Fallen Angel

Preparation for Sunday-morning services at the Cathedral of Hope resembles backstage on opening night of a Broadway production. The halls bustle with activity as volunteer coordinators and staff tick off their to-do lists. Everything must be perfect, from preparing urns of coffee to ushering in latecomers to ordering multimedia presentations…

Fin Fight

If Jurassic Park had a fishing hole, it probably would have been stocked with peacock bass. Native to the Amazon River and its tributaries, the greenish-yellow, large-lipped freshwater fish has a reputation of hitting a fishing lure like a raptor and then fighting like hell. As one fishing guide puts…

FF’s First-Ever Holiday Gift Guide

The Turd Twister (turdtwister.com): As featured on So Graham Norton, this cheap ($9.95) starter kit helps you pass the time by shaping your poo like Christmas cookies. North Texas Exotic Car Rental (exoticcarrentaloftexas.com): Daily prices start at $299 for a Porsche Boxster and go up to $1,495 for a Ferrari…

Secret Revealed

Is a shop that sells condoms, lubricants, risqué novelties, lingerie and, um, “massagers” a sexually oriented business? Sara Lee Goff, owner of Condoms to Go, doesn’t think so. The city of DeSoto begs to differ. Goff opened her seventh Dallas-area shop in DeSoto in September, though this time she called…

Letters

Monica’s JourneyFlavorful: Bravo! I commend the Dallas Observer’s coverage on the personal and professional odyssey of Monica Greene, a truly exceptional human being (“Monica at 10,” by Mark Stuertz, November 20). Her example of quite sincere service and flavorful contributions to the Dallas culinary scene places her fondly in the…

Haunted House

This is a story without beginning or end, only a middle where there is horror and confusion, tragedy and a haunting evil that cries out for understanding. Stephen King, not I, should be telling it. It takes place in the shadows of rural church spires, in an isolated part of…

Sweet Revenge

It was a bright and crisp Durant, Oklahoma, morning and she was sitting at her kitchen table when a dozen red roses arrived for novelist Billie Letts–a gift from her editor in celebration of her arrival at the No. 1 spot on The New York Times best-seller list. Yet the…

Thanks for Nothing

At some point, my attitude about Thanksgiving shifted from acceptance–even, on occasion, anticipation–to discontent. That probably had a lot to do with my cousin Dave, who, sometime in the early ’90s, began telling the same dreadful stories at Thanksgiving dinner every year–stories that we’d heard hundreds of times. No one…

Jive Turkey

Jive Turkey This wasn’t an easy decision, deciding who should serve as Full Frontal’s inaugural Jive Turkey. Honest. There were plenty of heated debates (OK, one half-assed discussion interspersed with a much livelier dispute on where to go for lunch) and about a dozen or so candidates nominated. But while…

Night at the Opera

After having spent the better part of the past six years voicing opinions on politics, culture, the law and other things we know little about, Buzz feels it’s time to expand our horizons and venture into new, fancier territory. So this week, Buzz tries our hand as opera critic. That’s…

Letters

That WordBrilliance: I’m writing you from the News Edit lab at the UNT journalism department. I read your “Curse of Youth” article (by Eric Celeste, November 20) in News Edit class today instead of listening to the lecture. Brilliance. This is something I think about fairly often, and you hammered…

Poll Axed

Listen up, people: If you want to continue to get a weekly dose of quality vicious Buzz product, you’re all going to have to stop being so damn reasonable. We’re talking to you, Mr. Jim Hirsch, associate superintendent for technology at Plano Independent School District. Buzz received a press release…

Flipped Out

After retiring from pro football in 1992, former Dallas Cowboy Eugene Lockhart has tried his hand at running a swimming pool installation business and a one-hour photo shop. A more recent foray into home mortgages and real estate–in which Lockhart partnered with former Cowboy Kevin Smith and a man named…

Korosec, Schutze Honored

Dallas Observer staff writer Thomas Korosec took home two Katie Awards in the recent five-state journalism contest. Korosec won first place in the Specialty Reporting category for a portfolio of stories concerning the Dallas Police Department and crime. Those stories included the January 16, 2003, cover story, “Dallas’ Chief Problem,”…

Curse of Youth

I’ve waited long enough. For years, I’ve sat by the phone patiently, expecting to get the call. The conversation would be brief: “Mr. Celeste, this is a Big Media Company. We’d like to pay you a huge consulting fee to tell us how to reach young readers.” I would chuckle,…

Where’s the Love?

Warren Sapp is a large, loud man who is hated by some, loved by others. He is also a truth-teller. A few weeks back, the Tampa Bay Bucs defensive tackle went on national television and outlined a gross injustice that’s gone on far too long: the subjugation of the NFL…

List o’Plenty

List O Plenty As the holiday season approaches, we asked the Full Frontal staffers to give us their reasons for thanks. Because it’s Thanksgiving. Next week. See what we did there? The ladies were professional and came up with a real list. The lazy men, not so much: Girls of…

Letters

Cracking UpSafety’s price: I enjoyed “Crack Alley” (by Mark Donald, November 13). As a police officer, I must emphasize that the Broken Windows Theory does work, but not in Dallas. Not now. In order for this theory to be effective in fighting crime, it must be properly funded and receive…

Monica at 10

Ten years ago, Eduardo Greene had the world by the tux tails. His restaurants, Eduardo’s Aca y Alla and Cayuse, were hot–veritable petri dishes of buzz, the stuff Dallas craves almost more than money. He had scores of devoted fans, smitten by his savoir-faire and fierce sincerity. Eduardo’s was a…

Cocktail Hours

He can’t be more than 18 or 19, brown hair, tight T-shirt, tighter jeans, light blue eyes that have yet to be deadened by the street. It’s obvious what he wants: a quick hustle, sex for money, drugs, his next meal. Yet he approaches Neal Shaffer with some caution. Maybe…

Staff Infection

Dallas Morning News publisher James Moroney III wants to know why the morale among his Metro reporters is low, sources at the News tell Buzz. Good question. What, oh what, could the answer be? Perhaps theyre less than happy that the papers covering more board meetings out in Lewisville, thanks…

Delk Does Dallas

This is not what Tony Delk wants to hear. Not now, not when he’s just finished practicing, not when a warm shower and some rest beckon seductively. Not ever, really, and certainly not from someone like me. The Dallas Mavericks guard was about to skip up the stairs that lead…