As we tiptoe wide-eyed into 2021 with trepidation, we could all use some good luck. The most common go-to in Texas is a pot of black-eyed peas, but it turns out those odd, greenish-grey oblong orbs are imposters: black-eyed peas aren’t even peas, rather beans. With an eye toward truth…
I write this with a bit of hesitation. A fear of exposing a secret. No, not that TEN at Sylvan Thirty has some of the best ramen in the city, or that their playlist is spot-on or the chefs’ total indifference if you decide to dance for just a hot…
Anyone who has ever taught knows — or maybe dreads — the hush that falls over the room when a student calls out a teacher. For educators, the few seconds between the challenge and response rolls in slow motion, etched in memory, for better or worse, forever. For Adam Bazaldua,…
Last week, just as some of North Texas’ front-line healthcare workers got their first dose of relief via Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, their jobs got increasingly taxing. The number of hospital beds they’re tending are either filled to capacity or precariously close to it. A New York Times tracking tool shows that…
Remember those fascinating cake-cutting videos? Not the wine glass one, but the one where it looked like a real object, say a shoe, then a knife enters stage left and cuts through a two-layered cake? Synapses in your brain go off like fireworks trying to process it all. Is everything…
As Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine slowly trickles into hospitals, the Thanksgiving wave of cases is settling into ICU units. Tuesday morning, the director of Dallas County Health and Human Services, Dr. Philip Huang, reported there are just 29 ICU beds available in all of Dallas County. Steve Love, president and CEO…
Sunday morning as North Texans awoke to cold rain, three FedEx trucks were escorted out of a Pfizer facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan, precariously packed with COVID-19 vaccines. The semis, which have “Custom Critical” written on the back, are the first measure in an intricate logistical symphony now being played out…
After this extended season of partial solitude, it’s interesting to think about what long-term effects it may have on our tolerance for loud, crowded and tight spaces. After this passes, will it bother us if the next table is in our elbow space? Will large family gatherings roar back, or…
The ever-narrowing collision course of the COVID-19 pandemic and a vaccine can’t get here quick enough. This week Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Tweeted that distribution of the Pfizer vaccine should begin as early as Dec. 14 and 7,200 providers, including major retail pharmacies, have already been selected. Climbing hospitalization rates…
The first time Dallas-born rapper Vanilla Ice’s one-hit-wonder “Ice Ice Baby” reached the airways was by mistake. A DJ in Atlanta had meant to play its A-Side counterpart, a cover of “Play that Funky Music.” But, what was done was done and afterward the request lines lit up. By November…
I never stopped a hot eight seconds to consider MoonPies until my son confessed to me they were his secret school-day vice. Which, for a high school kid, it’s not a bad vice, right? He figured out if he were quick, he could buy one for just 89 cents at…
When we talk about all the challenges 2020 has brought to livelihoods, few have faced bigger professional roadblocks than DJs. Takeout, delivery or curbside pickup doesn’t work for dance parties. Six feet of social distance channels a junior high dance, which was awkward enough the first time around. Virtual shows…
As the air gets a chill and trees are bedazzled with festive lights, we should all celebrate not only the fact that we made it to the holiday season of 2020, but also the local craft breweries that have traversed this path with us. And because every day should be a…
The Tarrant County GOP is quite agitated the county has been cast as “blue” after the Nov. 3 general election. As mail-in ballots trickled in after Election Day, the seesaw tipped ever so slightly Democratic under the weight of about 1,826 more votes cast for the Biden/Harris ticket than Trump/Pence…
This year as we give thanks with our nuclear units, we might find ourselves reflecting on years past, when we lived outside a quarantine bubble. Remember the year we all did the mannequin challenge? Or that time your siblings laughed at you when you singed your eyebrows checking the gas…
There are many reasons Waffle House should be revered as a national icon and not just because it’s a cross-section of breakfast food and culture. Also, because of FEMA’s Waffle House Index and the fact that they’re open on Christmas Day because “some people don’t have a family, so they come…
A good taco will take you places. Jon Garay and Joel Mendoza had dreams of bringing the street food they grew up on in their native Mexico City to Dallas, but both did it the wrong way the first time around. However, this was one of those good mistakes. Garay…
With all this mess and noise everywhere, take this week, or a couple of days at the very least, to imbibe and relax. Because if there’s anything we all could collectively use, it’s a drink. We reached out to a few local shops to see what they’re excited about for…
It was Thanksgiving Day in 1993, and the Dallas Cowboys were hosting the Miami Dolphins in the coldest regular-season home game in team history. An ice storm had blanketed the city and the playing field at Texas Stadium, which had a large opening in the roof (so God could watch,…
After struggling with a shortage of available tests for the coronavirus during the spring and summer, local residents can now find testing sites springing up on parking lots and street corners across Dallas County. The question facing county leaders is whether all those tests and the data they collect are…
In the Dallas County Commissioners Court meeting last week, County Judge Clay Jenkins advised repeatedly that people not travel for Thanksgiving or even visit other households and stay home with their immediate families. COVID-19 was taking on a grim trend then, and it has grown worse since. At noon on…
It’s been strongly suggested that we hunker down with our immediate family to avoid spreading the coronavirus this Thanksgiving. So with the large family gatherings on the bench, perhaps you need a smaller alternative to your 27-pound turkey and seven sides. Or maybe you typically just rolled into your aunt’s…
