Bone to pick with mail carrier

Dallas Morning News | Steve Blow:

“Here's my question: Do dogs recognize postal supervisors? And is there some sort of professional courtesy between them? That's the only logical explanation I can come up with for a crazy situation that has developed on a street in East Dallas.”

Ed Cognoski responds:

Almost forever now, the smart asses at other Dallas news outlets like Frontburner and Dallas Blog have skewered Steve Blow for his homespun, folksy manner. Generally, I've defended him, arguing that there is a market for that, even if it's not on their own snarky Web pages.

But I swear, sometimes Steve Blow makes it hard. It's almost as if he's daring critics to take potshots at him. If I wanted to write a parody of a Steve Blow column, I don't think I could do better than his column today about a letter carrier in East Dallas and her run-ins with dogs.

It's a tired truism that in the news business, dog-bites-man is not news, but man-bites-dog is. So, in classic Steve Blow style, he gives us a dog-bites-man story. With an oh-so-cute headline. There's even this masterpiece of investigative journalism:

Out of curiosity, I made a couple of unannounced visits to the street — once in the morning and once in the afternoon. I strolled the block and didn't see or hear a single dog.

Sorry, Steve. You're on your own this time. This newspaper column dropped on front lawns all over Dallas this morning is a clear violation of Dallas' pooper-scooper law. Someone should call 3-1-1.