Thanks to a military coup and a brutal dictatorship with 60 years of oppressive experience, Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef had to move with his family to America because he dared to openly mock governmental authority. Not long afteward, Youssef found himself standing on the floor of the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse…
Although they often write in self-imposed solitude, this month, scribes will have a chance to get … well … Zoom together for some all-nighter writing sessions. November is National Novel Writing Month and NaNoWriMoers nationwide will be jotting down 50,000 words before the clock strikes midnight on Nov. 30. “I…
We’ve all been there. We’re dating a guy — let’s call him John — and we’re like, “Hey, John, I really like where this is going, maybe we should start talking about babies.” And he’s like, “You mean baby dogs?” And you’re like, “No, I mean baby humans,” and he’s…
Politics are serious: Our votes affect livelihoods, freedoms and the pursuit of happiness. But sometimes, politics are unequivocally hilarious. Dallas photographer Ron Shipp ventured to downtown Dallas on Nov. 14 to document the pro-President Donald J. Trump rally that took the streets to demand a recount of votes — or,…
As you may have heard, student debt is having a bit of a moment. Specifically, people everywhere (from Sen. Chuck Schumer to Chugs, my college roommate) are calling for at least some portion of student debt to be canceled. In fact, Schumer and Elizabeth Warren recently proposed a resolution that…
We don’t need to remind you that this year was terrible, because you’ve surely heard by now. In the spirit of giving thanks, let us focus on the positive so we can get back to planning on stuffing our faces with, well, stuffing. Through COVID deaths, unemployment, shutdowns and political…
Although the Dallas neighborhoods Oak Lawn and Cedar Springs are technically part of Uptown, the potential “uptowning” of the gayborhood is imminent. Mike Ablon of real estate development giant PegasusAblon is looking to take The Strip to the next level by building two residential high rise buildings. One of the…
Comedy clubs are in uncharted territory thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. Places that once attracted sold-out crowds are having to cut their audience limits in half or close altogether. The Backdoor Comedy Club is a little more familiar with the struggle to stay open. It has opened and closed 12…
Brenda is the kind of person who always makes the first move on dating apps. Sometimes they’ll (to help protect the anonymity of the people highlighted in this story, we’ve used they/them pronouns) open with a joke; other times they’ll get right to the point. One day this summer, they…
Local entertainment businesses, from concert venues to drag queens, are adapting to a new world. Dallas queer bars are opening under tightened regulations, and in-person drag shows have returned with queens hungry to serve lewks and make their coin. The pandemic still looms, but there are still ways to enjoy…
It’s the holiday season again, so we can all look forward to an imminent debate regarding whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie. It is. It’s heartwarming. It’s about family. Certainly, it’s not nearly as violent and demented as Home Alone, the other holiday classic about a lone…
Well, Pimp My Ride might be a wee bit misleading, but here we are. What actually is going down is The Concert Truck is rolling into town and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra has sort of adopted it. Concert pianists Susan Zhang and Nick Luby installed a concert piano into a…
Paula Selzer was mindlessly moving the email to her trash folder when the name stopped her cold. Adolphe Gouhenant. This little known Frenchman was more than her great-great-great-grandfather; he was a Renaissance man, a former utopian leader and a key part of Dallas history. “My grandma told me some pretty…
In the early 21st century, psychologists began to identify the “CSI effect,” in which people’s perception of law enforcement protocol became largely based on what they saw on network television programs. Of course, there are a fair number of discrepancies between television and reality; real-life criminal cases aren’t solved in…
Anyone who’s ever applied for a job might have taken one of those personality tests that confront takers with a hypothetical problem and solution and ask them to respond by choosing one or two words: “Agree. Disagree. Strongly agree. Strongly disagree.” The aim is to gauge the applicant’s assertiveness as…
If it looks like being a game show host may be the easiest job in Earth, it’s because Canadian-born broadcaster and Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek made it seem so. Unlike the flashy, plaid sportscoat-sporting emcees of the ’70s who tried to be the center of attention, Trebek, who died at…
May countless blessings be bestowed upon whichever young people coined the online terms “copium” and “hopium,” because if there’s anything we desperately needed in 2020, it’s a shorthand for how pride cometh before the chagrin-inducing fall. For those unaware, “copium” is a portmanteau of “cope” and “opium,” while “hopium” is…
You may catch Julio Cesar Cedillo on your screen, but you won’t catch him living in Hollywood. This Texas-bred actor has a deep love for his Latin roots. Cedillo was born in Durango, Mexico. His father, a truck driver from Hebbronville in South Texas, met Cedillo’s mother and a baby…
By chance, two Texans teamed up for a tennis doubles match. It would be the beginning of a decades-long friendship, and a powerful one in terms of politics. “They went back-to-back men’s doubles championships by helping each other with their own weaknesses,” says Charles Denyer, author of Texas Titans. The…
In case you haven’t heard, Dallas voted for Joe Biden. So did other major Texas cities, such as Austin, El Paso, San Antonio and Houston. While most of the state was seeing red, Dallas was a little blue puddle in a sea of crimson, an oasis in a red desert,…
A North Texas pathologist is under fire for an alleged series of anti-Semitic and Islamophobic Facebook posts. Dr. Michael Robles, a physician of almost 20 years who primarily works in Carrollton, allegedly made these comments on the Facebook page of Jihad Watch, a blog run by anti-Muslim writer Robert Spencer…
Election Day is here and millions of votes have already been cast. While we hope that a pandemic, racial unrest, a divided Supreme Court, unemployment and health care would all be fine reasons to be persuaded into casting your ballot, we also know that’s not always the case. Enter: celebrities…
