Up-and-Comer, Come and Gone?

During an online chat today, Washington Post media writer (and CNN’s Reliable Source) Howard Kurtz was asked to name the Top 10 newspaper in the country. You might recognize the name of one of ’em. (OK, all of them, but, c’mon, play along.) Washington, D.C.: Mr. Kurtz, in your column…

Canary in a Coal Mine

On November 16, which musta been a real slow news day, we mentioned how TXU was restarting its 575-megawatt Unit 2 at the Big Brown coal-fired power station in Freestone County, which is about 90 miles southeast of Dallas. It had been shut down a few days earlier because of…

Kicked to the Curb

Somebody was trying to sell this Mike Vanderjagt-signed helmet on eBay. We’re pretty sure they had to pay the winner to take it off their hands. Mike Vanderjagt just kept on being right. Which, ultimately, was wrong. In a move that displays how serious the Cowboys are about winning a…

Just a Plane Sword

When you see this man carrying his blade on to your AA flight, just let him through. He’s cool. Turns out, you can take a four-foot sword on an American Airlines plane flying from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to Los Angeles. Who knew? Apparently, no one till Annie Jacobsen of…

Wilson or Won’t He?

Some of us worked Friday. And some of us–by which I mean Owen Wilson and his mother–were at Harry Winston’s in Highland Park Village. Shopping for what? Well, his people–and, really, even when Owen and I took driver’s ed together at St. Mark’s, even then I knew he would have…

School for Scoundrels

Yesterday, the New York Daily News reported that George Dubya was rounding up “mega-donors”–“wealthy heiresses, Arab nations and captains of industry”–to pay for $250 million of the $500 million library and think tank the paper claims Bush wants at SMU. Well, this morning the Waco Tribune-Herald, which has a slightly…

T.C.B. or T.Y.A. Saturday Night, Y’all

Local soul-singin’ great Bobby Patterson will perform with some young upstarts Saturday night at the Sons of Hermann. Christmas just came a little early this year. A couple of weeks back we mentioned the impending Reunion Tower Revue, taking place this Saturday night at the Sons of Hermann Hall. Don’t…

Bush + Think Tank = $500 Million

Few things get the left more worked up–or at least confused–than these two phrases: “President George W. Bush” and “think tank.” Now imagine they’re in the same sentence. Can’t? Then you did not read the New York Daily News today. See? It’s right there: “Eager to begin refurbishing his tattered…

At Tower, Everything Must Go!

So, just got back from doing a little CD shopping at Tower Records…with Ron Kirk. OK, well, sorta. See, I was there scoping out the deep discounts and happened to bump into the former mayor, who was looking for some gospel and Christmas music (me, not so much). He accosted…

Bad Day on Black Friday

You know who hates you? Best Buy. Which doesn’t stop us from shopping there, but, still, thought you should know. I learned the hard way Black Friday is more of a curse than bargain blessing. My body has yet to recover from my in-the-wee-small-hours venture out to three Mesquite retailers…

Life After Death?

SMU may get rid of Phil Bennett, but it’s likely to extend a two-year deal to his mustache. Unfortunately for SMU, notsamuch. But almost. The Mustangs came within four points of a remarkable resurrection this season, but their 31-27 loss at Rice Saturday afternoon dropped them to 6-6 and off…

ACS Loses CEO and CFO. Wuh-O.

You know how much we’re fascinated by the whole Afflilated Computer Services Inc. stock-option manipulating scandal; it’s been all over Unfair Park in recent months. Well, if you read the Wall Street Journal this morning, you know it just got a little better: “The options-backdating scandal claimed more high-level officials,…

Man Crushing on Tony Romo

Last night wasn’t an easy one for Tony Romo. He has to endure KTVT-Channel 11 sports anchor Babe Laufenberg’s cheap-ass come-ons during “The Score”: graphic gags involving Romo’s head being Photoshopped onto Mount Rushmore and a Hall of Fame bust. (Only days earlier, during a 10 p.m. newscast, anchor Tracy…

Super Size This

In The New York Times this morning, you will meet 22-year-old Gloria Castillo, who is “married, a mother of two, a Latina from the rough side of Dallas [and] on the low side of making it.” Castillo is profiled for the paper’s “American Album” section, and her snapshot is intended…

Business That’s Your Business

John Grayken says his Lone Star Funds is innocent of wrongdoing in South Korea. Which didn’t stop him from killing the deal that got him in trouble in the first place. Here, before we leave for the weekend, are a couple of business news quickies involving some familiar names (including…

Dallas Punks on Parade in 1978

The first sentence of the first chapter of Noel Monk’s 12 Days on the Road: “Sid Vicious’ face is smeared with blood. Not all of it is his. The Sex Pistols have hit Texas, and Texas has hit back.” No doubt you’ve heard about it–the night the Sex Pistols played…

Why Sally Horchow’s Not Like the Rest of Us

Sally Horchow says she’s been called a “Lifestyle Guru,” a “Trend Expert” and a “Pop Culture Diva.” Dreams can come true. Sally Horchow–a “journalist,” writes People, so it must be true–is out there pimping the book The Art of Friendship: 70 Simple Rules for Making Meaningful Connections, which she wrote…

Black Good Friday

Every guy in this city officially has a man-crush on Tony Romo. Hey, what’s Jessica Simpson got Richie Whitt doesn’t? I went to Texas Stadium for the Cowboys’ mauling of the Bucs, and this season has suddenly transformed from sad to surreal. Yep, all because of an undrafted free agent…

America’s Extreme

Before the game we get Kelly Clarkson. At halftime it’s Carrie Underwood. And if the Dallas Cowboys are interested in a female mascot for Thursday’s annual Thanksgiving Day game at Texas Stadium, they should reach out to Anna Nicole Smith. Too imbalanced to fully embrace yet too tempting to totally…

Off The Wall

Up-and-coming visual artist Tony Bones is looking forward to his next show at the Webb Gallery out in Waxahachie. Things have really started picking up for the 23-year-old in the past several months, with various incarnations of his trademark character—a stick figure with droopy hands—making appearances at local art galleries…

Fighting back against the library’s homeless police

Kicked out: When the bearded son of a Dallas Morning News metro columnist gets kicked out of the downtown library for eating a banana, that’s news—or at least it was to former columnist Sherry Jacobson, who wrote about her kid’s plight last December. Apologies were in order, and they came…

The Donkey Brays | Dang! | Mayor Diva | Just as Rotten

The Donkey Brays Waitwe elected who?: Why the tone of arrogance and condescension in your “election special” (“Accidental Victors,” by Matt Pulle, Jim Schutze and Megan Feldman, November 16)? You kick Craig Watkins and Jim Foster to the curb as if they had a moral obligation to recognize themselves as…