"Schutzesque." I've yet to find a precise meaning in the dictionary -- Jim says it means "ruggedly handsome in tweed" -- but the word has officially entered the lexicon at Bold Types, The Dallas Morning News' Metro blog that has becoming infinitely more interesting with the recent additions of education writer Josh Benton and transpo expert Tony Hartzel. It's Benton who introduces us to the term today, during his back and forth with columnist James Ragland, who, on Saturday, wrote the rather insane column in which he more or less compared Victory Park to Times Square. (Ragland keeps saying he didn't. Oh, yes, he did: "Welcome to Victory Park, a booming mixed-use development that's beginning to earn comparisons to Times Square. No, really." So, really.)
Earlier this morning, Benton took a few cheap shots at his Metro-mate: "James, I love ya, buddy, but I definitely hope you have more of whatever you were smoking when you wrote that column." Ragland struck back: "Don't be blinded by what's there now, although, as I said in the column, it's impressive considering what was there before. Use your foresight, Josh. Show me some real love." Then Benton started sounding positively Schutzesque (which, come to think of it, looks like it's pronounced "Shoots-k"): "You can't produce a great city by building it top-down through tax breaks to developers." Then he finally broke down and admitted, yeah, he's Schutzey after all: "I hate to sound all Schutzesque, but I'd rather see tax dollars spent on things like fighting crime and building up neighborhoods than on fancy bridges and tax breaks for big screens in Victory."
Josh, dude, seriously. Do not let your Belo bosses see you writing this stuff, holmes. Didn't you see what they made Tom Maurstad do a few weeks back? You are so going to have to clean some windows at that new Channel 8 studio, man. Or, as Jim told me to tell you: "Ever heard of night cops...forever?" --Robert Wilonsky
