Back Talk Lakewood/East Dallas

Doggie nearly poisoned in a White Rock area back yard

Yesterday an assistance dog was almost poisoned. Here's the story. The owners luckily found the mound of rat poison in their White Rock-area back yard before sweet Frischa, a small Doberman Pinscher ingested a lethal dose. This is just weird — it looks intentional. Someone placed the poison in the family's backyard. The dog isn't yappy — doesn't hardly leave the house, they say (not that yappy dogs deserve to die ... insert snarky comment here). There's just no motive for something like this. So pet owners, one more thing to look out for.

Toll roads: Texans say no -- loudly

Or, on a scale of 10, 45 percent of us give toll roads a grade of 4 or less and nearly a quarter of us give it a zero. That's the result of a survey taken by the Texas Lyceum think tank, which looked at Texans' attitudes toward building and paying for new highways. And what do we like even less? Tolling existing roads, where opposition increased to 69 percent, including 53 percent who "strongly" oppose tolls on existing highways. Think tolls on LBJ to pay for its upkeep and maintenance, and you'll get the idea.

Cyclist's friends raise spirits, awareness

Over the weekend there was a picnic at White Rock Lake in support of local cyclist Paul Jerde who suffered a serious head injury when he was hit by a car on Mockingbird near Buckner close to White Rock Lake earlier this month.

Paul's friends, family and supporters had decorated the bridge at Mockingbird with well-wising posters and photos of Paul — part of their effort to raise awareness about bicycle safety.

They've also set up a blog where they keep track of Paul's progress.

Mockingbird tolls: One final thought

My column in the July magazine looked at the Mockingbird issue through a decidedly local perspective: How our local officials, faced with an easy way to score points with voters, didn't. Hardly anyone spoke out on the issue, which had tremendous ramifications for Dallas. And why didn't they? Because that would have meant paying attention to the voters, something that they're not all that excited about these days.

Two other notes to the story, the first from the cabbie who drove me home from Love Field on Friday (complete with $1.50 fuel surcharge). I'm sure glad they decided not to toll Mockingbird, he said without me even asking. How hard would that have been on me?

And, if you had read the Park Cities newspaper owned by our friends at plastic surgery's favorite local magazine, you would have learned that tolling Mockingbird was never a serious proposal, but rather was sensationalized by the media: "Highland Park town officials are fighting back against 'twisted' reports that they are looking to charge non-resident drivers to use Mockingbird Lane."

Twisted, indeed.

Technorati Tags: Mockingbird Lane tolls,Advocate magazines

ATT moves to Dallas and other blogginess

Catching up after spending a week on the road (and yes, the airports were a zoo):

• AT&T. Yes, it's big news that AT&T is bringing its corporate headquarters to downtown Dallas. But let's not lose perspective. The company is only moving 700 of its 6,000 San Antonio-based employees, and it already has offices downtown and almost 13,000 employees in the area. This is not quite the same thing as American moving to the area, lock and stock and runway, in 1979.

• Restaurant coupons. Got another one over the weekend, this time for the Chic-fil-a on Central Expressway. There are three offers, all for free food with almost no restrictions.

• Lake Highlands tussle. Our friends in Lake Highlands had a spirited, almost East Dallas-like debate, over the city council's approval of senior citizen housing at Skillman and Church. Lake Highlands is going to be the poster child for what city planners want to do with density in traditional neighborhoods, a role I do not relish for them.

• Sales tax revenue update. And who says Dallas' Only Daily Newspaper can't learn from others? Last week, it posted Dallas' sales tax revenue for the first six months of 2008. Just like we did here six weeks ago, when we discovered that the city projected a 5.9 percent increase. The actual increase is 2.4 percent. And its parent company's stock hit a yet another record low last week, closing at $5.70 after going as low as $5.51.

Technorati Tags: AT&T,Dallas City Council,Dallas Morning News,Chick-fil-a,restaurant coupons,Lake Highlands

No smoking in Dallas bars: It could happen, and soon

A press conference at city hall Monday is the first salvo in a huge campaign to outlaw smoking just about everywhere in Dallas where it isn't already outlawed, including bars and taverns — almost the only places left where a smoker can smoke within the city limits, according to the DMN. Monday's press conference is being hosted by a group of heavy-hitters against smoking, including the American Cancer Society, UT Southwestern and the American Heart Association. Mayor Tom Leppert and councilman Ron Natinsky already are on-record as supporting the full-fledged ban, which will probably be acted on in August when the council returns from its summer break.

White Rock Lake neighbors live life to the greenest

Here's something interesting in the DMN: A neighborhood couple opened the doors to its 1.25-acre property on the west shore of White Rock Lake, talking about life on the lake as well as their environmentally friendly lifestyle. John and Margie Haley have bees and chickens on the property, as well as hybrid cars, a solar oven, solar panels, sustainable landscaping and the like. The story also includes a roster of resources about renewable energy and living green.

DISD incompetence: Par for the course or a breath of fresh air?

The News did a follow-up story on the recently released DISD audit, and the story raises an interesting question: Is finding "incompetence" at DISD good news or bad? The story looks at both sides of that question. Those who think it's good news believe that Supt. Michael Hinojosa now has the ammunition he needs, as well as the funding, to solve this problem for the most part in the next couple of years. Those who think the audit means bad news for DISD seem to believe that uncovering incompetence at DISD isn't that difficult, has been done plenty of times in the past, and just shows that the goofs running the asylum now are no different from the many sets of goofs we've had during the past 20 years. As I said before here, DISD's biggest problem has been too many leaders lasting only a year or two or three, giving the incompetent staff there a chance to keep hiding in plain sight while each new leader figures his/her way around the district, only to be gone before being able to take action and be responsible for who works there. If Hinosjosa sticks around another five or 10 years, we won't be able to use that excuse anymore, but right now, it works.

Coupons, restaurants and the slowing economy

How does 25 percent off any check of $20 or more at any Black-eyed Pea sound? Or 20 percent off a food order at any of Picasso's three neighborhood locations?

These are not your typical restaurant coupon offers, which tend to run toward a free drink or buy one entree, get a second lower-priced entree free. These are substantial, almost no strings attached deals, and you don't see those very often. The Black-eyed Pea came in the mail; the Picasso's came in my email.

But the Picasso's coupon (which expires Monday) is up front: "Picasso's would like to keep your wallet filled while your gas tank is emptying it."

This ties in to a couple of recent posts here about local restaurants weathering $4 gas and the slowing economy. And it's apparently not as bad here as elsewhere in the country. The National Restaurant Association reports that its business index has declined five of the past six months, "and their outlook for sales growth in the months ahead remains uncertain."

Technorati Tags: Picasso's,Black-eyed Pea,restaurants,coupons,economy

Live from New York ... it's George Carlin one last time

Saturday Night Live will give good ol' George Carlin a proper sendoff by airing an episode he hosted — an extra special episode — the first SNL ever. I've never seen it, and after watching the clips here, I'm looking forward to it. When Carlin died last week of apparent heart complications, there were a lot of articles, news packages and blogs remembering him as an edgy, foul-mouthed trouble-making comedic genius with drug problems, an arrest or two, and some hilarious routines that have gone down in history.

With that sort of reputation, it's interesting that my children know him only as the conductor from "Shining Time Station" — the miniature magic man (video) who introduced them to Thomas the Tank, who regularly offered up nuggets of wisdom, and appeared and disappeared in a poof of pixie dust.

I think it was this paradoxical personality that appealed to so many of us.