Subject: Recessions and Depressions

• Calm Down, Dallas' Real Estate Market is Just Fine. Only, Till It's Not.

  January 10, 2008

• This Just In: Arena Football and Your Dallas Desperados Need a Timeout

  When even football can't survive, we're officially in a recession. The Arena Football League - home to your Dallas Desperados - announced this morning that it has canceled its 2009 season because - you guessed it - shitty financial times. Actually, I believe the official wording is "suspending the 2009 season subject to agreement and cooperation with the Arena Football League Players Association while the League works on developing a long-term plan to improve its economic model." Like I sa

  December 15, 2008

• Today In Music News: Chasing Pavement, Bowie To Blame

  Your daily dose of national music news for Wednesday, January 14, 2009... It looks like another legendary band could be getting back together--if a promoter can cough up enough dough. Yep, this time it could be indie legends Pavement who could be on the reunion trail. I like to see they aren't selling out, they're buying in. Remember "Bowie Bonds?" Well, it seems that the David Bowie and his "Bowie Bonds" are being blamed for the recession in the UK. Meanwhile the only person we hav

  January 14, 2009

• Thai one on

  January 14, 1999

• Burning Question: Are People Tipping Less?

  Some wag in some diner some years ago posted a clever reminder for guests: "Tipping is not a city in China"--which may have seemed funny, oh, about once.Nowadays China owns a good chunk of American debt, as well as the power to let us topple into the economic dunking pool...if we weren't doing such a good job of that ourselves. Except for the rare Madoff, rich folk manage to cruise through recessionary times with little trouble. They can afford to beg for more tax cuts, fight any flow of federal

  February 20, 2009

• Best Sign That We're a Big City Now

  September 20, 2001

• Food For Thought 3.12.09

  "The good news for the restaurant industry is that consumers typically get hungry about every four to five hours, generally three times a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year." (Bob Derrington, securities analyst with Morgan Keegan & Co., on the ability of restaurants to weather nasty little recessions. According to some industry data, the food service sector continues to show life. Instead of the 20-plus percent sales declines experienced by retail--and worse in the auto industry--McDon

  March 12, 2009

• Food For Thought: 3.18.09

  "Our average check is lower, but transactions are up 10 to 15 percent." (John Hurley, owner of Garibaldi's Restaurant in Oakland, CA, on the value of a prix-fixe menu. According to Nation's Restaurant News, fine dining restaurants are increasingly turning to multi-course, set price dinners to combat the recession...a trend we've seen over the past month in Dallas, as well. The comment reflects what many local wait staff report: people spend less when they eat out these days--but they are eating

  March 18, 2009

• Public Disinterest

  So is media consolidation a bad thing?

  May 15, 2003

• Chewing the Fat: Carbonated Beverage Sales Going Flat

  Carbonated beverages sales are fizzing out, with reports showing 2008 as the fourth consecutive year of decline. Amidst a recession, fears of childhood obesity and the recent findings of BPA in soda cans, a 2009 comeback doesn't look like a very safe bet, either. With sodas long thought to be recession proof, this begs the question: What are people turning to for comfort? Conventional wisdom--and a poll of Observer staff--says booze, but FiveThirtyEight posts a downward trend in "take-out"

  April 2, 2009

• Food For Thought 4.6.09

  "We're in a recession, hard times. We shouldn't be hurting business. I'm not saying, 'Let's take away this issue.' We're just saying, 'Let's give these businesses some time.'" (Tennell Atkins, member of the Dallas City Council, on an effort to delay the city's smoking ordinance, which bans lighting up in bars and is scheduled to take effect on Friday. Several drinking establishments have reported difficulty securing permits to build outdoor patios. Smoking will be allowed on decks beyond an esta

  April 6, 2009

• Best Lunch Deal

  September 25, 2003

• At The Car Show, Yeah

  February 12, 2009

• A Tough Year for Local Restaurants Sputters to an End

  January 1, 2009

• Portrait of a Lady

  March 2, 2006

• What's the Deal?

  July 13, 2006

• Death Visits the Kimbell

  The Quest keeps the cash registers ringing

  July 31, 2003

• Bucking the Odds

  Seabiscuit is a different breed of summer "ride" movie

  July 24, 2003

• Best Weekend Getaway

  Austin

  September 26, 2002

• 'Tisn't the Season

  Bars, restaurants take divergent paths through dismal fall

  January 10, 2002

• New York, New York

  You sure you wanna be a part of it?

  January 3, 2002

• Theater With Storage!

  May 7, 2009

• Girl Drink Drunk: Bolsa

  Bolsa's pomegranate sangria feels "closest to healthy" according to Kim. It's because of the fruit.I'd like to take a moment and raise a glass to Jeremy and Jorge (my movers), Tracy and Pam (sister and mom) for making what could have been an excruciating transfer-of-homestead exceptionally bearable. See, I just moved, after almost 7 years, from a 660 square foot apartment by myself into a 2-bedroom house with the boy. He had a few boxes and a couple of pieces of furniture he'd already moved twic

  May 7, 2009

• Chewing the Fat: Breaking The Chains?

  Driving around DFW, you have to take notice of the seemingly endless strips of six-lane traffic and the stores and restaurants on either side. Yeah, local dining hasn't suffered as much as in other parts of the U.S. But with Bloomberg reporting today that restaurants have a greater chance of failing than a year ago, it's tough not to think about the sheer number of eateries and wonder how consumers were ever able to support them all. Was demand ever that high?

  May 5, 2009

• Dallas Hearts Etsy

  May 14, 2009

• Vino Cookout

  June 11, 2009

• Today In Music News: A Mother Gets Charged, Carly Smithson Gets Fallen and The New Kids Get Economical

  Your daily dose of national music news for Monday, June 22, 2009... A Minnesota mom was charged a $1.92 million dollar fine for illegally downloading songs from Kazaa. Way to go record industry--alienating record buyers is the best way to get people to buy your product. Former members of Evanescence are forming a new band called Fallen with American Idol contestant Carly Smithson. Take that Amy Lee! New Kids on The Block have canceled their Australian tour, blaming it on the recession. Wh

  June 22, 2009

• Today In Music News: Vibe Shutters Its Doors, Jackson's Body Goes Public and Kanye Debuts A Stage

  Your daily dose of national music news for Wednesday, July 1, 2009... Vibe is the latest victim of the recession. Michael Jackson's body will be on public display at Neverland Ranch. Kanye debuted the only thing bigger than his ego: His new stage for his tour--now with gold plating! 

  July 1, 2009

• Our Best Aunt

  July 16, 2009

• Wine Storage For The Huddled Millionaire Masses

  Top Cellars Connie Lewis has the job you didn't know you wanted. The pretty 30-year-old blonde spends her days in fine restaurants, hotels and custom homes, helping wine lovers and experts design tony treasure chests for their precious bottles. And despite what you might think, her upscale niche profession has remained largely unaffected by this recent economic downturn.See--trickle down works. Wealthy wine loves have created a job. As a representative of Vineyard Wine Cellars, Lewis counts

  July 21, 2009

• Locals Didn't Pony Up the Dough at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie This Season

  ​It would appear Norm Hitzges alone cannot keep Lone Star Park's numbers from suffering a dramatic decline in the midst of a recession. The 65-day spring meet wrapped in Grand Prairie yesterday, and track officials noted with great disappointment the drop in both attendance and wagering, on-site and off. According to the Daily Racing Form in a free-subscription-only wrap-up, the total handle (or wagering) averaged $1,429,959 a day -- down 12 percent from 2008.Meanwhile, according to Thoroughbr

  July 27, 2009

• Last Night: The Dandy Warhols at The Granada Theater

  The Dandy WarholsGranada TheaterSeptember 8, 2009 Better than: the recession, for one. If the lights behind The Dandy Warhols on stage weren't alone enough of a reminder that the slick psych-rock outfit came prepared to offer its fans a show worth the price of admission, frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor soon made it clear in an aside to the crowd. While pontificating about the recession--the fact that fewer people were going out to shows, that it's harder for the band's "artsy friends" to f

  September 9, 2009

• Turn Your Pad into a Haunted House With These Small-Screen Scares

  October 29, 2009

• Recession Blues Got You Down? The Folks at Get Motivated! Have a Solution: Think Happy Thoughts.

  November 6, 2009

• Hutchison on Meet the Press: If Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's Gotta Go, Then Congress "Shouldn't Keep Our Jobs Either"

  NBCHutchison and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) during the introductions. Could Kay look any more uncomfortable if she tried?​Kay Bailey Hutchison's appearance Sunday on Meet the Press could have been an opportunity to show potential voters why she kept her gig in Washington instead of resigning to focus on winning the GOP gubernatorial primary in March. It certainly should have been. Yet, on the heels of her questionable decision to stay in the Senate, poorly attended fund-raiser featuri

  November 23, 2009