Who says Mayor Laura Miller is divisive? Under her watch–and thanks partly to her support of the strong-mayor initiative–North Dallas business people and the pro-business Citizens Council have aligned themselves with their historical opponents, Southern Dallas minority politicos and grassroots neighborhood types such as Sharon Boyd and Avi Adelman. Someone…
It was fitting. The Cowboys’ inauspicious season ended exactly the way it should have–with a loss to the dreadful New York Giants, a team that hadn’t won since Halloween, a team that was 0-6 with rookie quarterback Eli Manning under center and that had 15 vets on the disabled list…
Heavy Drapes Curtain call for a critic: Hoorah for Elaine Liner for her well-crafted, wonderfully original take on the end-of-year recap of theater (“Down in Front,” January 6). (Note to the author of the “tiny window, heavy drapes” comment: I’m still laughing. I’m also going to steal your line and…
Zyos plays the video game Halo, plays it better than anyone in the world. His mother, Rhonda, watched him dominate the military combat game in San Francisco last year at the World Cyber Games–the gaming Olympics–and because of her status, because she is the mother of Zyos, Rhonda became a…
As Desert Storm fermented in Middle Eastern sands in 1991, Keith Simpson got an itch to become a soldier. He never got around to scratching it. More than a dozen years later, he dug his nails in. In the summer of 2002, Simpson chucked his job as an IBM computer…
Here’s further proof that having professional sports franchises in your town is worth a hell of a lot of money. In its recently released budget for fiscal year 2005, the Department of Homeland Security decided to award $5 million of the $3.6 billion it set aside for its Urban Area…
Those Are the Rules Gay TCA student no victim: Inasmuch as I am a devout Libertarian, I find all this uproar over the Trinity Christian Academy’s dismissal of senior Neal Stephenson just as disturbing as the action itself (“Truth Hurts,” by Claiborne Smith, December 23). I am neither endorsing nor…
This time of year is so depressing here at the Dallas Observer sports desk, mainly because I keep waiting for the bosses to sell the desk out from under me and jumpstart my next career–king hobo outside City Hall. (I’ve prepared myself for this by throwing rotten fruit at a…
Ted’s gone, splitting City Hall and heading off to train young minds in government at the University of Texas at Dallas. Mike’s gone, too, leaving DISD and serving on the board of Trammell Crow Co. A-Rod’s a Yankee now. And poor Jabari is really gone, up to that happy banana…
Dimebag’s Ghost Disgusting: Yes, your “somber” image of Dimebag Darrell (December 16), which you claim was to help the public feel something of their loss, was without a doubt the epitome of poor taste. You want to put a picture with the name to make him seem more of a…
Newy Scruggs and Dale Hansen are both big guys, in suit size and local ratings. They’re both sports anchors. And that’s where the similarities end. For there are many ways Scruggs, Channel 5’s sports director, is different from the longtime Dallas-area ratings champion, Channel 8 sports director Hansen. They are…
Truth Hurts Don’t ask, and definitely don’t tell, if you want to graduate from this school This fall, when rumors were flying at Trinity Christian Academy in Addison that Neal Stephenson, a senior, was gay, he decided to quash the mystery by coming out. “Don’t be stupid,” one of his…
To all the fans, friends and family of “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott who wrote and called in to complain about our image of the slain rocker on the cover of last week’s issue, please know this: We did not, whatever you may think, shoot a photo of him lying in his…
The shot looks so smooth as the ball leaves Devin Harris’ hands that you just know it’s going in. And it does, ripping through the net without hitting the rim. He’s finding his rhythm now, nailing jumper after jumper with the same polished form–bent knees, short hop, follow-through, wrist snap…..
Shredding Missing Darrell: I suppose, like most, I learned of Darrell’s assassination (“Slaughtered,” by Sarah Hepola, December 16) early last Thursday morning. I was sitting on the foot of my bed trying to wake up when the phone rang…it was a friend of mine calling from Garland to tell me…
Andre Anthony Lewis used to dream about his death. He thought of it so often it became almost like the memory of something that hadn’t yet happened. In this dream, Lewis sits in a prison cell, a man comes to fetch him, and together they walk down a long, silent…
High on Death A Texas professor searches for the human soul “I think death is an illusion. I think death is a really nasty bad lie. I don’t see any truth in the word death at all.” This is the conclusion of Pam Reynolds, a singer-songwriter. She spits out her…
Buzz could use some extra holiday cash, so we thought we’d try our hand at a little political consulting and share this brilliant idea we had for Mayor Laura Miller. (She pays a political consultant for his help. We figure she could slip a few bucks, a fruitcake or something…
Julius Jones is everywhere now. For much of the season, he was injured and forgotten, another disappointing what-if question in a season full of them. But since his return to the team a few weeks ago, since he was declared healthy and inserted into the lineup as the Cowboys’ feature…
Where’s My Toronto? Ding-ding forever: I read with much amusement Jim Schutze’s account of his DART light rail encounter (“Slow Ride,” December 9). I agree with most of his observations about the “buses on railroad tracks.” I’m a single mother of a teenager in West Plano, and we live without…
The pretty lady hobbled onto the plane. Her thin frame was wrapped in a worn black coat; she had one foot in a medical boot. She stuffed the coat in an overhead bin, revealing purple pants and a fuchsia sweater too thin for winter and climbed over Michelle into the…
Guilty Look In Dallas, chatting on a street corner can get you in trouble To hear Edgar Simmons tell it, he stopped his car to talk to a friend, and the cops thought he was a drug dealer. It was a little after 1 p.m. on July 13, and Simmons,…
