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.

Your Chance to Remember July 4

I hope everyone has had a chance to see the wonderful special section of July 4 photos our photographers and designers were able to put together this year for the latest edition of our print product.

The picture of the baby on the front is awesome. If you’d like to have a copy of it, or any other picture that appears anywhere in our paper anytime, you can visit our site here and order prints, mug, T-shirts — just about anything you could want with the image on there. I recommend putting your favorite shot on a ceramic tile mural.

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.

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:

Re: Mad at the Bible Belt

My apologies to the Overheardian who sent me a photo of someone she said may be the same person that our staffer blogged about yesterday. Due to deadline concerns, I’ve had to delay posting the photo at left.

The same Overheardian commented on the earlier post. I take no responsibility for any of her comments.

UPDATE, 3:06 p.m.: Our staffer has confirmed that the woman pictured here is the same woman she bought turkey sliders for in Preston Center yesterday.

Blog Stats — May

Wow. The numbers speak for themselves this month. We crushed all our previous records:

91,989 pageviews, 29,019 visits, 10,948 unique visitors

Pageviews were up almost 40 percent over April, which had been a record itself.

Seven different days this month nearly eclipsed our previous pageviews-in-a-day record, set by the 7th-Grade Potheads on Feb. 7. One day this month managed the feat. With a whopping 5,010 pageviews, May 21 is our new all-time champ. Continued interest in the NorthPark shooting, Erika Nazem, and the new Chick-fil-A helped to drive traffic that day.

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

Craigslist Proves There’s a Married Cheater for Every Age and Body Type

Overheardians have e-mailed sharing their frustration by the lack of Craigslist/Myspace posts in recent weeks. Well, it’s your lucky day:

This Park Cities guy is still married so you’d have to sneak around with him but he’s searching for the “real deal.” The real deal is a petite woman between the ages of 21-30. But don’t worry ladies. If you’re older and bigger, this married man is simply looking for a non-prostituting white female from 35-50 years old.

There’s a cheater for every type of woman!

24 More Hours Left in Our Contest

Don’t forget. You have one day to get in your entry for a chance to win some delicious Newport’s food.

Re: Vote For Survivor Jennifer Griffin

I’ve received many e-mails from people about Jennifer Griffin and how her story has touched lives. But one sweet reader has a good point, she called my attention to a video in competition with Griffin’s that has received 2600 votes.

Right now Griffin has 216 but before it was posted yesterday there were only 52. Vote, vote, vote!

You can vote everyday one time. The contest ends July 31.

Vote For Survivor Jennifer Griffin

 You all know Jennifer Griffin, an amazing survivor and subject of the January 11, 2008 Bulletin from the Bubble, Coffee With a Survivor. She sends this video that will no doubt stop you in your tracks:

Donna, my pilates instructor, has entered a video of her and I into a fitness inspiration competition. We would love to be able to teach and inspire others, all we need is your vote.  If you’re interested, just click on the link and vote for our video. 

Re: My Namesake Outdoes Me

So, I Googled myself to see if I’d find any issues like Jason did earlier. Number 3 and 4 (the first was Overheard and the second was this old link to sassy Pegasus News) took me to the actress Merritt Patterson. So, my namesake smoked me too. But if I got on reality T.V. I’d surf right past the other Merritt. I’ll start working on that. Anyone know any producers?

Different Computers See Different Blog

We switched to a different blog host server over the weekend, and it’s still causing a bit of a mess. I heard reports all yesterday that readers are seeing different versions of the blog from computer to computer. Charles apparently posted an item titled “Fore” early yesterday, which got several comments, but I haven’t seen it appear on the blog at all.

Some readers tells me Charles’ “Fore” item is just about the only thing they saw posted yesterday. They’ve been complaining about our lack of posts, though there were a decent number yesterday.

Our tech guys are working on it. Thanks.

Where Should the Bushes Live?

The rumors abound about where President George W. Bush and his wife Laura will settle after they leave the White House next year. Laura said last month they’re headed back to Dallas, but where exactly?

People Newspapers undertook a special project to allow each of the neighborhoods we serve to make the case for why a former president might want to call their area home. You can read the debate between the Park Cities and Preston Hollow here.

Other neighborhoods making the case are Lake Highlands, Lakewood, Oak Cliff, and West Plano.

Whole Foods Employees Steal All the Best Parking Spaces

I’ve been corrected by a member of the Whole Foods marketing team. I only saw HPDPS and their massive trucks as I drove by the cookout this afternoon. But the event was apparently not just for those brave emergency responders:

Jason, what you missed in the parking lot was Team Member Appreciation Day for the Whole Foods Market folks.

Although I understand at People and D that you guys have Appreciation Day every week - at Al’s or Old Monk!

I assume there were so many HP cops around because they work security at the store when they’re off-duty. I still say Whole Foods could have invited us over. About a third of my household income probably ends up in that store’s cash registers. Surely they appreciate that.

As for our own Appreciation Days here, it’s really more those fancypants magazine folks downstairs who spend all their time at Al’s or the Old Monk. People Newspapers staff are more likely to be spotted at Mattito’s or Newport’s.

Blog Stats — April

Rock of Love is the gift that keeps on giving. In fact, I predict that by simply mentioning the name Rock of Love several times in this post, as well as everyone’s favorite Rock of Love contestant, Lacey Conner, I’ll ensure that this becomes the most viewed blog-stats post we’ve ever had. Just imagine what will happen if I mention “hot teachers” and Rock of Love in the same post? “Hot teachers” and Lacey Conner of Rock of Love? This could be big.

But even if you remove Rock of Love-related activity from our numbers, we set standards in April:

65,994 pageviews, 22,957 visits, 8,209 unique visitors

All of those are new records for a month.

Our biggest day of the month was April 24, when we had 3,740 pageviews. The most popular post of that day was the strange, tragic tale of leaf blowers, full-blooded Indian policemen, and orange flip-flops.

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

Really, Frontburner?

You’re posting items that link to a week-old Steve Brown story that we pointed out last week came three months late in breaking the news?

Blog Stats — March

I’m thrilled by the growing number of unique monthly visitors we’re attracting. We set a new record. For the month:

54,024 pageviews, 20,412 visits, 7,832 unique visitors

Our biggest day of the month was March 10, with 3,189 pageviews. The biggest post of the day was rumor-mongering by Merritt.

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

Re: American Airlines Hearts Facebook

Nothing says ‘young and trendy’ like big-time commercialization. Large corporations like AA may hope to win over the younger set, but I have a feeling it may not be well received. Big Brother is watching, and now he advertises. Oh, and your mom is on Facebook.

Re: Overheard Lacking Tabloid Coverage

Let’s see here: The weather has been terrible (until today) so most of the aforementioned sporting events were canceled, s**t was running in the streets at Armstrong and Lakeside, and we have early deadlines this week due to the Good Friday holiday. I know Tierney was accosted by a man who hangs out at Starbucks on a daily basis, Stephanie is on vacation, and Krista was orchestrating a cover shoot for Homes and Estates. I blogged about boob jobs, but it wasn’t salacious enough. Merritt, we need you.

The Cost of Celebrity

From Merritt at a certain coffee place you may have heard of:

I was just in Starbucks and when the guy shouted my name for drink pick up a super spazzy kind of upbeat lady approached me and said, “I read you on the blog, say something funny.”

What the hell? Like I have a stand up act ready. But it was certainly my most memorable reader run-in to date.

Dirty Real Estate Photos

OK, maybe that headline was a little misleading. This post should be called “really horrible real estate photos” because that’s what local Realtor Lydia Player has on her blog. It’s such a guilty pleasure of mine, I thought I ought to share it with you. Enjoy (and hold your breath if you have a home listed on the north Texas MLS).

And Now for Something Completely Different

The latest word in the housing market: Dallas homes are drastically undervalued. CNNMoney.com says four of the 10 most undervalued areas in the country are cities in Texas. Dallas is 30 percent undervalued, right alongside Houston at 29.1 percent and Fort Worth at 24.9 percent. It isn’t that surprising for those of you who know the local market, but it has been a long time since the housing market has received any positive attention. On this wonderful Primary Day, aren’t you happy to be a Texan?

Re: Bearer of Bad Real Estate News

Hold your fire, people. It seems that Jeff Duffey had a technical glitch when he reported these stats. February was left out of the calculation — the news isn’t so bad after all. The updated stats:

Number of homes sold: 44 (60)
Avg. price/sf: $365.71 ($363.07)
Avg. sales price: $1,487,885 ($1,594,985)
Avg. days on market: 117 (75)

*2007 statistics for same time period in ( )

So that is only a 27% drop in number of homes sold and a 7% drop in price.

Isn’t that better? Check out the full post and his hilarious graphic.

Bearer of Bad Real Estate News

I hate bad news in the real estate market, especially given how some publications are always gloom and doom without real basis. The rest of the country is suffering, sure, but the high-end markets in the Park Cities have stayed strong. Well, not so fast, says Realtor Jeff Duffey. He compiled some statistics for the first two months of this year and compared them to last year. Here’s what he found for 2008: (more…)