Five stories that have North Texas talking: San Antonio files petition against a New York writer for “Taco Negligence”; Leon Bridges will perform at the White House; view Dallas in rare, poetic form; and more.
Austin and San Antonio are having a custody battle over the breakfast taco. And it was all started by a third party — New York-based writer, Matthew Sedacca. Within hours of Eater Austin publishing Sedacca’s article, “How Austin Became the Home of the Crucial Breakfast Taco,” San Antonians had a petition on Change.org called, “Exile Matthew Sedacca from Texas for Taco Negligence,” and it has more than 1,500 signatures. The completed petition wouldn’t have serious consequences, of course, but it does reveal how seriously San Antonio takes its pride, culture and history.
An excerpt from the petition:
“Sedacca's worst sin by far, however, is presuming to blunder into a long-running, deep-seated, and hot blooded Texas turf-war armed with the equivalent knowledge of a 30-minute Andrew Zimmern special. The documented (if half-hearted) research on the most basic of taco knowledge hints he's about as out of his depth as someone needing to conduct field research on the colors of bluebonnets, and only insures his grasp of the subject as far as the authority of a third-grade book report.”
Texas Monthly offered a rational explanation:
“Austin certainly is well-equipped to claim ownership of things that didn’t originate in the city. It’s full of transplants whose first experiences with things like breakfast tacos and barbecue were in the city’s limits, and it does do those things very well. San Antonio, Corpus Christi, McAllen, and any number of points in between also do those things exceptionally well, of course, but people who’ve visited or moved to Austin from New York, California, or elsewhere don’t always find time to head south on I-35 to experience breakfast tacos in cities that have been serving them for generations.”
Austin...San Antonio, can we put this behind us? Breakfast tacos, it’s not your fault. We all love you very much. [Texas Monthly]
- Going from one huge honor to the next, Grammy-nominated Leon Bridges will pay tribute to the legendary Ray Charles at The White House tonight. The Fort Worth-based singer-songwriter will perform along with Usher, Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard, Andra Day, Dallas’ Demi Lovato and other for “Smithsonian Salutes Ray Charles: In Performance at the White House,” The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. You can livestream the performance tonight and watch it on KERA TV at 8 p.m. on Friday. [Fort Worth Star-Telegram]
- Austin is the best state capital in the country, according to a recent WalletHub study. Analysts compared all 50 state capitals to see which offered “the best of everything in an ideal city” — affordability, a strong economy, high education standards and overall excellent quality of life as well as 31 other metrics. Austin ranked in the Top 5 for highest median household income, lowest unemployment rate, lowest premature-death rate, most attractions and highest percent of millennial newcomers. The worst? Hartford, Connecticut. Explore the study. [WalletHub]
- Ted Cruz’s former campaign spokesman, who was fired Monday, said he’ll still vote for him. The Associated Press reported: Rick Tyler was asked to resign on Monday by Cruz after he tweeted a story that falsely accused White House hopeful Marco Rubio of insulting the Bible. Cruz was forced to steer away from his campaign message on Monday, the day before the Nevada caucuses, addressing the Tyler situation and saying he had no choice but to seek his resignation.” Tyler no longer works for Cruz’s campaign in any capacity, but still plans to support him “as a voter.” [The Associated Press]
- Watch this short film, “A City is a Poem,” commissioned for last weekend’s Dallas Festival of Ideas. Made by local filmmaker Andrew Holzschuh, the short “combines the slam poetry of Dallas’ own Joaquin Zihuatanejo with lyrical imagery of a diverse cross-section of people and various corners of the city,” D Magazine reported.
Here’s Holzchuh’s description of the film:
Four months after getting back from the [Pacific Crest Trail], after my wife and I decided to plant our roots back in Dallas for a while, I got asked to make a film about the very city I missed. Not for its status or skyline, but for its people and its hospitality. I was given the opportunity to collaborate with award-winning American slam poet Joaquin Zihuatanejo. With his poem in my head, I explored some of the less known about corners of Dallas and met some awesome people along the way.
