Former Highland Park basketball standout Troy Alexander has transferred from Santa Clara to SMU.

“I love Santa Clara and the area out there, but things just didn’t seem to be working out for me basketball wise,” Alexander said. “I didn’t feel like I was being able to show everything I could show out there and decided to make a move.”

Alexander, a 6-1 guard who will have to sit it the 2010-11 season because of transfer rules. was part of more than 100 wins in his career with the Scots. That included records of 33-5 as a senior and 30-4 as a junior. For the Broncos, Alexander bounced back from an injury-plagued freshman season to play in 31 games as a sophomore.

“Troy is another local player that has done nothing but win,” SMU head coach Matt Doehrty said in a press release. “He is a guard that is a terrific leader and skilled passer. He sees the floor and delivers the ball extremely well. Troy had a great high school career at Highland Park High School for former SMU great David Piehler. He will add a great deal to our program.”

The city of University Park is considering three separate residential parking districts in the area surrounding SMU. Residents would be charged a flat annual fee for parking permits to park in front of their house, and guest passes would be free. Homes in the area near Highland Park High School are already regulated by a residential parking district in which permits are required for on-street parking during school hours.

I think the residential parking districts proposed by the city are (fair/unfair) because ____________.

Clearly I’m a bit late to this super old breaking news. But when I paid for this item at McCartney’s I thought the total sounded a bit high. The price tag said $21.99 but I had to pay $26.19. It wasn’t until later that I noticed this little tag notifying customers of a required 10% fee added to the purchase. Never heard of such a thing. I did a little research and discovered there’s a bunch of racket that shook out over a law suit in 2008 and the fee is a crazy solution to some big problem.

Don’t get me wrong, I support bags of money being shipped off to Chi O headquarters but can’t we just have this built into the price? You know, instead of $21.99 on the tag it could say $24 or whatever. I’m just sayin’.

The Meadows Museum’s Royal Splendor in the Enlightenment exhibit will come to an end July 18, so why not spend this dreary Thursday perusing the more than 80 works from the collection of King Charles IV of Spain. The king apparently had exquisite taste: Pieces include Rococo paintings, a gilded and bejeweled dessert centerpiece and porcelain birdcage clock, and Queen Maria Luisa’s 18-foot-tall, canopied throne. Ugh, mine is only 10 feet.

And for the cultured food lover, the museum just opened Foodjects: Design and New Cuisine in Spain, which showcases some truly unusual taste enhancing tools from various Spanish designers and chefs. Be sure to check out the Coporron glass. It’s like a sippy cup for adults. Admission is free from 5 to 8 p.m. Go here for more info.

If you’ve been in the Park Cities long, I expect you’ve either met, seen, and/or been smiled at — warmly —  by Liz Healy. A University Park native and the effervescent sister of a certain local Realtor (Rogers), Healy, 25, is SMU’s former student body president, too, and scarce to meet a stranger.

You can read up on hireastang.com, her newly launched business to connect odd-job seekers with employers (slogan: “There’s a Stang For That”),  in our last issue of Park Cities Two. In the meantime, some news from Healy: A Words With Friends tournament sponsored by her site netted $1,000 in its first day for Genesis Women’s Shelter.

“Should be fun to see how it pans out,” writes Healy, who went on to relay the following:

The official WWF Facebook fan page found out about it and I got a personal e-mail from someone at Newtoy, Inc., the developers of the game. They ended up posting it on the page, and now I have players from 14 different states! Just from their post, I had about 500 new hits on my website. Aaahhh, the power of Facebook …

Then came a love story, aided along by one of the website’s gimme shirts. Really.

HireAStang helped with a marriage proposal on Saturday! My friend needed an excuse to get his girlfriend to campus so he could propose, so I told her I needed her there to take a pic in one of my HireAStang T-shirts and she bought it! They went together, met the photographer, then I called to say I was running late but they should go ahead and get some cute shots first. When they started taking pics, my friend dropped to one knee and popped the question! She said yes, of course. They’re both good friends of mine so that was a lot of fun.

My photos fail to convey the full beauty of the story that unfolded before my very eyes at around 9:30 this morning. A guy, maybe in his early twenties, emerged from the alley between Milton and Rankin in his bathrobe and nothin’ else. He picked a crepe myrtle bloom and stood (not so steady) on the egde of Hillcrest holding the flower up, shouting sentiments of  peace to cars zooming by.

When he saw me across the street he yelled, “Hey love, come here” in a british accent and stumbled a bit. Then several University Park cops came screeching up on two wheels to bust up the show.

Developing.

No offense to all of you attorneys out there, but this sounds pretty funny. Bar None, an annual musical variety show sponsored by the Dallas Bar Association, will celebrate its silver anniversary with “Alice in BarNoneLand: 25 Years Through the Looking Glass” at 8 p.m. today through June 19 at Greer Garson Theatre.

The show will feature Dallas lawyers, judges, and other legal eagles using song, dance, and hilarity to poke fun at the profession, politics, and society in general. Why would they do such a thing? Because all of the proceeds benefit the Sarah T. Hughes Diversity Scholarships at SMU’s Dedman School of Law. In the past 24 years, Bar None has raised more than $1.3 million for the scholarship program. Quite possibly one of the only times sitting before a judge and a lawyer is funny. Cost is $25 – $30.

Some sad news from the Hilltop over the weekend. Former SMU athletic director Jim Copeland died at his home in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday after a long battle with cancer at age 65.

Copeland, who was inducted into the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Hall Of Fame as part of its 2009 class, was a NACDA past President and served as a director of athletics at four institutions — SMU, Virginia, Utah and William & Mary — over the course of his career.

“I greatly enjoyed working with Jim Copeland as a professional and as a friend,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “He played a key role in advancing our athletics program, leading transitions in conference membership, and planning and opening new facilities, including Ford Stadium and the Loyd All-Sports Center, that have been critical in bringing us where we are today. He will be greatly missed, and I know the University community joins me in sending thoughts and prayers to his family.”

Looks like Highland Park Village is flying the Scots’ colors to honor a new class of graduating seniors. Congrats, all — and thanks, Hillary Artzt, for sending this photo! Now we just need a handsome gust of wind.

For any friends and family members making last-minute plans: the ceremony is 7 p.m. tomorrow (Friday) at SMU’s Moody Coliseum.

Did you catch the big scramble of firetrucks, police, and road blocks this afternoon on Daniel Avenue, near SMU’s law and science buildings? The commotion came of a sodium hydride spill around 3:20 p.m. in the Fondren Science Building, says Steve Mace with the University Park Police Department — and all in all, everything’s OK.

“Interestingly, it was a student trying to dilute the product with ice water so that it could be disposed of,” Mace said. The student splashed a bit of the chemical on her pant leg, he added, suffering minor burns on her ankle, and sought treatment at the campus health center. A resulting flash fire, which was brief, got doused with sand as students and teachers evacuated the building.

And about an hour ago, when photographer Christina Barany and I happened on the scene above, we got some perspective from  other lab-goers down the hall: It was no big deal. Really.