White noise I’ve been restraining myself from entering the DISD fray; however, Julie Lyons put me over the edge on this one. I don’t believe Lyons has the right to challenge the people of DISD Place 1 who elected Bill Keever and call for his ouster [“Bring on the noise,”…
J.D. Cash looked at me incredulously. He couldn’t believe that anyone bought into the supposed confession of Timothy McVeigh. “People in Dallas believe it?” he asked, speaking from the living room of his buddies, the Wilburns, in Oklahoma City last Saturday night. Yes, I insisted. Not only that, but any…
“Texas’ Most Historic Town.” That’s how the billboard tempts drivers on Interstate 35 to exit 401B for Waxahachie. You wind your way back under the highway, past the ramshackle burger drive-in (the specialty is lasagna–go figure), down the avenue of spruced-up old houses, and into downtown. Day-trippers come to this…
Dallas Observer staff writers Kaylois Henry and Thomas Korosec have been named winners of the Benjamin Fine Award for Education Reporting, a national honor presented by the National Association of Secondary School Principals. Kaylois Henry won in the non-daily newspaper category for “Academy of dreams,” an April 11, 1996, story…
Around 6 p.m. each day, the neighborhood kids begin to gather at Russell Fish’s tiny North Dallas apartment, which is decorated with educational posters and inspirational sayings such as: “We don’t look for people who never fail. We look for people who never give up.” Primarily black and Latino elementary…
Crazy for you We can’t believe she did that. Dr. Laura Schlessinger, the abrasive, conservative-values absolutist syndicated radio shrink, proved to a group of Dallas Jewish women last week that her radio persona isn’t just a shtick. The petite, dogmatic California-based Ph.D (that’s in physiology, not psychology) who has office…
U.S. district Judge Jorge Solis has made it possible for a few more listeners to hear the notorious “Peavy Tapes.” Judge Solis, responding to motions made by U.S. Attorney Paul Coggins, ruled this week that the FBI can forward the tapes to the civil rights division of the U.S. Department…
On a recent rainy Monday night, classical guitarist Carlo Pezzimenti performed for about 40 members of a college class taught by friend and fellow Brookhaven teacher Larry Gordon. Anyone who’s seen Pezzimenti perform knows what happened the instant his fingers hit the nylon strings: The Carlo hush fell over listeners…
Just last month, Bill Keever called a press conference and tearfully announced that he would relinquish his seat on the Dallas Independent School District board. He hoisted a flag of surrender familiar to embattled politicians, saying he needs to spend more time with his family. Keever said he would step…
A Tarrant County judge has dismissed a libel claim filed against the Dallas Observer in 1996 by former Dallas Independent School District teacher Deen Williamson. State district Judge Bob McGrath granted the Observer’s motion for summary judgment last Friday, ruling that the case should not proceed to trial. McGrath also…
This week, the Dallas Observer goes online with a World Wide Web site (www.dallasobserver.com) where Internet surfers can read and download the Observer’s hard-edged, irreverant articles on politics, government, and business, as well as our provocative reviews of music, stage, film, and restaurants. In addition, dallasobserver.com will offer Web Extra–a…
For Lisa McAnally, last Christmas Day was hardly the peaceful experience most people reasonably expect from the holiday. On that morning, and well into the afternoon, the 23-year-old art history graduate student and her boyfriend sat on McAnally’s backyard balcony in East Dallas, watching in disbelief as her neighbors across…
An artistic soul with a ’60s sensibility, Fred “Hutch” Hutchison can find poetry in anything. Literally, anything. The off-color ads in the back of this publication, for instance, caught Hutchison’s eye, and what he saw was pure verse. So he copped lines from a bunch of advertisements, strung them together,…
Another bomb? Buzz watched in wonder as Dallas Morning News executive vice president Ralph Langer made the rounds of television news shows over the weekend, defending his paper’s blockbuster story on the alleged confession of Oklahoma City bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh. In a copyrighted story printed Saturday–and posted on the…
Disputed facts Holly Mullen’s story “Losing by decision” [February 20] contained factual errors that need correcting. First, Mullen reports “a few girls were allowed to wrestle at state, but their matches were exhibition only.” That’s incorrect. The Texas Interscholastic Girls Wrestling Association (TIGWA) held its first state championship matches with…
The man who makes his living talking louder than everyone is suddenly quiet. His eyes close behind trademark shades, his hand rubs against the table between interviewer and interviewee, his foot dangles aimlessly at the end of lanky, nattily clad legs. The most obnoxious man alive is suddenly, for a…
In the early 1980s, when oil was king, Bill Brosseau was the industry’s crown prince. Just 35 years old and worth $10 million by his own accounting, Brosseau had an athlete’s muscular build, movie star good looks, and a millionaire’s accoutrements–a personal chef, an ostentatiously appointed condominium overlooking Turtle Creek,…
When the Hurst police cruiser pulled him over, Rick Metcalf remembered that he’d never replaced the license plate after it fell off the flatbed trailer he was towing. Metcalf wasn’t concerned about a ticket, though. A towering bear of a man with a full beard, he doesn’t get upset about…
Time machine Buzz was reading D Magazine last week and was knocked out by the in-your-face, take-no-prisoners journalism. Beneath a cover illustration of a gagged and straitjacketed teacher, the headline blared: “THIS CHAOS MUST END: What We Must Do to Save the Dallas School System.” Other stories on the cover…
Missing the point It is a shame that Gary Davis did not read Ann Zimmerman’s article more closely [“Late Bloomer”, January 30]. If he had, he would not have accused me of losing over 100 pounds after I realized I was lesbian and after I had filed for divorce. The…
Let’s be fair. The man can’t help it that he sounds like a yapping Chihuahua when he’s angry. After all, if you’d been charged with keeping order in the mighty dysfunctional world of DISD board meetings, you, too, might find yourself letting loose a few high-pitched canine squeals of aggravation…
The man should be relaxing in a calm bath, but his hand is gripping the soap dish. There’s a coffee mug on the edge of the tub, and a bathmat spread out neatly beside it. The man is wearing a watch. There is a toaster resting on his lap. The…
