Back Talk Far North Dallas

Your Friday Productivity Killer

It's a busy Friday — early voting, last minute Halloween-costume shopping, etc. — so I wanted to bring you all something you could enjoy quickly. I chanced upon this site a few years ago, and have never been able to get it out of my head. It's Buenoa Aires resident Diego Goldberg's photographic chronicle of his family's growth over 32 years. Whenever I go back to it, I find myself inventing little stories to, say, explain why Nicolas had such a short haircut in 1987 (gum incident?) or why, despite the rest of his family's near-constant sober stares, Matias, the middle son, often can't seem to get the smile out of his eyes. The accompanying video by ABC News is short and cute.

It's fascinating, isn't it, to see a family evolve before your very eyes? 

Around the web: Cute pets, college tuition, trapped in a toilet, ghost busters

A regular roundup of stuff that wouldn’t necessarily make it on the blog, but is worth noting:

• USA Today notes that some doctors won’t let pets visit their owners in the hospital. I wasn’t aware this was a problem. Nevertheless, says one doctor, "I receive phone calls virtually weekly" from veterinarians phoning on behalf of clients who are distressed because a physician has issued a no-pets advisory.

• College tuition costs are still going up, and it doesn’t look like the situation is going to get better any time soon. Though costs didn’t increase as much as inflation, financial aid is not keeping pace with the rise in tuition. Says one of the experts who worked on the study: “From a family's point of view, college doesn't become cheaper just because other prices went up.”

• At least he wasn’t on an airplane, right? A passenger on a French train had to be rescued by firemen after having his arm sucked down the on-board toilet. The 26-year-old victim was trapped when he tried to get his cell phone, which had fallen into the toilet bowl.

• And, just in time for Halloween, a ghost busters story from the New York Times. May favorite part? The Realtor who discussed whether she has an obligation to tell prospective buyers that the house may be haunted: “Just last week I got a call from a past client who was calling for a friend who’d leased a place and wasn’t happy because it was haunted,” she said. “He wanted his deposit back. I told him the best thing his friend could do was plead his case.”

Technorati Tags: pets and hospitals,college tuition,toilets,Halloween,ghost busters

Leppert says our votes count. Except for the convention center hotel?

Here's an interesting juxtaposition: Mayor Tom Leppert is circulating an email with the top headline saying "Convention Center Hotel Critical to Dallas' Future", while the second item is headlined "Vote! It's Your Voice!" (Click here to download tom_leppert_email.pdf and see the email.)

The irony: At least one Leppert spokespuppet on the council already has chortled out loud that even if Dallas residents vote in favor of a potential referendum scuttling the $550 million taxpayer-owned convention center hotel downtown, those votes won't stop the council from moving forward to build the hotel.

So whose voice is Leppert talking about?

Crime Alert: possible attempted child abduction near Mohawk Elementary

There's a crime alert that neighbors (especially parents) need to know about:

According to a post on the Highlands North HOA website, a couple of weeks ago a child was leaving school at Mohawk Elementary when he was approached by an older man in a white Dodge truck and asked to get in the vehicle. The child ignored the man, and then got in his parent's car. He immediately told his parent what happened, and they reported it to the school. The incident has been reported to police, and neighborhood crime watch groups are being encouraged to let neighbors know what happened.

This weekend: "Make Me A Song" at WaterTower Theatere

A new show is opening this weekend at the WaterTower Theatre. "Make Me A Song" is a musical revue of of songs by famed theater composer William Finn. A quartet of singers and pianist will take the stage to preform some of this greatest works. If you'd like to check out one of the performances, or buy your tickets, just visit the WaterTower Theatre website.
 

Mercy Wine Bar: Halloween special

Forget that trick-or-treating mess, we adults prefer our calories in the form of wine. And if you go in costume to Mercy on Halloween, you'll get a pretty sweet treat: 50% off your total bill (and yes, that includes all the wine you drink).

Halloween blood and food drive

The folks at the RE/MAX Premier office at the corner of Preston and Belt Line are hosting a Halloween party this Thursday from noon to 4--and they're asking neighbors to bring food bank donations, or to donate blood at the on site Carter Blood Care bus.  You can swing by there with any nonperishable food items you'd like to donate--or if you'd like to sign up for a specific blood donation time so you don't have to wait, call 972.991.1616.

A credit card solicitation every week — what's up with that?

Not surprising news from credit card firms is that they're tightening credit, raising interest rates and taking cards away from some people. But buried in the story about the credit crunch is this interesting tidbit: "Mail offers to new and existing customers are on pace to drop below 8.4 billion pieces, the lowest level since 2004." A little quick math shows that 8.4 billion credit card solicitations divided by 300 million U.S. residents means that each of us, on average, received 28 mail solicitations this year. And if you further parse the numbers, eliminating about half of the population that is (or at least should be) too young to receive a credit card and people who don't have any income, that means that the rest of us receive about one credit card solicitation per week. No wonder so many people have more credit than they need or can handle.

Dallas home resale price drop is minimal compared with other U.S. cities

Another of the many stories in the good news/bad news vein these days: The DMN headlines its latest residential real estate story "U.S. home resale prices dive 16.6% as Dallas' dip 2.7%." Further good news for our area from the story: Among the 20 major U.S. cities tracked in this particular study, our area had the smallest decline in home prices compared with sales in August 2007, while Phoenix and Las Vegas both reported drops exceeding 30%. More bad news nationally was that the results from 13 of the 20 markets surveyed had worsened from the month before, including the Dallas-Fort Worth area (but by a pretty negligible 0.2%). Bottom line: Things aren't great in the rest of the country, but we're doing pretty well here on a relative basis. I couldn't find the DMN link for its story, but if you want to look at the actual study, click here and then download the August study pdf.

Wine review: Colonia las Liebres 2007

Argentina is best known for malbec, which it has turned into the country’s national grape. Wine drinkers associate malbec with Argentina in the same way that people associate shiraz with Australia. But that doesn’t mean the country’s winemakers don’t produce other interesting wines.

The las Liebres (about $10 at World Market) is made with an Italian variety called bonardo, and by Italians in Argentina, apparently. It’s certainly worth a taste. The wine is fruity and ripe, with lots of blackberry, very little in the way of tannins, and no oak. It’s a heftier, darker version of Beaujolais nouveau. Drink this with any tomato-based Italian dish, grilled sausages or barbecue.

One note about the vintage: The current release is 2007, but there is still some 2006 in the stores. The ‘06 is equally fine.