The story is tantalizing, if only for the characters, who seem as if they’ve been yanked from an Elmore Leonard novel, except they are real and working on the paying side of Dallas crime. There is bounty hunter Reggie Spellman, partial to loud hats, Superfly suits and on occasion some…
“A Mayor of absolute integrity.” I keep tripping on those words, a blustery little sentence fragment with “Mayor” proudly capitalized, on Laura Miller’s Web site. I was shocked when I first read them, but not in the good way I was back when Miller was putting out some of the…
Maybe you’ve seen them, the billboards selling “Erma Bombeck for Dallas mayor” and “Cesar Romero for Dallas mayor.” You have? You don’t get it? Neither did Buzz. Was this some sort of hip, postmodern commentary on the mayoral election? A dig at mayoral candidate Laura Miller’s new happy homemaker persona…
Muddy Waters Bigger fish to fry: The Lufkin paper mill (“Down by the Old Mill,” December 27) has shrunk from 1,100 workers to 650 in a matter of months, and this woman is upset because people have to carry her sandwiches in unmarked bags? Perhaps Abitibi has bigger fish to…
Murdine “Baby Ruth” Berry’s knees have grown weak, but that doesn’t stop her from making the rounds on her land. Walking cane in hand, the 72-year-old retired schoolteacher yanks open the crooked door of an old Jeep and climbs behind the wheel. After wrestling the metal shut, she turns on…
Mildred Greene, my conservative 92-year-old mother-in-law, tells me out of the blue as I drive her from Oak Cliff to East Dallas for the holidays that she has called Laura Miller’s campaign office asking for a yard sign. I ask her why she’s voting for Miller. Silence on her side…
It is the Saturday before the new year, and buried somewhere beneath the plastic and sawdust and buckets of paint and construction workers’ boots is Dallas’ newest art house, the Magnolia Theatre in the West Village. Tearlach Hutcheson, the imposing Australian tapped to run the place, stands in the middle…
The Belo empire is too preoccupied with pumping up its favorite candidate to report this, so we’ll let you in on a little secret. Former Dallas Observer columnist Laura Miller is kicking fanny in the mayoral race. So maybe that wasn’t such a secret, at least to anyone who judges…
Madwoman: A well-respected Dallasite recently told me, “Laura Miller is so full of herself that I think she actually believes her own shit.” Looking back at various actions and articles from Ms. Miller, I couldn’t agree more. Prior to becoming a city council member, Laura Miller was a reporter for…
This is going to be tough. Now comes the point at which Buzz annually recounts some of the more significant events and people of the past 12 months in Dallas and makes fun of them. In the past, this has been fairly easy, as the months generally have provided a steady…
One of the problems with publishing a weekly newspaper is that the stories we bring you continue to develop long after we publish them. Time and space seldom allow us to provide updates, so as a new year commences, we thought we’d pause to bring you the latest chapters to…
A quick rundown of trends, notes and final thoughts about the year in local media, an aught-one that said goodbye to KLIF’s Tom Kamb and hello, again, to the Crab Nebula’s Marty Griffin. Afghan Wigs: If you have a life, you may not realize that former Channel 4 anchorbabe Ashleigh…
School’s Out Forever Slippery Reverend: Kudos to Charlie Siderius for his article “Reverend Fix-It” (December 13). Never have I read an article that did such a good job of reporting fact without trying to interject the author’s opinion. Since I personally have been acquainted with Charles Wilkerson, I would hope…
When you got nothing, the great Bob Dylan once sang, you got nothing to lose. Maybe perennial mayoral candidate Bill Jack Ludwig has been jamming to “Like a Rolling Stone” lately. Or maybe he’s just loopy. Whatever the case, in recent days Ludwig provided some much needed, if unintended, levity…
“I’d like to thank Bob St. John for reminding me of a lot of stories I’ve been trying very hard to forget.” –sports columnist Frank Luksa In the landscape of local journalism, the Distinguished Soup Nose Award has for years remained a closely guarded secret, its winners reluctant to brag…
At Dian Avriett’s Lunch Box, the homespun signs for Christmas cakes and 22-pound holiday hams are easier to spot than the two small holes in the plate-glass windows at the front of the shop. One is located behind the drive-up doughnut counter, the other in the dining room, near the…
Fighting Faith Cultural bias against Krishnas: As both a journalist (and former contributor to the Dallas Observer) and a former resident of the Dallas Hare Krishna community, I would like to address Mark Donald’s article (“Tortured Souls,” December 6). It is a sad reality that religion can be used as…
“It is not known precisely where angels dwell–whether in the air, the void, or the planets. It has not been God’s pleasure that we should be informed of their abode…” Voltaire There were carols and warm holiday-season embraces as those who had come gathered near the Christmas tree to contribute…
Steven Spiritas, chief executive officer of Supreme Beef, still works in the office above what just two years ago was his family’s thriving ground-beef plant in Fair Park. The plant below him is darkened, with most beef-grinding and other equipment sold as part of a bankruptcy. The U.S. Department of…
Sweetness and Light As innocent as you or me: I am writing to express extreme displeasure at your recent unnecessarily biased and negative article about the Hare Krishna community here in Dallas (“Tortured Souls,” December 6). The abuse suffered by these women was truly horrifying, and I don’t mean to…
Last week the Dallas Observer printed an article about Charles Wilkerson, an itinerant minister who seems to have a knack for buying struggling private schools and closing them down. The article reported that those he left behind with piles of debts dispute Wilkerson’s versions of how school closures came about…
The Reverend Charles Wilkerson fell to the floor at the bottom of the staircase. He clutched his chest and curled into the fetal position. The Eastlake Christian School and Daycare investor and church pastor was having a heart attack. Or so it seemed. Administrators ran down the school hallway to…
