Today was the first day in a long time that I felt any sense of optimism about urban gas drilling.

This may surprise some of you, especially considering that as our city creeps closer to the dog days of August, tempers on the gas drilling issue have been flaring. To support my point, I reference Ms. Horton’s outburst at Mayor Mikey the other day. I believe you are going to see more of that. The Mayor and the City Council and the gas drilling interests have been unwilling to deal with this issue and it is starting to get out of their control. If you drive south down Oakland Boulevard from I-30 you will see what I mean. Yard after yard of anti-pipeline signs. One asked the Mayor how he would like a pipeline in his front yard.

And really that places the blame squarely where it belongs. Mayor Mikey — you made this happen. you didn’t protect Fort Worth neighborhoods and now you have the makings on an insurrection on your hands. Way to go.

And as much as I would like to see this whole thing blow up in your face because you deserve it, you actually have an opportunity to pull your ass out of the sling and fix this whole mess. And I’m going to tell you how to do it.
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Most people have a love-hate relationship with their local paper — they love to hate it.

Consider this — the latest flashpoint in the culture wars between Dallas and Fort Worth has become, unbelievably, DaFoWoShow, the three minutes of snarkiness brought to you each Thursday by the Startlegram.

OK, that’s massive overstatement. However, there is a difference of opinion between the left and right sides of the Metromess on this’n. I am previously on record as saying I like it, which prompted one S-T editor who shall remain unnamed to say, “I’ve lost all respect for you. How could you think that was funny?”

Well, to paraphrase John Belushi, that’s your bad. You fucked up. You trusted me.

But this person wasn’t the only soul in the Fort with a low opinion. Anthony Mariani at FWWeekly also weighed in with his instant disapproval of the show’s “really lame jokes, or jokes for the blissfully suburban fortysomething-plus set, or for people who’ve only recently become acquainted with the concept of sarcasm.”

But a funny thing happens when you go east of Arlington and HEB where the S-T ain’t so local and there ain’t so much hate for Tarrant’s daily — the show got funnier as it went through the tubes of teh Internets. Maybe that’s why the Frontburner review is far more kind.

Former Startlegramer and current D Magaziner Eric Celeste called DaFoWo “more proof that the S-T gets it. … It’s not riotous, but it’s a clever and amusing webcast, and the use of random video clips is perfect, especially the [David Hasselhoff] vid in the second one we watched. Well done, folks. Should just get better with age.”

Take that D(a)MN! So, is DaFoWo too Dallas? Is it too not funny? Are some people in the Fort just wearing their underwear too tight? Whatcha think? [Read more]