Is Destroying the DISD Really the Best Way to Fix It? Seriously.

Interesting how these things go. Yesterday I posted an item about DART. The comments thread turned into a discussion of DISD. Did people just get confused about the acronyms? I don’t think so. I think the school system is very much on people’s minds now, mainly for bad reasons. The…

Precisely How Many Deadly Sins Can DART Commit at Once, Anyway?

Everybody needs to watch the ongoing KTVT-Channel 11 series by Bennett Cunningham on over-the-top spending at Dallas Area Rapid Transit. People also should go look at the incredible Web presentation 11 has put up. The thing that comes across so powerfully in Channel 11’s hidden-camera pieces is the overall culture…

You Betcha: Week 12

Lee Trevino always says pressure isn’t trying to make a putt to win The Masters. “Pressure,” he maintains, “is trying to make a putt for a $10 bet with only $5 in your pocket.” I feel ya, Merry Mex. Unfortunately, I feel ya loud and clear. With my gas tank…

D? Well, Maybe D-.

Look, let me take one specific portion of the D special issue about the Dallas Independent School District that came out this week and use it to explain why I don’t think much of this stuff is worth reading. This was a sidebar under the byline of our former colleague,…

Is the Mexican Promised Land really in Arizona?

Dear Mexican: In a column some time ago, you mentioned the Aztec prophecy claiming that “their descendants would reclaim ancestral lands in the southwest U.S., and guess what.” I’d appreciate it if you shed a little light on this statement. This is the mythical state of Aztlán you’re referring to,…

You Betcha: Week 11

Give me Bye over the Cowboys. Check that. Thanks to last week’s pin-point analysis and this week’s void in the schedule, I’m guaranteed to go two weeks without a loser on Dallas. Haven’t done that since, oh, August. With the Cowboys resting up for the stretch run, let’s shove our…

Questions from the real El Norte

Dear Readers: So your presidential candidate lost (congratulations; McBama! Our condolences, O’Cain. Damn early deadlines…), and you can’t bear the thought of living under his opponent’s reign for the next cuatro years. Fear not: The other side of America’s bullshit sandwich will save you! The Mexican hereby turns this column…

DISD’s Ghosts of Scandals Past

Uh-oh. Have I been here before? It’s the day before Halloween. I am at Dallas Independent School District headquarters, and I am already seeing ghosts. One is in a real short skirt, and her name is Yvonne. The other one, Waldemar, is holding a tin cup and chortling insanely. They’re…

Election Day … Serenity?

Plenty of good seats available. Been watching some CNN today and was a tad alarmed by the headlines: “Problems at polling stations!” “Record voter turnout!” “New York’s ‘Naked Cowboy’ endorses McCain!” Frightening stuff. So I scurried down to my local polling place at McKinney’s Valley Creek Elementary School and found…

Happy Birthday! Sportatorium Turns 6 (Months, That Is)

Okay, who had 6 months in the office pool? Pay up, sucka. Forgive me for growing a little misty-eyed nostalgic today. It’s because 368 posts and 3,554 comments after debuting with this lil’ diddy, your friendly Sportatorium is suddenly 6 months old. Funny, I don’t feel a day over 2…

You Betcha: Week 10

1-7 on Cowboys’ games this season. That’s 1 win. That’s 7 losses. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Heads or tails? It’s heads. Gimme the New York Giants, minus the 9…

Welcome to the National Armball League

If I were God of Sports, these guys would render kickers extinct. God for a day? Me? Thanks, don’t mind if I do. Richie Almighty. I like the sound of that. Okay, first, bye-bye cancer. Hurricanes = gone. No more wasted money on explorations to the Moon. Resources once pegged…

June Cometh. And, Apparently, He Taketh Away.

Shun the 11-year-olds if you want. But someday they’ll be college freshmen. I had really high hopes for June Jones and SMU. But as far as first impressions go, this year sucks. First, on the field, the offensive guru turned talented quarterback Justin Willis into one of David Copperfield’s assistants,…

You Betcha: Week 9

What’s the only thing less reliable than my picks? Wade Phillips’ 3-4 defense. For a couple years now some smartass has been referring to Dallas’ unit as “Dumbsday.” Last week in coughing up 34 points to the Rams it was abysmal. And this week, despite Phillips taking over the defensive…

Just How “Illegal” Are Illegal Immigrants?

Dear Mexican: One of our Arizona politicians once said on the PBS show Horizonte that the “crime” of being undocumented in this country is equivalent legally to that of a parking ticket. Do you know where I can verify this statement? So often in the argument over immigration the bottom…

DISD’s Confederacy of Jerks

If Obama can be president, is it OK for white people to be assholes again? And, of course, I don’t mean it exactly the way it sounds. I’m worried about the Dallas school system. What I really mean is that it may be time for upwardly mobile middle-class and working-class…

Early Voting Can Be Fun! And Crowded! And Confusing! Also, Troubling!

Cafe Press People are high on anxiety about this election already. And it’s not the election. It’s the deselection. That’s what’s got everybody crazy. I got a call this morning from a gentlemen who’d just early-voted at Harry Stone Montessori. He said his voting machine tried to con him into…

Mavericks Dancers Hold Hands, Show Skin and Throw Party

Photos by Patrick Michels In my Mavs’ fantasy, this is followed by a loving embrace and an 82-0 regular season. Hmm, what oh what could distract us from our Cowboys’ misery today? Two words: Mavericks! Dancers! The squad hyped its shiny, skinderful new calendar with a shindig at Ghostbar after…

You Betcha: Week 8

Count on me being out at the State Fair tomorrow. If you have any rotten fruit laying around, come visit me during my 5-7 p.m. appearance on Live 105.3’s Dan O’Malley Show. Count on Tony Romo being in the Cowboys’ lineup Sunday in St. Louis. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones says…