Business People Taking an Interest in DISD May Not Be All Bad, In Theory

Yikes. Now I have to say I found something good on The Dallas Morning-News op-ed page today. Will my Job-like suffering never end? In today’s Dallas’-only-daily-newspaper (alas), Mark Melton, an attorney at Hunton & Williams, has written an essay about the involvement of the “business community” in the Dallas public…

Thanks, Nanny State, for Looking Out for My Ass

I’d like to say a quick thank you to the Nanny State, before the moment passes and I forget all about spending a good deal of Tuesday cowering in a downstairs bathroom preparing to find out what my everlasting reward will be. Hey, thanks, Nanny State. Couldn’t have made it…

Are There Different Kinds of Mexican Food?

Dear Readers: Nearly four years after promising ustedes that I was going to write a book about the history of Mexican food in the United States, my Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America is getting released this week! April 10! Three-hundred-plus pages of astounding history (did you know the…

The Calatrava Isn’t a Bridge; It’s a Bridgehead for Developers

I am terribly embarrassed by the short film I offered here yesterday about driving over the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge for the first time. The comments on my cinematography, direction, editing and narration have been scathing, scathing! Shockingly caustic. I just feel utterly scathed. I get the message, people. It’s…

Big Biz Made a Bargain With the GOP’s Devils. Here Comes the Bill.

Big business is finally figuring out what Democrats have been saying since the worst days of George W: that the genius idea of Bush’s brain, Karl Rove, was a Faustian bargain with that powerful and elusive element of American political landscape — the ignorati. Now the ignorati are demanding their…

What’s With all the Spanish in this Columna?

Dear Mexican: Stop using Spanish in your column. I like reading your column, but when every other word is in Spanish, I don’t know what the hell is going on. It makes you sound like that nerdy kid who uses big words to try and sound impressive. Don’t be lazy,…

Class Wafare? Fine, Let’s Get This Party Started.

The Republican presidential candidates all agree on one thing — the same mantra between all their lines. They all want us to believe that the extreme polarity of rich and poor in this country is an expression of natural law. The super-rich just have to get super-richer. Everybody else, sadly,…

The News Buries the Lede in the Komen Story

Just want to make sure you know what you’re getting into if you count on The Dallas Morning News to tell you what’s up. It’s not that they won’t. But you do have to deal with the social local filter. The New York Times this morning carries a story by…

Why Do Mexicans Look Down on Chicanos?

Dear Mexican: I was born in los estados unidos, my father is Tamaulipas and my mother is a third-generation Chicana. Being married to a mexicano, we recently vacationed in his hometown of Apatzingan, Michoacán. It was my first time meeting my in-laws and everyone from his colonia. It seems I…