Buzz

Get loaded
Like most Texans, you've probably been wrestling with those sensitive, personal questions that you're just too embarrassed to ask: When can I shoot to kill? How old do my kids have to be to "bear arms?" and Is there anywhere that I can't carry my gun?

Help is here at last. The Texas Gun Owners Guide by Alan Korwin and Georgene Lockwood unlocks those enigmas, "spells everything out in plain English," and generally gets you in touch with your Glock.

"For too long, Texas gun owners have relied on rumor and hearsay--instead of solid information--when exercising the right to bear arms," says Korwin's press material.

Still, Buzz had one really sensitive question for Korwin, a writerly kind of guy who teaches classes in Phoenix on how to do how-to books and has written three books on gun laws. Do you pack a piece yourself?

"Gun ownership is a private thing," he says, nervously. "I prefer to avoid that question."

Katie has the Big O
Katie, the statuesque statuette that the Dallas Press Club gives out annually by the truckload for outstanding journalism, has always been somewhat of an embarrassment to the profession. The Barbie-sized, curvaceous (not to mention bare-naked) Katie, who looks like the stuff of G.I. Joe's wet dreams, is an awkward prize to P.C.-leaning winners, who sometimes drape the much-pursued trollop in doll clothes.

But, so far, tradition and finances have blocked attempts to redesign local journalism's Hot Mama, at least beyond changing her finish this year from glossy to matte to reduce the visual impact of her, er, curves.

But in the lush poster of Katie that accompanied this year's call for journalism entries, Buzz noted that she's apparently taken a step forward spiritually--with her head thrown back in the throes of...journalistic ecstasy.

What did the blind do to deserve this?
In a rare moment of marketing, ah, genius, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram this week introduced an audio version of the paper to its Northeast Tarrant County subscribers. The idea being that commuters can pop it into a cassette player and get their newspaper fix without actually reading.

Harry Schultz, a veteran Houston broadcaster, will be the voice of the Star-Telegram with Caytie Robin acting as his Connie Chung. Schultz says AudioStar, an idea never before attempted (doesn't that make you wonder?), will offer condensed versions of local stories to commuters that will draw those subscribers back to the paper to read further.

Sure.
Buzz foresees a couple problems with the concept. First, judging from the usual content of Cowtown's daily, subscribers will be put at risk of falling asleep at the wheel. Second, judging from the size of the S-T lately, they're going to have to put the classifieds on the tape to completely fill a 15-minute cassette. And finally, condensing the S-T's already bowdlerized news stories much more could cause a black hole.

Still, there are advantages: for one, we won't, at least, have to hear the S-T management suits whining about paper costs the next time they decide to slash staff.