Some Appealing Morning Items

See what I did there? "Appealing"? As in, the City of Dallas, still trying to get its hands on the Neches River water, is sending attorneys to New Orleans this week -- luckies. Specifically, the barristers will be setting up shop in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (there ya go), where, at 9 a.m, tomorrow, three judges will hear oral arguments in the case of City of Dallas, TX, Appellant vs. H. Dale Hall, Etc., Et Al. The city's counting on the Neches, and the long-proposed Fastrill Reservoir in East Texas , to keep Dallas wet for the next few decades; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which approved the creation of the Neches River National Wildlife Refuge, has other plans...

Then, there's this appeal from "Jeff," who was shot at on North Central Expressway and Royal Lane yesterday after picking a fight with a dude in a pick-up truck: Really, don't shoot the finger at other folks on the freeway. Because, like, you could get shot at. "People will have road rage, follow too close, flip you the finger," he tells KTVT-Channel 11. "You just need to let go. Life is too important." A New Year's resolution better late than never ...

This story should appeal to school district superintendents trying to keep kids interested (or, just in school). Reports the Associated Press this a.m., Jose Perez, a student at North Side High School in Fort Worth, really digs class now -- thanks to mariachi music class, which are now being offered in various North Texas districts (among them, Arlington and Grand Prairie). And for the first time, mariachis will be able to compete in the University Interscholastic League band throwdown. Says the chairman of the National Association for Music Education's Mariachi Advisory Committee: "You don't have to worry about your kids joining gangs, we provide the gang." Speaking of, one time, at klezmer camp ... --Robert Wilonsky