The taxidermy issue requires advanced autopsy by the serious political ethicist. Not that the scholars at the Texas Ethics Commission have been derelict–indeed not. Their December decree that Texas lawmakers may henceforth disburse campaign funds in order to stuff animal heads, thereafter to reside upon their office walls, is positively…
Editor’s departure opens succession struggle at News As in all closed governmental systems, there is intense speculation among the proletariat about the succession struggle at The Dallas Morning News. The need for a new leader came with the formal announcement late last month of the departure of longtime managing editor…
Furry beasts I would like to take this opportunity to voice my disgust with Kirby Fry and Inger Myhre, the villains of the Permaculture article [“Hugging the tree gently,” December 21, 1995]. I am outraged that any people could be so cruel and self-centered as to starve kittens to within…
Act II The year is 1988. The scene is Granbury, now brimming with free enterprise, country charm, and overpriced antiques. After the Opera House began playing to sold-out houses, a new merchant class had come to town, snapping up every stone-slab building on the square. This sleepy farming hamlet was…
Bye-bye, Houston Oilers. Used to luv ya, Blue. Lost ’em to Nashville, Tenn., for a $292 million state-of-the-art stadium with 82 luxury suites, 9,600 premier “club seats” and 42,700 season tickets–plus a $28 million “relocation fee” and other goodies. Break Bum Phillips’ heart. Rams, Raiders, Browns–same story. Now if all…
When Kimberly Tracey called the city to complain about her East Dallas apartment complex, she had a list of gripes. Maintenance was poor, the linoleum on her kitchen floor concealed rotted wood, and the roof leaked in several places. The entire building was a mess, she said. City inspectors eventually…
The saga of Sam Krasniqi, an Albanian Moslem who was acquitted of molesting his son and daughter but was nonetheless unable to regain custody of his children anyway (“Tell Mama Why You Cry,” Nov. 17, 1994), took a strange turn last week when Krasniqi was indicted on three counts of…
Don’t get kinky Texans learned long ago that Texas Jewboy Kinky Friedman is an acquired taste. But recently, because of the success of his series of detective novels and a new CD, From One Good American to Another, the Kinkster’s horribly politically incorrect humor has been reaching a diverse audience…
What a difference a year makes. And if we only knew then… For example. Last winter, the majority of the Dallas city council balked at the idea of letting the voters decide whether or not to build a sports arena. It was a ridiculous idea, they said, a stupid concept,…
Home sweet Hope House I loved the article “Young, gay, and thrown away” [Nov. 30] by Johnathon Briggs. I found an old issue today and read that touching story. When I was done reading it, I just sat there and thought about how hard life is for some people, especially…
They arrived without invitation one fall night, five parcels of fur and bones and screaming lungs, crying desperately and unceasingly for milk and shadowing Kirby Fry and Inger Myhre’s every move. The kittens, ranging in color and shape from a pair of emaciated black runts to a plump, white-faced tabby,…
Whitewright, Texas, appears to be an uncontroversial place. It is what it is: a former railroad town, whose main industry now is the Carl’s Sausage plant on Bond Street. Grand Street is lined with shops, city hall, the library, and the police department. The side streets of this town 60…
Two weeks before Christmas, on a nippy Monday night, there was a party at the Belo Mansion on Ross Avenue downtown. But as I entered the back door, I figured I had come on the wrong night. There was no activity in the back of the house, nothing happening in…
If you are 7-and-a-half years old, halfway through the second grade, and living on a steady diet of CD-ROM and Nickelodeon’s “Weinerville,” very little slips by you. Such is the case with Caitlin, who has already shattered some of the most sacred myths of childhood. First, she is already hip…
Did Ray Hunt support Mandela? We learn more about Mayor Ron Kirk every day. Last week, for instance, the mayor, who announced he would lead a trade mission to South Africa, told The Dallas Morning News, “I cannot escape the symbolic parallels of being the first African-American mayor of Dallas…
Like businesses throughout the city celebrating the holiday spirit, the office of Intertect Relief and Reconstruction Corporation held a Christmas party last week in the Oak Cliff home of one of its staff members. It was a bittersweet affair, to be sure, because Fred Cuny, the founder and director of…
Channel 8 gives Rene Syler the boot Eager to head off a lawsuit, A.H. Belo Corp. attorneys are negotiating with a lawyer for dumped Channel 8 anchor Rene Syler, BeloWatch has learned. Syler, who worked as a field reporter and as co-anchor for WFAA’s noon news broadcast, was summoned into…
Hopeful house I am very unhappy with the way the article on Hope House was written [“Young, Gay, and Thrown Away,” November 30]. The tone is very sensational, there are many things stated that are just not true, and some things Johnathon Briggs wrote are plain rude and offensive. When…
Oh boy, a good race! I know that politics is in dreadful disrepute, but the prospect of a fine, old-fashioned duke-out over some real stuff–not just the spin on stuff–gets the juices stirring. Rep. John Bryant, a populist Democrat, has announced he’s running against Phil Gramm, the part-time senator for…
Mickey Mantle never saw himself as a hero, never felt comfortable in the role, and he rebelled against it all his life. After he had been out of baseball for several years, he was contacted by the New York Yankees, who wanted information from him for a publicity package they…
Head erect, shoulders squared, Dr. Linda Norton walks purposefully into a packed courtroom in Belton, Texas, to take her seat on the witness stand. For the next hour and a half, Norton, a forensic pathologist, will lead the hushed courtroom on an exacting and graphic tour of the bruises and…
Better not pout Buzz sometimes wonders if North Dallas is even aware that there’s a world out there. Usually, of course, it doesn’t matter. Bosnia, the budget battle, and peace in Northern Ireland, are, as we said, Out There. But every once in a while, something happens Out There that…
