No one really knows much about the origins of eggnog. It’s difficult even for the most skilled historians to fathom the circumstances that led someone to whisk eggs, cream, sugar and ale into a mug. Nor does anyone spend much time researching the association between the spiked milk shake and…

This is just an assumption, but it’s probably valid. Chicken-fried steak played a key role in President Bush’s recent policy victories at the United Nations. Without the Texas delicacy, inspection teams would still be idle and Saddam Hussein, that old nemesis of the Bush family, would be doing whatever it…

Not so very long ago, the Burning Question crew created quite a disturbance at Paris Vendome. Geez. Invade France, nothing happens. Send them Jerry Lewis films, they just beg for more. Ah, but sip an aperitif after dinner and they explode in dismay. “In Europe, every drink has its meaning:…

Call it Shakespeare in modern garb. Over the past several years, Hollywood presented us with Othello set on a high school basketball court, Hamlet wandering the aisles of a Blockbuster store, Romeo and Juliet cowering from the prying lenses of security cameras and Prince Hal wandering the streets of Portland…

Who doesn’t get a bit choked up when the first strains of “Impossible Dream” rise up during a production of Man of La Mancha? There’s just something compelling about those who struggle–vainly–toward the summit where greatness awaits. Evel Knievel completed hundreds of risky motorcycle jumps, but we remember him for…

Politicians have it easy. Television “journalists” such as Larry King and Katie Couric toss them softball questions, and no one expects an accurate response. Radicals like Rush and G. Gordon Liddy and Oliver North dominate the supposedly liberal airwaves, limiting discourse to grunts of approval or disdain. Where 30 years…

The French have a saying, “vive la difference,” which basically means “we surrender” but is often translated as a celebration of the dissimilarities among people and cultures. Americans, for some reason, strive to eliminate perceived flaws and unique qualities from our consciousnesses. Accordingly, we try everything from plastic surgery to…

Poor Caesar Barber. For the past 27 years, the cumbersome maintenance worker from New York tried only to meander harmlessly through life. But a gang of marketing toughs from McDonald’s and Burger King and other fast-food chains pummeled him daily with slogans. Teen-age hoodlums threatened to “super size” his orders…

Most of us understand the concept of evil. We know from repeated prompting, for example, that a man who controls a nuclear arsenal, backs out of international accords, achieves power through dubious means and threatens other nations represents evil without question. Yet more than half of the voting population approves…

From the outset, this week’s Burning Question disturbed us. In days of yore, adventurers survived perilous tests of will and strength before reaching their destinations. Consider the travails of Xenophon and his 10,000, Beowulf, Ahab, Odysseus or George Clooney–invariably, members of such expeditions suffer some ill, whether brutally slaughtered by…

Here’s an idea for a great new “reality” program: Take a group of malleable–in other words, trendy–people and tell them to find an upscale restaurant in Dallas that shuns crème brûlée. Survivors will next scour Oak Lawn, Knox-Henderson and West Village in search of a place without a martini menu…

Imagine, for a moment, a world without bartenders. A city of sober club hoppers, their vision unimpaired, would doom the latex industry–and that’s just one scenario. Envision Deep Ellum lined with antique shops, NASCAR fans sitting up suddenly and blurting, “Hey, them cars is just going around in circles,” literature…

Over tens of thousands of years, human beings harnessed fire, created language and developed rudimentary tools as they slowly learned to tame the land. Either that, or God, after designing our flag and writing up a neat little pledge to go along with it, provided such things to humankind fairly…

The Burning Question crew gathered recently at Sevy’s Grill in the middle of a workday for a…um…dental appointment. During our sojourn, bartender James Pintello mentioned something about atmosphere affecting the taste of a drink. “I’d order cognac if I was sitting in a library, with a leather chair and a…

At one point in the classic movie Battleground, a lieutenant inquires about the location of a strategic bridge. When a sentry stammers uncertainly, the officer snaps, “You ought to be sure of things, soldier,” before leading his squad into the darkness. The lieutenant and his squad are Germans, by the…

Mass-market restaurant chains often take extraordinary steps to stress their particular ethnic identity. Cracker Barrel, for example, oozes Southern charm–that is, the South of Moon Pies, RC Cola, lynchings, Bonnie and Clyde and rabid defiance of all things learned–from every crevice. At Bennigan’s, hostesses greet you with obscure Gaelic phrases,…

When the British created a sitcom based in a professional kitchen, they turned out a consistently funny and relatively accurate series called Chef. You can catch it on KERA during those occasional periods of regular programming in between pledge drives. The best that American networks could produce was a deservedly…

If the Burning Question crew learned one thing during our interminable grad school years, it was that meaning exists in each action and every creation, that cultural identity emanates from the smallest bit of Depression glass to the largest concert. In every product, design or activity rests clues to our…

This weekend, Hola intends to brazenly flout Dallas health codes. It’s a one-time deal for the Knox-Henderson-area establishment: break the law, do it quickly and get away scot-free. Their fiendish plot involves a happy hour for Dallas dog owners, a gathering of people and their pets on the restaurant’s patio…

Americans love steak. Well, nobody could afford it in the 1930s, and the government rationed steak in the ’40s. In the 1970s, Californians took over cuisine, substituting tofu and such for red meat. And in the ’80s we considered it a deadly, artery-clogging abomination. But, damn it, in the ’90s…

Some questions just seem more important than others. Who cares, for example, about the status of the Trinity River boondoggle or the merits of a police pay raise? We’d rather find out if Jerry Jones plans to embarrass the city by sponsoring a NASCAR team. But this week’s Burning Question–Where…

Cube farmers in corporate America strive mightily for one thing and one thing only: a power title for their business cards. A power title opens doors, you see. In a few short words it conveys far more information than DKNY, Cole-Haan, Lexus or Rolex combined. Hand over a card with…