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…
On the final night of Courtney Barnett’s high school wrestling season, she is waiting, as usual. Waiting to see if any of the boys on the opposing team will agree to face her. Waiting to learn which weight class she might compete in. Waiting to see if a referee will…
If Brenda Reyes doesn’t get elected to the Dallas City Council in May, perhaps it will be the electoral equivalent of three strikes and you’re out. Formal filing for the spring council elections hadn’t even opened by the end of last week, and the 36-year-old businesswoman already found her campaign…
Should we tip? A new low has been reached in the continuing saga of desperate and incomprehensible management moves at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. If you’ll remember, the S-T has taken to humiliating itself over the last couple of years–like by removing top managers in the dark of night, only…
No easy out I must commend you on your sensitive handling of a socially taboo subject [“Late Bloomer,” January 30]. Many people are upset when a previously married woman with children comes out of the closet to follow her own inner leanings. She no longer fits into a neat and…
One afternoon in the fall of 1985, three disgruntled employees gathered for lunch at the Luby’s Cafeteria at Interstate 635 and Midway Road. They didn’t know it, but their meeting would be one of the more portentous in the history of Hispanic Dallas, signaling a new course for the city’s…
Cheyenne Turner bursts into the Unity Church’s carpeted lobby, looks around, and, with lips pursed, executes a hasty head count. Maybe 250 people are buzzing and milling around, but Turner isn’t impressed. “Could be better,” she says, sending off the efficiency vibrations of a million-dollar real estate agent–or the lady…
The sprawling new apartment complex called Jefferson at Gaston Yards has become popular in recent months. The trendy, gated complex in Deep Ellum is still under construction, but some up-scale renters will do just about anything to get inside. One tenant in particular could not wait to call the Yards…
Plugged We were surprised the other day to see that The Dallas Morning News, which has otherwise tenaciously clung to the ’70s ideals of newspapering (minus unions), has broken new journalistic ground. Buzz was browsing through a slick promotional book for the law firm of Lynn Stodghill Melsheimer & Tillotson…
Mixed Reviews After reading Ann Zimmerman’s article about P-FLAG President Pat Stone, I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or be angry about the whole episode of Stone “discovering” her lesbianism at the age of 51, and after a 35-year marriage [“Late bloomer,” January 30]. It is downright comical that…
Brian Rieck was looking forward to hitting a few golf balls during an unseasonably warm weekend last month. But his plans were waylaid in the early afternoon of January 21 when someone walked into his garage–the door of which had been accidentally left open–and stole his golf clubs. The burglar…
