He H ad it coming

Is that a good enough reason to break the law?

I was riding in a friend’s car on our way to some place now forgotten, and as we tooled along, a car raced up from behind us, careened into the adjacent lane, and then slid inches in front of us as we continued driving down the highway.

My friend, normally a calm sort but prone to an occasional invective or two, spoke up.

“Someday, when the doctor has told me I have two weeks to live, and I have nothing to lose, I’m going to slam right into that guy’s car. And when he gets out and starts yelling at me, I’m going to tell him he had it coming.

“And then I’m going to get back in my car and do it all over again to the next car that cuts me off.”

There wasn’t a lot I could add to those comments because even though he was obviously wrong, he was also right.

There have been plenty of times over the years I’ve felt the same way, although most of my bad-driver fantasies involve me driving a big truck with a snowplow so that when I slam into the idiotic driver, my vehicle isn’t damaged but his or hers is totaled.

I know, I know. There’s nothing to be proud of here. Clearly, neither my friend nor I should be doing anything like this to anyone at any time; taking the law into our own hands and acting like a bully to someone who already is a bully isn’t going to solve anything.

But it sure would feel good from time to time, wouldn’t it?

There seem to be plenty of times these days when taking the law into our own hands seems — if only for a fleeting moment — to be a really good idea.

And people express their opinions on everything from international topics to local issues instantly and loudly on social media it’s not uncommon to see “suspects” convicted and sentenced online by peers long before they’re ever charged in court these days.

I even led a Sunday school lesson awhile ago where that was the theme — sometimes, you have to do “what’s right,” even if it means breaking the law.

Of course, the lesson was more of a theoretical exercise, and during the ensuing discussion, it was easy to see why.

I asked the class this question: If I’m attending a movie and the plot turns out to be sacrilegious (at least in my opinion), what should I do?

Should I walk out? Should I complain to the manager? Or should I just sit through it and be quiet?

The class was divided. Some said to forget it. Some said ask for my money back. One person suggested something more along the lines of my snowplow idea: Stand up and start yelling to everyone in the theater that the movie isn’t worth seeing and we all need to walk out right now.

And therein lies the problem in terms of taking “the law” into our own hands. Who’s to say I’m right about the movie and that it’s OK for me to disrupt the good time of the guy sitting next to me? Who’s to say I’m the good driver and the other guy is the idiot? Both likely have their own perspective, and both are likely much different from mine.

It’s easy to mouth-off online, where decisions are instantaneous and implications often don’t come into play. It’s harder to do it in person, because every decision has immediate and personal consequences.

Ultimately, that’s what laws and regulations do: They keep individual perspective on the sidelines for the most part and force us to live every day with the expectation that we will be here tomorrow to suffer the consequences of our actions.

Because more than likely, we will. And for the sake of our overall sanity, it’s probably best that we continue to think and act that way.

Rick Wamre is president of Advocate Media. Let him know how we are doing by writing to 6301 Gaston, Suite 820, Dallas 75214; or email rwamre@advocatemag.com.

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Comments And Letters

Living in a van …

As much as I appreciate receiving the magazine, I was a little thrown off by the “Ramblin’ Man” article [January Advocate]. As a resident of Winnetka Heights, myself and other neighbors take great pride in our neighborhood and the growth of it. Quite frankly, stating a man lives in a van in one of our backyards makes our neighborhood sound trashy and an undesirable place to live. Please take this into consideration before publishing our neighborhood name. You guys have always been great, but this was a little tasteless.

—c rystal Gonzalez

The buzz is gone

I loved BEE [“BEE: Best Enchiladas Ever has closed,” oakcliff.advocatemag.com, Jan. 2]. Sigh, sad day! —c haska Norwood

I wish Oak Cliff had supported it more.

—Rick m cBride

Bring back the Long John Silver’s.

—Epi c amacho

Bring back the Quinn.

—Juan a lvarez

El Jordan keeps it real

I love the food at El Jordan [“Delicious: Breakfast/lunch,” January Advocate]. I hope it’s able to stick around as the surrounding neighborhood becomes gentrified.

—m ark Dean

Denise Gee

The strawberry cake that Texans sometimes call “pink cake” gets its color from strawberry-flavored gelatin. It’s not bad, really. but there is a better cake. The strawberry cake recipe Denise Gee created for her new cookbook was inspired by one she tasted at the annual Strawberry Festival in Poteet. It takes fresh strawberries, no Jell-O, no cake mix. The Poteet strawberry cake is closer to the color of oatmeal, not that princess-party pink, but it is delicious.

“People can’t believe this is made with real strawberries, and they can taste it,” she says. “Sweet on Texas: Lovable Confections from the Lone Star State,” Gee’s newest cookbook, draws from treats she’s tasted traveling around Texas. Gee, a former magazine editor, has written three cookbooks with photos by her husband, Robert M. Peacock. “Southern Cocktails” and “Porch Parties” are their other books. They test most of the recipes at home in Winnetka Heights. The new book features classic recipes such as chocolate sheet cake as well as whimsical desserts, such as Big Red granita. “The kolaches I thought were going to be the death of me,” says Gee, who works full time as a public information officer at SMU. She convinced Czech Stop in West to give up their recipe after some nagging, but “I knew I was in trouble when I got the recipe and it said six cups of yeast,” she recalls. She cut the recipe down again and again for dozens of batches until she arrived at one she thought tasted like real apricot kolaches from West Texas. The book is organized by region: East Texas, the Hill Country, South Texas and the plains of West Texas. Dallas and Houston appear in the East Texas section. A recipe for lemon bars comes from 12-year-old Jenay Benge of Dallas, whose desserts appear on the menu at Blue Plate Kitchen. Other Dallas highlights include The Mansion on Turtle Creek’s raspberry brownies and a coconut dream pie, which was inspired by Gee’s favorite dessert at the bygone Kitchen 1924 in Lakewood. Gee found black-and-white family photos at Curiosities, Dolly Python and Lula B’s that give the book’s design a vintage look. “I wanted it to evoke nostalgia,” she says. A former food editor for Southern Living, Gee styled the food photos herself, often using her own dishes and cookware. She says the key is showing good food as it actually is, such as berry tarts just out of the oven with juice bubbling onto the sheet pan. It’s not perfect, but it looks real, she says. There are also pictures of people, such as eccentric sisters Barbara and Natalie Woodley of Mama’s Daughter’s Diner, who give their recipe for sweet tea. And there’s Big Tex, may he rest in peace, accompanying Gee’s recipe for fried Coke. She says she chose the tastiest dessert recipes that also have good stories. One is a recipe for chocolate-peanut clusters that Gee’s pal Melanie Loving makes for her cookie-swap group at UT Southwestern Medical Branch. There is one whole page about Dublin Dr Pepper accompanying a recipe for cherry Dr Pepper cupcakes. “I knew I was going to be under a microscope with this because people here take food so personally,” Gee says. “Sweet on Texas” was released in November from Chronicle Books and costs $24.95. Gee currently is working on another cookbook, “Southern Casseroles,” due out later this year. She’s also writing the memoir of Peacock Alley founder Mary Ella Gabler. And she’s working on a Holocaust-related photo essay book for SMU’s Embrey Human Rights Program.

—Rachel Stone