Back Talk Lake Highlands

Lake Highlands goes Iron Chef

This Thursday at the State Fair of Texas, I will be competing in the 'Guess What's Cookin' contest. This contest is one of the few at the Fair where the cooking is done on site in the State Fair Contest Kitchen as opposed to the many other cooking contests where contestants bring their finished product for judging.

At 9:30 am, myself and 15 other contestants will each receive a mystery bag of food courtesy of Central Market. The items in the bag may be conducive to sweet or savory - we decide. (I participated in this contest two years ago and my bag contained eggplant, lemon grass, arborio rice, ginger, and 1" thick steaks. I didn't win but man we had a feast that night). We will then have three hours to create our masterpieces. Basics such as flour, sugar, milk, eggs, etc., as well as condiments will be provided, but we 16 are responsible for lugging our utensils, baking dishes, mixers, processors, measuring cups, anything we can think of that will help us. We'll be given a piece of paper to write our recipe on (this is perhaps the hardest part of the contest!). And we are absolutely forbidden to use our cell phones.

My friend Susan and I have been entering State Fair cooking contests for 25 years and this year we're shooting for three days in a row - October 1. Cheese contest, October 2, Guess What's Cookin', and October 3, a double whammy - Tricks with Mix and Hidden Valley Ranch. We've scored several dozen ribbons between us and are still making some of the dishes we created from years past (well, not the Spushi so much). I remember fondly when Robert Bunch came over to my house three years ago and took pictures of me and El for the October 2005 Advocate issue featuring neighborhood State Fair entrants. He enjoyed the cake we baked too.

Not doing anything October 2nd at about 10, 11 am? Come on down to the great State Fair of Texas. With an empty 20 oz. Coke bottle you can get in for $4, with a Cinemark movie ticket stub you can get in for free, and if your over 60 you can get in for free. And you can cheer me on 'cause I can ASSURE you, I'm going to need ALL the help I can get!

Calling all dancers grades K through 6!

Perfect timing: Tuesday October 7th is an RISD Student Holiday. Kids, here’s what you can do on your day off - have a blast dancing with the ‘Dettes and learn some cool moves!

The world famous LHHS Highlandettes are hosting their Fall Dance Clinic from 1 pm to 5:30 pm at the LHHS Student Center. Cost is $55 and includes a cool ‘Dettes t-shirt and the opportunity to perform with the team at the 10/31 LHHS/Creekview home pre-game. Get all your info by contacting Team Director Shannon Carlton, [email protected] or call 469 593-1178.

Convention center hotel update: Even the 'Dallas Morning News' has its doubts

A negative word from an unexpected source: The Dallas Morning News editorialized that maybe having a referendum on the taxpayer-owned convention center hotel is a good idea, after all. Here's part of what was written: "The question is not whether the city needs a convention center hotel. It does. But many taxpayers rightly wonder if they're writing a blank check. The council's abrupt shift in plans from a public-private venture to a city-owned project came behind closed doors. City leaders scheduled a vote in record time, barely pausing to explain the details of the deal. Now several council members seem to be rolling their eyes and saying: Do we need to have a referendum on everything? Well, no. But when hundreds of millions of public dollars are in play, it's not a bad idea."

Fried Apple iPie debuts at state fair

Today is officially Day One of the great State Fair of Texas. And though I extensively outlined for you the most fab of the fried foods (after attending the chicken fried bacon tasting), I have one more for you. It's high tech too. Mike and Jake Levy of Desperados Mexican Restaurant, creators of the Fried Cosmopolitan and last year's award-winning Deep-Fried Latte, will debut their Fried Apple iPie today.

Flamingos raise funds for high school band

LHHS organizations and clubs come up with some innovative ways to earn money for trips, equipment and so forth — you’ve got all night drum-a-thons and adult dance clinics — but the Little Elm marching band might rival LH when it comes to creative fundraising. Trust me, this is good:

Dallas Lutheran School grad killed by fellow US soldier

Last week I posted about a 2001 graduate of Dallas Lutheran School in Lake Highlands who was killed in Iraq. I wasn't sure if he was from Lake Highlands and I promised more info if I came across any. I did, here, on the blog, SOLDIERS' ANGELS TEXAS, which gives some insight into the life of the Dallas soldier, Sgt. Wesley R. Durbin, who joined the Marine Corps. right out of high school.

The story of his death is especially tragic and confusing — seems he was killed by a fellow US soldier. It's surprising we haven't heard more about this.

Also, I learned that Wesley's parents live here in Lake Highlands.

Convention center hotel: Why there may not be any money for it, regardless of what happens

The Financial Times is reporting this morning that “financing for US states, cities and other municipalities has ground to a halt and borrowing costs have risen as the latest chapter of the credit crunch unfolds.” In other words, cities and school districts that need to sell bonds to raise money for schools, bridges and convention center hotels can’t do it.

The FT (as those of us who are savvy international investors call the paper) says “In the last two weeks, roughly $10bn in new municipal issuance has been shelved, including two issues from the state of New York.” In addition, interest rates for the highest quality municipal bonds were 5.24 percent on Wednesday, the highest in six years and up from 4.85 percent on Sept. 12.

The city plans to sell $550 million worth of debt from something called an LGC (a separate corporation established by the city). The LGC would issue tax-exempt bonds, and the bonds would be repaid from hotel revenue.

What does all this mean in English? It means it will be increasingly difficult to sell the bonds to finance the hotel, and that the interest rate that the city will pay will be much higher than anticipated. This means the hotel will have to be more profitable than first budgeted to pay the debt.

I don’t know that the argument has ever been whether we need the hotel or not. Wamre, who has been our point man on the hotel, has taken a lot of guff from visitors who think he is inalterably opposed to it. He isn’t. He just thinks there’s a better way, using the private sector. And the news from the financial markets seems to bear him out.

Technorati Tags: Dallas convention center hotel,municipal bonds,hotel financing

No to Chavez instead of Ross; Industrial might be next

The city plan commission voted 7-6 Thursday to deny an application to change the name of Ross Avenue to Cesar Chavez; the plan commission's "no" vote means that if the measure goes before the city council, it will take 11 votes to overturn the plan commission's decision and rename Ross. According to the DMN story, Oct. 22 looms as decision day — at least at this point — potentially for both Ross and Industrial at city council. That's when the full council could consider a request to rename Industrial as Riverfront and/or consider renaming Industrial for Chavez.

Josh, Michael, Tom and the gang: The Observer does 'em all proud

There are three great stories in this week's Dallas Observer, if you're interested in Josh Howard, DISD's budget problems and the taxpayer-owned convention center hotel.

Jim Schutze weighs in on DISD Supt. Michael Hinojosa and his culpability, or lack thereof, in the budget mess. I was standing next to Schutze for about an hour of last week's board meeting (we were jammed together in four-by-five-foot area behind the chairs, pressed against the wall by all of the TV station camermen and reporters gathered for the meeting), and his account of the portions of the meeting he cited is correct. I don't necessarily agree with his conclusion, but he persuasively argues that Hinojosa is more responsible for the mess than he seems willing to admit.

Citizen journalists we appreciate (need) you

Over the weekend Keri Mitchell and I attended a Blog/New Media Expo in Las Vegas. I am sure we will sporadically share our newfound wisdom with you over future days and weeks, but for now I’d like to touch on one important thing I derived from the experience:

I learned that in order to have an outstanding neighborhood blog, you have to have outstanding folks out in the neighborhood writing regular, interesting, super-local posts. Advocate has a stellar editorial staff, if I do say so myself.  But we are but a very few people putting out five neighborhood magazines every month, plus the occasional special addition. While we want to be all over the place covering news for Back Talk, we can’t be more than one place at a time — or should I say we haven’t figured out how to yet. 

That brings me back to my aforementioned assessment — we need the Carol Tolers, JJ Pairs and Bill Kennedys. We are so very fortunate to have these citizen journalists, who help us keep our finger on the pulse of Lake Highlands and do a great job of writing about it.