An Irving artist and art instructor whose “penis painting” outraged Irving’s mayor took down the painting, but only after the show in which it was exhibited ended. Laray Polk, whose fight with Irving leaders was recounted in a May 25 Observer news story, decided not to remove from the Irving…
Kay is the NRA A few weeks back, millionaire Dallas Democrat Richard Fisher publicly challenged his old nemesis, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, to follow the lead of former President George Bush and resign her much-touted membership in the National Rifle Association. Neither Fisher nor Hutchison’s constituents ever got an answer…
On the phone from New York, Wick Allison wanted to offer kind words about the June issue of D magazine, the monthly he founded in 1974 and plans to return to next month as publisher and editor-in-chief. He wanted to be charitable because Chris Tucker, editor of the magazine, whom…
In praise of secrecy Stop the presses! The Morning News has published one of the most wrongheaded and dishonest editorials in the history of Dallas journalism–and believe BeloWatch, given the tenor of the News editorial page over the ages, that’s saying a lot. Headlined “Arena talks–Garcia’s response is out of…
Last February, Rick Finlan–taxpayer, voter, idealist–tried to go to a meeting about the proposed new sports arena. The early morning get-together was between select city officials and Dallas Mavericks owner Don Carter. It was being held in a conference room in Reunion Arena, and when Finlan walked in about 8:30…
Sifting deeper into the rubble of the 74th session here in Austin, one finds several nominees for Worst Bill of the Session beyond the previously nominated “takings” bill, also known as “property rights.” One law we need desperately is truth-in-bill-naming. One more piece of special-interest, greed-head legislation called the Something…
No justice, no peace The actions of Justice of the Peace Thomas Jones [Laura Miller columns, May 25, June 1, and June 8] seem to illustrate perfectly the saying, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (Sir Dalberg, 1834-1902). I think his arrogant disregard for justice may warrant…
Two and a half years ago, Sonya Kennedy moved from an apartment in North Dallas to a house with a huge backyard in Ferris, a town 20 miles south of Dallas. She made the move for one reason: to give her two dogs room to romp and roam. “They were…
Do you know the Muffin Man? Audiences who attend radio station-sponsored film screenings wait in line for hours to pick up the free passes, figuring they’ll get more than a movie in return: a hyped-up crowd and, if they luck out, tie-in gewgaws. But when KEGL disc jockey Russ Martin…
OK, here’s the score card from the Texas Legislature: Environment–screwed. Consumers–screwed. Legal and civil rights–screwed. The Senate–a whore’s dream. The House–some leadership, but mostly outgunned minorities, not enough to stop “local control” of schools. It was a baby version of what’s happening in Washington, except there’s no President Clinton to…
Fowl sense of humor Writer P.B. Miller either knows something I don’t know or has a really unusual sense of humor. Last time I checked, Anthony Burgess wrote the novel A Clockwork Orange [“Thug life,” May 25], but Burgess Meredith played the role of the Penguin in the old “Batman”…
Gregory Spencer rose from a funeral-obsessed child to the owner of a funeral empire that handled a large share of Black funerals in the city.
A horrible night grows worse once the sheriff got involved.
Star fever If your only sources of information are the Morning News’ gossip columns, then bloated Hollywood character actor and part-time Dallas resident Gary Busey’s spectacular May 5 drug overdose in Malibu, California, probably came as a huge surprise. While Busey has been a prime source of copy for inveterate…
Irving just doesn’t get it, says Laray Polk, a Dallas artist whose mural-size drawing adorns a wall of the suburb’s city-funded arts center. In her 8-by-20-foot work, titled “They’re calling for a Flowery War!” there are heroic-size male figures, snippets of a pop song written in Chaucerian English, a giant…
New York investment advisor has been arrested for illegal receipt of funds from the Libyan government, in dealings that involved millionaire Dallas developer Trammell Crow and members of his family. Federal authorities last week charged William Bodine, 51, a longtime friend of Crow’s son-in-law, Henry Billingsley. He is being held…
‘The Observer 1′: The $99 million CEO– plus Burl hits the jackpot Forget the Fortune 500. Put Texas Monthly’s annual special issue on the Texas 100–the 100 richest Texans–out of your mind. Most of all, forget about the D-FW Top 100, the Dallas Morning News’ entry in the ranking sweepstakes…
Mailer gets relevant I am writing to thank you for your piece on Norman Mailer [“Oswald’s ghost,” May 11]. I never thought I would say that. Until I saw your article, I always wondered why Norman Mailer even bothered to write. He told us about a convention of hack politicians…
To read the Christian Coalition’s “Contract With the American Family” is to wonder how well-intentioned people can come up with so many bad ideas. And then again, to wonder what some of it has to do with either the family or Christianity. What in the world do these people have…
At 10 weeks, the procedure seems simple enough. The woman assumes the standard gynecological position–back flat against the table, thighs spread, feet elevated in stirrups. Nitrous oxide is offered to calm her anxiety, deep breathing encouraged to take off the edge. Think of a favorite place, says the counselor, a…
Dallas congressman John Bryant had felt a lot of conflicting emotions watching Frank Capra’s classic 1946 tearjerker It’s a Wonderful Life, but he’d never numbered anger among them. Then one Christmas a few years ago, as the Democratic legislator sat in his living room watching the film on TV for…
Dallas Observer assistant editor Julie Lyons has won the 1995 Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. The prestigious national prize honors “outstanding achievement in newspaper writing in the fight against racial and religious intolerance and discrimination.” Lyons, 31, received the award for a pair…
