Saddled by student debt? Join the friggin’ club. 

(Photo by Danny Fulgencio)

THAT’S SO DALLAS
If anything can console commuters stuck in traffic along a jam-prone stretch of Mockingbird, it’s that jumbo front-lawn elephant sculpture. The homeowners didn’t know their bronze beast had been boosting the spirits of a Sherman girl as she suffered daily two-hour trips to Dallas for medical treatments. Until she wrote them a tearjerker “thank you” note, complete with a crayon drawing of the statue she named Hope. (Candy’s Dirt)  

THE CATCH UP: YOUR NEWS DIGEST
Keeping Stevie safe: A concerned citizen, prior to predicted flooding last week, outfitted a lakeside statue of Oak Cliff native and storied  musician Stevie Ray Vaughn with a floatation device. (Austin American Statesman)

What’s Brown Friday? It’s a day preceding Black Friday when UPS aims to hire 40k seasonal staffers, 26k in the Dallas area. Those who don’t look fly in head-to-toe brown need not apply. Note: Brown Friday’s PR gold, but gig seekers can apply on the UPS website. (Pressroom)

He’s on a boat. Or raft … or floating tent: Regardless, the guy’s entering week No. 2 afloat on Lake Ray Hubbard. Rain, lightning and wind be damned. From within his puny portable-toilet-equipped watercraft, he means to raise awareness and $2 million to fund water for all the people of Liberia. (Dallas Morning News)

“We want Dallas!” The chant caught-on with Redskins fans in ’82, during one of the team’s winning years. It’s endured, at times budding into a raucous roar that would be impressive if not so irritating. (NBC Sports) Washington fans last weekend sported a new T-shirt design showcasing the old slogan. (Hogs Haven/BreakingT)

William Jackson Harper: The Dallas native portrays a “dithery moral philosopher” on NBC’s “The Good Place.” Between TV seasons, he penned a play about race, politics and religion in Dallas in the 1960s; it’s based on Dallas writer Jim Schutze’s 1986 book, “The Accommodation.” (Dallas Morning News)

Highly educated? Drowning in debt? You are not alone. Aggregate college debt is a component of a city’s economic life that’s hard to wrap our heads around. A Generation Progress project lets us see where Dallas stands and what it all means. (Mapping Student Debt/City Lab)

HARD NEWS: IT’LL BE QUICK
Violent weekend: Three people were shot after a fight at a house party in Red Bird. All three survived, but the gunman is at large. (Fox 4/Dallas Morning News)

Fuel City fight: A man shot in the belly at Fuel City around 4:30 a.m. Saturday is in critical condition. Witnesses said he had been fighting with a man and his girlfriend when the man walked his girlfriend to the car and returned with a gun. The shooter has not been found. (WFAA/DMN)

Dead on the thoroughfare: Police found a 25-year-old man dead of “homicidal violence” lying on the side of a major Oak Cliff thoroughfare at about 6:30 p.m. Saturday. (DMN)

DINING: BE THAT FOODIE KNOW-IT-ALL
“Would you like a pickle while you wait?” Such queries won’t catch regulars off guard. The Great American Hero is the sort of place that, on a rough day, will give you a footlong and let you pay later, pay it forward, whatever. (Dallas Observer)

Anybody in there? Nope. Pilotworks, a co-working space for independent culinary companies, closed, with “no warning at all.” (Dallas Observer)

‘Round here, where there’s smoke, there’s BBQ: TV celeb, cookbook author and erstwhile pit master Will Fleischman at Lockhart’s Smokehouse mans the meat at Louie King BBQ, now open in the former Daddy Jack’s space on Greenville. (Culture Map)

EVENTS: OR, HOW TO AVOID LAME DATES
TUESDAY
— It’s been 200 years since the world’s most famous scary story debuted. To celebrate Mary Shelly’s novel, Angelika Film Center screens the stage production of “Frankenstein,” filmed at the National Theatre in London in 2011 and featuring Benedict Cumberbatch. (Details) 
— Funny dude and “Workaholic” Adam Devine brings his Weird Life Tour 2018 to the Majestic Theatre stage. (Details)
— A jazz jam featuring Dallas’ best in the genre begins at 8:30 p.m. at Jazz Becuzz Art Center. For just $5. (Details)