Would you rather drink whatever kind of beer/liquor you prefer, but you can only drink it one day a week, OR drink 7-Eleven’s own branded Game Day beer as much as you want, whenever you want? You still have to pay, and you can’t break any current laws. I mean, if you want to drink one in the car, OK, fine, I guess, but just know you’d still get pinched.
(Also: I know Game Day isn’t new; just picked it because it’s local-ish. And, not to taint the results, but we’ve had some here at the office. The most gentle review I can give it is it does seem to actually be beer.)
As you can see from the chart (at right) from the North Texas Municipal Water District, Lavon Lake (the most important water source for Collin County and Rockwall County and some of Dallas County) has risen about 3 feet in the last couple days, thanks to the recent deluge. Of course, that’s only up from the disastrous levels it’s been at. It’s still less than 64% full.
Meanwhile, Grapevine Lake (which was down 4.3 feet as of Jan. 5) is at this moment 100 percent full. Can it be a coincidence that Grapevine is the water supply of those One-Percenters in the Park Cities?*
*Yes, it most certainly can be.
When fighting off a beer thief hellbent on absconding with the frosty libations your employer has available for purchase, go for the glass eye.
We’re a few days into 2012. You’ve made your obligatory, perfunctory visit to the gym down the street. That workout you gave yourself Monday night was killer. You could really feel the burn, right? Got those endorphins up and activated. Man, you walked out of there with some kind of a buzz. You can hardly wait to do it again next year.
Let’s drink to your success. In the January issue of the print version of FrontBurner, David Hopkins writes about the three new microbreweries that have come to slake our city’s thirst for fermented grains. One of them — Lakewood Brewing Company — is hosting a tasting of its Imperial Sweet Stout at the Libertine Bar tonight. And all it’ll cost you is the donation of a canned good for the local food bank. They expect the brew to go fast, so get there early. Starts at 7 p.m.
Not willing to abandon your new year’s resolution to pursue a healthier lifestyle until next week? Other things to do in Dallas here.

photography by Jerry McClure
Some of you will want to do it big. Sequins, jackets, bottle service, the whole nine yards.
Some of you will want to celebrate casually. At your favorite bar. With your favorite beer. Wearing your favorite jeans. (I’ll be in a cabin, far away, enjoying the peace and quiet.)
No matter your disposition, here’s a list of everything we know is happening around town for New Year’s Eve. Feel free to check back for updates to the list.
And for New Year’s Eve meals and New Year’s Day brunches, check out SideDish.
An alert FrontBurnervian points us to this essay by Old 97’s frontman Rhett Miller about what it’s like to be a rockstar and a father. Stop what you’re doing and take four minutes to read it. Good stuff. Sample:
Every freaking day they wake up demanding to be fed again. And then, more likely than not, refusing to eat the meal you’ve prepared. Every day. There is no cycle, much less a break from the cycle. There is only the grind. I feel like I’m tour managing an endless tour with a band comprised of subliterate narcissists.
I like Medieval Times. I had a birthday party there a few years back, which you might want to read about here. (Perhaps not. Your call.) I also love puns. So when Tim forwarded a press release entitled “Resistance is Feudal at Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament,” I was buying whatever they were selling. In this case, they were touting a new performance—the first since 2007—and an upgraded menu, and they wanted a fair lady or lord of the media to attend. Jump if you care about my adventures.

Cedar Springs' Halloween Block Party's a top spot for costume watching. (photography by Christina Barany)
Photos from this weekend’s Halloween festivities are here. My personal favorites awards go to the Oregon Trail couple with dysentary and measles, the twisted Mad Hatters, a couple of Pop Tarts, the gay pack of flamingos (aka: “The Flamingays”), the troll doll duo (rhinestone bellybuttons included), a box of Franzia, a frightening Joker chick, and the Ninja Turtle girl. Enjoy all of our weekend’s Party Pics and stay tuned for more tomorrow.
Oh and we’ve got more happy Rangers fans photos (pre-loss, of course) from Ten Sports Grill. So there’s that.

Texas fans at Sfuzzi. (photography by Desiree Espada)
If you listened to our advice, you probably ended up at some sweet spot to watch the Sooners dominate the Longhorns on the football field. If so, check out our Party Pics to see if you’re famous. If you didn’t, shame on you. Click to see what you missed.
Do you like great music? Great art? Short films? Live theater? Break dancing? Live screen printing? Tattoos? Great food? Wait. Free beer? Everyone likes free beer, right?
Well then, you won’t want to miss what is sure to be one of the most exciting, entertaining, and unique events to hit Dallas this year: FrontRow Live at the Dallas Contempoary on November 3 from 8 p.m. to midnight, brought to you by Chevy.
Headlined by Grammy Award-winning producers and DJ duo Play-N-Skillz, the event we’re calling the “one night high-brow, low-brow blowout” will feature three DJs, a live theater performance to kick off the evening, screen-printing by The Public Trust’s Brian Gibb, a pop-up screening room featuring short films, a pop-up coffee shop provided by The Pearl Cup, food trucks, free beer provided by Michelob Ultra, and more. And here’s the best part: it is all FREE!
You want details? You want free tickets right now? Then get over to our FrontRow Live page.
As we all know, Mariano Martinez invented the margarita machine. Also, as we all know, Sunday is National Tequila Day. Therefore, I bring you this clip from ABC News Nightline, which features Martinez. One fun fact from the clip: Martinez prefers his margaritas on the rocks, because, as he says, “his tastes have evolved.”
We mentioned the Honest Tea experiment/publicity stunt that was running in cities across America yesterday. According to the “official” results, Chicago is the most honest city in America, since 99 percent of people there who took tea paid for it even though they may have thought that no one was monitoring. Dallas did OK, but only showed a 96 percent honesty rate.
But those raw numbers don’t tell the whole story. As Freakonomics notes, there were substantial differences in the weather of the cities involved. So I did a little number crunching and devised a new stat: TAH (temperature-adjusted honesty.) It’s a simple formula. ((Temperature in degrees Fahrenheit/100) * (Honest Tea raw honesty percentage * 100)).
And I so present the true ranking of the honesty of America’s cities:
| City | Temperature (F) | Raw Honesty | TAH | |||
| Dallas | 101 | 96% | 97% | |||
| Cincinnati | 100 | 96% | 96% | |||
| Atlanta | 96 | 96% | 91% | |||
| Philadelphia | 92 | 96% | 88% | |||
| Washington, DC | 94 | 91% | 86% | |||
| Miami | 92 | 92% | 85% | |||
| Chicago | 85 | 99% | 84% | |||
| Boston | 86 | 97% | 83% | |||
| New York | 95 | 86% | 82% | |||
| Los Angeles | 92 | 80% | 87% | |||
| San Francisco | 74 | 93% | 69% | |||
| Seattle | 67 | 97% | 65% | |||