Scare Tactics Chicken Littles: I must say I was sadly disappointed by your lame article on amusement rides (“Scream Machines,” by Josh Harkinson, June 3). John Stossel, the famous reporter from ABC’s 20/20, refers to such reporting as “scare stories.” People take rare isolated incidents and make them bigger than…
In the realm of human sorrows, there is no more searing grief than that of parents burying a beloved child, and to lower a son into his grave just as he’s flown from the nest is perhaps even more agonizing. When a child is murdered, a different kind of anguish…
There have been some strange stories in this space–stories that stretched (and often completely ignored) the traditional definition of sports journalism. Columns about wing eating and video games, columns about yoga with Mavs dancers and me watching TV. The fact that my check clears is either an act of charity…
Pretentious? Nous? All that jazz: The Observer shows cultural pretensions in the fact that its writers use the syntax and jargon of highfalutin literary criticism in their reviews of cultural products. However, this rarefied style sounds incongruous when used to evaluate three-chord rock CDs or concerts. Wilonsky and Co. apparently…
Thrill seekers have a word for almost every moment aboard a roller coaster, and if they were to describe Sam Nguyen’s position in the summer of 2001, they would say he was at the top of the lift hill. After all, Sam held a freshly minted season pass to Six…
There are soccer moms at Hooters. There are soccer moms and their soccer kids in their soccer gear at Hooters. There are soccer dads here, too, on this Saturday night in April, but the stereotype goes that men are supposed to be here, so the soccer dads go unnoticed. Because…
Buzz is nothing if not a great Monday-morning quarterback. Example: Last week, KERA radio convened a “state of the local media” powwow. One of the participants was James Moroney III, publisher of The Dallas Morning News. Moroney took exception to the other panelists and callers when they suggested the paper…
They “bug out” to reggae. They wear skater clothes. Some of their grades aren’t good. One of them has dropped out of Southern Methodist University. Two more have yet to graduate. Still, they dream big. They think about “the greatest job in the world.” Like, what exactly would that be?…
Leo Hicks stands at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X boulevards, which lies in the shadow of Fair Park. It’s the only place in the United States where two streets with these names meet, and the imagery weighs heavily upon the shoulders of the man charged…
First the good news, for those of you who like a little choice in your democracy: The Texas Libertarian Party has collected more than enough signatures to place its candidates on the November ballot and is awaiting qualification by the Texas secretary of state’s office. It was touch and go,…
The clubhouse was nearly empty, save a few players who were milling about near their lockers, talking and reading and watching television. The strange thing was the knot of 20 or so reporters standing in the center of the room, gathered tightly together as though they were huddling for warmth…
The Devil Comes to Town Polygamy’s victims: I read your piece on the polygamists in Eldorado, Texas (“The Polygamists Are Coming,” by John MacCormack, May 20). I found it interesting and right on the money. I am one of the apostates from the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints Church. I left…
It was a high-noon scene straight from a vintage Hollywood Western, complete with a small town in panic, menace on the horizon and a mysterious stranger sounding the alarm. Under a bright March sky, more than 150 West Texas ranchers and townsfolk gathered at midday outside the old limestone courthouse…
Jack Matthews was the only one who saw it, the only one who looked at the deserted buildings on a forgotten street off downtown and pictured a community. But, hey, that’s his job. He’s a real estate developer, a guy who is supposed to see something where everyone else sees…
When we ran our cover story on LaMarcus Aldridge (“He Wants to Be a Millionaire,” April 29), it seemed as though the Seagoville High School basketball stud had finally made up his mind. After flirting with entering the NBA draft, the 7-foot 18-year-old signed a letter of intent to play…
There were plenty of reasons for Tom Hicks to smile, but as the elevator opened and let him out at the clubhouse/field level he only half-nodded before shuffling past me and vanishing down a long concrete corridor. You’d think that the owner of a team that’s been the surprise of…
My Daughter’s Guitar How about my daughter next time: I was amazed to see a familiar guitar on a familiar stage on the cover of your May 13 issue (“20 Bands 7 Days”). The guitar is that of my daughter, Maren Morris, and the stage is Poor David’s Pub. Equally…
It’s Saturday night at Club Indigo, and I’m staggering toward the finish line of a 20-band marathon. The act taking the stage is one I normally wouldn’t see, a local and rather popular metal act whose brand of hammering, unsubtle music makes me want to shed a tear for every…
Now and again, one of the beat writers would run into him in the empty hallways at Valley Ranch, but for the most part no one had seen Bill Parcells in months. He warned us that it would be that way. After the season ended, he told us that he’d…
Heap of Doo-doo The buck stops where: Jim Schutze’s review of The Dallas Morning News’ “Dallas at the Tipping Point” was right on the money (“Talkin’ Doo-doo,” April 22). I read the entire section, cover to cover, every word, and came to similar conclusions. I gave the study very good…
The smell of grilled lamb and exotic spices permeates Ghion, a restaurant run by Dessalegn Befekadu, a native Ethiopian. Desi, 48, is the evening chef; wife Amaki cooks lunch. That way they can trade off driving duties for their 13-year-old daughter. Craving the flavors of home, Ethiopian and other African…
So Ted Benavides hired a white guy to be chief of police? Wow, we didn’t see that coming. Our money was on former San Jose Chief Louis Cobarruviaz; Dallas has had tons of white chiefs and one black chief. The Hispanic population is booming, so picking a Latino seemed to…
