Letters

Second opinion
I was quite shocked to find my favorite newspaper sinking to the pits of journalistic sensationalism with your article on Dr. John Hargett ["Under the knife," September 26]. Rose Farley dug so deep into the past that I'm surprised she failed to mention every single parking ticket Dr. Hargett must have ever received in order to prop up her story of hearsay and innuendo. I don't know very much about his rise to prominence in Collin County society, but I do know that his reputation for compassion and skilled medical work is something that he earned with hard work, not backslapping. Dr. Hargett isn't my doctor now for the simple reason that he's not on my insurance; if he was, I'd be back in a heartbeat with my family in tow. I hope everything goes well for him despite this gossipy reporting.

Tracy Miller Cook
Dallas

Sneers for Jimmy Fowler
Has anyone else noticed how often Jimmy Fowler uses the word "menopausal" to describe women he doesn't like or resents? He used the word twice in a recent issue in two separate reviews, once in a hostile reference to one of the three exquisitely drawn characters in Albee's play Three Tall Women ["Towering achievement," September 19], and once in his bitter diatribe about the three main characters in the movie First Wives Club ["Attack of the harpies"]. He doesn't leer; he sneers.

How could anyone but a woman hater not enjoy the triumphal, exuberant song and dance at the end of the movie by those three sexy women--Hawn, Keaton, and Midler? Fowler tried to turn something beautiful into something ugly. Of course they were self-satisfied. The characters they played had transcended their own hostility and set up a women's crisis center with their cheating husbands' settlements, and the three actresses had made a really, really good movie.

Oh well. Do you ever wonder why middle-aged but developmentally arrested adolescent men hate women who are also middle-aged and perhaps menopausal? The reason is that they are faced with women just like their mothers were during their real adolescence who are yet again trying in vain to get some honest information. In Fowler's case, we just get poop.

Name withheld
Dallas

Weak signal
Congratulations to Holly Mullen on the WRR-FM story ["Static quo," September 19]. I was with WRR for 24 years during the '50s, '60s, and part of the '70s. It has always suffered from mismanagement. City Hall did not care then; why should it now?

Jim Lowe
Dallas

Although, like the moon, WRR-FM periodically shines by reflected glory, when left to itself it tends, like the moon, to be dim, barren, and hostile to intelligent life. But anyone who imagines that WRR couldn't get worse had better recall the rise and fall of KERA-FM. Thanks to well-qualified personnel like Nancy Lamb and Lowell Parsons, KERA became for several years the premier outlet for broadcast classical music in this area. Then along came someone called Chris Douridas, who diluted the classical format with a little Windham Hill, and then with a lot of Windham Hill. And that was that.

The only thing wrong with WRR-FM is that no one, from top management to the meanest disc jock, has known anything at all about classical music and musicians. Surely this situation could be remedied if anyone cared to try.

A.C. Hall
Dallas

I would like to direct an additional suggestion to your mag's latest assault on a terribly mismanaged--no argument there--city-owned radio station, to wit: WRR, 101.1 on our FM dial.

Why not skip the crap about repairing roads, library roofs and stacks, and all that rot, and simply give it directly to Ross Perot Jr. and David McDavid? This will solve quite a number of problems and make the whole deal neat and tidy. Maybe they could tear up Fair Park and put up a shopping center. That'd solve a bunch of problems, although we would also have to raze the neighborhood, lest some Plano escapee deem it an undesirable alternative to the corporate uniformity he is familiar with.

We all know the better alternative would be to give it to Ray Nasher for his statuary in order to polish his civic image, but that might appear crass. Nah, give it to the private owners of the Mavericks and the Stars.

F. J. Bradley
Dallas

Correction
In some editions of the September 26 issue, the Dallas Observer listed as "Best Gay Bar" an establishment that has been closed for several weeks. The correct choice should have been The Hideaway Clubs at 4144 Buena Vista St. The Observer regrets the error.