Five stories that have North Texas talking: Hypnotic, Krispy Kreme, Dunkin' pass out free doughnuts today; how the recession affected diversity in executive careers; a new map of Austin music; every library and museum in the U.S. at a glance and more.
Anthropologist Paul Mullins may have said it best. "For many of us, doughnuts are a very special treat that has a very special status … it's going to be one of the last treats that we're going to give up," the author of Glazed America once told Liane Hansen on NPR's Weekend Edition.
How to celebrate our sugary symbol of conference table comradery/lack of impulse control this National Doughnut Day? A handful of North Texas shops are making a splurge hard to refuse by simply passing 'em out for free. East Dallas’ Hypnotic is the first to try, as comers who stop by from 10 a.m. to noon will net a free “average Joe” doughnut, a small coffee, and a free pass to The Heat, a crime comedy starring Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy (out June 28). Krispy Kreme and Dunkin’ Donuts locations are passing out freebies as well. The Dallas Morning News has more.
(Mullins answers questions about all things doughnut – How long do they last? How did they become associated with police officers? Why are jelly doughnuts eaten during Chanukah? – in this archive "Sunday Soapbox" Q&A for NPR. And today, NPR's food blog The Salt posted a history of Doughnut Day -- it honors the WWI heroines known as "dough girls" who provided deep-fried sustenance to soldiers.)
- Executive Diversity Threatened By Recession: Until the Great Recession hit, law firms in Texas were seeing an increase in minority attorneys. Then, firms started to see diversity programs as something they could cut to save money. So many of those efforts stopped short, affecting the future of law practice in the state. Lisa Tatum, the first African-American to lead the State Bar of Texas, talks with Celeste Headlee of NPR's Tell Me More’s about what she calls the “Obama Effect.” I.E., that electing a black president sent some leaders back to their laurels. “For some folks, that perception is, ‘We’ve arrived!’ And they feel that there’s nothing else that needs to be done,” Tatum says. [Tell Me More]
- For Your Summer, Maps Of Every Single Library And Museum In The U.S.: Ever been to the African American Museum of Life And Culture at Fair Park? What about the Museum of Flying Art in McKinney? Scores of ideas for North Texas and everywhere else in the country dot two interactive maps built by Justin Grimes, a statistician for the Institute of Museum and Library Services in Washington. The project was purposed for the National Day of Civic Hacking, and is pretty emblematic of its mission: even the tiny Dallas Public Library haven Bookmarks at North Park Center gets a dot on the library map. [The Atlantic Cities]
- Redistricting: (Still) Not An Easy Task: The interim redistricting maps that shook up the 2012 election season in Texas continue to be a source of contention. Lawmakers thought they could ratify those maps, drawn without public input, and move on. But now, they're holding public redistricting hearings in San Antonio, Houston, Austin, Corpus Christi and yesterday in Dallas. Election officials want maps in hand by Sept. 1., and leaders worry that's not enough time. [Texas Tribune]
- Austin Music, Beyond SRV And SXSW? If Austin’s music scene is so much more than its requisite acronyms to you, there’s a forum for that. KUTX and Austin Music Matters have launched the super-rich Austin Music Map project, where fans and musicians are invited to record stories of seeing a beloved artist or playing in a beloved space. You can also use hashtags when posting related photos on social media. Here’s more about how the project will manifest on KUTX.
