Dear readers: The Mexican’s new book, Orange County: A Personal History, is in your local bookstore on September 16—by pure coincidence, Mexican Independence Day! In honor of and to shamelessly promote my muy caliente libro, which deals with America’s Gomorrah, the Reconquista, and John Wayne, I’m answering historical questions this…
Wow! Dust off your Livestrong bracelets and prepare to make molehills out of mountains. Lance Armstrong, the 7-time Tour de France champ and Plano East High School alum, is baaaack. — Richie Whitt…
This photo just slays ’em. Slays ’em I tell ya. Couple of, um, interesting(?) goings-on this weekend involving names near and somewhat dear to our lil’ corner of the blogosphere: FRIDAY: Does the name Greg Williams clang a wind chime? I hear that ol’ Hammer – whose new show debuts…
After correctly predicting SMU’s pratfall at Rice, I’m faced with two options: 1. Quit while I’m ahead. 2. Continue amassing my fortune. Since I have, you could say, a small “problem” with integrating No. 1 into my life, let’s give No. 2 a spin shall we? The Cowboys on Sunday…
On November 6, 2007, a referendum to kill the Trinity River toll road failed at the polls. I was for the referendum. The side I was on lost. I think I was fairly open about what my attitude would be from then forward. Sour grapes. What’s wrong with sour grapes?…
Dear Mexican: I’m an illegal alien. Got here on a tourist visa and stayed for a job. My gabacho employer knows about it and doesn’t give a crap. I don’t apologize about it, as ever since I can remember, the United States of America has meddled around other countries’ business…
How, oh how, do we stop the hurricanes? In perhaps the most illogical idea since the Republicans tabbed a Vice Presidential nominee with a resume as flimsy as Janine Turner’s on Northern Exposure, an old soccer buddy and I tossed this about over Labor Day Weekend: Why can’t we stop…
Run ‘n Shootin’ the wad? SMU’s June Jones era starts tonight in Houston. New uniforms (back to the white helmets of the Pony Express). New quarterback (Katy freshman Bo Levi Mitchell is in and two-year starter and record-setter Justin Willis is kaput.) New results?…
Dear Mexican: Why do Mexicans paint stripes on their donkeys in Tijuana? —Avenida Revolución Reveller Dear Gabacho: Same reason we put worms in tequila bottles, celebrate Cinco de Mayo and star in Beverly Hills Chihuahua: to cheat gabachos out of cash. To paraphrase the classic dictum: a gabacho and his…
You may or may not read blogs. I’m not sure which way to advise you. Some local politics, news and sports blogs do provide a better window on the city than what you get from mainstream media. But you may need to keep a clothespin handy for your nose. For…
In the end, I’m not totally convinced that it matters. Name this band and win – oh, I dunno – a year’s free subscription to The Sportatorium? Find and return a certain sportswriter’s shoe somewhere in the mosh pit and win two years. By the way, best concert this summer…
I know. We’ll just do this as an IQ test. Here’s the situation: You’re a builder. The law says you can only build a new condo building on Oram Street in East Dallas 36 feet or three stories up from the ground. You want to go up four stories, so…
Dear Mexican: I am the proud uncle of five Mexican-redneck kids who recently moved to Wausau with their mamá Wisconsiana after living in la Capirucha all their lives. I’ve talked to them on the phone several times a week since they left for la tierra de los sueños materializados, and…
Thought we’d see a lot — and I mean a lot — of this in 2008. Thought wrong. I’ll have much more on this in next week’s column in the dead-tree version of The Sportatorium, but it commands addressing right here and right about now. Justin Willis won’t be SMU’s…
This is the last you’ll see of this sign, as it’s been scrubbed from the side of Booker T. Washington for good. Can you call off the dogs if you’re one of them? Too deep for me. Anyway, I admit that I was very upset when I heard that the…
Where the Ross Brothers are buried, really, from the Save Ross Web site Speaking of Ross Avenue, a Web site has been created to save the street — at least, its original name. The site, which comes complete with a petition, warns people that renaming Dallas’s proud Ross Avenue for…
Dear Mexican: As a Mexican, I’m always ashamed of the fact that a lot of Mexican women just come to the United States to have babies and to use this country’s welfare. I know a lot of them that just keep having children, and they do not pay a dollar…
Aha. Finally got my documents from Dallas Area Regional Transit. Think I may be on to something. Last November DART announced it was suddenly almost a billion dollars short in its budget for new rail line construction. DART gets its money from you. It is committed to building new lines…
Ugliest kind of scoreboard. I realize this is waaaay off topic for our little sports blog extravaganza, but I think this is worth a bending the rules. In case you haven’t heard, our economy sucks. There’s a housing crisis. We put our house on the market last October and got…
Mark Graham As we mentioned in 2001, Santos Rodriguez is buried at Oakland Cemetery amongst Dallas’s elite. This is the kind of morning I dread. I wake up. I pour coffee. I turn to The Dallas Morning News editorial page. I read things there that make sense. I hate this…
Dear Mexican: Where I recently started working, Latinos make up about 95 percent of the workforce. We are, however, prohibited from speaking Spanish. Our supervisor tells us that if we can so much as speak one word of English, that we cannot speak in Spanish. We are constantly being threatened…
By any chance, were you ever one of those people from a church or synagogue or mosque or some other outfit that used to come downtown in a van and feed the homeless? I say, “used to,” because, as you know, feeding the homeless is all taken care of now…
