Archive for the ‘Health and Human Services’ Category

A big “HOORAY!” to Parkland Hospital for taking their kitchen’s organic.

Effective next week and in an effort to address the health and well being of staff, patients and visitors, Parkland will be providing organic meals prepared with produce from local suppliers which helps our local farmers and economy.

Parkland is the first hospital in North Texas to make this change and we hope that others will soon follow suit!

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so during the month of October when you purchase a classic Cosmopolitan cocktail, at Palomino at the Crescent, $1 will be donated to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Palomino is partnering with Komen for the 4th year in a row, and they think their “Cause-mopolitan” adds just a bit of whimsy to this important endeavor. With the money they raise and the fun you’ll have, it’s a win-win. Hey, we’ll drink to that!

NEW THIS YEAR! They are also donating $1 for the purchase of a non-alcohol Strawberry Daiquiri.

I’m afraid of my garden.

A more accurate description, I guess, would be that I am afraid of the mosquitoes in my garden. All the rain that we’ve had over the last three months has provided me with a healthy, robust garden in full bloom here in the heat of mid-August, but has enabled tiny blood suckers to create thriving vampiric colonies beneath the wide, shady leaves of my caladiums. I can’t venture out there for even a moment without being set upon by throngs of the vile creatures — my legs and arms riddled with swelling welts.

Earlier this week, Dallas County Health and Human Services announced four new cases of West Nile Virus in four different city zips. You remember West Nile, right? Don’t confuse it with that twenty-four hour East Nile bug.

No, no.

That West Nile will mess you up.

Now, I’m not what you’d call an organic gardener, but I do try to be mindful of the chemicals I put into the world. As such, I don’t normally hit the garden with toxic agents. I’m all about the earthworms and the butterflies. I’ve got lots of birds out there, too. Don’t want to poison them, y’know?

I like birds.

Got no beef with them.

But the ’skeeters?

Them’s gotta die.

I’ve bombed the garden three times this summer.

And they keep coming back.

I’ve got the garden of the living dead out there!

You think holy water might work?

Two years ago about 10,000 Katrina evacuees showed up in Dallas which did not have a plan to handle them. Today, the City of Dallas says it will be prepared this time for up to 25,000 evacuees.

The action plan for Dallas involves all buses from Galveston and Houston to be routed to a reception center in Mesquite which can then be dispatched to one of 20 shelters in the area, including the Dallas Convention Center which was the command base for the evacuees from Katrina.

Additionally, the Dallas Red Cross has trained thousands of volunteers in shelter management.