Buzz

In his dreams
I turned to my dinner partner--beautiful, bright, smartly dressed. She bent close and whispered...and winked. Her wink made me smile.

Whew! Point Buzz in the direction of a cold shower!
A scene out of a Danielle Steel potboiler? Not hardly. This is a pitch letter crafted by D magazine publisher and babe magnet Wick Allison. In the mash note seeking subscribers at a special discounted rate for Neiman Marcus credit-card holders, Wick reveals he has the likes of Elle MacPherson "silently mouthing" sweet nothings to him about the magazine.

This campaign's a little more interesting than all those vanity radio ads, blaring, "Wick's back!" then mentioning, almost as an afterthought, "and so is D Magazine."

It's also understandable, since Wick seldom ventures out of the Park Cities, that he sometimes takes a wrong turn--into Fantasyland.

Welcome to Lower Greenvilleplex
Jeff Miller wants to rename the Lower Greenville neighborhood Somo--South of Mockingbird. Get it--like New York's Soho? Miller, a promotions executive who has friends in the public-relations industry, has begun a sophisticated campaign to trigger a groundswell for the new name.

What's in it for him? Apparently, nothing. A Greater Somo resident, he just prefers the ring of the name and thinks it better describes the neighborhood that extends beyond clubs and bars.

But these things take time. Deep Ellum's venerable name, for instance, evolved from post-Civil War times--based on an Indian word for "shopping mall." Still, it could have been worse: Some cheesy developer could have lured a new Borders Books with promises of rechristening Lower Greenville "Borders Town."

We like Miller's distinctly slack approach: "I don't mind 'Lower Greenville,'" he says. "Somo is just a broader area. If it takes off, great. If it doesn't, that's fine too."

What the hell, see you in Somo.

Or make him real mad
Politics is very confusing. In dialoguing with the Virginia-based Gun Owners of America, Buzz was, admittedly, shocked to learn that they were disgusted with Sen. Phil Gramm's liberal ways and were throwing their support and money behind Gramm's GOP primary opponent, Henry Grover, a little-known perpetual candidate.

Gramm, that sneaky lefty, sure fooled us.
John Velleco, a spokesman for the gun-loving PAC, says the group gave Grover an 'A' for his answers to its questionnaire. It gave Gramm a 'C' based on his voting record.

It's not that Gramm has proposed gun control or anything horrible, Velleco says, but ol' Bleedin' Heart Phil has yet to introduce legislation to overturn the assault-rifle ban!

It's a bad year to make predictions, but anyone with an IQ bigger than his hat size would have to conclude Gramm is going to stomp Grover. "We feel it's a win-win situation," says a savvy Velleco. "If Grover wins, that's great. If he loses, Gramm knows we're looking at him. Hopefully, it'll make him a little more accountable.