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I’ll admit it. When I first heard about the “Yu Is My Homeboy” shirts, I kind of wanted one. (Probably not as much as I wanted this hat, after seeing the movie Bernie, but that’s a different matter.) The shirts are the work of shirt entrepreneur Eric Vaughan, who also brought us was inspired by the “Dirk Is My Homeboy.” I was disappointed when I read here and here that the Yu shirts were no longer for sale. But I just went to the web site and tried to order one. And it appears to have worked. So, I guess you should get them while you still can.

Between the poorly handled case against Range Resources and his recently released “crucify” comments, it was a matter of time before Al Armendariz either resigned or got fired. Whether it’s justified or he is a fall guy in a perpetual battle between the EPA and its enemies or both is up for debate. Either way, he’s out.

San Francisco’s a heavyweight opera town. So it wasn’t that surprising when the opera company there drew 32,000 people to a 2010 simulcast performance at AT&T Park, where the Giants play baseball. But Dallas is a different town. So it was truly impressive-sounding when the Dallas Opera announced a free, April 28 simulcast on the high-def video screens at mammoth Cowboys Stadium and, in a March 1 press release, proclaimed that “over 21,000 tickets had been requested” already for the Magic Flute performance. Twenty-six days later, a nearly identical release went out bragging that the number of requests had now risen to more than 25,000! (exclamation point theirs). Then, on April 18, the Opera touted that the ticket figure was up to “30,500 and counting.”

So yesterday, when the Opera issued its post-game story, it was interesting to note that 15,000 attended Saturday’s performance — a figure qualifying nonetheless as “the best-attended opera stadium simulcast in Texas history,” to quote the release. (It was also 7,000 more than the SF Opera drew to AT&T, back when it started the simulcast event there in 2006.) The Dallas Opera release added that when all was said and done, 34,000 ticket requests had poured in, too! The Opera said it was “very pleased” with the 15,000 number, and Charlotte Jones Anderson, the Cowboys’ brand manager in charge of flogging JerryWorld as a fine-arts venue, added: “We are thrilled with the overwhelming response to last night’s performance.” Thrilled? Overwhelming? When they’d been bragging that more than twice that number would show up? That big giant whirring sound you hear is called PR spin, and nobody can spin it like the Joneses. As they like to say at the opera, Bravo!

Yesterday the Dallas Morning News published its long-awaited opus on Kern Wildenthal. Wildenthal is the former head of UT Southwestern. He currently runs the school’s fundraising charity, the Southwestern Medical Foundation. It doesn’t look good for him. While he has enjoyed enormous success getting people to donate money (more than a $1 billion), he also appears to have enjoyed himself a bit too much. The News looked at scads of his travel receipts and found that Wildenthal’s mix of business and pleasure ran at times a little lean on business.

Here are my questions:

1. The main story (there are sidebars) is 6,300 words long. For a newspaper, that’s really long. How do you write that many words about Wildenthal’s fundraising methods and not mention the whole Wendy Reves deal? You will recall that Reves’ son filed a lawsuit against the Dallas Museum of Art and Wildenthal, claiming that the two pulled a fast one in getting their respective institutions into Reves’ will. Late last year, a U.S. judge threw the case out. But it’s far from over. Reves died in France. The French courts are still busy with the matter. That Wildenthal was accused of manipulating an old widow to get millions of her money for UT Southwestern seems germane, no?

2. Why isn’t this monster story — a story that DMN reporters have been working on for something like two years — promoted on the paper’s homepage?

PS: I’m sorry. That’s actually three questions.

Dallas Needs To Accept Failure: The Super Bowl bid, DART, our ability to hit clean air standards — Michael Lindenberger might as well just tag on the Trinity River Project (no thanks to the Trinity Parkway), downtown revitalization, NFL drafts, and a litany of other ballyhooed projects to his editorial that says (paywall) that Dallas needs to learn to accept failure. But his key point is long overdue: Dallas’ fidelity to its own hype inhibits us for making key adjustments in civic planning to realize real goals. And while I like how the editorial tells us to refocus DART on moving people, and to listen to Jim Schutze more, Lindenberger kills his own argument when he says Dallas is still not “ready” for some more challenging ways to address key issues. After all, doesn’t this off-repeated attitude that Dallas is “not ready” for truly innovative policies and initiatives go hand-in-hand with Dallas’ denial of its shortcomings?

Off-Duty Dallas Police Officer Arrested For Firing Gun From Car on Highway: I suppose it was just another Saturday night for Rafael Mendoza, the three year veteran of the Dallas police department who was arrested early Sunday morning after driving around with his sidearm dangling out the window, smoking weed, and taking potshots at cars on Interstate 30.

Business Odds And Ends: Someone got paid today: the Dallas-based pipeline company, Energy Transfer Partners, dropped a cool $5.3 billion acquiring Philadelphia-based Sunoco Inc. And A.H. Belo Corporation announced its first quarter 2012 financials, reporting a net loss of $0.18 per share, which is less than expected, says Robert Decherd. I suspect Wick will be around to slice and dice Belo’s numbers in greater detail.

Geraldine “Tincy” Miller sat on the State Board of Education from 1984 to 2010. She’d like to sit on it again. Miller took some guff last month for sending out a flyer that was grammatically challenged. (E.g.: “By reigning in the mangers of the Permanent School Fund she saved the state of Texas millions of dollars.”) Well, now she has sent out another flyer. I don’t see anything wrong with the words (haven’t read it), but I do have a question about the photograph: when was it taken? Then there’s the big sign you see below. When was that picture taken? Compare it to the picture of Miller that appears on her campaign site (which, to me, is actually the best of the three images). Click the pic to make it bigger.

To his Dallas supporters he’s a heartening source of hometown pride, a guy who’s doing the Lord’s work at the Environmental Protection Agency. To his critics he’s an activist environmentalist in regulator’s clothing, a progressive ideologue who, given his druthers, would run roughshod over one of Texas’s most important industries. Now Al Armendariz, who heads the EPA’s region 6, has just given his critics a lot of good ammunition.

In a speech, Armendariz said, “The Romans used to conquer little villages in the Mediterranean. They’d go into a little Turkish town somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they saw and they would crucify them. And then you know that town was really easy to manage for the next few years.” And, the former SMU prof added, that tack’s a good one for going after energy companies, too.

Armendariz apologized after a video of his talk emerged. But that hasn’t stopped some from calling for his head. The same calls went up several years ago after W’s HUD Secretary, Alphonso Jackson, said something equally stupid in a speech in Dallas that was reported by D CEO‘s now-managing editor Christine Perez. Jackson was rightfully “crucified” for that, pardon the reference. Doesn’t Armendariz deserve equal treatment?

Do you know how to develop a front end? It’s your lucky day! We’re looking for a front-end developer.

Elvis Andrus made himself quite a throw to first in the game last night. Watch it. And then watch it again. (h/t Lonestarball)

For the first time, executives at Village Voice Media (which owns the Dallas Observer) and the Dallas-based Backpage.com have allowed outsiders to watch the screening process used for their prostitution ads. Liz McDougall, the new in-house counsel for Backpage (she used to work for Craigslist) allowed cameras from Nightline into a screening room in an undisclosed location (probably Phoenix) where both an automated key word-catch system and real live employees monitor each ad before it goes up.

The report, which features two women who were trafficked underage using Backpage and several officials who want to see the escort section of Backpage shut down, also includes a sophisticated defense of the ads. While classified ads likes those on Backpage make both buying and selling sex easier, McDougall argues, Backpage can also be part of the solution, working with police and investigators to put human traffickers in prison.

Of course, it’s more complicated than either side wants to admit. Yes, online advertising makes it safer for the women (and men) who voluntarily sell themselves — and, everyone agrees, these people are responsible for the majority of Backpage prostitution ads. But the marketplace, an “open casbah” one politician calls it, also makes the industry easier and more profitable for pimps.

So a lady was asked to leave the Grapevine Legoland because she had a racy tattoo on her leg. You can see the tat here. It depicts Tinkerbell using a light switch as a sex toy. Listen, I have a tattoo on my leg. (Where the Wild Things Are. Ask Zac. He hates it.) I’m not against tattoos. But if you’re in a place designed for children, and if you’re tattoo shows a naked lady screwing a light switch, and if they are nice to you and give you your money back — then you’ve got no complaint. Legoland is not discriminating against you. They are protecting children from smut.

Seriously, though. I do like the tat.