Shoot the Messenger Misguided outrage: I felt I had to speak up here to counter so much of the misguided outrage over the article “Gay Caballeros” (by Claiborne Smith, January 13). I won’t address the issue of the use of the word mayate since that has already been addressed. What…
Union Suit A lawsuit targets a Dallas Police Association leader According to people close to the lawsuit, the cover-up goes straight to the top: to the police chief’s office and then the mayor’s. The alleged cover-up involves an influential cop–Eddie Crawford, vice president of the Dallas Police Association, the largest…
Been getting a few complaints, and some praise, for the Dallas Observer’s cover story last week, “Gay Caballeros.” Some of the complaints have been along the lines of “How dare you write a story about homosexuality among Mexican immigrants without pointing out that not all gay Latinos or even gay…
The “M” Word Gay by any other word: To begin with, this story was quite interesting (“Gay Caballeros,” by Claiborne Smith, January 13). Immediately looking at the cover, it caught my attention–because under the main title “Gay Caballeros” it said, “Inside the secret world of Dallas’ mayates.” “Mayates” en Español,…
A man shrieks at the top of his lungs: “Please 911 PLEASE I need an ambulance!” Clutching a cell phone and pacing through his house, the man roars with primal anger and pain. “Please help me–hurry–I’m right down the street from the fire station…My wife, I don’t know what the…
At closing time on a recent Saturday night, Ignacio leaned against the bar at Bamboleo’s, a gay Latino club near Oak Lawn, satisfied that he’d snared one last beer before the cut-off. He wanted it known that he usually would have been drunk by that time, but instead of boozy…
Al Lipscomb lost it last week. The former councilman with the fright-wig hair actually got up in front of the city council and compared his old nemesis Laura Miller to, wow, Adolf Hitler. “Even the Holocaust started somewhere,” Lipscomb barked, comparing Miller’s support of attorney and city council candidate Beth…
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…
