safe, but late

The 2004 Safety Fair was held at the North Central substation of the Dallas Police Department yesterday, from 10-2. I waited until 1pm to go: that was a mistake. Many of the vendors had already packed up and left town, although the ones who remained said it was busy in the morning hours. I arrived in time to watch one of the DPD helicopters take off, from about 20 meters away; it made for an interesting MPEG. I spent some time talking to the MARK-9 Search & Rescue group; they have a hard job.

I have never gone to the 3rd Saturday Nerd Sidewalk Sale, under a bridge (fair dinkum!) in downtown Dallas. I attended a few "Computer Swap Meets" when I lived in Los Angeles, but found the ones here to be poor imitations, and not well advertised.

Someone forwarded an old-but-good joke, which turned out to be from a Dave Barry column. I found dozens of copies of the joke (by Google'ing) but did not find it on the Dave Barry Official Website; hmmm. And then there's Dave Barry's Blog (here on blogspot).

I see that the annual TV Turn Off has a web site, and there's one specific to Dallas: TV Turn Off Dallas. I tried to check the registration info for the Dallas site, but there are at least 3 instances of repeating keystrokes, so I have to wonder if it's not bogus - perhaps done by the local newspaper? I did like Steve Blow's column today, although I'm sure he'll catch flak for it: If they turn off the tube, could their lives improve? (where he opines of a direct relationship between poverty and TV-watching).

There's certainly a lot wrong about Dallas; the local newspaper has a special section in today's paper: dallasnews.com/tippingpoint. Anyone who lives here will probably say "duh!" to the articles. Sadly, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has a miserable circulation this side of 35-E. To read the DMN, you'd never know about the huge Main Street Arts Festival .. said to attract the 2nd largest audience in the Metroplex (behind the Texas State Fair).

Yet another (unrelated to anything else) blog is David Edmondson's uncollected thoughts