If you're tired of reading about the big financial-system bailout, DISD screwups and how great the Dallas Cowboys look this year, check out these diversions in today's Dallas Morning News:
• Remember the big city council vote in May 2007 to criminalize "displaying or brandishing a replica firearm in public? I don't remember it either, and apparently it's a law that even the police have forgotten about. Dave Levinthal reports that since the ordinance was passed, not a single ticket has been written for a violation — talk about your effective ordinance or your irrelevant one; take your pick. In the story, Levinthal asks councilman Angela Hunt: Was it all a big waste of time and resources? "Probably so," she says.
Continue reading "Daily news roundup: Big Tex, Barefoot, toy guns and Warren Culbertson" »
It's on. Our neighborhood's two biggest rivals will battle it out on the football field this Friday. Kickoff for the JJ Pearce-Richardson game is at 7:30 p.m. at the Mustang-Eagle stadium.
There will be a Chipotle-sponsored 6 p.m. tailgate party for all the Mustangs in the parking lot of Westwood Junior High. No word yet on where the Eagles are meeting.
This is one of those games where I really don't know which side of the stadium to sit on. I am a JJ Pearce graduate, so that technically makes me a Mustang. But my older brother played football for Richardson, so I'm hardwired to cheer for the Eagles. I'm torn, but I suppose on some level this is a win-win situation because I'll be happy to see either team win. Good luck to all the Mustangs and Eagels, and may the best team win.
I'm a Dallasite (with deep roots in North Dallas and greater Lakewood) who's in exile in Manhattan, and watching Monday night's Cowboys game -- the last Monday Night Football game in Texas Stadium! -- was an emotional experience. I remember going there with my dad, who would die in 1975; with my closest friend -- a frigid playoff loss to the Rams, then of Los Angeles; as a Morning News reporter to cover a mishap at a playoff game against the Vikings in 1977 (or early January in '78) in which a guy's snowman costume caught fire from a vendor's sterno can. (A drunk called the newsroom to slurringly tell us: "Dallas kills presidents and hates Vikings' fans.") My favorite moment from last night: T.O. egging on the crowd to cheer in the closing minutes, and there wasn't an empty seat in the house. I called my mom (also in exile, in South Carolina), and she also was emotional. At that moment, we were both missing and loving Dallas. ... What are your favorite Texas Stadium moments?
If you’re convinced you have the best swing this side of LBJ Freeway, now’s your chance to call dibs on those neighborhood bragging rights. The annual Brentfield golf tournament is just around the corner (Tuesday, Oct. 7)—but registration has just opened. The tournament will be at the Canyon Creek Country Club, which I hear has one of the best courses in our neighborhood. If you’d like to sign up, just contact Scott Aronson for more information.
This day has been creeping closer and closer for the past few years, and finally the city has decided it's time to bring in some money by attempting to sell naming rights to the Cotton Bowl — this courtesy of the Dallas Observer. The city says the "Cotton Bowl" aspect of the name must remain as part of any deal (i.e., it will be the Federal Express Cotton Bowl rather than the FedEx Bowl), and it's casting about for a 10-year deal in the neighborhood of $500,000 to $1 million annually. Apparently, the city isn't concerned that the Cotton Bowl game itself is moving to Jerry Jones' Arlington palace in 2010 and the Texas-OU game is only signed through 2015. Additionally, the city council and the landmark commission will have to sign off on any proposed deal, so this whole thing is likely to take a long time and become kind of messy. On the other hand, it might not happen: We wrote about the city looking for naming rights on the Fair Park Esplanade fountains in April and haven't heard any further developments on that front.
In July, we brought you the stories of neighbors who immigrated here. And this month, we brought you the stories of neighbors who have competed in the Olympics.
Fifteen-hundred meter runner Lopez Lomong just happens to fit the bill for both.
Lomong actually credits running with saving his life. As a 6-year-old boy in his homeland of Sudan, a militia faction abducted him with the hopes of turning him into a child solider. He escaped that militia camp by squeezing through a hole in the fence, and then traveling by foot for three days until he reached Kenya. There he was arrested and spent the next 10 years in a prison camp.
As a teenager, considered one of the "Lost Boys of Sudan," he was resettled with a family in New York. It wasn't long until he excelled as a track star, eventually qualifying for the U.S. Olympic team.
Lomong became a U.S citizen about a year ago--and tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. you can watch him take on one of the greatest honors bestowed on an American: he was selected to be the U.S. flag bearer during the opening ceremonies at this year’s Olympics. Now if that doesn’t make you feel at least a little twinge of patriotism, I don’t know what will.
