When John Winkler bought his new home in 1997, he knew what he was looking for–a friendly, stable neighborhood and a house constructed by a reputable builder. Being in Mesquite, as in Texas, as in the land of endless, blistering summers, he also wanted a home that wouldn’t cost a…
Like a sad old movie queen who wears her lipstick askew and smells of mothballs, the Astro, Dallas’ only remaining drive-in theater, has seen better days. Located in an industrial section of southwest Oak Cliff, the Astro sits on 21 acres of weed-choked asphalt. On the timeworn marquee, the letters…
Absence of malice Hooray for Ann Zimmerman for her fantastic story about John McLemore [“Caught in the crossfire,” October 22] and the dark cloud of lies and amateur journalism that destroyed his career. I was a colleague of John’s at KWTX-TV during this debacle, and let me go on the…
He’s dressed in gym shorts and a raggedy white “Texas Rangers” T-shirt, and he has propped his feet up in front of the TV in a cheap Brownsville hotel room. On the screen, the president of the United States is deconstructing the verb “to be.” “It depends upon what the…
The last thing John McLemore wanted to do was work another weekend. The Waco TV reporter had spent the entire month of February in Houston covering the grisly murder trial of serial killer Kenneth McDuff, and he was looking forward to some quiet time at home with his wife. So…
That’s entertainment Forget the cheesy haunted houses, skip the costume parties. If you’re looking for some real Halloween fun, wash your face, comb your hair, and head to church this weekend in Irving and Fort Worth. Bob Larson, described in his press release as a “lecturer, author, and radio and…
You can almost hear the silence at KKDA-AM (730) these days. “Soul 73,” long hailed as the voice of Dallas’ African-American community, is not talking anymore. The talk shows that for years measured “the pulse of the African-American community,” in the words of Dallas City Councilman Al Lipscomb, were canceled…
UxLINKxU: How tall are you women? What’s the height in here? TallTXMs: ~6’3″ Cyrpent: UxLINK, welcome, please be polite… UxLINKxU: What is you peoples ideal height for a male? VL76: 6’3″ is ideal for me. DALEGS98: Anything taller than me!!! TallTX Ms: I didn’t realize there was an “Ideal” height…
We are the world In the three weeks or so since Dallas took over the reins from Arlington to bring the 2012 Olympic Games to the area, the Dallas Observer has run articles in three separate issues [these include “Going for the gold,” September 17, and “Give her what she…
Standard packing list for a midnight run on a deserted train yard: Water bottle Flashlight Sandwich bag full of custom paint-can nozzles Cigarettes Rolled spliff Flash camera, for documentation Sixteen cans of Krylon paint On a moonless Thursday night, somewhere just north of Dallas, two young men jump out of…
In the West End, on the fourth floor of the marble-halled Paramount Building, Michael Lee Davis was fumbling through a stack of papers in his office’s reception area. The vice president of Southwest Viatical, he looked up hopefully when a visitor entered the office. A viatical company buys the life-insurance…
See no evil, etc. Regular readers of Buzz–both of you–may have noticed that former Dallas Observer columnist and current city council member Laura Miller appears fairly frequently in this space. This is not a conspiracy. We swear it. It’s just that, with the exception of Miller and Mayor Ron Kirk,…
Lee Alcorn, the contentious president of the NAACP’s Dallas chapter, may be disqualified from seeking re-election–on a technicality. The organization’s national office is looking into allegations that Alcorn has failed to meet all the criteria necessary to seek office. These allegations have been raised in a hotly contested election for…
A story by Dallas Observer staff writer Thomas Korosec has been included in The Best American Sports Writing 1998, an anthology published this month by Houghton Mifflin Co. Sportswriter Bill Littlefield and editor Glenn Stout selected Korosec’s “Goofy golf” for the collection, which is in its eighth year. The story…
Whole lotta bull I began reading “The bull market” [October 8] by Mark Donald today. Finally! Someone else who actually has a brain! That “show” was the biggest offering of bullshit ever served. I just wish Mr. Donald had found me for his audience poll. Anyway, just thought I’d let…
It was one of the hardest phone calls he ever had to make, a courtesy call all candidates running against incumbents are expected to make. But to phone District Attorney John Vance, his old boss and mentor, a man he’d known and respected for 30 years, and say hey, nothing…
Ardent yearning permeated the big theater at George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch one balmy evening in July. It felt like artistic homesickness. Walter Murch, the renowned film editor and sound designer, was making an audacious presentation to a few dozen filmmakers, journalists, broadcasters, and trusted friends. George Lucas himself took time…
Smells like Victory What do Albert Einstein, Jesse Owens, and the freedom fighters of Tiananmen Square have in common? Beats us. Maybe they all liked to shop at the Gap, which, Buzz suspects, one day will be one of the many stores at Hillwood Development Corp.’s arena-retail-office-entertainment complex. Al, Jesse,…
No question about it, Mark Lannoye stands out in a crowd. Even at Mesquite High School, with hundreds of other teenagers vying for each other’s attention, the lanky sophomore catches the eye. At 15, he stands 6 feet 2 inches and sports a shock of blond hair. But his height…
Taking a page from Investigative Reporting 101, former City Councilman Bob Stimson, who is running a heated race for the District 4 County Commissioner seat against incumbent Ken Mayfield, decided to check out rumors about the loosey-goosey way his opponent has allegedly run his office during the last four years…
After a long weekend in Phoenix with officials of the U.S. Olympic Committee, Dallas boosters came home this week facing what may be the toughest challenge some of them have seen in their entire business and civic careers: If they’re serious about bringing the Olympics here in 2012, it looks…
They eat horses, don’t they? I had outgrown my small pony, but was still too little to ride the big thoroughbreds we had, so Mom wanted to buy a large pony for me. We went to a sale in North Carolina very much like the one described in your article…
