Articles for October 30th, 2012
Dallas Morning News Sunday Circulation Way Up
According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the organization that tracks such things, daily circulation at newspapers is down 0.2 percent. Sunday circulation at the nation’s papers is up 0.6 percent. But according to the same organization, Sunday circulation at the Dallas Morning News is up a whopping87 percent. (Despite what you might think of its recent endorsements.) That’s more than twice as much as the next biggest improvement (the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Sundays are up 43 percent).
No doubt, this is largely due to the work of Tom Huang, who is in charge of Sundays there. (He was also my editor, when I worked at the DMN.) The Sunday editions of the paper consistently have some of the best newspaper writing in the country, interesting stories you won’t find anywhere else. (This pay-walled story, from Leslie Minora, was particularly well-done, I thought.)
That said, I’m still a little confused by the numbers here. According to the chart at Poynter, the Sunday circulation is roughly 700,000. But the print circulation (just under 300,000) and the total digital subscriptions (about 65,000), add up to barely half the total number. Where does the other 340,000 come from? Is this a counting thing I don’t understand?
Dallas County Recognizes Domestic Partnerships, Commissioner Maurine Dickey Gets Camera Shy
Today the county commissioners voted to offer a stipend to unmarried and gay employees who provide health benefits to their partners. In order to get these benefits, according to the Morning News account, couples will have to sign an affidavit defining the relationship as a domestic partnership.
The move was approved by a party-line vote, with the ruling Democrats prevailing 3-2 over the Republicans. Commissioner Maurine Dickey is unhappy. She said:
the county was essentially creating a special pool of people for whom to provide separate benefits. She questioned whether commissioners should create special health care programs for obese people, smokers or people who drive blue Pontiacs made before 1978.
“This is not a gender issue,” she said. “In my opinion, this is an economic issue.”
After all this went down, Dickey got strangely self-conscious about a photographer in the room:
Dickey briefly put on her sunglasses when a speaker chastised her and fellow Republican Mike Cantrell for opposing the policy. She later buried her head in her hands and stopped the proceedings to complain about an audience member taking her picture.
Dickey referred to the person as a man, but Democratic Commissioner John Wiley Price repeatedly corrected his colleague and said the picture-taker was a woman.
The woman, C.D. Kirven of Get Equal Texas, said she was taking pictures of a friend who had been addressing the court and apologized to Dickey.
UPDATE: Now with video of Dickey hiding her face, via the Dallas Voice.
Three More Observations About Klyde Warren Park
I want to be clear about this: I think Klyde Warren Park is going to be wonderful. It already is pretty dang cool. Zac, Mike, and I just returned from eating lunch in the park. I ran into four people I know (kinda): a PR professional, our creative director, my priest (though I didn’t say hello to Fr. Joseph because I know he can the smell guilt that comes from spotty church attendance), and a red-bearded young chap who clearly reads FrontBurner (he asked us what we thought of the park and then demanded an update on the blog). That’s one of the most important things the park can do, create interactions that make you feel connected to the place where you live. It is already succeeding. That said:
1. As Zac put it, the park needs to step up its trashcan game. There are simply too few of them. They should be at every entrance/egress point. When we finished eating and turned to head up Harwood and back to the office, we had to walk 70 steps round-trip out of our way to discard our trash. Yes, yes. A small inconvenience. But one easily remedied.
2. The park needs more food trucks. The burger I ate from the Relish truck was delicious. But I had to wait 20 minutes to order it. They were swamped. I get that Relish has an exclusivity arrangement with the park, but a wait like that is a disincentive to go to the park to eat lunch. Relish will do more business if people think of the park as a prime destination to buy food. More food trucks won’t steal business from Relish; they will contribute to it. That, friends, is what we call synergy. Also, the Relish truck can’t do a veggie option because it only has one griddle. Another reason to bring in at least one more truck — at least while we’re waiting for construction of the restaurant to finish.
3. They were working on the fountains near the performance pavilion today. I’m sure everything will be fine. But today there was a serious drainage issue. As in, the water was spilling over the fountain, across a walkway, and into the street. You know why I think everything will be fine? Because Jody Grant was walking around, taking pictures with an iPad.
Out-of-Touch Big Papers Pick Sadler over Cruz
The Austin American-Statesman endorsed Democrat Paul Sadler over the GOP’s Ted Cruz in the U.S. Senate race. That gives Sadler endorsements by four of the state’s five big-city newspapers, including the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Only the Houston Chronicle favored Cruz among the major-metro papers. In a reliably red state that will elect Cruz by a solid margin next Tuesday, this proves one main thing: How out of touch the elite opinion-makers in major metros are with traditional bedrock Texas conservative values. And, they wonder why they’re losing circulation?
Flash Mob Wedding Proposal at the Dallas Arboretum (VIDEO)
Adam Ashenfelter arranged to surprise his girlfriend Aubrie with a proposal at the Dallas Arboretum. I believe this happened back in August, but the above video was just published today.
Dallas Regional Chamber Staff Driven to Madness by Their New Office Digs
The Dallas Regional Chamber has moved its offices to Lincoln Plaza, which is right around the corner from us here at D Magazine HQ. They put together this little promotional video to celebrate.
Things To Do In Dallas Tonight: Oct. 30
There will be blood.
Over the next couple of days, you’ll have at least two opportunities to see that feel good holiday film about a deranged kid and his sharp knife.
The first is tonight, out in the crisp open air, and it’s for a good cause. Young Variety, the young professional fundraising arm of Variety, the Children’s Charity of Texas, hosts a bring your own booze and blankets movie screening at the Shops at Park Lane (close to Bailey’s Prime Plus). Halloween will play on a big screen, and nearby Gordon Biersch will provide food and drink for purchase. It’s ten bucks, and proceeds benefit Amy Perez, a child suffering from congenital hydrocephalus, epilepsy, and Dandy Walker cyst. And obviously, since this movie is spooky scary, it’s probably best to leave the kids at home. For more of a party atmosphere, The People’s Last Stand in Mockingbird Station is throwing a Halloween bash complete with complimentary snacks and a palm reader.
A bit further away in Grapevine, Oh Look Performing Arts is putting on Evil Dead: The Musical, a real gem. Actually, it’s awful, but in a silly, so-bad-it’s-good, still-a-really-enjoyable-memory-years-later way. Strangely enough, it’s also one of the first productions I saw anywhere near the vicinity of Broadway, which is either awesome or embarrassing. I’ll go with the former. Anyway, it’s all the campy gross-out gore of the movies, on a stage–and there’s a splatter zone, so sit yourself accordingly. Other elements include horror genre staples such massively dim college students, a creepy cabin in the woods, and terrible Tony Danza jokes.
For more to do tonight, go here.
Leading Off (10/30/12)
Kids Play With Mercury, Learn About Chemistry the Hard Way. Some kids from DISD’s Urban Park Elementary School were walking along some railroad tracks when they found a bottle of pure mercury. They brought it home and played with it for 11 days, because mercury is awesome. It’s also very dangerous. The spilled some at school, too. Now the EPA is collecting sneakers.
Dog Found With Can Around Neck. Dallas Animal Services is trying to rehabilitate a dog named Olivia that they found with a rusty can around her neck. “I don’t think she just slipped this on. This wasn’t her looking for a meal,” said Melody Hamilton, with the rescue group Animal Allies of Texas. “I think someone put it on, and I can’t imagine why, except to be sadistic and cruel.” With all due respect to Melody Hamilton, that’s a wild-ass guess.
Handsome Guy Bandit Gets 35 Years. How about Baldy Bandit? Again, all due respect to the Bandit Naming Department, but that moniker is a miss.
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