Dear Dallas:

In case you were wondering, this is what it feels like when your sports teams choke in the playoffs.

Sincerely,

Houston

Dear Democrats:

If you guys are stupid enough to nominate Hillary Rodham Clinton to be your presidential candidate in 2008, you will deserve every bit of the ass-kicking your candidate will invariably receive that November. It doesn't matter who she runs against, be it John McCain, Bill Frist, Rudy Guilani, Condi Rice, Jeb Bush, or anyone else. She will lose because too many people in this country already strongly dislike her.

I am not by any means a Republican; in fact, I consider myself to be slightly left of center politically. But I cannot imagine any scenario in which Hillary has a chance of winning in 2008. She's simply too divisive.

So please: do the right thing and nominate someone else.


EDIT: It looks like a few of you are listening to me. Good.

A compromise to the Wright Amendment

Having lived in the Metroplex for a few years, and now having a job that ususally requires me to fly into Dallas once or twice a month, on average, I've been following the whole Wright Amendment controversy with a bit of interest. I've always thought of the ongoing debate over flight restrictions out of Dallas's Love Field, which has raged for over a quarter of a century, as a snapshot of a larger struggle within the US airline industry as a whole: the battle between the enormous legacy carrier and the upstart low cost carrier.

In the case of the Wright Amendment, it appears that the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, as well as American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, have reached a compromise that would gradually phase out the current restrictions on flights out of Love Field, which would benefit its primary tenant, Southwest Airlines. The compromise, however, would also cap the number of gates at the airport, ensuring that it remains the area's secondary aviation facility to Dallas - Fort Worth International Airport, where American has a major hub. "It's a deal few thought would ever come to pass, a reflection of nearly 30 years of public and bruising battle between Fort Worth-based American Airlines and Dallas' Southwest Airlines," the Dallas Morning News writes.

As is usually the case with a compromise, neither side is completely happy. American Airlines would prefer that the restrictions on flights out of Love Field be in place permanently, while Southwest doesn't want to wait another eight years to begin flying directly from Love to states outside the Wright Amendment limit (Southwest does, however, get to implement through-ticketing from Love to states outside the limit). But it looks like the major parties involved are at least satisfied, if not happy. Congressional approval of the compromise is still required, but hopefully this marks the beginning of the end of the Wright Amendment, which in my opinion has been nothing more than a rather transparent attempt to protect DFW Airport - and, by extension, American Airlines - by giving them a monopoly on long-range air travel to and from the Metroplex.

Nothing against DFW; when Lori and I lived in Denton, we actually found DFW to be more convenient than Love when we flew. These days, however, when I travel to Dallas I fly in and out of Love Field exclusively. So does this compromise affect me personally? Maybe. The new through-ticketing provisions might result in more people flying between Love Field and Houston's Hobby Airport as people from states outside the Wright Amendment limit start flying through Houston to get to and from Dallas. In that case, it could make the already-crowded flights even worse (bad for me) or cause Southwest to add more flights between the two airports to handle the higher traffic volumes (good for me). It will be interesting to see what happens.

I thought that name sounded familiar

Justin Furstenfeld, the lead singer for the group Blue October, was a freshman at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts the same year I was a senior there (1990-91). Like me, he was a theatre major.

By the way, Hate Me is one of the best singles of 2006 so far.

Salve, O Patria

Congratulations are in order for Ecuador, who punched their ticket to the second round of the 2006 World Cup after slaughtering Costa Rica, 3-0, earlier today.

Not too many people gave Ecuador, playing in its second World Cup, much of a chance of getting out of the first round; one prognosticator compared Ecuador to one of those first-round-and-out teams in the NCAA basketball tournament. The team was criticized because of their relative lack of success outside of their home stadium in Quito, where opposing teams had to contend with the high altitude, and the team's overall lack of players with European experience. However, after convicing shutout wins over Poland and Costa Rica, Ecuador is turning a few heads and is proving that it belongs on the world stage.

I can imagine the celebrations that are occurring in the streets of Quito, Guayaquil, Cuenca and Manta tonight. This is about as big as it gets for the tiny, improverished Andean nation. I kind of wish I was down there right now...

My weird sister-in-law

Don't ask me why she did this to herself, but more pictures are available at her myspace.com page...

Busy week

I apologize for the lack of posts this week. A lot has been going on: Kirby began day care on Monday, I was in Dallas Wednesday and Thursday, and later this afternoon the three of us are going to New Orleans a long weekend. I'm interested in seeing how things are going, nine months after Katrina, and we think Kirby will get a kick out of the Aquarium of the Americas, which recently re-opened.

I'll have an assessment of the city, and perhaps some pictures, when I return next week.

My latest creation

The latest issue of As The World (Wide Web) Turns - Cougar Edition is now up at coogfun.com. It's long, and it might not make a lot of sense to anyone who isn't a regular reader of the various University of Houston fan forums. But I enjoy writing it, and apparently a lot of Coog fans enjoy reading it, so I thought I'd mention it here as well.

Can Roger Clemens save the Astros?

Remember last April, when we were all expressing concern about closer Brad Lidge even as the Astros sat atop the NL Central? Well, those days are over. The Astros are now sitting at .500, a good 7.5 games behind division-leading St. Louis. They have lost eighteen out of their last twenty-six games. May, indeed, has not been a kind month for the local team.

Now, legendary pitcher Roger Clemens has agreed to postpone his retirement - again - to play with the Astros for the remainder of the 2006 season. Will his presence help lift the Astros out of their current rut and get them back to the postseason for the third year in a row?

While Clemens will no doubt be a huge boost to the team's struggling starting pitching, there's still the problem of an inconsistent bullpen. Lidge is still having problems and some relievers are downright unreliable. And it's not likely that Clemens will do much to help the Astros' anemic offense; the club's .256 batting average is 12th in the 16-team National League.

So I'm inclined to agree with Chronicle columnist Richard Justice: while Clemens will do his part and be a lift for the team, he by himself is not going to pull the 'Stros out of their current tailspin. His teammates need to step it up as well.

There's no reason to believe that the Astros can't do it; they came back from situations worse than this, after all, in 2004 and 2005 to reach the postseason. And while past performance is not an indicator of future results, this team was 19-9 just a month ago.

And that was without Roger.

Chestthumping

This week, the Denton County Transit Authority began express bus service from Denton and Lewisville to downtown Dallas.

It's good to see something I helped create come to fruition.