Dallas Texadelphia founder Tom Landis, who recently has taken to calling himself Mayor McCheesesteak, has nailed down a nine-point platform to gird his lunge for the Dallas mayor's office. Those points include: improving education (through programs to thwart English language deficiencies); full-service police and fire department health plans; streamlining the construction permitting process; potholes; downtown revitalization; going gung-ho over the Trinity River project; prodding development in depressed areas (Fair Park, South Dallas, etc.); encouraging more development around DART stations; and fostering Hispanic involvement in city politics. Oh yeah, there's a 10th one: "I think I can provide the entertainment value of a Laura Miller and still get stuff done," he boasts.
Given the enthusiasm over HBO's Sopranos series in recent years, it's no surprise Joseph "Joe Dogs" Iannuzzi has revised and expanded his Mafia Cookbook just in time for Christmas. Joe Dogs was a mobster de cuisine with the Gambino crime family before he became a culinary consultant to the FBI. Recipes are bunched together in "menus" and accompanied by place and date the dishes were first served, and to whom. For example, the shrimp scampi Gambino-style was first served in Hallandale, Florida, in 1982 poolside at the Diplomat Hotel. Those present were Checko Brown, Anthony "Fat Andy" Ruggiano and Skinny Bobby DeSimone. There's even a section for "cooking on the lam," which includes meatballs and clams casino among other dishes. Joe Dogs has crafted the perfect gift for those you love. For those you don't like so much, put a dead fish between the endpapers.
