Unlovely Rita Memo to Dallas’ meter cops: Don’t mess with geeks bearing high-tech equipment. It seems that Dallas’ parking enforcement corps has been having a field day (and night) ticketing the cars that squeeze into the Ross Avenue area once a month to buy and sell computers and high technology…
Wise County Attorney Stephen Hale thought his decision to routinely dismiss cases of misdemeanor pot possession made perfect legal and moral sense. But it turns out the voters of his largely rural jurisdiction just said no. Hale, a Democrat seeking his second term, lost on November 5 to political newcomer…
Roof-raising good time Just wanted to set you straight on your information campaign about our thriving little metropolis of Grand Prairie, ‘twixt big dirty D and Cowtown. While we appreciate all of the free press we can get about our Festival of Peace, Light, and Sheetrock [“A tale of two…
In one corner: Tom Campitelli, 45 years old, 220 pounds, 6-foot-2, hiding his middle-age spread under baggy shirt and shorts, slow-footed and lacking endurance. In the other: Darla Johnson, 21 years old, 115 pounds, 5-foot-7, with legs up to her collarbone, creamy bronzed skin under tight Lycra bike shorts, and…
By appearances, Kathy and Richard Kingsmore’s world was picture-perfect. The thirtysomething couple had three kids and a $413,000 house on a quiet street, with purple impatiens bordering the manicured lawn. The Kingsmores were shining stars at Prestonwood Baptist Church, a North Dallas megasanctuary that attracts a wealthy congregation. Richard was…
The eatery is packed, with a line that presses against the glass windows and threatens to go outside. It’s Thursday night at Vitto’s Italian Restaurant in North Oak Cliff, and that means family night. A quick look around the room shows that “family” takes on all its hues of meaning…
The Dallas Observer was recognized as the best nondaily newspaper in a five-state region in this year’s Dallas Press Club awards. Three Observer writers won individual press club awards. The Dallas Bar Association also honored a fourth Observer writer last week for reporting on legal affairs. Judges selected the Observer…
No hockey face guard? It must have been the pre-Halloween rush that made The Dallas Morning News do it. You know, all the kids clamoring for the newest freaky look that makes Freddy Krueger and Hannibal Lecter look about as menacing as Pumba. This year, any self-respecting kid who wanted…
Whiner Glen Warchol states in his article [“Promise keeper?” October 24] that the only segment of the population that holds WRR [-FM 101.1] sacred is the “blue-haired society types.” He is wrong. Anybody who likes to be able to tune in to classical music on the radio holds WRR sacred…
It was happy news, and Elizabeth Faeth meant to share it. On March 9, 1995, the legislative assistant to U.S. Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson wrote her boss a note, informing the congresswoman that Faeth and her husband were expecting their first child. Faeth had been on Johnson’s congressional staff for…
If you think–and we do–that the State Fair of Texas is actually a gastronomic event, then the image of Julia Child meeting Big Tex is irresistible–a star-crossed conjunction as inevitable as that of King Kong and Godzilla; two giant legends linked by food, the clash of the cholesterol titans, the…
By an overwhelming margin, a strikingly insignificant fraction of Dallas residents believe city council member Donna Blumer should remain with us a bit longer. Blumer, you may recall, exhibited rare political courage recently by vowing to “lay down my life” if necessary to prevent the city from selling WRR-FM 101.1…
The Texas Attorney General’s Office may be spared the task of answering a question that could change the face of Texas college football forever: Can an Aggie read the Longhorn playbook? The question was formally posed on August 27, when Texas A&M graduate Michael Kelley sent University of Texas President…
Eternally yours One can never be politician enough to know how far to go when talking in a lighthearted manner at lunch with a Belo reporter. Now I know. At first, I was peeved at Dallas Morning News reporter Todd Gillman for failing to quote my WRR remarks in the…
Nowhere can you look so far and see so little–or so you think while traveling across the Texas Panhandle on the way to the little feedlot town of Hereford. The railroad tracks and telephone wires and tar-covered highway race across land so flat you can see into the middle of…
Politicians make so many promises that most people don’t pay much attention anymore. But last week, our ears perked up when Dallas City Councilwoman Donna Blumer took a dramatic stand in defense of city ownership of WRR-FM 101.1. WRR, of course, is the only government-owned commercial radio station in America…
When was the last time an adorable child sold you a raffle ticket for some charity fund raiser? When was the last time you actually heard who won the grand prize? Joanne Groshardt, a technical writer in Dallas, recently decided to find out who won the grand prize in a…
Fired up Diane Emery wants to know why, if actors can pretend to love, murder, and even have sex on stage, they can’t bring enough method acting to bear to fake smoking a lousy cigarette? Emery, who suffers from cystic fibrosis, enjoys theater, but can’t attend plays if actors, in…
A tale of two cities Hey, would somebody kindly point out to whichever idiot is in charge of your Buzz column that the Palace of Wax is in Grand Prairie, not Arlington. That’s twice now that you’ve slammed Arlington for being tacky by associating it with something that isn’t even…
It is nothing but an open field, a nondescript place beside a row of battered mailboxes along Seeton Road near Joe Pool Lake. But for months, it has been a site of pilgrimage for Adrianne Jones’ friends. They have visited the field dozens of times since Jones’ brutal murder last…
Everything, really, was quite perfect. The Women’s Council of The Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden was gathering last month in the historic DeGolyer House for its Fall Informal Luncheon, each of the ladies dressed in “casual garden attire,” as their bluebonnet-bordered invitations had instructed. The luncheon tables were whimsically decorated…
Getting bigger all the time With the rerelease of the classic film Giant, culture critics are re-examining the Texas Myth. Most are lamenting that the wild-cattin’ Texas cattle/oil baron who lived as large as the Lone Star State is as dead and gone as James Dean, who played oilman-party monster…
