Dolph Tillotson

World without end

Tue, 24 May 2011 05:00:00 CDT

Last Friday, with the end of the world looming, my wife asked me what I wanted for breakfast.

“Eggs,” I said. “Not egg whites or Egg Beaters. Sunnyside up. Toast with real butter. Grits with butter and salt. And a little red-eye gravy. Bacon. Lots of bacon. About a pound of bacon.”

It seemed an opportune moment to forget my heart attack diet. After all, with the world ending by 6 p.m. the next day, what harm could a little bacon do? I wasn’t the only one thinking like that, either.

Readers of our discussion forums came up with all kinds of reactions to the end-of-the-world story. Here are a few of the ones that made me smile:

“Guess I’ll wait until Sunday to mow the lawn.”

“Would you please what-a-size my final burger?”

“My house note is due on Monday. WINNING!” (Didn’t know Charlie Sheen reads the forums.)

“Why are there no good Jonestown jokes? The punch line’s too long.”

“Don’t buy any green bananas!”

“People are telling jokes like there’s no tomorrow.”

So, what about you? If you believed — really believed — the world might end in 24 hours, how would you fill those last 24 hours? Just curious.

Poll: Time to recall Mayor Jaworski?

Wed, 18 May 2011 12:00:00 CDT

Petitions are circulating for recall elections to unseat Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski and several members of the Galveston city council in the wake of the decision to terminate former City Manager Steve LeBlanc.

The city council voted to fire Steve LeBlanc from his position as city manager on April 27. The former city manager's supporters attending the meeting shouted, “recall” during council’s discussion. Some interrupted Jaworski when he tried to give reasons for his vote to terminate LeBlanc.

To force a recall election, petition supporters must collect signatures from at least 10 percent of the city's qualified voters.

Do you favor recalling Jaworski or any member of the council?

Polling close again

Mon, 16 May 2011 10:30:00 CDT

For those who are keeping score, The Daily News ran an unscientific poll on the issue of paid parking on the Seawall between April 23 and roughly April 30. Once again, the results were surprisingly close to the outcome of the actual voting.

A total of 545 respondents cast a ballot in the pre-election poll. Of that number, 57.5 percent said they planned to vote “yes” for paid parking on the Seawall, and 42.5 percent said “no.”

When the actual votes were finally tallied Saturday, May 14, 61 percent of the voters cast a “yes” vote and 39 percent voted “no.”

These polls are definitely not scientific, nor do we claim they are statistically valid. They are no more than a straw poll among readers or our Internet edition. We are able to weed out multiple votes by one reader, but other than that there are few controls. We conduct the polls mainly because some readers have asked us to, and they nearly always make for interesting reading.

In spite of the unscientific nature of these polls, however, they have been correct in predicting the winner in every election on which we’ve done a poll — with one exception.

For example, when Galveston voted last fall on construction of a new high school football stadium, the Internet poll was correct in predicting the stadium would fail, and it was less than 2 percentage points off the actual vote.

The only time an online poll has incorrectly predicted the winner was when County Judge Mark Henry defeated long-time County Judge James D. Yarbrough in Last November’s voting.

What do you think of these polls? Should we continue them?

Yes, it's real

Thu, 05 May 2011 15:30:00 CDT

I got an anonymous post card at the office this morning. It began with this question: “Is your hair real?” Well, yes, as a matter of fact it is. Thanks for asking. And, no, you may not pull it in order to test me. Any other questions?

Meet Greg Roof

Tue, 03 May 2011 14:00:00 CDT

My column Sunday discussed the Seawall parking issue and the nasty tone adopted by some on the anti-paid parking side. It focused on a piece of hate mail received by David Colombo, dentist, married father of three and supporter of paid parking.

That anonymous letter included obscenities and an anti-gay slur. Colombo refuses to respond to being called a “fag” in the letter. I wouldn’t dignify that with a response either.

So, Sunday at 8:11 p.m., my cell phone pinged as a text arrived. The text was from the cell phone of Greg Roof, who is the leader and spokesman for the group NOPE, which opposes paid parking.

Here's what the text said:

"Dolph, thanks for the enlightening editorial today. I didn't know David Columbo (sic) was such a fairy. Have a great night! Greg Roof"

The next day, I tried to contact Roof to confirm that he wrote the message. He never really answered my question, replying instead with vague, non-responsive tirades about an “untrustworthy city government” and my lack of “journalistic integrity.” The message undeniably came from his cell phone, however.

This behavior is typical of Greg Roof, who has in the past often sent me weird, inappropriate texts, usually at night. Then, if one attempts to initiate a dialogue over what he wrote, Roof won’t answer phone calls and instead bloviates and evades in text messages.

It’s a unique style of leadership for a man who sits on the Galveston College board of regents and once wanted to be mayor of Galveston. Maybe he still does.

There’s a respected Texas journalism professor who preaches to his students “people have a right to be known for who they are.” I agree.

Galveston, meet Greg Roof.

Reports: How GEDP adds value to Galveston

Sun, 30 Jan 2011 00:00:00 CDT

As we prepared Sunday's editorial about the Galveston Economic Development Partnership, we asked GEDP's board to tell us what the organization did that was of value to Galveston. A part of their response was to forward the organization's annual reports for 2009 and 2010.

In fairness, we present them here in their entirety.

Galveston Economic Development Partnership 2009 Report

Galveston Economic Development Partnership 2010 Report

Signpost Clutter?

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:45:00 CDT

One reason some people give for opposing paid parking along Galveston’s Seawall Boulevard is sign clutter. But note this: There is an entirely sensible way to put in pay kiosks every 200 feet (as proposed) and still reduce the total number of signs along the Seawall.

It’s simple: Get rid of the scores of totally useless signs along that thoroughfare today.

For example, did you know that there are 150 or so signs (yep, I counted them) that bear the inscription “Caution – Drop Off.” That’s a little like putting a sign on the Grand Canyon that says, “Don’t fall in!”

Maybe due to past accidents and potential lawsuits, or in spite of having paid somebody’s cousin to install the signs, maybe you really do need to actually tell people there’s a drop-off.

But 150 times? Really?

And even if you do, couldn’t that message be installed on the kiosks themselves?

Think, Galveston. Because somebody thought it was a good idea in the dim past, it may not be a good idea in the 21st Century.