Dwight Yoakam: There are very few times anymore that my wife of 10 years is in the mood for marital relations. In fact, there are only three ways in which I can assure myself that I’magonnagetmesum: one, if she downs more than three Gloria’s top-shelf margaritas; two, if I clean…
September 14, 2000 For immediate release Belo Chairman Robert W. Decherd Announces New Bureau DALLAS, TEXAS/PR Newswire/-Belo (NYSE: BLC) chairman, president, chief executive officer, and all-around badass Robert W. Decherd announced at a press conference today an exercise in synergy unlike anything the free world has witnessed since Paul Lynde…
Oh, sweet heaven, I’ve hit my nadir: I’m writing a column about contracts. Not sexy contracts. Not “Troy Aikman’s multiyear, multimillion-dollar contract” or “Tony Soprano’s mother-killing contract.” I’m writing about “freelance contracts.” These are pieces of paper signed by people who are not employees of a media product, but who…
John Forsyth was less than thrilled when he got the news. Forsyth, editor of the Fort Worth alternative paper FW Weekly since Day One in April 1996, had heard rumors that the newspaper was about to be sold to those evil bastards from Phoenix–widely reviled New Times Inc., the largest…
What we will not spend a lot of time doing today is retelling the story of the Dixie Chicks, their rise from local kitsch-bluegrass babes to international country-music stars and Dairy Council spokesgals. In fact, we will discuss that for all of one sentence, which could be placed anywhere in…
If you wonder why the Tuesday “Today” section of The Dallas Morning News often resembles a parenting magazine, or why there seems to be an unending number of touchy-feely family stories in the paper, or how come it’s working on a multipart project focusing on young children, you should have…
Before we get to the “story” part of this column, please allow me to tell you why I love Marty Griffin. You remember Griffin, right? For years, he was one of Channel 5’s “public defenders,” an investigative reporter who muckraked his way throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area, using his TV…
True crit The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has finally named a replacement for Elvis Mitchell, the movie critic who left in January to go to The New York Times: Christopher Kelly, a New York writer who has penned essays for Salon.com, Premiere, Out, and Film Comment. Reached at his apartment in…
July 6, 2000 To: Stuart “Stu-meister” Wilk, Managing Editor, The Dallas Morning News From: Eric “Bon Vivant” Celeste Re: Helen Bryant’s old job Stu-ster: Consider this my formal application for the position of gossip columnist for the Overnight section of your fine newspaper. Sorry if this seems presumptuous, since Helen…
A local Nightline? One of the most annoying gripes people have about the media is this: “News coverage is all surface; it isn’t in-depth enough.” It’s annoying, because those same people increasingly read fewer newspapers and get more of their news from television. Worse, they get it from bad television–for…
I have two recurring, absurd, paranoiac fears: one, that when I fall asleep, I’m not really dozing off but instead I am succumbing to carbon monoxide poisoning; two, that the Dallas Observer will soon enter into a joint news-sharing agreement with “WB33 News @Nine.” Which, in my nightmare, looks something…
Head hunting Buzz was ecstatic that DISD Superintendent Waldemar Rojas (SWR) wasn’t fired last week. We don’t care that SWR appears to be borderline certifiable, or that he’s helping to further screw up one already twisted school district, because we home-school our little brats. (“You call that a pony? Go…
Dented reputation Last week, in one of his final columns at the San Antonio Express-News, former Dallas sports writer Jim Dent asked the following question: How will we remember Michael Irvin–as the ultimate team player, or as a seedy cat? His answer: “In truth, his life has been a succession…
Talk to Evan Smith for long–and you will talk to him for long, because every answer is a speech, every speech a term paper–and two impressions quickly emerge: ··· One, that Smith is a very sharp guy, a good thing given that he was recently named the third editor in…
Misguided Muslims I know I’m just asking for trouble, but I can’t help myself, so, sigh, here goes: Area Muslims’ campaign against The Dallas Morning News’ perceived bias against them is, to say the least, ridiculous. If you want to see just how absurd it is, go to the Web…
Dale Hansen is happy to be interviewed, so long as he can talk now, not later. That’s because it’s May, his favorite sports month, and he’ll be at the Colonial golf tourney later this week, and he’s got Rangers games to worry about, and the Cowboys are starting minicamps, and…
Kevin Cubed An addendum to the Kevin McCarthy column you have/will/may slog through (see big-ass story, this page): In an e-mail exchange, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban says that my e-mail requesting comment from him was the first time he’d heard that his firing of McCarthy helped contribute to his…
It couldn’t get worse. No way. Even if it did, so what, he could take it. Kevin McCarthy — longtime Dallas talk-radio host, winner of five Katie awards from the Press Club of Dallas, known for his wit and humor and interviewing style not to mention his smooth-voiced wooing of…
I love boldfacing random words Nationally syndicated cartoonist Ted Rall wasn’t talking about the Fort Worth Star-Telegram when he recently said, “Daily newspapers [are] totally wussified,” but he might as well have been. Rall made the point that “Daily newspapers are really chickenshit. They live in dire fear of cancellations…
Lee Hancock was flushed and furious as she stomped through the Jasper courthouse early last year. The Dallas Morning News reporter, in Jasper to cover the murder trial of one of the young racists who dragged a black man to his death, had just come from a meeting with the…
Catherine Shelton puts down her glass of Beaujolais and walks quickly out of her bedroom, searching through her pitch-dark house for a gun. “Where is that damn gun?” she says, walking back into the room and rifling through two sets of dresser drawers. She’s looking for a handgun loaded with…
