Local Author Turns Pole Dancer?

Charles has offered to do the pole dance, see comments. I know it’s for chicks but maybe they’ll let us bring a guy just once. The publicity from the photos of Geilich on the pole would be…wow! Maybe we could get Jason to take a spin too.

Rowlett Upset Over ‘Shill’ Accusation

Preston Hollow resident and longtime local television-news anchor Tracy Rowlett decided this week to share with us his reasons for leaving KTVT (CBS Channel 11) and heading for Shale.TV. The online video channel is sponsored solely by Chesapeake Energy Corporation and is dedicated to covering the Barnett Shale. 

Rowlett said his decision to leave KTVT (CBS Channel 11) stemmed from his frustrations with current television news reporting practices.

“This isn’t really news that we are getting today. It is more of a smattering of less important information that is being presented for a specific age group,” Rowlett said. “That is women, 18 to 49. So we are getting a lot of car wrecks and fires and vanity pieces — that is the latest diet or the latest plastic surgery or whatever. But these are not important items in our community.”

Rowlett was also less than pleased about being called a shill by members of the Dallas media. 

“’He’s sold out, he’s a shill,’” Rowlett said as he parroted his critics from the confines of his Preston Hollow home. “That is the easiest thing in the world to say … It takes a little more brainpower to understand what we are doing.”

You can read more about it here. Once you’ve heard Tracy speak his peace, leave us your thoughts and opinions in the comments section. 

Do you think Tracy and the rest of the Shale.TV staff can provide an unbiased view of drilling in the Barnett Shale? Or is it some elaborate PR campaign aimed at improving Chesapeake Energy’s public image? �

Re: Journalism at its Finest

My personal favorite YouTube news story is Bubb Rubb and the Whistler Tips

The Top of Every Parkie Man’s Xmas Wish List

Let’s face it. Every man wants to be a superhero. In the Park Cities, I’m betting a lot of men wish they were Batman — he’s mega-rich, has cool gadgets, and has a rockin’ car.

E. Paul Zehr is a professor of kinesiology and neuroscience at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. His new book, Becoming Batman: The Possibility of A Superhero could help bring those dreams one step closer.

Set to debut in October, the book addresses the realistic and not-so-realistic aspects of becoming a real-life caped crusader.

Cassie Clark: Knife-wielder?

Ace Park Cities reporter Cassie Clark is working on a story about the controversy surrounding Officer’s Elwonger former television aspirations, something Elwonger’s none to happy about. (more…)

Dallas Country Club’s New Digs

I’ve just been shown a picture of the new $51 million clubhouse to be built at Dallas Country Club. Wow. Very pretty to look at.  Construction is slated to begin in early 2009 and last 18-22 months. So just about the time Mockingbird Lane opens up again, you can get used to seeing what I assume will be massive trucks entering and exiting the country club along Mockingbird, or maybe Beverly Drive.

The golf course will also be reconfigured, apparently.

More details to come.

Officer Elwonger Speaks About Cush Cops

I just got off the phone with Suzette Elwonger, the University Park police officer who was featured in our blog post about a reality TV show pitch yesterday. She asked me to set the record straight on a few matters:

She says the reality TV show was an idea that she and a business partner had decided to pitch a few years ago. The website that we linked to was meant to be the first part of a presentation to prospective producers. They were also working on a treatment, but decided to abandon the plan, she says, because she had too much else going on in her life at the time, including her duties as DARE officer at Highland Park Middle School. She says she would have gotten permission from the UP police chief before formally pitching the program. She doesn’t know why the website is still up and running.

Police Chief Gary Adams was, apparently, not aware of the website until Merritt pointed it out yesterday. Elwonger told me that her job has been placed in jeopardy by this incident, and that she’s been called in to speak with the chief and her police captain. “It was just a crazy dream idea that we were going to try,” she said.

Stay tuned.

The PC Must Not be “Small Cities”

CNNMoney.com came out with a list of “best small cities.” Included on this list is McKinney (14), Carrollton (15), Richardson (18), Allen (20), Euless (34), Frisco (38), Denton (57), Garland (67), Lewisville (69), and Grand Prairie (96).

Does CNNMoney.com have any credibility left?

Can You Articulate Aristotle’s Influence on Cartoons?

Then this opportunity (the first one) may be right for you.

Where’s Cannaday?

Former Irving police chief and city councilman Lowell Cannaday made a big splash when he beat former Dallas County sheriff Jim Bowles in an April runoff election. The win secured the Republican nomination and a shot at incumbent Democratic sheriff Lupe Valdez in the November election. But is it just me, or have we not heard anything from him lately? (more…)

Picture Yourself Here

DId you stop by our July 4 Parade Booth on Friday and get photographed in an assortment of wacky hats and boas?  Well you can see those pictures here.

How Well Do You Know “Dallas”

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the television show “Dallas,” The Dallas Morning News created an online quiz to test your knowledge of J.R. and the Ewing fam. Being too young to even remember this show, and having never watched an episode, I’ll leave it to you Overheardians to take the quiz and report back.

Happy July 4

Our office is closed today, of course. I’ve just returned from another fantastic Independence Day Parade sponsored by the Rotary Club. We ran out of hot dogs a little early, but other than that our tent was hopping. Some highlights for me:

1) That we corralled Merritt into riding in our float as Ms. Park Cities People.

2) That, after we’d photographed a pretty young blonde girl in our photo tent, I told her she could have her dad or mom log onto our website — which seems to be having technical difficulties at the moment, so I can’t link to it – to get a print of the photo, and she said “Oh good. Because my mom’s Merritt Patterson.”

3) After State Rep. Dan Branch spoke at the gazebo, the master of ceremonies took back the microphone and said, “Now, since we’re in an election year, we need to give equal time. So please welcome Pete Sessions.” Only in a GOP stronghold like the Park Cities can following one Republican with another be considered “equal time.”

DMN Says ‘My Bad’ About Toll Stories

A couple Overheardians have pointed me to a sort-of apology for the Dallas Morning News‘ coverage of tolling on Mockingbird Lane.

New York Times Opines on Teardowns

The Park Cities’ proficiency at tearing down houses got a shout-out in yesterday’s New York Times editorial.

Blog Stats — June

That wasn’t so bad. I had thought that our monster month in May, along with the beginning of the summer vacation season, would result in us seeing a little bit of a drop in our numbers in June. It did, but it still qualifies as our second-biggest month ever in almost all the metrics:

70,866 pageviews, 23,712 visits, 7,273 unique visitors

Our biggest day of the month was June 25, with 3,946 pageviews. The most popular posts that day were Merritt’s battle with a fellow motorist and the mysterious Beverly book club.

To see the top keyword searches and individual posts of the month, (more…)

Obsessive Mental Father

Remember that Park Cities father who didn’t want to pay for his son’s college education unless he became a Republican? Well, he’s ready to tell you how to run your life now. “You can no more think and grow rich than you can think and grow tomatoes.” Good stuff:

Don’t Let the Park Cities Become Frisco

Our award-winning editorial board just this week received a response to a recent editorial. Unfortunately, because the writer did not provide a name, it can’t be printed in our newspaper. So I provide it here:

Thank you for your May 23rd article on “Tearing Down Our History.”

We all know change is inevitable and that some is beneficial and some is detrimental. It would seem that it would behoover us to carefully examine change initiatives and if we determine that we are note resisting change because we are just reactionary, we should try to deter detrimental change. (more…)

Are You Lazy if You Don’t Walk the Escalator?

In his review of Wall-E in Friday’s paper, senior editor Glenn Arbery took aim at able-bodied people (without strollers) who don’t walk up escalators. By my rough count, I’d say this is — oh — 99 percent of everyone. Anyway, we thought he might get some response to his complaints, but we had no idea passions ran so deep, as they apparently do for this reader:

Speaking of pet peeves:

The purpose of an escalator is NOT “to speed up the normal ascent of people climbing a stairway”.  That is to say, getting any one person from point A to point B faster is not the goal.  The goal is to move a group of people from point A to point B as efficiently as possible, without compromising safety.  Speed of individual ascent (even average speed of individual ascent) and efficiency aren’t the same thing.

The most common accident that occurs on an escalator is tripping.  Same as on stairs.  In my experience, people walking escalators typically appear awkward and uncertain. (more…)

My Cat, Jingles, is a Star

So, here it is, a link to the now-infamous story from last night’s Channel 5 newscast regarding the brutal home invasion suffered by my family at the paws of local raccoon ruffians, with particular emphasis of my cat’s reaction. Between fielding calls as my cat’s agent for national appearances and responding to complaints from the usual assortment of raccoons rights groups, I’ve barely gotten any work done today. The lovely and talented Lindsay Wilcox is the reporter, and the hard-working cameraman is Juan (sorry, I didn’t catch his last name).

D Mag Throws Real Estate Agent Shindig and I Hear a New Theory on the Bush’s New Home

My D Magazine brethren were gracious enough to invite me to last night’s Best Real Estate Agents of 2008 party to celebrate this year’s list of the best agents in town, (more…)

More on Masked Invaders in my Home, and my Cat’s on TV

I am stunned and amazed that my raccoon post from a few days ago caught the attention of our local Channel 5 News, and a story ran last night about it.  Our cat, Jingles, was the star as she showed the reporter and cameraman where her food is located and how raccoons invaded our home and took it.

If a technological genius out there knows how I can get the story from my Tivo to the computer, I’ll provide a link to it.  Meanwhile, I shall serve as Jingles’ media agent, so please direct all Jingles inquiries to me: she’s busy right now napping.

Was Nordstrom Asking to be Robbed?

We’ve just posted our exclusive account of the NorthPark ATM theft from early this morning. From the sound of it, our local Nordstrom didn’t have the tightest possible security in place to prevent the crime. A snippet:

“That was the only ATM in the company that was close to a door like that that doesn’t have a roll-down metal door in front of it,” said Brooke White, a corporate spokeswoman for Nordstrom. “We just won’t replace the ATM there. We had it as a convenience for our (restaurant) customers.”

NorthPark is Safe … From Journalists

Reporter Josh Hixson was dispatched to NorthPark Center to look into the ATM theft at Nordstrom. Here’s what he found:

After taking a look at the scene of the crime near Nordstrom’s east entrance, I ventured into the mall to find some patrons willing to share their opinions on the third high profile crime to hit NorthPark in three months.

I talked to a nice woman and her daughter for all of two seconds before mall security was looking over my shoulder at my reporter’s notepad.

Brett Holbrook, a security guard at NorthPark, required backup to inform me of the following: (more…)

Someone Bears False Witness to Merritt

From our page 2 columnist:

So someone (a Parkie) picking up an across the street neighbor kid backed out of their driveway after I backed out of mine. . My car was already in the lane and I was starting to move forward. He backs into the side of my car and bashes the crap out of the passenger side front and back doors. I got out and said I’d need his ins info and he said, “what? we were both backing out and just ran into each other.”

No, you don’t smash the side of someone’s car with the back of your car and say we’re both  at fault.

So I got his ins agent info, wrong number. There was an HPISD sticker on his car. I’ll find him.

Game on, brother.