Whew! Dallas Dodges a Couple of Bullets.

Gone, just like that. Almost.

As in, we almost had a sleezeball for a mayor and - more ominous - we were almost all blown to smithereens.

While we were busy diagramming a new Valley Ranch flow chart in advance of Wade Phillips' inevitable departure, a couple of interesting developments in the big city:

*Don Hill, once one of Dallas' strongest black leaders and considered a viable candidate for mayor, was found guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty Monday of unsavory things like bribery and extortion. In the largest public corruption trial in the history of the city, Hill was found to have conducted such nefarious business no-nos as landing a $14,000-a-month job for his mistress in exchange for his votes toward a contract to build affordable housing. He faces 95 years in prison. Say what you want about Tom Leppert, but can you imagine ...

*On Sept. 24, Jordanian teen Hosam Smadi drove a car packed with explosives into the parking garage of the 60-story Fountain Place skyscraper in downtown Dallas. An Islamic extremist who made videos in support of Osama bin Laden, he then walked several blocks and dialed a cell phone to detonate the bomb. Fortunately, the explosives were fake and the men who had "helped" Smadi were undercover agents. Can you imagine ...

But then again, what should we expect? We're only 48th out of 55 among America's Smartest Cities. Wait, does that make us dumb?