It's been a while since I've shared something I wrote for publication. But I'm grateful
@michaelhoinski
asked me to write this for
@TexasHighways
, about my dad + South Dallas, 2 of my favorite subjects. Here's the photo on which the illustration is based.
This is Col. Roy A Knight Jr. returning home 52 years after he was shot down in Laos.
"He will be flown home by his son, Bryan, a captain with Southwest Airlines, to Dallas Love Field, the same airport where 5-year-old Bryan said goodbye to his father."
When (or, OK, IF) you read this column about my being diagnosed with Stage IV kidney cancer, don't feel bad for me. I was lucky. I met
@HHammersMD
and got into his clinical trial at UTSW.
I just want other people going through this to know there's hope.
This is my father. 76 years old. Battling cancer and numerous other issues. Hell, the man can barely stand some days. Yet he and Mom (who took this photo) just went to the
@AACenter
to vote. Took them less than 30 minutes.
20 colleagues at
@dallasnews
were laid off today -- extraordinarily gifted journalists all. Some are dear friends; each, a writer or photographer whose work made this a better paper, a better city.
If you know of any available jobs please let me know so I can pass along. Thanks.
Your semi-regular reminder that the feds, state and Dallas County spent more than $5 million on this bridge over Harry Hines, which I’ve never seen anyone use in five years.
Dallas Police are asking that anyone with information regarding this incident contact Detective Sayers with the Dallas Police Department Homicide Unit at (214) 671-3647, or scott.sayers
@dallascityhall
.com. Please reference case
#193330
-2019.
In 1967, Julia Scott Reed, a Dallas native, became
@dallasnews
' first full-time Black journalist. One year later, on June 19, 1968, she wrote this column.
When I was 12, Bill Wisener made me cry because he wouldn't sell me a record I'd saved up for,
38 years later, the namesake of Bill's Records made me cry for a very different reason.
He was found dead this morning behind the counter of his record store.
After I made public my kidney cancer treatment and surgery in the summer 2018,
@mcuban
funded the next round of the clinical trial that has saved countless lives since. He never made that public.
Of
@theoldgreywolf
's stunning retirement, former Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings had this to say.
"Oh, my God, a person like him is supposed to be here forever."
Co-sign.
When I got home last night, I told my Dallas ISD baseball-playing son the city council killed Donnie Nelson and Clayton Kershaw's proposal to remake Reverchon Park's historic field.
His response: "That's stupid."
I should have let him write my column.
I once wrote Ron Chapman meant more to Dallas radio than electricity.
@theoldgreywolf
once told me, "Chapman was the pioneer, the seer."
"I was always on the quest of doing something new and dramatic and different and surprising," Ron said in 2010.
He died early today at 85.
The obituary for Dallas native Alicia Landry, who died yesterday at 91.
"A sorority sister encouraged her to go on a blind date with a handsome UT football player named Tom Landry. It was a match literally made in heaven."
Will now spend the rest of the day listening to one of my first high school concerts: Van Halen at Reunion Arena on Nov. 18, 1982.
Damn.
Godspeed, Eddie Van Halen.
I guess I should tell you I will be playing music on
@dfwticket
tonight from 8 until at least midnight. I just assume everyone else also passes out around 3:42 a.m. these days.
No real theme, just some stuff, old and new, I've been listening to and have rediscovered of late.
"I hate graveyards and old pawn shops/For they always bring me tears/I can't forgive the way they rob me/Of my childhood souvenirs."
Godspeed, John Prine.
Took
@HarryWilonsky
down to UT this weekend. After move-in, I took a long, late-night walk to the one place on campus that meant more to me than any other: the stairwell down to
@thedailytexan
. Lotta magic down in that basement.
Best day I ever spent in my high school was March 6, 2015, when I handed Meat Loaf his Distinguished Alumni Award. Upon his return to Dallas' Thomas Jefferson, he told me to introduce him not as Marvin Aday, but as "Meat Loaf. Or Meat."
Godspeed, Meat.
Found this in my father’s wallet today. It belonged to his mother, Frances, who died in July 1950. This was the first address of my grandfather’s auto parts store in Deep Ellum.
Dallas' new regulations, effective at midnight:
No more than 50 people at gatherings.
Closing of all bars, lounges, taverns, nightclubs, gyms, theaters and amusement halls.
Restaurants can stay open for drive-thru, delivery or take-out. Dine-in is prohibited.
It's official:
The Dallas City Council has approved
@swish41
's street in front of the American Airlines Center.
"Now every time we drive on Nowitzki Way," said
@mcuban
, "we all will get a big smile thinking about all the amazing Dirk memories we have."
Last week there were 47 Holocaust survivors living in Dallas. Today there are 46.
Jack Repp, for decades a South Dallas shopkeeper who kept quiet about life and death in the ghettos and camps, died in his sleep Sunday.
My report from his funeral.
Eleven months ago
@badkaratemovie
texted me from an estate sale, asking if I wanted this Dallas Times Herald jacket. Finally back in
@dfwticket
studios for tonight’s “Intentional Grounding.” And look what Danny had waiting for me. A Yom Kippur miracle.
NRA attacked doctors for calling "firearm violence" a "public health crisis." Dallas trauma surgeon Alex Eastman (
@PMHTrauma_ALE
) responds:
"I am 100-percent anti-bullet hole, and I have no idea why anyone in this country wouldn't be the same way."
Heritage is auctioning off "Lee Harvey Oswald's Last Paycheck, Issued Nine Days after His Death." (Actually, made out to "Mrs. Lee Harvey Oswald.")
If only I knew someone who might want such a thing.
MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE:
The 13th Annual
@RobertWilonsky
Christmas/Holiday Music Spectacular begins AT THE TOP OF THE HOUR on The Ticket!
And...IT'S TOTALLY AWESOME.
Tune in 96.7 FM locally or stream here:
MAZEL TOV, BIG BOB!
#MerryChristmas
Just sat through a WAY-too-long phone survey about grocery stores, because, well, I was curious.
And the last several questions were variations on the same query: "Have you heard of H-E-B?"
And: "Would you shop at an H-E-B if one opened near your home?"
Probably means nothing.
My friends, my heroes, are going to feed first responders, medical professionals and "all the families with a sudden loss of income just like us...we can help them. We can feed them!”
Because that's what they do. That's just who they are.
Fans in Texas and across the country will be able to pack into their vehicles and go to the nearest drive-in to watch a virtual concert by Blake Shelton, Gwen Stefani and Trace Adkins.
Donnie Nelson's group will get to remake + run Reverchon Park's baseball field. And
@ClaytonKersh22
and wife Ellen will get to build their all-abilities field behind Scottish Rite.
When I told my son the council reversed its nay vote, he said, "Finally."
Last time I saw Dwaine Caraway he was about to head off to federal prison in Big Spring in May 2019. Just ran into him at the 7-Eleven at Marsh and Walnut Hill.
While we were talking a guy (probably a Ticket listener) pulled up, rolled down his window and said, “Welcome back.”
Usually, our neighborhood
@Nextdoor
(OK, everyone's) is filled with all-caps screeds about Suspicious People in White Vans. Except now. Now it's people offering to run errands for neighbors who shouldn't leave their homes, and the sharing of supplies with the most vulnerable.
Breaking: federal judge rules GOP plaintiffs challenging drive-thru voting in Harris County don't have standing to sue, refuses to invalidate 127,000 votes already cast
Per
@JudgeClayJ
: Dallas County is reporting 5 additional presumptive positive
#COVID19
cases, including one with no travel history. Eight total now.
Dallas Co. has issued a declaration of local disaster; beginning tomorrow "community gatherings" of larger than 500 are prohibited
Due to anticipated inclement weather, all Dallas ISD schools and administrative offices will be closed Thursday, Feb. 3 and Friday, Feb. 4.
We look forward to reopening schools and offices next week.