Articles for November 28th, 2012
Larry Hagman Fans, Read This
Great remembrance of Larry Hagman. Mark Evanier worked on a show called Pink Lady back in 1980. He spins a great yarn about Hagman doing a guest appearance on the show. Read this and tell me Hagman wasn’t a helluva guy.
Texas License Plate Auction Returns
Almost two years ago now, a bunch of lunatics full of gin and checking accounts (I’m assuming) stumbled into Cowboys Stadium  and plunked down thousands of dollars during the Great Plate Auction (trademark pending). GO HORNS went for $10,500, COWBOYS fetched $11,000, and somebody with a Honda Civic and a sense of humor hopefully picked up FERRARI for $15,000.
The auction was such a success that the state’s exclusive vanity plate dealer, MyPlates, is hosting a second auction, Jan. 25, at Houston’s Reliant Center. The rules:
At The Great Plate Auction 2013, we’ll auction ten exclusive, highly sought-after license plate messages, including the coveted HOUSTON. In the coming weeks, My Plates will begin announcing the other plate messages to be auctioned. Most have never before been available.
The winner of HOUSTON–as well as the other plate messages–will own it for ten years, with first dibs on renewing it thereafter. That means, once these messages are won at auction, they could be gone forever. Don’t miss your opportunity!
Unlike other Texas license plates, plates auctioned by My Plates are fully transferable, meaning the owner can legally sell them at any time to someone else at a price they agree upon.
Judging by the question-marked plates above, it’s fairly easy to guess what some of the plates will read. The Houston Texans one will likely read TEXANS, the purple one will maybe say GO FROGS, and the Houston Dynamo one will absolutely say SOCCER?
Dallas Republicans Keep Plum Congressional Gigs
Dallas’ Jeb Hensarling and Pete Sessions will lead the House Financial Services and House Rules Committee, respectively, moves that belie the notion Texas Republicans have been losing clout, the Texas Tribune reports.
Sessions kept his rules committee position in the 113th Congress, while Hensarling will take over for Alabama Rep. Spencer Bachus; he served as vice-chair of the committee last session.
“I look forward to working alongside my colleagues to foster the deepest, most liquid, competitive, efficient, innovative, and transparent capital markets the world has ever known,” Hensarling said in a statement, reprinted in The Hill. “To do this we must end the phenomenon of ‘too big to fail’ and reinstate market discipline.”
“We must also reduce taxpayer risk in the marketplace and cut the sheer weight, volume, complexity, and uncertainty of the federal red tape burden that makes capital more expensive and less available. When we do, we can revive and strengthen the free enterprise system – the best housing and jobs program known to man.”
Austin Rep. Michael McCaul will take over the powerful Homeland Security committee, the Chronicle reports.
Ghosts of Dallas: Fair Park Hall of State, 1936
“Color guard of the Women’s Benefit Association guard team display the six flags over Texas and the new flag of the fair before the Hall of State in Fair Park,” 1936.
Share your own Ghosts of Dallas.
Ziglar: Rear Children with Love, Kindness, Prayer
Back in 1998, when I wrote this profile of him for the Dallas Business Journal, famed motivational speaker Zig Ziglar, then 71, said he thought he was 10 or 15 years away from his “peak.” (Now, that was optimistic thinking.) Ziglar, who died in Dallas today, also talked about growing up poor in the Deep South, selling pots and pans early in his career, and later bringing in $30,000 to $50,000 a pop for each of his speaking appearances.
Easy to lampoon for his outsized, old-fashioned style, Ziglar nonethess had plenty of worthy advice for our society, as shown in this message he delivered to his Sunday School class at Prestonwood Baptist Church:
“We need to prepare all of our children to work and prosper in the world we live in today,” Ziglar said urgently. “When you awaken your children in the morning, do it gently, kindly. End each day prayerfully and lovingly, and encourage them. When you make a mistake, apologize for it. Remember, the example you set is so important. “
‘Drop a Raspberry on It’ Meme Soon To Explode
Yesterday I hipped you to the “drop a raspberry on it” meme. I’ve tried to find out who’s behind it, with no success (by which I mean I emailed one person I suspected, and he denied it). A couple new images went up on the Tumblr this morning. Worth a look. (My fave so far might the shirtless Eric Celeste playing pool with a raspberry.) Anyway, Gene and Julie, who do the morning show on 103.7 KVIL, called to ask about it. So I dropped a raspberry on them.
A Response to Jim Schutze’s Wild-Ass Post
If you haven’t already, take a minute to read what Jim Schutze has written on Unfair Park. I tried to respond to it in that forum. I couldn’t. Their login process for comments stymied me. I tried to log in with my Facebook account and instead was logged in with my Village Voice account, which has a goofy username attached to it. When I tried to change my username, it told me that “Tim Rogers” was already taken. By then, the comment I’d written had disappeared into the ether. I hope our registration process isn’t similarly frustrating people. If it is, please send word to feedback@dmagazine.com. I’d like to know.
Back on task: if I understand Schutze, he’s saying that D Magazine and the Morning News are working together to support the Nasher. A sample:
The Nasher is a holy temple of the Art Mob, by which I mean the rich patrons whose devotion to high culture in Dallas is the ultimate aspirational consumerism. They parade around and around the Nasher wailing like a vast chorus of keening castrati, with the entire editorial staffs of D and the News clumping along behind like hired mourner hags.
Dallas Residents Respond to Gas-Drilling Permit Request, Ask Council to Step Up
Yesterday, the Morning News reported on its Scoop blog that XTO, an Exxon-Mobil subsidiary, had filed for zoning changes that would authorize drilling at Dallas’ Hensley Field, adjacent to Mountain Creek Lake.
The goal – as is with most businesses – is to get up and running ASAP. But the City Council still hasn’t decided what to do with the recommendation from its drilling task force: send it back to the City Plan Commission, sit on its hands, or go full-drill ahead.
Dallas Residents At Risk chimed in this morning with a letter, seen below:
Things To Do In Dallas Tonight: Nov. 28
Poster time.
I don’t want to sound like a braggart, or invite any some of…unnecessary tension into my life, but I am killing it at Letterpress right now. My friend Pam’s kinda cranky about it (“Go easy on a newbie–what exactly did you not understand about that?”) But if you are, like me, irrationally territorial and highly competitive, especially when it comes to word games, you should get in on this. Pam claims that “it’s not fun when you’re the prey and you don’t even know why. Bleeding out the innocent.” But it is so much fun.
Now that y’all know what I’m doing instead of like, say, eating lunch or sleeping at night, here are some idea to occupy your evening. How To Dress Well, aka Tom Krell, is playing The Loft, accompanied by Beacon and Datahowler. I will just leave you with these two songs: “& It Was U” and this killer cover of R. Kelly’s “I Wish,” which came my way courtesy of Bradford Pearson. Hat tip. Listen to those, and then you will want to attend this show. If not, I’ll think about eating that hat I just tipped. Also of note, I’ve changed my mind about something (a rare feat). I’d been avoiding Cedars Social like the plague up until earlier this month after three truly terrible experiences last year, but I have recently come to the conclusion that if you just go to drink and not to eat, and you sit at the bar and not in the “dining” area, you’ll be fine. Which is good, because I’m 78% more likely to enjoy a concert if I can have a well-made Moscow mule beforehand. And then maybe more after.
Also this evening, the WaterTower Theatre has a production stuffed full of Christmas cheer: It’s A Wonderful Life, staged as a live radio play. It’s five actors, playing all the roles–George Bailey, Ma Bailey, Clarence Odbody, and more. Our critic, Lindsey Wilson, has great things to say about it. Namely:
Part of the joy of attending WaterTower Theatre’s production of It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play is its accessibility, no matter your level of familiarity with the movie. Looking to introduce someone to the beloved story? Philip Van Doren Stern’s ageless tale of gratitude and appreciation still resonates. Been watching the film yearly since it was released in 1946? You’ll delight in the vocal quirks the actors nod to in their performances. Feel like there’s nothing new left to discover about Bedford Falls? Test your trivia knowledge by spotting the sly in-jokes hidden throughout the show.
Conclusion: go see it and cure your early Grinchitis.
For more to do tonight, go here.
Mike Tyson’s ‘Undisputed Truth’ Tour Is Coming to Dallas, Which Is Funny When You Think of Mike Tyson Saying ‘Undisputed Truth’
Source: Eva Rinaldi
That’s the only joke I have. Thanks folks.
A few programming notes:
1. The Dallas date hasn’t been set
2. But they told us there would be a Dallas date
3. So hold tight for the Dallas date
The whole thing seems to be run through a poorly “liked” Facebook page, which is exactly what I’d expect from a one-man show performed by Mike Tyson.
Update: As I was writing this, the Dallas date was posted. February 19, at Verizon Theatre in Grand Prairie.
This Google Maps-Instagram Mashup Is the Best
Source: The Beat
Take a spin through Google Maps – that democratizing, interconnecting beast – and one thing is immediately apparent: no people. Well there are people, they just lack faces. (See: Lost Ark, Raiders of the)
Now some brainiacs at Rutgers are trying to fix that. According to The Atlantic:
But what Google delivers in breadth, it loses in depth. The nature of the car camera technology means that all we see are exteriors passed by. Faces are blurred. We don’t really see people living their lives, so much as the backdrop against which they do so.
Which is what makes The Beat, a new project from the Rutgers Social Media Information Lab, so interesting. It mashes up geolocated, hashtagged Instagram photos with the Google Street View locations from which they were posed. In doing so, it provides the human foreground for these locations.
I took it for a whirl through Dallas this morning, and found the above screenshot. And the below screenshot. Try it for yourself, using #Dallas in the search box at the top. Here are the #Dallas results.
R.I.P, Zig Ziglar
Details are scant at this point. I heard from someone who used to work for the guy and is close to the family. To celebrate the man’s life, maybe a good time to “Make Gratitude Your Attitude.”
‘Overly Attached Girlfriend’ Donates $22,000 to Denton Autism Charity, Is Okay in My Book
Back in June, Laina Nolastname (according to WFAA) posted this YouTube video of her spoofing crazed Justin Bieber fans. It was the face that launched 1,000 memes.
Turns out the Keller native’s now taking dares from her Facebook fans, provided they donate money to a charity of her choice. Last night, she donated $22,286 of that money to Surf Camp, a Denton-based non-profit that helps autistic children. Bravo.
The WFAA report goes on to say that Laina has made enough money off the ad sales from her YouTube videos to quit her job, so maybe we should all stop laughing and get to webcamming.
Leading Off (11/28/12)
Police Officer Placed on Leave After Video Discovered. Dallas police lieutenant Regina Smith goes by Lucille Baller when promoting her record. You can see some of her work, which includes gems such as “Mess with me or I will shoot a [expletive], cuz Lucille Baller, she been to hell and back,” on her site. The site is dedicated to her late husband, a Dallas police officer, who was killed on duty.
911 Operator Resigns. I’m sure you remember the story of Deanna Cook, the woman who called 911 to report that her former husband was attacking her. When police got to Cook’s home, they knocked on the door, no one answered, and they left. Two days later, Cook was found dead in her home. Tonyita Hopkins, the operator who took the call from Cook, has now resigned. An internal investigation found that she didn’t enter the correct info on the call sheet. Her family released a statement saying they would like to tell her side of the story someday.
 Yesterday Was a Big Day for DISD. Between August 12 and November 1, three people worked seven hours a day, five days a week preparing the application for Race to the Top, a federal grant program that could award the district up to $30 million. Tuesday, the district learned it’s a finalist. And then U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan visited. Overall, a pretty big day for the district.
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