News & Notes: Superman's Away, Southwest Airlines Finds God and a Good Guys Pick

Some random notes while I attempt to get myself out of a murky land deal:

Dallas Theater Center's revisal of It's a Bird ... It's a Plane ... It's Superman closes today, following the 2 p.m. matinee. Which prompts this New York Post piece that wonders: "It's a big hit in Big D, but will it fly on B'way?" Maybe, depending on legal issues with DC Comics we mentioned last month, but, says DTC's artistic director Kevin Moriarty in the Post, "Comic-book fans are coming out of the woodwork. There are Superman Web sites that are the equivalent of allthatchat. If you change the color of the S on Superman's costume, they debate it for days." ...

The Arizona Daily Star (Clark Kent's original employer, sort of) has discovered that Southwest Airlines's attorneys done snuck into passengers' fine print a new definition of "act of God" should you find yourself delayed: "mechanical difficulties." The Love Field-based airline downplays the addition -- says spokesman Chris Mainz, it was done to "limit our exposure to liability" -- but several airline-industry analysts fear this is but the beginning of carriers using the "blame Him, not us" out ...

And, finally, in the fresh-off-the-presses Entertainment Weekly, critic Jeff Jensen picks The Good Guys -- set to return to Jack Matthews's Cedars studio in a few weeks -- as a "favorite summer show." (And here I didn't think anyone outside of Dallas was watching.) Writes Jensen, "Bradley Whitford is a scene-stealing blast as a lovably tact-less, washed-up Dallas detective." Which reminds me: I've been working on a list of Ten Ways to Make The Good Guys Better. Maybe I'll post tomorrow. But Suggestion No. 1: Tone it down, Bradley Whitford. Way down.