Articles for November 20th, 2012
An Addison Man Is Planning an ‘End of the World’ Party for December 21, and I Think We Should Go
Source: St. Albert, via Flickr
There are a lot of nuggets in this Reddit thread, but let’s start with his lede:
Date: 12/21/12 That is right boys and girls the last date for humans. After this, everything you know will cease to exist. Its kind of far away but there is a lot of planning to do.
When do you think the world is going to fall apart Friday morning or Friday night? It would work better for us if it fell apart Friday night?
My thought: why not throw a week-long jam? Why stick to one night of hedonism? If the world’s gonna end anyway, why do work/obligations/Christmas shopping matter?
We need to make this a bad ass party. Not every day do you get to celebrate the end of the world. The last end of the world party we had was pretty bad ass but this needs to be better. I have a feeling this end of the world really is the correct end of the world. Think about it.
Agreed. The more bad-ass the better. I’m still with you.
Ross Perot Jr: New Museum of Nature and Science Could Triple or Quadruple in Size
Ross Perot Jr.
The new Perot Museum of Nature and Science hasn’t opened yet–it’s scheduled to do so, debt-free and ahead of schedule on Dec. 1–but Ross Perot Jr. is already eyeing an expansion. The facility needs to grow to compete long-term, the Hillwood chairman told D CEO’s Glenn Hunter at a “Night at the Museum 2012″ fundraiser Saturday.
Available land surrounding the museum could allow it to easily triple or quadruple in size, said Perot, who also shared his thoughts on the next wave of Dallas office development. Read Hunter’s report over at RealPoints.
JFK Anniversary Event to Feature David McCullough, Naval Academy Glee Club, More Stuff That Appeals to Old People
Source: my pitiful camera phone
To his credit, Mayor Mike Rawlings was upfront about it.
“We erred on the more senior side…those who were alive 50 years ago,” he said this afternoon, while naming the members of the leadership committee for “The 50th: Honoring the Memory of President John F. Kennedy.” The same could be said for the event itself.
In front of the committee, dignitaries, and media, Rawlings and committee chair Ruth Altshuler laid out the plan for the Nov. 22, 2013 event. Presidential biographer David McCullough would speak, the U.S. Naval Academy Glee Club would sing, and church bells city-wide would toll; a moment of silence is also planned, one Rawlings hopes mayors nationwide will ask their residents to partake in.
Rawlings called the event “serious” and “understated,” which, I admit, are important. But does it have to be so… boring? Dallas ISD schools will participate by teaching JFK-centric curriculum that day, though, by Rawlings’ own words, that means students won’t be on hand to experience the event. They’ll be in a classroom five, 10, 20 miles away. Away from the history they’re being taught.
Report: American Airlines to Cease Passenger Service to Focus on American Way Magazine
Yes, the report comes from The Onion:
“Our first love is and always has been our travel and lifestyle magazine–in fact, distributing American Way is the reason we first got into air travel back in 1930,” said former American Airlines CEO and current American Way editor-in-chief Thomas Horton. “Sadly, the publishing industry is changing, and we can no longer afford to use the seat-back pockets of a major international airline to maintain our print circulation. It’s simply not a cost effective way to run our magazine.”
Nasher’s Jeremy Strick Issues Call to Action Letter
A short while ago, Jeremy Strick, the director of the Nasher Sculpture Center, sent an email to the museum’s membership calling them to action.
Dear Friends,
Yesterday, 11 prominent Dallas civic leaders lent their voices to an Op Ed published in The Dallas Morning News. (Read full letter here) These leaders expressed pressing concern about the damage Museum Tower continues to inflict upon the Nasher Sculpture Center, the Dallas Arts District and the reputation of the city itself. They called upon the leadership of Museum Tower to fix their building by adopting the louver solution without further delay. This practical 100% solution would eliminate dangerous reflected light at its source, protecting the Nasher’s interior and exterior galleries.
Over the past 14 months, as this issue became known and stories about the damage Museum Tower is doing to its neighbors have appeared locally and nationally, many of you have asked us what you can do to encourage a positive resolution. If you live in the city of Dallas, I would ask you to make your Dallas city council representative aware of your opinion, whether by letter, email, or telephone. (Find your representative here) If you live outside of the city and care about Dallas’ cultural institutions, voicing your support and opinion to our elected officials is also welcome. The leadership of Museum Tower needs to recognize their responsibility to our community, and your council representatives can play an important role in resolving this matter .
I’d like to reaffirm that we at the Nasher are advocates for the development of the Arts District and support the goal of Museum Tower to add residencies to this neighborhood. Ray Nasher has given our community an incredible gift by building an unparalleled museum in the heart of the Dallas Arts District and making his extraordinary collection accessible to all. The Nasher is an invaluable educational, cultural and economic resource for the people of Dallas and visitors from around the world and we need your support and your voices to ensure its future contributions to the region.
With thanks, as ever, for your interest and support,
Sincerely,
Here’s how the louver solution works. And, again, according to Brett Shipp at Channel 8, the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System has said that it will release today its own report on the louver solution. Spoiler alert: they will say it won’t work.
KDFW Asks the BIG Question This Holiday Season, the One We’ve All Been Waiting For
Sandwiched in between Halloween & Christmas… Is Thanksgiving an overlooked holiday???
– KDFW Newsdesk (@kdfw) November 20, 2012
No. No it isn’t.
Black Friday Walmart Strikes Expected to Affect Dallas Stores, so Go Ahead and Sleep In
The Nation caught up with some of the striking Walmart workers last week, specifically Colby Harris, from Dallas:
Dallas striker Colby Harris emphasized that despite issues with low pay and repeated retaliation, he’s committed to remaining a Walmart worker. “If you leave this job, you’re going to face retaliation in some form somewhere else…,” he said last night. “If you change Walmart, and you change corporate America, it can really better a lot of people’s lives.”
Harris told The Nation that the main purpose of today’s picketing outside his Dallas store is to send a message to the workers inside: that “you can speak up and not get punished.” What if Walmart retaliates? “We’ll just take more actions…,” said Harris. “It will not be accepted or tolerated.” He said that going on strike last month heightened his confidence: “I’m not as nervous to take actions now. I know I’ve done it before…I can do it again.”
This, though, was all before yesterday’s news that Walmart has asked the National Labor Relations Board to block the strikes, which could mean trouble for the striking workers:
While the NLRB is most often criticized by conservatives, its swiftest and strongest remedies are devoted to restricting unions. Federal law requires the NLRB to prioritize employers’ allegations of illegal picketing over other charges, and to request an injunction to stop the picketing if it finds “reasonable cause” to believe such allegations are correct, and expects to issue a complaint (the equivalent of an indictment). So injunctions restricting picketing are often granted within a few days of workers’ going on strike (in contrast, workers who allege they were fired for their union activism often wait for months, injunction-less, to find out whether they’ll get their jobs back). Experts say that, if Walmart has strong enough evidence, an injunction could potentially be issued in time to block Black Friday pickets. But that’s a very big “if.”
But look at these deals! Samsung 32″ TVS for $249! An olde-tyme popcorn machine for $49! A pair of human kidneys for only $79.99!
Meanwhile, Occupy Dallas is planning to support striking workers at the DeSoto Walmart on Friday.
UPDATE: 200 Dallas-area employees are expected to walk out Thursday night, the Observer reports.
Things To Do In Dallas Tonight: Nov. 20
Portrait of Lyle Lovett as a slightly older gentleman.
A couple weeks ago, Brad, his wife, and I held a friend from Baltimore hostage and force-fed him Lyle Lovett songs until he enjoyed himself. It did not take long. Such is the magic of that man and his music.
Lovett happens to be in Fort Worth tonight at the Bass Hall with his Acoustic Group, playing a good old fashioned concert after all his benefit gigs this year. I love Bass Hall. I, like many people, love Lyle Lovett. I could listen to “That’s Right (You’re Not From Texas)” until the cows came home. “I Know You Know” is still my favorite, though. I can’t link you to a YouTube because one doesn’t exist, for some insane reason. So you’ll have to trust me and maybe go on iTunes or something if you haven’t heard it–you’ll feel, as the Baltimore friend put it, like you should be in a smokey basement club wearing a tux (or something fancy, yet still comfortable on this slightly warmer day).
The Main Street Mi Cocina is just a few minutes from the performance hall, if you have a hankering for the familiar. Otherwise, my favorite place to eat in Fort Worth is El Rancho Grande. The chips are fantastic.
Don’t Fret, Texas Won’t Turn Blue For a Long Time
Last week, I wrote that the New Yorker‘s Ryan Lizza reasoned that – due to an influx of Hispanic voters – Texas might turn into a blue state sooner than we all think, maybe even by 2016.
Not so fast, says the New Republic:
Certainly, increased Hispanic turnout and support for Democratic candidates aided the president in Texas, just as it did nationally. In overwhelmingly Hispanic areas of south Texas, Obama finished more than 10 points better than he did in 2008, and Mitt Romney finished worse than John McCain in thirty counties with a large Hispanic population. Strong minority support and turnout allowed Obama to carry the core counties of metropolitan Dallas and Houston (Dallas and Harris County), even though they voted Republican in every presidential election from 1968 through 2004.
But in case anyone missed it, demographic changes haven’t actually produced gains for Democrats in Texas. Despite favorable Latino turnout and support, Obama did worse in Texas than he did four years ago and lost by a decisive 16-point margin. Looking back further, Texas hasn’t moved to the left: the state was 19 points to the right of the national popular vote in 2012; hardly an improvement compared to 19 points in 2008, 20 points in 2004, and 15 points in 1996.
Conclusion:
If the two parties continue forward along the lines carved by the Bush and Obama years, then Texas would become quite competitive by the end of the next decade and Democrats will routinely approach 400 electoral votes in national elections. But between now and the mid-2020s, the Republican party will make adjustments to compensate for changing demographics and new issues will rejigger the electorate along unforseen lines. After Bill Clinton won West Virginia by 15 points and lost its eastern neighbor by 2, I suspect that few analysts in 1996 forseaw West Virginia becoming the fifth-most Republican state or Virginia voting more Democratic than the country. The ascent of Democrats in Texas is hardly inevitable and even if it is, it won’t be in 2016 or 2020, at least not in a close election.
So, 2024?
How Would the Fiscal Cliff End-of-Days Scenario Affect Dallas County? Texas?
Source: CNBC
There are plenty of conversations I can keep up with. Pro basketball conversations. College basketball conversations. Rules of basketball conversations. I’m pretty well-rounded.
None of those conversations have anything to do with the so-called fiscal cliff, a term that’s been tossed around on NPR a lot recently. To me it roughly translates to “Dear God I’ll listen to Train on KXT before I try to figure this story out.”
Anyway, CNBC did a sort-of Idiot’s Guide to Fiscal Cliff-Dwelling yesterday, and it was helpful. I now feel like I can present this post to you without crossing my fingers and hoping no one calls me out.
Calf Has Longhorn Marking, May Be the Devil
Source: Fox 4
An alert FrontBurnervian sent me this Fox 4 story, about a calf from Blue Ridge, a Collin County spit 15 miles northeast of McKinney.
As you can see from the photo, this longhorn calf is probably the devil. A Beelzebub in bovine form, the creature has a longhorn marking on its head. Imagine holding your newborn baby for the first time, and seeing an exact replica of the baby on its own forehead. You’d couldn’t find one of those Baby Moses drop-offs soon enough. (Note: unless you want to be bummed out for the rest of the day, do not Google “Where can I drop off an unwanted child?” even if it’s just for a blog post about a longhorn calf.)
But it’s kinda a cute fella, isn’t it?
Leading Off 11/20/12
Museum Tower and Nasher Make WSJ. Sometime D Magazine contributor Willard Spiegelman has a piece in the Wall Street Journal today about the reflected heat and light off Museum Tower, onto the Nasher Sculpture Center. Willard’s, for the most part, is a balanced, down-the-middle, he-said-she-said story. He will forgive me for saying that I’m certain if you caught him at a cocktail party, he’d use different words to describe the situation than he did today in the Wall Street Journal. Here is Brett Shipp’s report on the kerfuffle, which says that the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System, owners of Museum Tower, will make a proposal today for their own fix issue their own report on the Nasher’s suggested fix of the problem.
DeSoto Girl Wins Rhodes Scholarship. Only 32 people from the United States are as awesome as Nina Yancy. Here’s a great picture of her in the Boston Globe. Think your kid has what it takes (paywall) to win the goods? Yancy, according to the DMN, “has interned at the British House of Commons and at CNN and has worked with developmentally challenged children in Peru. A ballet dancer, she has also taught at CityStep, a Cambridge, Mass., program that provides dance instruction to low-income young people.” Also, I hear she has reached the “Surf and Turf” level of Angry Birds.
Food Truck Panic! Channel 8′s David Schechter has a hard name to spell — AND he has found that Fort Worth food trucks aren’t following the same safety standards that Dallas food truck follow. Before you put another morsel in your face hole, learn how to spell “Schechter.”
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