Dear Opposition Researchers working for U.S. Senate campaigns other than that of former-after-midnight Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert: Please contact me about the following things Leppert is going to say about himself in a campaign. First, he is going to say he led two successful referendum campaigns, one for the Trinity…
New York Times columnist David Brooks, who usually writes from a perspective anyone outside of Texas would consider conservative, has a fascinating column today about Indiana Gov. Mitchell Daniels and why Brooks thinks he should run for president. It’s a catalog of small miracles — some not too teensy –…
*I still don’t fully understand Michael Young leaving Rangers spring training for two days. The team announced it was a “family matter.” Manager Ron Washington said Young “has a family thing.” And Young, as he left, told reporters in Surprise, Arizona that “Everything’s great.” But yesterday on 105.3 The Fan outfielder…
Oh, my gosh, Tom Leppert has made Dwaine Caraway the new mayor — thank you so much for that, Tom — and I just realized I never finished the fictional saga I was writing for you, my cherished readers, about The Adventures of Arthur and Archie. So sorry about that…
How come everything Mexican jumps? They got jumping cars, they jump the fence, and Mexican jumping beans. —Confused Gabacho Dear Gabacho: You forgot the Mexican hat dance, lucha libre, the voladores of Papantla that fling themselves from 100-foot poles, Acapulco’s cliff divers and our preferred way to deal with schoolyard…
Oh, man. You guys call that a protest? You went down there yesterday to tell the Dallas County Commissioners Court what you think of them, and they slapped the spit out of your mouths. Told you to sit down and be quiet. And you did. People, that’s just embarrassing. It’s…
Welcome to Local Music’ Mericans, where we meet some people behind the local music scene — the folks who aren’t necessarily members of a local band, but who still make the scene move. Jonathan Swinnea’s passions are music and social media. Some would say he’s an element of the “new…
Yet another slavishly uncritical fan of Get Off My lawn (I get so bored with their love) — this one with the on-line moniker of Enrique de la Fuente (I assume he is not really the Spanish volleyball Olympian) — wrote yesterday to ask, “What’s your take on Dallas’ poor…
Tuesday the city council’s housing committee will hear about 13 low-income housing projects being considered by city and state officials. As usual, the dot pattern of the proposed developments looks like a case of municipal diaper rash, heavily concentrated in the city’s southern regions. Six city council districts, mainly in…
Hey, Bruce Sherbet fans, I know you mean well, but you’re never going to get anywhere with that stuff about traipsing downtown to the commissioners court meeting and making your little mini-speeches during the open-mic session. Last time you tried it, Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price, the guy who…
Whether you’ve reached the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *Coming to you today live from the Daytona 500. Literally. I awoke this morn — as did hundreds of thousands of NASCAR fans — to the public address blaring first, at…
I gotta say: The coming mayoral election season already smells like a holiday for mediatoids. Things are rockin’ and rollin’ early. Looks to me like the money just tilted way away from North Dallas city council member Ron Natinsky, who thought he had the money. Meanwhile the campaign of former…
Dear Mexican: I’m a white, rural, ninth-generation Texan who left the farm and is now a lawyer for a large corporation in one of the largest cities in the state. Maybe a quarter of the clients they assign me speak Spanish, so the company’s paying for me to learn Spanish…
Tell me first. To be a cool place to live, what does downtown Dallas need? Action. Tons and tons of people, not all super-rich, not all homeless, either. But that’s the problem with downtown. Rich people in the towers. Desperadoes in the alleys. Long empty sidewalks between. For that to…
Got the dreaded Tweet from Lance Armstrong last night: Thanks for all the messages on retirement 2.0. And thanks for ALL the support the past 2.5 yrs. Onward! Retirement 2.0 means two things: 1. The greatest cyclist who ever lived is done riding professionally. 2. His comeback that I was…
I refuse to jump up and down and scream about John Wiley Price. There’s this story floating around the media that they had to shut down yesterday’s meeting of the Dallas County Commissioners Court because Price had a meltdown when some in the peanut gallery called him the county’s “chief…
Welcome to Local Music ‘Mericans, where we’ll be meeting some people behind the local music scene who aren’t necessarily members of a local band, but are more behind-the-scenes folk. Most rock-jocks’ physical appearances tend to be a jarring opposite of how we picture them in our heads. And then there’s…
This is Day Four of the “How Totally Useless Is the Dallas City Council” watch, and you know what my problem is already? I’m bored. This is all about the serial faux pas problem with Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway, who is slated to become the real mayor of…
Time to start a watch. I hereby declare this the beginning of the “How Totally Useless Are the Dallas City Council and Mayor?” watch. Day One. I wrote here yesterday about the huge dilemma City Hall faces with Dwaine Caraway, the council member who is next in line to fill…
Whether you’ve reached the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *Finally some good news for Texas Rangers fans. After whiffing on Cliff Lee and having face-of-the-franchise Michael Young demand a trade, locking up Josh Hamilton for two years relieves some winter…
Just came from that joint meeting of the Downtown Connection Tax Increment Financing District board and Downtown Dallas Development Authority (please don’t ask me what any of that means), and I am happy to report that Ted and Larry Hamilton’s Atmos Center project is a go, with, matter of fact,…
You know what is one of the most common questions I get from people about Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway? They always ask, “What the hell is a mayor pro tem?” Let’s talk about that. Pro tem is a shortened version of the Latin phrase pro tempore. According to…
