Arlington, Texas. Where none of the music is at unless you are very drunk and like
kareoke. Home of
Six Flags Over Texas, The
Texas Rangers baseball team, various and sundry
car dealerships and
pawn shops, the incredible Lone Star Comics & Science Fiction store on Abrams Street, and the
University of Texas at Arlington which has a terrible
acting school filled with pipsqueaks who wouldn't know upstage from their own gall bladder.
Not that I'm bitter.
Arlington is located between the pseudo twin cities Dallas and Fort Worth. Many people have homes in Arlington just so they have a place to lay their head when not commuting to real jobs in the larger cities. So for many, Arlington is little more than a bedroom community. Arlington is also sandwiched between locations like Pantego and Dalworthington Gardens which consist of relatively wealthy and influential landowners who refused to allow their property to become part of Arlington, and somehow legally turned their area into separate 'towns' several decades ago. As a consequence they don't have to pay property taxes to anyone. However, because they don't, the surrounding roads and police forces suffer. When you drive from Arlington into Pantego, your car can tell. You go from smooth cement to bumpy blacktop immediately, and the speedtraps are the only way Pantego police make any money. So if you're driving in this area, pay close attention to your spedometer.
A few years ago the city council of Arlington put into place legislation that caused all public places to become non-smoking, unless the proprietor of an establishment could afford a very expensive air circulation system which just happened to be manufactured by friends of the city council. Fortunately, I was able to move to Dallas.
NOTE added 11/17/04: Contrary to rumor, Arlington is not the largest city in the United States without a mass transit system. That dubious distinction goes to Indianapolis, Indiana. I believe it is possible to get to and from Arlington to Dallas via the Dallas Area Rapid Transit system, but not ever being a user of DART, I couldn't tell you for certain. You still can't smoke in Arlington, but then now it's hard to find a place to smoke in Dallas. Besides, I am now an ex-smoker so it no longer matters.