Dear Mexican: I have a question from one Mexican to another: Why do gabachos think we know everything about plants? During conversations with the estadounidenses, I will get asked about plants, pruning, how to keep roses alive, etc. I understand many of my compatriotas working over here are gardeners (and…
I want you to see me here, sitting at my desk with my left hand clamped over my mouth. My right hand is twisting my own right ear. Painfully. What am I doing? Easy. I’m controlling myself. I am about to talk about the Trinity River Project—our decades-old massive public…
Unite Here!, the New York City-based labor organization gathering signatures for a referendum on subsidies to developers, tells me it will turn in its petitions tomorrow — and with plenty more than the required 20,000 signatures. City Secretary Debra Watkins told me this afternoon it isn’t clear that will mean…
Jim already offered his recap from the opening of Decorazon Gallery’s Farewell Shoes for Mr. Bush exhibition, which went down in Oak Cliff Thursday night.What he didn’t tell you was that his dogged pursuit of this story in recent weeks earned him an invitation from gallery owners Hugo Garcia-Urrutia and…
Whether you’re at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *So Jerry Jones wanted Dan Reeves to pledge working X amount of hours per week. Maybe it’s part of the owner’s new get-tough policy, but isn’t that ridiculous? I seem to…
The Farewell Shoes for Mr. Bush show at Decorazon Gallery in Oak Cliff was a great success last night. Across the street from Hattie’s in Bishop Arts, the gallery was wall-to-wall, cheek by jowl and elbows with artists, lookers, glancers and general voyeurs. I was there, of course.But I came…
My corner of the blogosphere was in its infancy – 14 days old, in fact – when I first lampooned the ridiculous, dangerous, 14-mile stretch of Central Expressway from Dallas to Allen known as the HOV lane. My road-ragey rant went something like this: The HOV lane dividers are made of what, light…
I guess I read The Dallas Morning News every morning just to make sure my bile ducts are still working. Today we have a story by Michael Lindenberger proving that, with the right editors, you can make even a good reporter look like a fool.I am talking about Lindenberger’s story…
The Trinity River Project calls on all of us to use our imaginations. Standing before the scenic overlook, I imagine a beautiful river bordered by clever cafés and chic shops and folks of all shades cycling and kayaking. Someone is playing an accordion. I keep imagining.Now I imagine that I…
Dear Mexican: I can’t tell you how disappointed I’ve been these past few days, as a U.S. citizen and ciudadano mexicano, how I’ve been seeing more and more stories about los narcos and how the Mexican government keeps getting screwed over in newspapers. I think that you should dedicate a…
“Very seldom could you pull off an accord in a project if every time you had to wait for some kind of public referendum. The timing justdoesn’t work.” A petition drive under way right now in Dallas calls for a citywide election on tax subsidies from City Hall to developers…
It’s the tale of two cities: In this Dallas Morning News story, today’s closed-door meeting between staffs of the City of Dallas and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is all about irritating bureaucratic delays in the Trinity River toll road project. In this WFAA-Channel 8 story, we learn that…
Whether you’re at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *The Cowboys fined Martellus Bennett one game check for an obscenity-laced and offensive rap video. Interesting to see what they’ll do to Anthony Spencer, who actually broke the law and got…
The Friends of Unfair Park know what’s happening. Just this morning, one of them hopped on a four-month old item about Detroit’s disgraced ex-mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, to warn Dallas about his impending arrival — just as soon as he gets out of the joint. Unfair Park had reported last September…
“We have a policythat says we willnot expand theaccess into our city by even one laneof additionalautomobile traffic.” Unfortunately for me, life is not always a conspiracy. Sometimes it’s just how people think. Which can change. Last week I attended a day-long seminar put on by City Manager Mary Suhm…
Dear Mexican: I am a naturalized (legal) hispano in the U.S., and I just realized what the “illegal” craze is about. What immigrant-bashing citizens are trying to protect here are people like…me. Consider what this concerned woman said to John McCain during a public meeting in New Hampshire last year…
The Dallas City Council’s Trinity River Corridor Project Committee gets a briefing at 9:30 this morning on hurdles facing the Trinity River toll road project. They’ll have people there from the North Texas Tollway Authority and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. I really wish they had thought to ask…
Something tells me the inventor of basketball planned neither on 100-0 winners nor 100-point-loser celebrities. I just threw up in my Raisin Bran. Now, where’d I … put … my … ah, there it is … soap box. America has gone softer than Bob Dole without his Viagra and it makes…
[jump] *No matter if he ultimately sucks or not, you’ll never forget where you were the day 1.4 million Americans converged on D.C. to watch Obama stroll up Pennsylvania Ave. I’m as jaded as they come, but that produced a chill down my spine and a tear in my eye…
Dear Mexican: Mi hermano y yo tenemos un dispute. We all know that Mexicans love their bistec sliced muy thin, but why? My brother is adamant that the diet of free-range vacas mexicanas results in tough meat, necessitating a thin slice for easy mastication. I think the reason is purely…
On January 9, Nelson wrote a signed column for the op-ed page in which she told how she personally had forced city officials to tear down a bad building in southern Dallas. She said it was part of a personal crusade. Nelson said she had heard from people in southern…
From the big seminar at the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library today: City council is hearing experts from Canada and Virginia tell them how to do civilized development. The big question, of course: Why would we want to be civilized?One irony: The Canadian guy told them Vancouver has no freeways…
