Bar of Soap Now Washed Away

Probably should have seen this coming back in July, when Tanna Gilder e-mailed Unfair Park with the assurance that, look, Bar of Soap isn’t closed — even though, yeah, there were some issues that needed to be hashed out with the landlord and so forth. And only last week Charlie…

Break Like the Wind

Slate’s just posted a piece by the suddenly omnipresent Mimi Swartz headlined “Waiting for Ike: The five stages of hurricane anxiety.” Which are, in order: anticipation, shopping, denial, panic and acceptance. To the latter point, Swartz writes from Houston, “It is time to admit that the only thing on television…

All the Ike Video You’ll Need

A Friend of Unfair Park shot us a link to an audio-video aggregator from the Texas coast, which, from the looks of it, compiles the raw, off-air video from pretty much anyone who’s got a news camera down there in advance of Ike’s landfall late tonight or early Saturday morning…

DISD Trustee Edwin Flores on Budget Shortfall: “We Need a Revolution.”

District 1 DISD School Board Trustee Edwin Flores “Everything’s on the table,” Dallas Independent School District superintendent Michael Hinojosa keeps saying following Wednesday’s announcement that the district’s got this teensy $64 million budget shortfall to cover right quick. Which means everything from staff cuts to school closings. But, as trustee…

Fifty Years Ago Today in Dallas, Jack Kilby Changed Everything

Texas Instruments has created a special Web site in honor of September 12, 1958 — the day Jack St. Clair Kilby introduced the integrated circuit, otherwise known as the technology that “makes the Internet, PCs, cell phones and, well, the world, go round,” as TI proudly puts it. Kilby, who…

“Tony Always Performs Well”

Last night, David Letterman devoted 14 minutes of his Late Show to Jessica Simpson, and most of that was spent talking Tony Romo — how they met, the jinx, whether or not he wears a cup. Not discussed: Whether or not she wears panties on live morning television. An epic…

What Might’ve Been, Longhorn Fans

Turns out, the University of Texas was toying with the thought of moving Saturday night’s game against Arkansas up to Dallas on Saturday. Alas, athletics director DeLoss Dodds said it weren’t meant to be “because of how many workers are needed to put on a game for 98,000 fans,” reports…

Sean Avery, You Had Us At “Dunno”

No doubt you’ve heard that Sean Avery, the latest and greatest (?) Dallas Star, is about to have his tenure at Vogue, where he served as an “intern” this summer, turned into a romantic comedy by New Line and the guys responsible for Journey to the Center of the Earth,…

Fire Alarm Clears Out Crowley

A Friend of Unfair Park just texted with the message that the Frank Crowley Courts Building is being evacuated — “don’t know why.” Turns out, a fire alarm has gone off in the building — a regular occurrence, says an Officer Williams in the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department who really…

D’oh, Doughmoney!

For those stocking up on Ike supplies that aren’t batteries or bourbon, here’s a suggestion: Snag the last of the goodies ever made by the Doughmonkeys in Snider Plaza. Because, yes, as Bill Addison noted late yesterday, once again and for reals this time, my boy’s favorite bakery in the…

Now, Where’s My Kite?

For those so interested, this is the latest wind (and rain and tornado potential) forecast from the National Weather Service — and note the exclamation mark. And the NWS no like Ike: “Develop a personal hurricane plan,” it advises in its latest forecast. Mine involves a trip to the liquor…

Deep Ellum LIVES!

Sweat beginning to stain his white shirt, Scott Beck stands on the 2600 block of Elm Street, near the Good-Latimer Expressway intersection, looking at one of the many boarded-up buildings that populate Deep Ellum. Most recently, the two-story structure served as a warehouse for the Arrangement, which packed up its…

Wipeout

It took four credited screenwriters to pen a script in which every other word is “dude” or “bra”; but then, how one “writes” or “directs” a film that’s essentially 90 minutes of Matthew McConaughey’s super-stoned summer-vacay footage remains equally un­fathomable, as does its whispered release into theaters before its inevitable…

DISD’s $64 Million Budget Shortfall Caused By “Inadequate Budgeting”

Intern Courtney’s at 3700 Ross Avenue this very moment, where district officials have indeed confirmed a sudden $64-million shortfall — in the 2007-’08 budget. How’d this happen? Well, see, it’s “complicated,” said superintendent Michael Hinojosa, the result of having more teachers and support staff in the schools. “The majority of…