Opinion & Commentary

Dear Mexican: As an old gringo who calls himself a gringo (not a gabacho), I study Mexican culture and ask myself, “Where have I seen this before?” The answer invariably is: 1950s America, that’s where. Current Mexican culture in the United States is about 50 years behind current American culture…

The drums are sounding in the night. Lot of action here last week on the biko front, indicating pent-up interest and a growing constituency. One commenter claimed that only 8 percent of Portland residents are regular cyclists but the entire city council is made up of bikos. I think his…

Whether you’re at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *OK, OK,  I get it. So I write that Dez Bryant almost assuredly wouldn’t be signed by Day 1 of Dallas Cowboys’ training camp. “Barring an 11th-hour agreement … ” I…

A new phrase enters my impoverished lexicon: “North Oak Cliff snobbery.” I had called an East Dallas biko leader to ask about something, and he used that phrase in reference to North Oak Cliff bikos. My gosh. The Dallas biko world is now so entrenched and plentiful, it’s dividing itself…

Whenever I come across news accounts of sudden shocking budget catastrophes at DART, our regional transit agency, I think back to the sudden shocking budget catastrophes a reporter friend of mine used to have. This was at the beginning of my newspaper career when I was still young and dumb…

Dear Mexican: I heard Mormonism is a quickly spreading religion down in ye olde Mexico. What is it about this religion that a lot of Mexicans find so fascinating? —Jack Mormón Dear Gabacho: Historically? Mexico has long had the second-largest community of Mormons in the world after the United States—official…

Tell you what. I will agree to leave the Coppell mayor murder-suicide story alone and stop stirring the pot just as soon as everybody else does. But today I have yet another pot-stirring by somebody else to deal with. Mark Davis, the conservative talk-show guy who writes op-ed pieces for…

Floyd Landis says he doped. Greg LeMond says he doped. The entire country of France says he doped. But did Lance Armstrong ever dope? I want to believe. I need to believe. I’m desperate for just one of our sports heroes – Roger Staubach and Nolan Ryan notwithstanding – to…

10. Going to Vegas, London, Mexico, etc. is nice and all, but sometimes staying put feels right. 9. 36 holes of golf in one day is plenty. 8. SMU worked hard to attract a special coach like June Jones. I hope they work just as hard to keep him. 7. We’re…

That’s it. I have waited three days. Time to speak up. Where are all of the outrage junkies who couldn’t wait to pour salt in the wounds of bereaved Dallas Police Chief David Brown over the death of his cop-killer son? Why aren’t they venting at roughly the same decibel…

Whether you’re at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End (Fish’s Tales?): *A note from Rangers Ballpark: LeBron James fell out of the upper deck while reaching for more attention. *If police have this right, the mayor of Coppell leaves notes…

Dear Mexican: Most Mexicans I know (myself included) feel it’s a terrible disrespect to keep old photos around of you and your ex, and vice versa. I’d never keep around pictures of myself and an ex to try and push my new/current boyfriend’s buttons; I guess I feel it’s a…

I think I just saw it. Caught a glimpse anyway. The Trinity River Project knuckle-under. I could be wrong. But I do consider myself a world-class expert. I believe I just saw Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson do it. Listen. I’ve been covering this project for 12 years. I’m so familiar…

Whether you’re at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *Hope last night doesn’t come back to haunt the Texas Rangers down the road. Despite leading 4-0 with undefeated pitcher Tommy Hunter on the mound in Arlington, the Rangers imploded late…

Note from Jim: In the last week of April I asked the city to tell me how many guaranteed low-income housing units are available in downtown Dallas. There should be lots of them by now -a a couple thousand by some estimates — because over the decades, the city has…

Dear Mexican: I’m a (poor) white girl myself, but I have to ask: What’s the deal with all the rich white girls playing such a big role in Fiesta? Why is it always rich white girls that get crowned? Don’t you think the majority of them should be Mexican girls…

Everybody is on such pins and needles, walking on eggshells at City Hall about the police chief thing. You know they’ve gone over to the weird side when they appoint a special funeral procession prosecutor. City Hall has handed off the controversy over the cortege for Police Chief David Brown’s…

On Thursday we will get an interesting first official bite of the apple in complaints that the city of Dallas flouts federal law and practices racial discrimination in its downtown housing policies. The board of directors of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs will ask downtown developers Ted…

[jump] *Keep an eye on SMU football. Something’s not right. I know head coach June Jones supposedly signed a lucrative contract extension last November, but he can’t be happy at all by these players being dismissed from his team and recruits not being accepted into school because of SMU’s ridiculously…

Dear Readers: The Arizona pendejas have emboldened hundreds of Know Nothings in the past week to boast to the Mexican that they’re not racist if they support SB 1070 because, according to them, they believe in the law, and they have no problems with immigrants as long as they’re legal…

We earn disasters like the Gulf oil spill. We bring them on ourselves by breaking the rules every time the rules get in our way. Houston attorney Jim Blackburn, one of the nation’s top environmental lawyers, talked to me last week about efforts by Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert to get…