Molly Ivins Did Say That

No doubt we’ll have a few things here today about Molly Ivins; after all, Schutze and I worked with her at the Dallas Times Herald, Jim much longer and closer than I, and he has the anecdotes to prove it. Most of mine have to do with smoking — as…

Beverly Hills Cops Ready to Break Lane Garrison

Prison Break star Lane Garrison could face up to 10 years in prison. Maybe he could date Brandy? A couple of months back, Prison Break co-star and Dallas native Lane Garrison crashed his Land Rover into a tree in Beverly Hills, killing a 17-year-old boy sitting in the back seat…

Frozen Assets

The NHL’s All-Star Game has come and gone. So, too, has Dallas’ fascination with hockey. The mid-winter classic arrived last week disguised as an enigma: At once a crowning achievement on 15 years of grass-roots growth and a humbling reality check for a sport skating more toward thin ice than…

Don’t Go Bust

He looks like a good cop. He’s got the ‘stache, the short-cropped hair, the pushed-out chest and the shiny badge. He sounds like a good cop too; drawled and official. He’s got a TV reporter’s microphone in his face and a brick of marijuana in his hand, and he’s answering…

Conflict? What Conflict?

Hector Flores isn’t someone you’d expect to be apathetic about segregation. The immediate past national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, Flores often serves as the voice of indignation on civil rights debates. In Farmers Branch, where the city council recently passed legislation making it harder for…

Ethics, schmethics

Ethics, schmethics: Starting Wednesday, the parking lot that is the Dallas North Tollway toll plaza at Wycliff Avenue might become a little less congested, which is good, because it greatly lowers the chance that Buzz will spend the rest of his life face-down in a pillow at a state penitentiary,…

Union Played

Last February, Lakewood restaurant manager Alexis Gaddy decided to do what a lot of people do: pay a bill with a money order. After all, they’re safe. Trackable. So he stopped by the 7-Eleven on Garland Road, bought a Western Union order from an automated machine, dropped it in the…

Houses That Go Oink | The Cock Crows

Houses That Go Oink Decrepit and lovin’ it: Just wanted Jim Schutze to know that his article about East Dallas (“Goodbye, Groovy East Dallas,” January 25) brought tears to my eyes and laughter to my throat. I miss the bones on the porch, the “salons” at Colin Jefferson’s (met Laura…

Molly Ivins: 1944-2007

The Texas Observer’s home page confirms what we found out but a short while ago: Molly Ivins has died. We will have more tomorrow from her old friend and Dallas Times Herald colleague (by which I mean “drinking buddy”) Jim Schutze. –Robert Wilonsky…

A “New Deep Ellum” Rising. But What Else Will Fall First?

Deep Ellum looked like this once. Then it turned into something else. And now, it turns again. “West Village.” That is how people are beginning to describe the Deep Ellum of the near-future, once the DART station goes in on Good-Latimer Expressway and once all the boho and tattooed riff-raff’s…

Happy Birthday, Mr. Peppermint!

Today, Mr. Peppermint turns 80 years old — or “80 effin’ years,” as Jerry Haynes put it when Unfair Park called to wish him “Happy Effin’ Birthday.” This marks a somewhat major milestone in the lives of those of weaned on Muffin the Bear, Mr. Wiggly Worm, Captain Candy and…

Korman and the Taxmen

Here’s a wacky item from the February 12 issue of Forbes, concerning Gary Kornman, who, as you may recall from earlier posts, is a Dallas attorney awaiting trial in federal court here after pleading not guilty to criminal charges of securities fraud and lying to the Securities and Exchange Commission…

Wherein We Learn the Fate of the Gypsy Tea Room

On Friday, the Gypsy Tea Room’s bankruptcy case, which had been sitting in U.S. District Judge Harlin DeWayne Hale’s courtroom since October 2005, was dismissed after all parties agreed to make it go away. What does that mean, precisely? Well, says one attorney representing a creditor owed money, “the debtor…

Wink, Wink. Nudge, Nudge. Seriously, Though…

The guy at the far left of this pic is local comic Joey Oglesby, who looks and sounds a great deal like Rev. Donnie Davies. We done here yet? After the jump, a message to the Friends of Unfair Park from the Rev. Donnie Davies — you know, the “God…

Austin Powers

Austin Croshere scored 34 points last night. We’re not sure, but we think that’s also as many points as he’s made in his entire career. Don’t tell me you saw that one coming. After amassing only 24 points over the last two months, reserve Austin Croshere hops off Avery Johnson’s…

When Will Bills Open? As Soon as Possible.

Several Friends of Unfair Park have shot us e-mails wondering precisely when Bill Wisener’s opening his new joint on the Southside of Lamar, as his Spring Valley Road location’s going adios tomorrow. Well, Bill tells us it’ll pretty much be open this week — kind of, sort of. See, it’s…

Waxing Intellectual

I just got waxed by a little Romanian lady, and it was hot. Literally. Eyebrow-waxer to the stars (Jennifer Grey is a star, right?) Eliza Petrescu launched the Dallas outpost of her 5th Avenue brow-a-palooza, Eliza’s Eyes, at Hotel Palomar’s Exhale Spa yesterday. I took the opportunity to avail myself…

Is There a Sturgeon in the House?

Spent some time late last week speaking to N9NE Group founder Michael Morton (son of Arnie Morton, founder of Morton’s The Steakhouse). We spoke of stainless steel, million-dollar kitchens and the Dallas efficacy of a N9NE Steakhouse in Victory Park, where cheap steak loots you 43 bucks and a cold-water…

A Horse is a Horse is a Horse, Of Course

Cue the twinkling piano, usher in Jim Nantz’s hushed, reverent tones and get PETA on speed dial, because I’m about to beat a dead horse. While Sammy Sosa and Mike Singletary are coming to town, Barbaro is gone. The tributes, of course, are pouring in. During the eight months the…

Uncle Barky Punches Daybreak Belo the Belt

Ed Bark thinks Justin Farmer’s a real mimbo. Gee, what gave it away? File this under Things The Great Ed Bark Never Coulda Said About WFAA When He Worked At The Dallas Morning News: “Justin Farmer and Jackie Hyland seemed happily under glass, bantering with almost shocking ineptitude on a…