Scary school Greenhill School, Dallas’ liberal yet no-less-elitist private academy, has taken a step to preserve its academic purity by banning from campus the Goosebumps series of children’s books because its “graphic” content “doesn’t leave much to the imagination.” Goosebumps, a sort of kiddie pulp fiction featuring ghouls, ghosts, and…
Lancaster’s tempest Please allow me to offer some brighter colors to the dark picture painted of Lancaster in a recent Observer article [“Storm warning,” May 2]. While the city’s unique personality has always kept its politics interesting, there is much to appreciate about our rich history and promising future. Big…
The man at the pulpit with the mass of neatly coiffed silver hair is speaking of sin and redemption, pleading with his flock to forgive him his very human frailties. “No one is free from sin,” he says. His eyes have filled with tears. The camera lens zooms in, and…
E-e-e-e-e-o-o-o,” squeals Kathryn Benton, a brown-haired moppet with vivid blue eyes and a wide smile. With a rigid hand she paws through a book of laminated pictures of family, friends, and teachers created for Kathryn by her special-education teacher, Holly Clemons. It is almost noon on a school day in…
The search for an editorial direction which will offend no one continues to elude the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Despite its best efforts, the struggling Cowtown daily still has not managed to fully placate the Religious Right. And now, the paper’s Arlington edition managed to hack off liberals as well. Several…
In the fiercely competitive world of youth soccer, no one has more power and influence over children than the coaches. Several weeks ago, a young female soccer player from North Dallas accused a popular coach of two prestigious local soccer clubs and Jesuit College Preparatory School of abusing that power…
Can’t he retake the test? The reign of University of Texas at Arlington president Ryan Amacher is over, but not forgotten. In fact, it’s gone on to become a case history in how not to run a university. The New York-based academic journal Lingua Franca analyzed Amacher’s short, bitter administration…
Nail in metal’s coffin That letter from ASKA’s entertainment lawyer, Paul Webb, was hilarious [“A kick in the ASKA,” Letters, April 25]. Obviously trying to make himself look good by somehow putting a shine on shit, Webb blames writer Michael Corcoran for trying to prejudice the public into hating metal…
The shades are open and rooms empty at the house Jeffrey H. Reynolds III once rented on Blackberry Lane. The 32-year-old check-kiter and soon-to-be federal inmate abruptly moved out about three weeks ago, shortly after pleading guilty to two counts of wire and mail fraud. During the year Reynolds lived…
On April 25, 1994, the weather-radar screen on Bill Gaither’s television was ominous. The Lancaster city manager apprehensively watched the red blips as they moved toward his city. The pulsating pinpoints of light predicted a swift and destructive approaching storm. Pretty soon, barring a miracle, major turbulence would reach the…
Down, Charlie Gibson, down! Adherents of local good-sex guru Ella Patterson probably caught a glimpse of their zaftig Love Goddess on ABC’s Good Morning America this week. The television broadcast kicked off Ella’s month-long national tour to promote her steamy book, Will the Real Women Please Stand Up?, which offers…
Christian Coalition leader’s comments about Hispanics and English-as-a-second-language programs in public schools have enraged parents in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch school district north of Dallas. Doug Hellman, co-chairman of the conservative Dallas County Christian Coalition and a member of the Carrollton-Farmers Branch school board, made the statements during a taped interview…
Barry Annino has seen the future of Deep Ellum, and it is the West End–with the addition of lots and lots of apartments filled with lots and lots of upwardly mobile people with deep pockets. For a year and a half, Annino has acted as the president of the 130-member…
Selling Luna’s soul Dallas City Councilman Chris Luna “sounds” like a very, very cheap prostitute selling not his body but his integrity [“Luna landing,” Laura Miller, April 18]. He gives Cinemark secret and confidential city-council information that enables Cinemark to initiate a lawsuit against the city Luna is supposedly serving,…
It was a lovely spring day in lovely University Park, and the sun was shining, the breezes were blowing, and the birds were chirping. Which was a problem. It wasn’t a problem for the birds, of course. They were quite carefree–screaming their silly songs, mauling the mulberry trees, doing that…
A group of 35 people, mostly well-dressed women with folding stools clutched in one hand, wait outside the special exhibit galleries of the Dallas Museum of Art where the current exhibition is Pandora’s Box, the Women of Ancient Greece. The attraction today is not just the collection of kraters and…
Debbie M. Price COMMENTARY Send not to learn for whom the broom comes I meant to write this column last week, but other things got in the way. That is the way it is with life–things get in the way of things. While some things can be handled quickly–a pink…
WEDNESDAY Today’s weather Measured civility, chance of scattered drivel Thursday Mostly fluffy, chance of pandering NEWS That was close Unabomber captured northwest of Arlington The eyes of babes Arlington youths draw the Unabomber SPORTS Hey Ross, over here To entice Mavericks, Arlington must bend over further than Ron Kirk OPINIONS…
A federal jury has found that the City of Dallas violated outspoken landlady Christina Swann’s civil rights when it tried to demolish her apartment building. U.S. Magistrate Judge Jane Boyle ruled that the city violated Swann’s civil rights when code-enforcement agents walked onto her property and began boarding up the…
Maybe she can talk to Bob These days, e-mailing Jesus is easier than reaching Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Just ask Linda Terrell, who has been working for two months on behalf of Denise Cowle, a Dallas woman who is dying of cancer and wants to meet cyber-god Gates as her…
On the day the Dallas City Council settled the Cinemark lawsuit, the mood around the horseshoe was grim. This movie-theater thing was just so out of control. A simple vote two years ago to reject Cinemark’s Tinseltown proposal had led to a major lawsuit against the city and eight individual…
A kick in the ASKA I am an entertainment lawyer representing talented artists in the Metroplex, including ASKA. I have rarely seen an article as inappropriate, unsupported, and unprofessional as Michael Corcoran’s personal attack upon ASKA and the metal-music genre in general, in the April 11th Observer [“1996 Dallas Observer…
