People enjoy making me feel ignorant with regularity, and I don’t much appreciate it. They’ll learn what it is that I do for a living, and they’ll ask, “Oooh, where’s the best ramen in town?” Or, “Where’s a good place with a DJ to go dancing?” Which would be like if I asked my 16-year-old daughter, “Where does TikTok keep your data?” My daughter is really good at TikTok. I promise you, though: she has no clue it’s a spy tool of the Chinese government that will bring our great nation to its knees, probably with an irresistible challenge we all love, like trying to keep a mouthful of water while slapping a family member with a tortilla.
Point is, I’m really good at magazines. But I absolutely have no idea which is the best kitchen accessories store in town. Or I didn’t until Jessica Otte, the editor of our sister publication D Home, dropped some knowledge on me in the shopping section of “Best of Big D” package, which is online today. And thank goodness Taylor Crumpton, our online arts editor, knows a thing or two about dance parties, and our dining critic, Brian Reinhart, is all over the noodles situation.
And Kathy Wise, Zac Crain, Lesley Busby, Elizabeth Lavin, Aileen Jimenez, Matt Goodman, Bethany Erickson, and Catherine Wendlandt—each one of them is younger than I am and apparently leaves the house to go do stuff and drink stuff and do the stanky leg, which is a dance popularized by a 2009 song by the GS Boyz, who hail from Arlington. Why do I know that? I read it somewhere at some point and committed it to memory because I thought it might one day make for a funny reference in a Dallas-based magazine. But I can’t do the stanky leg. And if I could, I wouldn’t know where to do it. But our staff knows. They know everything.
If I’m in the mood to make excuses, partly it’s a hangover from the pandemic lockdown. Mostly, though, it’s because I’m 52 years old. I’ve grown terribly comfortable just being at home. Or, when I do venture out, I too often stick to the small handful of haunts I always hit before heading home at a reasonable hour so I can watch part of a movie.
Hey, listen. Even if you’re not like me, even if you don’t have one wheel riding in a middle-age rut, even if current events haven’t kept you on the couch, I invite you—nay, I challenge you—to use this year’s “Best of Big D” as your inspiration to further explore this vast place we so lovingly call North Texas. Let’s head out and have some fun. You can read it right here.
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