Whether you made money or paid money to the IRS this year, celebrate the end of the dreadful process with a free cup of coffee and biscotti at Whole Foods (our location is in Dal Rich Village at the southeast corner of Coit and Belt Line).

All Whole Foods locations will be handing out free 12-ounce Allegro drip coffee and a non-fat biscotti while supplies last 8-10 a.m. Tuesday. So, swing by on your way to work tomorrow morning (if you’re not already at work by then) and enjoy something free for a change.

Still trying to figure whether social media is a healthy outlet for kids? Well, an expanded study at the UT Dallas aims to shed some light on the subject with the help of a more than $408,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health.

For four years, the research team, led by Dr. Marion Underwood, has already been studying the impact of email, text and instant messaging communication among teens with a $3.4 million grant. Now, they’re tackling the social media giant, Facebook.

This issue is nothing new to parents in our community. Organizations often host programs on how to help teenagers use these technologies for good amid concern about cyber bullying and “sexting.”

For the two-year study starting this summer, participants (those who have been a part of the initial study since age 9) will grant permission for researchers to monitor all communication via Facebook, using a Facebook application Arkovi.

Our January cover story, Is Facebook the New Front Porch?, highlighted the ways that social media is bringing our neighborhoods closer together. Crime updates are now instant. HOA membership is more successful. Online communication is way of being involved without actually showing up – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

But what it means for kids is a whole different story.

“Although systematic studies of Facebook communication are lacking,” Underwood says in a UTD press release, “the structure of Facebook has the potential to provide great social satisfaction but also painful social rejection.”

Click here to read the May 2012 digital edition of the Far North Dallas Advocate.

A huge food truck festival outside of a dead mall surrounded by massive freeway construction? Sure, why not.

According to a press release we received this morning, U.S. Food Trucks (an affiliate of U.S. Restaurant Properties that specializes in food trucks) is hosting its first state-wide Texas Food Truck Fest May 11-12 in the south parking lot of Valley View Center between Preston and Montfort. The event features 30 or more food trucks from all over Texas.

This is the largest gathering of food trucks ever in the state. Here’s the list of some of the participating food trucks, including our most popular local ones such as Ruthies Rolling Cafe and and the Tin Star Taco Taxi.

There’s more – a Dash & Dine 5k run and 1-mile fun run will be held on a two-loop course around the mall, contained in the parking lot. Wristbands are $5 for the entire weekend, and 15 percent of sales benefit the North Texas chapter of the Leukemia Lymphoma Society.

I guess we can’t complain about an event like this coming to our area. Pretty cool, actually. I’m just glad I won’t have to drive very far to get there.

The Richardson High School Eaglettes perform their 55th anniversary show at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the RHS auditorium. Tickets are $10 each.

The JJ Pearce theater department opens its latest production “A Few Good Men” with showings at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday in the school’s black box theater.

The Artists Showplace Gallery hosts an Artist Invitation, featuring the work of local artists, with an opening reception 6-9 p.m. Friday. There’s wine and appetizers and live music. The exhibit runs through April 28.

More than 200 bowlers are expected to come out and support the Gladys Golman/Faye Dallen Education Fund and the Special Needs Partnership of the Jewish Family Service during a special fundraiser 2-4 p.m. Sunday at 300 Dallas in Addison. It’s the fifth annual Zweig Family End of the School Year Bash. Admission is $18 and includes pizza, drinks and bowling shoes, plus a silent auction. Trophies will be awarded to the top bowlers in each age group.

Through April 29, The Dallas Opera presents La Traviata at the Winspear Opera House. This irresistible opera set in 19th-century Paris tells the story of a young heir who falls in love with a woman of uncertain virtue.

The 10th person to email “I Love the Advocate” to mriney@advocatemag.com gets four tickets to Friday’s performance (April 13). The show starts at 7:30 p.m.

On your mark, get set, GO! …

Planning on washing your pup any time soon? Enjoy some wine and cheese while your at it. The neighborhood dog-washing service Dirty Dawgs at Preston and Belt Line hosts Mutts and Merlot 5-8 p.m. Thursday. All self-serve dog washes will be half off that evening along with the usual free nail clip, ear wash and blow dry and cologne.

Oh and the best part? There’s free wine and cheese, plus treats for pooches. They do this event about every month or so.

During a #winechat discussion last week about local wine, one of the questions I got was how regional wine producers could make it easier for Americans to drink wine that wasn’t called chardonnay, cabernet, and merlot. Many regional wines are made with grapes most consumers aren’t familiar with, like blanc du bois, viognier and tempranillo; hence, they’re reluctant to try them.

My suggestion: Don’t call the wines by their varietal name, which too many wineries feel compelled to do for reasons I’ve never been able to figure out. Call them something fun or interesting or inventive.

Case in point is the El Posadero ($10, purchased, available at Central Market), a tempranillo blend that is more or less the Spanish equivalent of U.S. regional wine. It comes from a less respected region around Madrid, and not the better known tempranillo appellations of Rioja or Ribera del Duero. This means the wine starts out with an image problem, especially for U.S. consumers. Calling it El Posadero goes a long way towards fixing that. Even if you don’t know what El Posadero means (innkeeper, actually, and there’s a picture of an inn on the label), it sounds Spanish and intriguing.

And it’s a pretty nifty wine, too. The El Posadero is blended with syrah, but doesn’t have as much fruit as I thought it would (and is actually a little old-fashioned in spirit). Look for an almost spicy wine with some cherry fruit and lots of acidity — practically sour cherry tart. It needs food, like smoked chicken or beef, but that’s part of the appeal of the wine.

Through April 29, Theater Mogul and Contemporary Theatre of Dallas present “Defending the Caveman”, Broadway’s popular comedy about the sexes.

We have tickets to THIS Thursday’s show (April 12 at 8 p.m.)! The 1st five people to email “Be Local” to mriney@advocatemag.com get four tickets each to the show.

On your mark, get set, GO! …

At each of its bi-annual events, the Cottonwood Art Festival selects a few RISD students to appear as part of its Emerging Artists Program. Available to high school and college students, the program helps mentor young artists and encourage them to exhibit their work.

This year, there are five students from JJ Pearce and five from Richardson High School. They are:

Pearce
Kelly Bangert
Franz Guerrero
Sam Bell
Anna Pham
Lyndsey Jaynes

RHS
Destine Lagrone
Kathy Tran
Emily Cromwell
Jenna Caire
Edwin Chavez

Kathy Tran of RHS just finished showing her work at the Dallas Art Museum’s Young Master Exhibition where she won the People’s Choice Award for her piece, “Ministering the Little Girl in Me”, pictured here on the left.

Work from all the emerging artists will be on display at the Cottonwood Art Festival May 5-6 at Cottonwood Park. Admission is free, and event also features live music, food and a children’s area known as Art Stop. Find more information here.

Again, the neighborhood diner Norma’s Cafe will celebrate Nation Grilled Cheese Day by giving away free grilled cheese sandwiches all day, 6 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursday, April 12.

Norma’s grilled cheese is simple – just American cheese stuck between two pieces of  buttered Texas toast. No doubt there will be a line out the door. Last year, the cafe gave away more than 1,000 of the sandwiches.

The Far North Dallas location is at Trinity Mills and the Dallas North Tollway. The special is dine-in only.

Update: A portion of sales from other items that day will go to the North Texas Red Cross to support tornado relief in surrounding communities hit by last week’s storm.

We just received a copy of a new “Images of America” book from Arcadia Publishing, Lost Dallas. Written by Dallas Historic Preservation Officer Mark Doty, the book is heavy with pictures of Dallas buildings lost to redevelopment or forces of nature.

Doty is donating all of his earnings from the book to the City of Dallas Municipal Archives, which conserves official city documents. The book costs $21.99 and is available beginning April 23 at arcadiapublishing.com.

The Baker Hotel, the downtown theater district, the Kress building and even Reunion Arena appear in the chapter about downtown. There are also chapters including East Dallas, South Dallas, Oak Cliff, Uptown and North Dallas.

The Jackson Farmstead on Dickerson Road was built in 1888 and was part of the Renner community before it was annexed in 1977. Despite conservation efforts, the three-story house was demolished in the early 1990s.

The book also includes pictures and stories of Prestonwood Town Center and Circle Inn Motor Hotel.