Buzz has conducted its own statistical analysis and concluded that at least 1,643 pro-arena votes--last Saturday's margin of victory, plus one--can be attributed to the ghastly presence of Sharon Boyd, treasurer of the It's a Bad Deal! campaign.
In numerous interviews, and most notably in a televised debate last week featuring Mayor Ron Kirk, former Mayor Annette Strauss, and former Dallas Observer columnist Laura Miller, Boyd came across as one giant downer to any voter still fence-sitting on the eve of the election.
Maybe it was her killjoy attitude or her strange habit of not moving her jaw as she speaks. Whatever the case, the dour, bloodless Boyd was true to form after the election results were announced when she threw out baseless accusations that the Vote YES! faction had "cheated." She had no proof, of course, but told KRLD-AM listeners that she'd come up with some soon.
Don't hold your breath.
Winners and losers
The announcement didn't come until there were just a little more than two minutes left in regulation, but the smile across Ross Perot Jr.'s face said it all moments earlier: Despite the humiliation unfolding on the Reunion Arena scoreboard, he had won. Dallas had voted to pay for his and Tom Hicks' new downtown arena. No matter that Junior's Mavericks were tanking a 24-point lead and about to humiliate themselves yet again against the Minnesota Timberwolves; Perot's team lost, but he emerged from Reunion Arena victorious last Saturday night.
After the game, Mavs coach Don Nelson, dripping sweat and frustration down his face, was thrilled the arena had passed. "I'm surprised it was so close," he said. "I thought it would be a landslide." A few feet from where he stood, team president and CEO Terdema Ussery approached Junior Perot and gave him a tentative hug (so as not to crush Ussery's beautiful red boutonniere). Ussery, looking as exhausted as Nelson, lowered his voice and told his boss, "We barely got it." He sounded tired but ecstatic. "We got it, but we barely got it."
Just plain winner
Buzz is getting on in years, and maybe we don't hear as well as we used to. Or maybe when it comes to the arena debate, we just hear what we want to hear. (We're in good company on that score.)
In any case, Mayor Kirk called to correct an item from last week about a conversation we overheard in which the mayor said his name with the YMCA-sponsored Indian Guides program is Full of Bull.
His actual nickname is Laughing Bear.
Oops. How did we ever make that mistake?
Of course, after the squeaker victory in the arena vote, maybe the mayor is due for a new name--Hysterically Laughing Bear?
As for Buzz, we'll just mount our spavined, sway-backed pony and ride off into the arena sunset, shaking our heads at the vagaries of democracy. Just call us Eater of Crow.
--Compiled from staff reports by Patrick Williams
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