mary Lu Pike.”
Share your own Ghosts of Dallas.
Things To Do In Dallas Tonight: Aug. 13
This is happening.
Almost everything a Monday could possibly have wrought, this Monday has brought. My newly un-hail damaged car has a giant ding on the door (person who did that, you’re on notice), I can’t find my parking garage key card, and there was a good-sized Pegasus in the middle of Flora Street obstructing my path to work. The Pegasus thing is moderately okay.
Meanwhile, Nancy is celebrating the most wonderful time of the year over on SideDish. That’s Restaurant Week, of course, which sorta-kinda started last Friday with all the preview dinners. But as of tonight, everything’s for real. Go forth and make your reservations. Restaurants that have space for two this evening include Al Biernats, Lavendou, The Grape, and, amazingly, Stephan Pyles (it’s for 9 pm, but still). As always, a portion of proceeds benefit the North Texas Food Bank and the Lena Pope Home.
Over in Oak Cliff, the Texas Theatre revives “Show Your Shorts,” which obviously means that men must appear in their boxers. Actually, please don’t. Shades of Fred Willard, and also, you’ll be woefully underdressed to watch 10 short films, all submitted and made by locals. Here’s how this Monday night series works. The Texas Theatre creates a Facebook event. The first 10 folks to post the name of their short film and its run time gets to have their film shown. The audience is then invited to vote for the favorites, and there are prizes for the top three. And since I have yet to check out still-newish bar Ten Bells Tavern, being present in the general vicinity is a pretty good excuse to do so.
Michael J. Mooney Lands in The Week
Mike’s bowling story has also been picked up by The Week — albeit in much shorter form. They cut about 60 percent. Mike’s analysis: “It’s like my story on fast forward.”
Best of Big D Giveaways: Tickets to Granada Theater
Today’s prize in the Best of Big D Giveaway series features tickets to see Bob Schneider or The Walkmen at Granada Theater, the readers’ pick and editors’ choice award winner for Best Live Music Venue.
Leading Off (8/13/12)
Aerial Mosquito Spraying Begins This Week: Nine people have died and nearly 200 people have contracted West Nile Virus this year, and so to combat the spread of the mosquito-transmitted disease, Dallas will begin dropping pesticides from the sky, the first time the county has conducted aerial spraying since 1966. But the seriously-bearded  Dr. Gene Helmick-Richardson says the spraying will only create a “super bug.”
North Texas A Center For Human Trafficking: This story (pay wall) contains harrowing details about the night in which a 20-year-old Arlington woman was abducted and forced into prostitution in late July, but perhaps more disturbing are the statistics from the National Human Trafficking Resource Center that indicate that the problem of human trafficking and forced prostitution is getting worse in North Texas.
Domingo Garcia Putting Roots Down In Fort Worth: The lawyer and politician lost to Fort Worth resident Marc Veasey in the Democratic primary for the Texas 33rd Congressional District, but the Star-Telegram reports that Garcia will be opening an office in Fort Worth and helping to register Hispanic voters, prompting speculation that he will throw his hat back in the ring 2014.
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