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Big D NYE planners may have missed an opportunity with its addition of wristbands for the New Year’s Eve extravaganza, according to SweetCharity.

Also, if you haven’t got your wristband, we can tell you where to head.

P.S. – John “Cutie Pie” McCaa, just between you and the rest of us — wristband time is over and out at Tom Thumb. Hope you’ve already got yours!

Ah, Pete. Once again, our Dallas congressman says just the wrong thing at just the wrong time, in this case hours after the Houston Ponzi-schemer was charged by federal authorities with fleecing hundreds of people. Stanford had lavished money and trips on our beloved Congressman Sessions as he tried to fend off regulation.

But Stanford was bi-partisan in distributing his victims’ money. His bagman, er, lobbyist, was former Democratic Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes.

Every Christmas  for nearly a decade, right about now you could count on high-profile Ken Capps of D/FW Airport serving up info to the media and the public about how busy the airport was for holiday travelers. Not this year, though. A D/FW spokesman says Capps left the airport  a few months ago. Anybody know why he exited so quietly–or what he’s up to?

I have already poured myself two fingers of Maker’s Mark at my desk. (Note to all freelancers: the key to getting more assignments is to do as the great John McAlley did. Send Christmas liquor.) We’re wrapping up the February issue of the “print product” right now. Basically, I just need Zac to put his finger right — here — so I can tie the bow. Then we’re off till January 4. Will there be posts betwixt now and hence? The chance is greater than zero. But not by much. So check back in if you’re inclined, but here’s hoping your holiday break and your new year go well enough that this blog is the last thing you’re thinking about.

Cheers.

At lunch, Tim, Peter, and I took a meandering stroll downtown, eventually arriving at the Press Box Grill. On the way back, we took a similarly circuitous route. Tim pointed out — and we all agreed — that the sidewalks downtown are much (much) smaller than in most big cities. Rarely can you walk three abreast, and sometimes, two is a struggle. It seemed — to us, anyway — that is a hurdle to active street life. (Also: lack of people, but that’s a different discussion, and more easily rectified.) So what is to be done? You can’t really make the streets smaller, and making buildings thinner is more like a job for the CGI technicians behind Dark City. And, I guess beyond that, do you agree?

(If you find this post to be hogwash, please direct your commentary to: Wyeth Consumer Healthcare, Madison, NJ 07940 or visit www.robitussin.com.)

(Also, deeply aware that someone else has already written about this subject. Call me on it, and I’ll update this post with the link.)

The Morning News lost a great reporter when Dave Levinthal left for the Washington D.C. -based Center for Responsive Politics. Dave Levinthal gained a whole lot of profile, judging from his appearance last night on the NewsHour. In terms of local pride, it’s almost like watching St. Vincent rock the socks off Letterman (I could watch Annie’s little hint of a smile after the horns kick in a hundred times).

Texas Monthly is a sponsor of the Hutchison-Perry debate scheduled for Jan 14 on KERA-TV.  But the Hutchison team scuttled the magazine’s choice for a panelist, senior editor Paul Burka.

“I didn’t like the idea of it,” says Terry Sullivan, campaign manager for candidate Kay Bailey Hutchison. “He’s got his mind made up on the race.”

Actually, what Burka’s mind tells him is that Hutchison’s team, led by Sullivan,  has made a “fundamental strategic error” by “positioning her as a staunch conservative.” Read the whole thing here. Burka and I share the same opinion: read my take on why Kay’s campaign is falling apart here.

So I think we can all understand why Terry Sullivan is, shall we say, sensitive. The bunker mentality, however, has not yet won anybody an election.

That’s according to this Bloomberg account of the latest U.S. Census estimates, released today, that say that Texas gained more residents than any other state in the year leading up to July 1. That’s 478,000 more Texans. Our archenemy California was No. 2, with 381,000.

The official 2010 census numbers won’t be out until late next year, and we’ll find out for sure how many more seats our state might have. Then we’ll leave it to the wise men and women of the Texas Legislature to draw districts that represent our best interests and benefit all mankind.

The Merriman Park neighborhood association sent out an SOS: please donate any “retired,” relatively new computers to L.L. Hotchkiss Elementary School, which is trying to replace 30 ancient IBM 386’s  Pentium III’s that the teachers are using. We were more than happy to help out, especially in this giving season, but the plea raised a question. With all the taxes paid in to support the Dallas Independent School System–and with DISD’s billon-dollar-plus budget–how come it’s up to homeowners to supply schools with the likes of pencils, toilet paper and computers? Have a feeling that’s exactly the sort of question Bruce Parrott, our new District 3 board member, will begin asking soon.

Here are some good ones, courtesy of Sarah Eveans and Kyle Kearbey and our dedicated intern Sam.

If you are a fan of D Magazine on Facebook (and you should be), you probably noted that in conjunction with our 35th anniversary — and its accompanying special issue — we gave away 35 free subscriptions to the magazine to the first 35 people who shared with us their own favorite Dallas moments from the past 35 years. (Mine? I was born. You’re welcome, Dallas.) Plenty of people chimed in, and the winners have already won. But on this lazy Christmas Eve eve, we invite you to keep adding comments. We’re not trying to reach a goal; we just want to know. We may even come up with something else to give away. I’m not sure what, so don’t ask.

And stay tuned, because there will be plenty more 35th-anniversary-related high jinks throughout January. Maybe even some tomfoolery. What might that be? I don’t know. I’m not a witch. I can’t see the future. But it will more than likely be well worth your time. If you’re interested, it would help you to click on that link up top and become a fan. Now, I’m going to crawl into a hole with a bottle of Robitussin, so if you don’t see me until then, merry Christmas.