Council Recap: Scoring the Place 3 Applicant Interviews

L to R: Jordan Noret, Jeff Davis, Daniel Burdette.

On September 21, 2026, the Richardson City Council interviewed the three finalists for appointment to the vacant Place 3 position. Then, after about a half hour in executive session the Council returned to open session to name Daniel Burdette the lone finalist for appointment, which will be made at the September 28 meeting. What reasons did the Council give its choice? They didn't say in public. That leaves the citizens to guess at their reasoning. As my impression of the interviews would not have led to me choosing Burdette, I started digging to see what I might have missed. My first exercise was to examine the seven questions asked of each applicant and score their answers. I didn't consider whether I agreed with their answers (yet), only how the answers measured up to a consistent set of criteria like Knowledge, Responsiveness, Clarity, Specificity, etc. To keep my own biases to a minimum, I asked ChatGPT to do the scoring. The scoring is systematic to the extent that I strove to keep from giving ChatGPT subjective scoring instructions.

In The Hand of Dante (2025)

Rotten Tomatoes

In The Hand of Dante (2025): An author with a Dante fixation gets drawn into a heist to steal an original manuscript by Dante. The movies moves back and forth from the present to 1300, with Oscar Isaac playing for the author and Dante, along with many stars playing cameos. Ambitious, artsy, but overall, empty. C-

Netflix

Council Recap: Good Questions Get Good Answers

On August 24, 2026, the Richardson City Council interviewed eight applicants for the vacant Place 3 position on City Council. On September 14, they reduced the field to three finalists. Rather than primarily evaluate the applicants based on their answers, I'm going to focus on the questions the council members asked, in hopes of getting good questions asked September 21, when the three finalists will face the Council again for another round of questions.

POTD: Porto, Portugal

From 2025 12 31 Porto, Lamego, Castelo Rodrigo

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Porto, Portugal. Porto is the second largest city of Portugal, after Lisbon, with a population of its metropolitan area of 1.9 million. According to Wikipedia, "On the Douro River estuary in northern Portugal, Porto is one of the oldest European centers, and its core was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1996...Port wine, one of Portugal's most famous exports, is named after Porto, as the metropolitan area, and in particular the cellars of Vila Nova de Gaia, were responsible for the packaging, transport, and export of fortified wine."

Porto by day. Click for a photo of Porto by night.

POTD: Nazaré, Portugal

From 2025 12 28 Pena, Cascais, Óbidos, Nazaré

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Nazaré, Portugal. According to Wikipedia, "Nazaré is one of the most popular seaside resorts in the Silver Coast (Costa de Prata). It is famous for its huge waves and surfing competitions. As of 2026, the record for the tallest wave ever surfed stands at a wave measured at 26.2 m (86 ft) at Nazaré in 2020."

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"Ancient fishing town
Now the world's great wave arena,
The ocean excels."
— h/t ChatGPT

Per Aspera Ad Astra (2026)

Rotten Tomatoes

Per Aspera Ad Astra (2026): China. Sci-fi. A long interstellar mission that relies on stimulated dreams during hibernation gets hijacked. The heroes have to enter others' chaotic dreams to regain control. Lots of surreal action and imagery, but the plot is tired. C+

Netflix

Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness (TV 2026)

Rotten Tomatoes

Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness (TV 2026): Sketch comedy starring Larry David playing roles in American history. More comedy than satire, and the comedy wears thin quickly. If you're a fan of Larry David's trademark kvetching, this is for you. C+

HBO Max

Widow's Bay (TV 2026)

Rotten Tomatoes

Widow's Bay (TV 2026): Matthew Rhys plays the mayor of an island in New England who wants to grow tourism but is stymied by his island being haunted. A comedy/horror mashup that features a different horror trope each episode. It strikes the right balance to succeed at both. B+

AppleTV+

Council Recap: And Then There were Three

L to R: Jordan Noret, Jeff Davis, Daniel Burdette.

The Richardson City Council deliberated in executive session September 14, 2026, to winnow down the eight remaining applicants for the Place 3 position on the City Council, soon to be vacant because of the resignation of Council Member Dan Barrios. After just 12 minutes of deliberation, the Council returned to open session to name the three finalists, who are, in alphabetical order: Daniel Burdette, Jeff Davis, and Jordan Noret.

The Council will subject these three to a second round of interviews September 21, after which they will name a lone finalist.

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"Eight sought council seat.
Three remained when doors opened.
One will claim the prize."
—h/t ChatGPT

Mystery Solved? Why Good Words Go Bad

Source: The Atlantic .

As far back as 2010, I wrote about being surprised to find that "tolerance" had become a dirty word in American political discourse ("Tolerance Is Not A Four-Letter Word"). Over time, I noticed that other seemingly innocuous words had become controversial, too (this from 2017: "Now Kindness is a Dirty Word, Too"). What was going on, I wondered. Recently, I read the best analysis of what was behind it all. It's in an article in the July, 2026, issue of "The Atlantic" by a deputy executive editor, Yoni Applebaum ("How America Gave Up on its own History").