Rubbernecking A little bit of Texas died: So I heard the news today about the Toadies (“Hell Freezes Over,” at www.dallasobserver.com). I feel like a little bit of Texas died in that 45-second “acknowledgement” the radio DJ was so gracious to give us. A little bit of Texas, and a…
You go south from Fort Davis until you come to the place where rainbows wait for rain, and the big river is kept in a stone box, and water runs uphill. And the mountains float in the air, except at night when they go away to play with other mountains…
ODESSA–On a recent summer afternoon, long after the temperature had climbed past the 100-degree mark and even the dust devils seemed to weave and dance with lackluster effort, it was all but impossible to imagine how things once were. Standing amid the parched mesquites and the rhythmic nodding of the…
Six days into her 10-day jail sentence, Megan Lewis had found a novel way to win friends behind bars. A vegan who eats no animal products, the 24-year-old animal-rights protester gained some popularity among her cell mates at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center because she was willing to trade the…
Peace of the action: We thought it must have been a joke. A co-worker dropped on Buzz’s desk a price list for being listed on a new Web site (www.lowergreenville.org) that aims to promote businesses, including bars, on Lower Greenville Avenue. The guy passing out the flier was Avi Adelman,…
Falun Dafa’s Dark Side Hypocritical and dangerous: In her article “Unlocking the Gong” (August 2), Rose Farley presents the members of the Dallas Falun Dafa group as very sympathetic characters. It is easy to be taken in initially; they are people who are, for the most part, soft-spoken and promoting…
Bruce Parrott remembers when his wife, Lois, discovered her hidden talent: a knack for grassroots politicking. Ten years ago, White Rock residents were outraged when the Dallas school board announced its plan to move a Montessori school from their neighborhood to North Dallas. While the Dallas Independent School District said…
When the screaming began inside No. 211 of the Atrium Apartments, Louise Doe and Neil Clement froze. It was around 2:30 p.m. on April 25. Apartment manager Doe and Clement, a resident who sometimes does odd jobs for her, were walking through one of the courtyards to check out what…
State Representative Harryette Ehrhardt, a popular Democrat and unabashed progressive who for eight years has represented East Dallas, Oak Lawn and parts of North Dallas that together composed the 107th House district, still lives in the same Swiss Avenue house she has called home for 30 years. But she no…
There are almost never employee meetings at the Lounge, the 19-year-old bar nestled within the lobby of the Inwood Theater. There has never been much need for such formal get-togethers, because families–and that’s what the bar’s nearly dozen employees, from bartenders to bar backs, consider each other–know what’s going on…
Black not like them: As the Dallas City Council’s redistricting panel wraps up months of mind-numbing labor, some residents in East Oak Cliff’s black middle-class neighborhood of Cedar Crest are aghast at their neighborhood’s late entry into redistricting politics. They fear the hardscrabble neighborhood of black South Dallas is attempting…
Silence Is Golden Good riddance: Thank God! That fool Tom Kamb is finally gone (“Sound of Silence,” August 9). Silence really is golden. For months, KLIF listeners have endured verbal assaults from the mouth of quite possibly the most offensive person ever to sit behind the mike on AM 570…
Midwestern State University’s practice field is lined with the usual media types who chuckle and babble about nothing in particular. It’s hot. Almost unbearably so. The heat index at Dallas Cowboys training camp is in triple digits again and will be for the rest of the summer–or until G.W.’s plan…
The temperature approached 100 degrees, but the hundreds of children and parents stood firm in a sweaty and noisy three-block-long line outside KD Studio in Dallas. The children were all trying to land a role in the upcoming season of Barney & Friends, the long-running program on public television. The…
Pacing the Addison hotel room he calls home, a cell phone pressed to his ear, Ron Cohen is speaking in a firm but understanding voice to a 26-year-old Florida man who is standing outside a federal penitentiary in Fort Dix, New Jersey, preparing to surrender himself to begin serving a…
The Rangers are in the toilet; the Cowboys are teetering on its rim. Dallas needs a winner. What’s a sports fan to do? Try poetry. Dallas’ entry in the National Poetry Slam Competition held recently in Seattle narrowly edged out Los Angeles 113.3-113.2 to take first place in a field…
One for the Cat Box Do yourself a favor: Like Eric Celeste, I also recently canceled my subscription to The Dallas Morning News (“Say Goodbye,” July 26) in favor of the daily Wall Street Journal and the Sunday New York Times, and I urge everyone out there to do the…
In retrospect, it could have been much worse. When KLIF-AM 570 talk radio host Tom Kamb didn’t show up for work two weeks ago, station management immediately began a worried search for him. Kamb, a race- and gay-baiting conservative known for angering Mayor Ron Kirk and garnering a nearly infinitesimal…
At 5 o’clock in the morning, a van pulls into the deserted parking lot outside the Richardson public library. Ordinarily at this time, a group of Falun Gong practitioners would be gathering for their morning exercises, but today they have a more urgent mission. They will spend the next week…
As Tom Stanley lay dying, his heart worn down by time, Lillian Stanley searched for ways to console her husband. Each day he spent at Presbyterian Hospital in January, she would gather family and friends around him–those who had loved him and those who had wronged him–so Stanley, 83, could…
“Little Rose” has a butter-melting smile, cascading cornrows and huge brown eyes. An adorable 5-year-old, she’s the kind of cute you can’t resist hugging. But don’t be fooled by her Shirley Temple pout; she is also a powerful weapon in the arsenal of drug-policy reformers, those men and women who…
Kissy, kissy: With the uninterrupted lovefest celebrating the opening of the American Airlines Center under way in the pages of The Dallas Morning News, regular readers of this paper might expect us to have something nasty to say. Lord knows Buzz tried, but so far the arena seems to be…
