Grigsby on Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, George W. Bush and Jerry Jones remember T. Boone Pickens.: Your Thursday morning roundup

 [Morning roundup]( 09/12/2019 By Chelsea Watkins and Carla Solórzano Good morning! Here is a look at the top headlines as we start the day. 🌤️ Weather: Partly cloudy and hot. High of 96. 🔎 Prefer the online view? It's [her]( The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders performed during a timeout in the first half of the team's Aug. 29 NFL preseason football game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at AT&T Stadium.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer) DALLAS [Dallas Cowboys, let’s get real about your outdated cheerleaders and the giant video board that exploits them]( From metro columnist Sharon Grigsby: Texas’ obsession with tradition, especially around football, is the benign justification for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders continuing to shimmy and shake on the sidelines. But the calculation that sex still sells on the sidelines is why this spectacle endures. While everything around them has evolved, the cheerleaders have never changed out of the skimpy halter tops, fringe vests and short shorts they put on in 1972. Forty-seven years later, all they represent is the diminished role that women once played — both in sports and in society. They are a 20th-century throwback dragged into a new era that doesn’t want or need them. To this lifelong Cowboys fan, it feels the time has come to retire America’s Sweethearts — [or at least put them in an entirely new uniform with a completely different routine.]( Both of those options are as likely as Jerry Jones selling the team, so here’s middle ground: Stop using 2019 technology to jumbo-size the problem and change how the cheerleaders are portrayed on the stadium’s monster-size video screen.  And: The Dallas City Council voted unanimously to approve a plan [allowing more high-rise residences in affluent Preston Hollow]( which has fought such development for years. Also: An SMU researcher and Garland students [are using smartphones to monitor bridge safety.](  ADVERTISEMENT BUSINESS [American Airlines is giving up naming rights to Miami arena]( American Airlines will take its name off of AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami at the end of the year, ending a 20-year deal in one of the company's major hubs. Fort Worth-based American said Wednesday it wouldn't pursue an extension of [the $42 million naming-rights deal that put its name atop the home of the NBA's Miami Heat.]( "We are not seeking to renew naming rights for the arena, but remain the official airline of the Miami Heat and continue to invest in programs that support the community, where 13,500 American team members live and work," said a statement from American Airlines spokeswoman Alexis Aran Coello. "We wish Miami-Dade County well in their search for a new sponsor." No plans have been announced for a new naming sponsor for arena owned by Miami-Dade County, according to the Miami Herald.  And: George W. Bush, Jerry Jones, Meredith Land and others [remember T. Boone Pickens](. Also: Plano-based At Home CEO says the company has ["lost the faith of our investors,"]( but he's pleased with the revamp plan that is being implemented.  FOOD & DRINK [Extra cake or pie dough? Here's how Dallas pastry chefs turn it into something even better]( If you’ve been tossing those last few homemade chocolate chip cookies that went stale, [stop that right now.]( They may be inedible today, but just wait: There’s life in those old cookies yet. "I would blitz those in a food processor and add it straight to a streusel," says Jacquelynn Beckman, pastry chef at The Mansion Restaurant at Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek. "Instead of using all flour, you could use part ‘cookie flour’ and add a whole other element to what you’re baking. Of course, you can also make a cheesecake crust with leftover cookies." Samantha Rush at Rush Patisserie also pulverizes extra cookies and bits of cakes that she doesn’t use into crumbs, not unlike creating breadcrumbs from stale bread.  Also: A Plano cookie entrepreneur is creating [tasty treats for kids with allergies.](  ADVERTISEMENT EDITORS' PICKS - ‘I thought we might die’: A Plano couple [rode out Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas]( and survived. - Joined forces: The Hella Mega Tour, featuring Green Day, Fall Out Boy and Weezer, will be played at the new Rangers stadium next summer. - A unanimous vote: The Texas higher education board has selected [Harrison Keller of the University of Texas]( to lead the college initiatives for the state. Punch Bowl Social in Deep Ellum is one of 18 locations of the fast-growing "eatertainment" chain. A a 19th is set to open in Salt Lake City in two weeks. (Ryan Michalesko / Staff Photographer) FINALLY [Are we having fun yet? Rolling gutterballs at Punch Bowl Social in Deep Ellum]( From restaurant critic Michalene Busico: Is it possible to engineer fun? That's the idea behind Punch Bowl and the whole trend of super-sized restaurants where you can eat, drink and play in the same place. Though the idea has been around since the 1970s — think Dave and Buster's, and even Chuck E. Cheese — it got new life in 2012, when Punch Bowl founder Robert Thompson hit on the idea of luring millennials away from their screens with a serious restaurant that also provides an "experience," a modern take on the Victorian tradition of socializing over a punch bowl. At 10:15, our booth is ready. Even though the restaurant is away from the action, it's so loud we can't hear each other across the table. Half the time we can't hear the person on the bench next to us. Also, Punch Bowl appears to have hidden the subwoofers in the banquette. That's the only explanation I can think of for the big vibrations when the bass drops. We start with guacamole and Buffalo chicken wings, and both are OK, with timid, sweet flavors. Barbacoa tacos, with three to an order, are piled with fillings, but bland. The Knockoff Burger, Punch Bowl's facsimile of a Big Mac, is dry, and the rosemary fries are barely warm, but with enough of a crunch that you can imagine they would've been pretty good 10 minutes earlier. Roasted poblano mac and cheese arrives in a big cast-iron skillet, a swimming pool of ordinary mac and cheese. Could the kitchen have been stretched beyond capacity by the crowd? [We give it the benefit of the doubt and go back a couple more times](.  👋 That's all for this morning! For up-to-the-minute news and analysis, check out [DallasNews.com](. Share the love! If you like this newsletter, please forward this email to a friend and [check out our other newsletters here](. Do you have feedback? 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