Email Author Dave Faries

2002 Stories by Dave Faries

• Knocking Noggin

  published December 26, 2002

  No one really knows much about the origins of eggnog. It's difficult even for the most skilled historians to fathom the circumstances that led... More >>

• The Colonel's Other Recipe

  published December 19, 2002

  This is just an assumption, but it's probably valid. Chicken-fried steak played a key role in President Bush's recent policy victories at the... More >>

• Creatures of Bad Habit

  published December 5, 2002

  Not so very long ago, the Burning Question crew created quite a disturbance at Paris Vendome. Geez. Invade France, nothing happens. Send them... More >>

• Border Wars

  published November 28, 2002

  Call it Shakespeare in modern garb. Over the past several years, Hollywood presented us with Othello set on a high school basketball... More >>

• Vintage Finds

  published November 14, 2002

  Who doesn't get a bit choked up when the first strains of "Impossible Dream" rise up during a production of Man of La Mancha? There's... More >>

• Democracy Inaction

  published October 31, 2002

  Politicians have it easy. Television "journalists" such as Larry King and Katie Couric toss them softball questions, and no one expects an... More >>

• Gender Specifics

  published October 24, 2002

  The French have a saying, "vive la difference," which basically means "we surrender" but is often translated as a celebration of the... More >>

• Eschewing the Fat

  published October 17, 2002

  Poor Caesar Barber. For the past 27 years, the cumbersome maintenance worker from New York tried only to meander harmlessly through life. But a... More >>

• Election Results

  published October 3, 2002

  Most of us understand the concept of evil. We know from repeated prompting, for example, that a man who controls a nuclear arsenal, backs out... More >>

• Malternative Lifestyles

  published September 12, 2002

  From the outset, this week's Burning Question disturbed us. In days of yore, adventurers survived perilous tests of will and strength before... More >>

• Repeatedly Redundant

  published September 5, 2002

  Here's an idea for a great new "reality" program: Take a group of malleable--in other words, trendy--people and tell them to find an upscale... More >>

• Bar None

  published August 22, 2002

  Imagine, for a moment, a world without bartenders. A city of sober club hoppers, their vision unimpaired, would doom the latex industry--and... More >>

• Ronco Busting

  published August 8, 2002

  Over tens of thousands of years, human beings harnessed fire, created language and developed rudimentary tools as they slowly learned to tame the... More >>

• Tastemakers

  published August 1, 2002

  The Burning Question crew gathered recently at Sevy's Grill in the middle of a workday for a...um...dental appointment. During our sojourn,... More >>

• Cook Out

  published July 25, 2002

  At one point in the classic movie Battleground, a lieutenant inquires about the location of a strategic bridge. When a sentry stammers... More >>

• Reality Bites

  published July 11, 2002

  Mass-market restaurant chains often take extraordinary steps to stress their particular ethnic identity. Cracker Barrel, for example, oozes... More >>

• Cook Out

  published June 27, 2002

  When the British created a sitcom based in a professional kitchen, they turned out a consistently funny and relatively accurate series called... More >>

• Fancy Shooting

  published June 13, 2002

  If the Burning Question crew learned one thing during our interminable grad school years, it was that meaning exists in each action and every... More >>

• Dogs Gone?

  published June 6, 2002

  This weekend, Hola intends to brazenly flout Dallas health codes. It's a one-time deal for the Knox-Henderson-area establishment: break the... More >>

• How Dry It Is

  published May 30, 2002

  Americans love steak. Well, nobody could afford it in the 1930s, and the government rationed steak in the '40s. In the 1970s, Californians took... More >>

• Pickup Picks

  published May 23, 2002

  Some questions just seem more important than others. Who cares, for example, about the status of the Trinity River boondoggle or the merits of... More >>

• That Frozen Concoction

  published May 9, 2002

  Cube farmers in corporate America strive mightily for one thing and one thing only: a power title for their business cards. A power title opens... More >>

• Where There's Smoke

  published April 25, 2002

  The old television series M*A*S*H ran through about 4 billion episodes, each with the same story line--war bad, wisecracking disdain for... More >>

• Foreign Substances

  published April 18, 2002

  It's almost as if foreigners have a different word for everything. Really, it's the fact that "beer" sounds like "alus" in Lithuanian, "sor" in... More >>

• Gaydar Blips

  published April 11, 2002

  A couple of years ago, some innovative technical genius created Gaydar, a key-chain device designed to electronically sort straights and gays, up... More >>