Buzz

Details, details We have long held off taking swipes at the Log Cabin Republicans for two reasons–pity, and the fact that the premise of the gay GOP group is itself so absurd that it defies what passes for commentary to Buzz. Gay Republicans? What’s next, an all-hetero Judy Garland fan…

Toxic Justice

To hear lawyers at the Dallas law firm of Baron & Budd tell it, they are frontline warriors in a battle against callous corporations whose product, asbestos, claimed the lives and health of thousands of working men. But the first casualty of war is truth, and at Baron & Budd,…

Buzz

Animal act Who says U.S. District Judge John McBryde, often described as churlish, doesn’t have a sense of humor? Buzz figures the Fort Worth judge must have some notion of the comic, otherwise he would have hurled his gavel at the lawyers representing two petitioners in his court recently–Barney the…

Buzz

The doctor is out Dallas Independent School District board candidate Richard Evans, the self-described “doctor”(as in bogus Ph.D.), has been quiet in the wake of reports that he may have dropped out of high school and never attended an accredited college or university. That may be because Evans has been…

Buzz

The best things in life “People pay for value, and most people disregard free things because they intrinsically have no value because people don’t pay for them.” That bit of, um, wisdom spilled from the lips of D magazine publisher Wick Allison, as quoted in The Dallas Morning News. He…

Buzz

Pay up and shut up Get ready. Buzz has located the nation’s newest persecuted minority: the filthy rich. That’s their claim, anyway, judging by comments from two members of the metroplex’s moneyed class, who say they were harassed by “Nazis” who (gasp!) demanded that they pay their taxes. A few…

Buzz

Info:Correction Date: 07/30/1998 Info: Buzz By Patrick Williams Where’s Gopher and the gang? OK now, everybody sing! “The l-o-o-ove bus Soon will be making another round…” Oh, skip it. We’ve been trying to see DART’s stretch limos as hotbeds of passion and romance–Love Boats of the road–ever since we first…

Buzz

The tryouts begin Please, would someone explain to Buzz how George W. Bush has become the Republican front-runner for the 2000 presidential nomination? It’s not that we don’t like him, you understand. Any man who’s a baseball fan and fesses up to a hard-drinking youth has gone a long way…

Buzz

And your point is? So former House Speaker Jim Wright–whom we love like kin; read last week’s Buzz–says that Fort Worth and Dallas liked the restrictions on Love Field when he pushed them through Congress in 1979. Wright’s comment came earlier this week during a court hearing on Fort Worth’s…

Buzz

Home again Itinerant former city council candidate Brenda Reyes found a new place to hang her hat earlier this week–jail. Police hauled Reyes to the slammer June 22 after they were called to an eye-scratching fight between her and her husband, Phillip Brooks Gould. The question remains whether Reyes plans…

Buzz

George who? As the millennium comes to a close, it’s good to know that American democracy rests firmly in the hands of a contented and thoroughly confused electorate–at least among Republicans and non-Texans. But of course. For evidence, we look to last Sunday’s New York Times and an article on…

Buzz

The smell test Maintaining a healthy level of cynicism is not as easy as it looks. Life, especially here in Dallas, especially at 1500 Marilla Street, has a nasty way of meeting and surpassing our most paranoid suspicions, of confirming our doubts about others’ motivations. You think you’re being cynical,…

Buzz

Doin’ the Wright Shuffle We don’t know who the author is, since the fax that Buzz received was unsigned, but we wanted to share this letter purportedly sent by a Dallas air traveler to Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Phil Gramm and U.S. Rep. Dick Armey: “Please accept my donation…

Buzz

Do it yourself We hate to say it, but Buzz thinks Tom Hicks and Ross Perot Jr. did just fine picking David Schwarz as architect for the new arena. Before you pick up a pen and fire off a letter claiming that we’re: a) dumb as a box of rocks…

Buzz

Winning friends, influencing people It sounds like such a good idea: a big, wealthy, downtown law firm opens up a storefront office in South Dallas to serve the black community gratis. You know, noblesse oblige…among lawyers, no less. Nice plan, but its execution by the firm of Bickel & Brewer…

Buzz

Venable ego-watch Washington at Valley Forge. Travis at the Alamo. Venable at DISD. That’s right, history buffs. Dallas’ own education gadfly Don Venable is the Man with the Stand on the Dallas school board, sacrificing himself and standing by his principles. At least, that’s his story. According to Venable, he…

Buzz

One born every minute Buzz isn’t quite sure what possessed us to stop by last week’s book signing for self-professed medium James Van Praagh, whose book of happy talk about the afterlife–Talking to Heaven–is a bestseller. Maybe it’s his claim that he can chat with the departed spirits of animals…

Buzz

Ron’s pal If Buzz were conspiracy-minded, here’s one we could peddle with the Kennedy assassination freaks: Lee Alcorn’s opposition to the Trinity River plan is all a scam, a setup he arranged with Mayor Ron Kirk to actually sell the project. A touch paranoid, you say? Well, how else to…

Buzz

The scoop on Paula Buzz generally tries to avoid those mendacity festivals known as news conferences–the hard questions never get answered, and statements that should draw a horselaugh go sailing by. But even we were lured out of our comfy chair to the Fairmont last week to get a peek…

Buzz

Free at last Someone may have sent the managers of Regis Square Apartments a copy of the Constitution, with its pesky allowances for free speech and assembly. Anyway, something motivated them last week to drop trespassing charges against Texas Tenants Union housing activist Dina Levy. As the Dallas Observer reported…

Buzz

April fools We’d like to say it was a deliberate April Fools’ joke, but even Buzz, with our sometimes–ah–imaginative interpretation of the facts, can’t carry that one with a straight face. We’re referring to last week’s Dallas Observer cover story, “The Jones Boys,” about Paula Jones’ Dallas lawyers, who, we…

Buzz

Life doing a bad imitation of art When Buzz ran across the name Delvin J. Diles as one of two suspects charged in the abduction and murder of Plano stockbroker Frank Meziere, we did a double take. Delvin J. Diles. Where had we heard that name before? As it turns…