Granny Geek

Westmoreland and Illinois in Oak Cliff

I say this as an old, white woman.

Aren’t we all sick and tired of OLD, WHITE MEN telling us what’s best for this country?

Especially these two.

McSame is such a doddering twit. I can’t stand to watch him on TV. He’s so inane that listening to him makes my back teeth hurt.

November 4 can’t come too soon.

Her crime? She was suspected of possession of…

It’s another example of the arrogance of local officials. This time, it’s a school official in Arizona.

Here’s the story.

Savana Redding, an eighth grade honor student at a middle school, was pulled from class by the vice principal. Earlier that day, ANOTHER student had been found carrying  ibuprofen pills.

The student caught with the pain killers claimed that she got the pills from Redding.

Redding denied the accusation, and agreed to a search of her backpack. No pills were found

Then, Redding was taken to the office of the school nurse SO THAT A STRIP SEARCH COULD BE PERFORMED.

In the school nurse’s office, Redding was ordered to strip to her underwear.  She was then commanded to pull her bra out and to the side, exposing her breasts, and to pull her underwear out at the crotch, exposing her pelvic area.  The strip search failed to uncover any ibuprofen pills.

That’s right. A strip search was performed on a child, in a non-emergency situation, without the knowledge or consent of her parents.

Are you as outraged as we are?

OF COURSE the parents sued. And, amazingly enough,  a three-judge panel sided with the school. The parents appealed, with the help of one of Granny’s favorite organizations. And on appeal, eight of eleven judges agreed that Redding’s constitutional rights had been violated.

“A reasonable school official, seeking to protect the students in his charge, does not subject a thirteen-year-old girl to a traumatic search to ‘protect’ her from the danger of Advil,” the court wrote.  “We reject Safford’s effort to lump together these run-of-the-mill anti-inflammatory pills with the evocative term ‘prescription drugs,’ in a knowing effort to shield an imprudent strip search of a young girl behind a larger war against drugs.”

“It does not take a constitutional scholar to conclude that a nude search of a 13-year-old girl is an invasion of constitutional rights.  More than that: it is a violation of any known principle of human dignity,” the court continued.

Granny wants to know how on earth the “War on Drugs” became “War on our children.”

“Students and parents nationwide can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that adolescents cannot be strip searched based on the unsubstantiated accusation of a classmate trying to get out of trouble,” said Adam Wolf, an attorney with the ACLU Drug Law Reform Project and co-counsel in the case…

“This ruling is a victory for our fundamental right to privacy, sending a clear signal that such traumatizing searches have no place in America’s schools.”

Yep. Senator “Wide Stance” Larry Craig really said it. The mind boggles. Has the man NO SHAME?

Y’all have to excuse Granny now. She has succumbed to fits of laughter, imagining Larry Craig being jerked around by his gas nozzle.

TGiF!

Cafe Brazil opened on Davis Avenue at Bishop last week. We gave it a try for breakfast this morning. Our choice was the fresh spinach, onion, tomato and feta cheese omelet.

The omelet comes with sourdough toast, rosemary potatoes, jelly and salsa. The plate is nicely presented, but there’s enough food to feed three people. Next time, we’ll try ordering the fresh spinach, onion, tomato and feta cheese omelet without the eggs. I suspect that there are 3 or 4 eggs buried under the spinach.

Service was fast and friendly at 10:30 in the morning.

We were impressed with how clean the place seemed, so we put it to the test. Call us old-fashioned, but we believe that if the restrooms are dirty, the kitchen won’t be any cleaner. Yes, yes, it’s a very unscientific observation. But we’ve visited restaurants all over the world, and we’ve found an amazing correlation between the condition of restrooms and the general cleanliness of almost any business, but particularly restaurants.

On Davis Avenue, the “most popular breakfast restaurant” in Oak Cliff has rest rooms that are filthy: dirty floors, dirty sink, no soap, no paper towels. The last time we went there for a meal, the women’s restroom had no running water in the hand sink. When I mentioned the problem to the waitress, she shrugged and said, “Yea. It’s been like that for two or three days.” We haven’t been back since. One can only wonder where the female staff are washing THEIR hands, since there doesn’t seem to be a hand sink the the kitchen.

The restroom at Cafe Brazil is clean, clean, clean. As in SPOTLESS.

Be careful, though. While the selections of coffee are numerous, the air conditioning ducts leak and water drips down onto the unsuspecting who are getting refills.

Cafe Brazil is a welcome addition to the restaurant scene here in the Cliff.

Starbucks announced store closures today: the store at Illinois and Westmoreland, beside Bank of America, will close by the end of the month.

While we’re not huge fans of Starbucks, we hate to see folks here in Oak Cliff losing their jobs. AND we hate to see empty retail spaces.

Here’s the entire list.

TEXAS

#9675 – HWY 83 & BOCA CHICA   
100 EXPRESSWAY 83   
BROWNSVILLE, TX     

#10877 – ILLINOIS & WESTMORELAND
3403 W ILLINOIS AVE
DALLAS, TX

#11302 – HWY 59 & HWY 36   
27943 SW FWY     
ROSENBERG, TX   

#11565 – ZAPATA HWY & CHESTNUT
2201 CHESTNUT
LAREDO, TX

#13332 – VALLEY MILLS & WACO DR
4300 W WACO DR
WACO, TX

We’re delighted to see a “quick” car wash down here in the Cliff. It opened last week on Illinois, between Westmoreland and Cockrell Hill Road.

It’s one of those marvelous, old-timey car washes where you pull up to the door, put the car in neutral, KEEP YOUR FOOT OFF THE BRAKE, and the conveyor belt pulls the car through the building for a fast wash, rinse and dry.

All this fun for just $3.00.






Welcome to the neighborhood!