Tip Sharks No bad meals, only bad waiters: After spending quite a few years in the hospitality business, I found your article (“Tip Gyp,” March 8) interesting. Several of the people interviewed displayed, in my opinion, a less than professional attitude. I took particular exception to Rule 2: “So they…
MOUNT VERNON–At first blush, they sound like scenes concocted by a struggling writer trying to sell a television series, one that combines the two most time-honored story lines available: lifesaving doctors and crime-busting cops. For instance: It is in the pre-dawn hours of a quiet East Texas morning, and the…
What passes for “reality” under the great video eye of network television is pretty lame these days. Personally, we’re not going to take that prefab national phenom known as Survivor seriously until someone dies of exposure, snakebite, or hunger during the show. Similarly, we’ll consider Temptation Island “reality-based programming” only…
A friend of Justin Rice’s mentioned something about Look Back, Don’t Look Back nearly a year ago–about how it was about to become tied up in litigation, because Rice and filmmaking partner Randy Bell had lifted Bob Dylan’s music and likeness without first receiving permission from Sony Music and The…
Before I put in context for you the just-announced “scale-back” of the Arlington Morning News–the bastard child of The Dallas Morning News will now be published only five days a week instead of the previous seven and will be just a section within the DMN itself–I want to make clear…
Thumbing through our copy of this past Sunday’s Dallas Morning News–a.k.a., “All the news we’ve already read online at CNN.com, ap.org, and espn.com”–we came upon a revelation: Once a decade, the DMN shows some balls. This discovery was made by reading every word of Section E, a special project titled…
Deathly Silence Nary a word: I am so glad that at least some of these stories are surfacing; however, it seems to me the biggest change from then to now is that now a murder would be investigated (“Forget Me Not,” March 1). I am willing to bet that you…
“You guys are going home,” says Chuck Norris, in Missing in Action, as Col. Braddock, sent to rescue missing American soldiers in Southeast Asia. Where’s Norris when you need him? That’s what John Brotherton says he asked during eight days in a Moscow hotel, where he claims that he and…
“The scriptures have said, ‘The things that have been done in the dark will be known from the house tops.'”–Civil rights leader Fanny Lou Hamer Up a dirt road about a mile south of the small North Texas town of Ladonia, the men came. It was past midnight, but a…
These days, the front door of Beal Aerospace is locked, and knocks go unanswered. Three vehicles dot the otherwise empty parking lot, testifying that there is still life at the headquarters of the defunct satellite launch company. All but a handful of the 200-plus engineers, rocket scientists, and assorted staff…
The afternoon service at Sparkman Hillcrest Funeral Home started off subdued and solemn, appropriate for anyone recently deceased–except the woman being buried this day. The folks at this public gathering on February 22 to mourn the premature passing of Priscilla Davis were pretty much what one would expect: women with…
Try the fricassee: The Dallas Zoo is letting children pet baby chicks before the birdies are gassed and used for their intended purpose–food for bigger animals. (See “Chick Fillet,” February 15.) This is widely regarded as reprehensible. Now PETCO, the national pet-supply retailer, is selling rabbits at some of its…
Downright Mean Surviving boot camp: I read your article about the juvenile boot camp and the food situation there (“More, Please,” February 22). I was also in a boot camp years ago where I did not get enough to eat, people weren’t very nice to me, and they got me…
Restaurateur-turned-journalist Joanna Windham, a stringer for National Enquirer and its sister tabloids, makes a living by unearthing sensational stories. But Windham fears that this mess, the one spreading in her Dallas apartment, is turning into the kind of story that alien-touting competitor the Weekly World News could publish. “Killer Molds…
The boys and girls stretch out, trying to get comfortable on the hardwood floor between the hoops in D.A. Hulcy Middle School’s gym. Some two dozen of them have been called here to hear the good words and advice of a group of church ministers who have adopted the school…
Inside the Dallas County juvenile detention facility, 56 teen-agers line the hallway to the gym, waiting for lunch. They’re a tough bunch. These boys have broken into homes, stolen cars, brandished guns, or committed other crimes serious enough to land them a 60-day stretch in boot camp. Predictably, the camp…
When you work for an alternative weekly, it’s not popular to say that you like or admire the publisher of your town’s daily newspaper. So my approbation for Dallas Morning News publisher Burl Osborne needs explanation. Osborne, who also holds the Belo-conferred title of “president/publishing division,” is, to me, a…
When the Tejano Democrats threw their support behind Elsa Tovar, a political neophyte challenging state Rep. Harryette Ehrhardt in last year’s Democratic primary, the four-term Democrat of East Dallas was perturbed. Why not concentrate fire on Republicans instead? Some Hispanic political leaders brushed off such sentiments then, and they’re not…
What a Gas Warm and fuzzy: OK. I get it. You can take your child to the Dallas Zoo (“Chick Fillet,” February 15) and give them the warm and fuzzy feeling of touching, holding, and interacting with a sweet baby chick. Then you can return in a few days and…
Forgive Buzz for bringing this news to you a week late, but when we first heard about it, we became so giddy at the prospect of firing off juvenile Dallas Morning News jokes, we felt like Anna Nicole Smith at a Highland Park AARP meeting–overwhelmed by the rich possibilities. Here’s…
A toddler stretches his arms out over his head and puts both hands on the front glass of an aquarium. Behind the glass, a dozen or so baby chicks are bathed in the warm orange and yellow glow of a heat lamp. The chicks scurry toward the glass, delighting the…
To the Hole And the free-throw line: I wanted to say that I truly loved and agreed with your article about Michael Finley (“Neither Swish nor Foul,” February 8). I do indeed respect this player’s All-Star ability and team leadership; however, I am very adamant about this guy getting to…
