They were, to those who knew them, young and bright and quickly gaining ground in their race toward the American Dream. Gary Faison, an on-the-fast-track disc jockey for radio station KKDA-AM (730), had long aspired to fame and had begun to receive it, at least locally. Gina Cotroneo was prospering…
One morning in July he starts to cry and can’t stop. There is no money left; he has sold or hocked nearly everything he owns and is still $30,000 in debt. Gone are his two cars, his two boats, his 401(k) savings, his dignity. One layoff followed the next–first at…
Seated on the front row of a crowded Philadelphia courtroom last week, John Maddux, uncomfortable in the slacks and sports coat he’d been wearing for the past two weeks, finally broke into a broad smile. For the reserved man who prefers the jeans and solitude of his rural Alvarado home,…
“I don’t believe in Bigfoot. I thought I’d let you know that I absolutely do not believe in Bigfoot,” begins Chester Moore Jr. The audience shuffles and murmurs uneasily, as if they have been tricked. “How many people here believe in Bigfoot?” Almost everyone warily raises a hand. Moore delivers…
Jerry Jones thinks you’re stupid. That’s the only possible explanation for the ugly way he handled the benching of Quincy Carter in favor of Chad Hutchinson. It’s the only explanation for the way he’s handled these situations since the Pokes started decaying in the mid-to-late ’90s. See, he speaks in…
Last week, Buzz asked if anyone out in reader-land really cared that much about the fake-drug scandal that has tainted the Dallas Police Department and district attorney’s office over the past year. Pretty nasty business, we suggested, what with police paying an informant thousands of dollars to make cases against…
One step beyond: I have been a Dallas police officer since 1989. I was one of the 600 or so officers that attended the city council meeting Mr. Schutze refers to in the “Officer Wacko” article (October 17). I believe that Mr. Schutze missed the point about why we attended…
(REUTERS) London, Oct. 17 — AES Drax, which runs Britain’s biggest power station, said on Thursday that its wholesale customer TXU Europe had now paid a bill that it had failed to pay on the due date earlier this week. [The Dallas Observer recently found this overdue bill in its…
Connie Jimmerson remembers that her daughter Tashica was a bit more attached to home than usual on that Friday seven years ago. She remembers it clearly. “She was fine,” Jimmerson says. “She was just all up under me all that Friday. She wouldn’t go play with the kids…I couldn’t get…
H.L. Mencken said that no one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public. Bobby Goldstein is a wealthy man. The shameless culture that begat The Dating Game, Cops and When Animals Attack! has perhaps reached yet a new low with the late-night cult hit Cheaters. Goldstein is…
It’s just not right, what you’re doing to him. This Emmitt Smith bashing, this short-term memory problem some of you have, it’s ugly and cruel. But then again, it’s nothing new. You ran Troy Aikman out. When his passes started to slip, when each throw didn’t have smoke spewing from…
Dude calls me from an entertainment industry trade publication, wanting information on KTVT-TV (Channel 11) anchor Rene Syler. You may have heard that Syler was just named one of the four (!) co-anchors of the revamped CBS morning chat-fest The Early Show, which places a distant third in the ratings…
Scenes from Dallas ComiCon, October 12, 2002, Plano Centre: Number of photographs you were allowed to take of Carrie Fisher: “absolutely” zero Number of $30 pictures you could buy of Carrie Fisher: unlimited Number of Klingons standing next to Academy Award nominee and Lord of the Rings co-star Brad Dourif…
Since news of the Dallas police fake drug scandal broke not quite a year ago, Buzz has been struggling unsuccessfully to understand something, and maybe you, dear reader, can give us an answer: Where’s the outrage? Where are the pickets, the protests, the raucous calls for someone’s head on a…
Protect and ServeOne of the lucky ones: Years ago, I had one of my college instructors tell my class that it is very unwise to get into a writing war with people who buy ink by the trainloads. He was referring to fighting with the media. However, I feel a…
Someone once said that it pays to be nice. Someone was full of crapola. You might expect Buzz to say this, seeing how we’re well compensated for being not nice, but this week we have extra cause to be peevish. Thank you, Premiere Video. The store, a nearly perennial Dallas…
Hilda Fernandez looks north from her perch on the 27th floor of the county government center. From here, it is easy to see the massive efforts to revitalize downtown coming together. Off to the right, the brand-new American Airlines arena gleams beneath the morning sun–a jump shot away from the…
The grainy security video has been shown ad nauseam over the television airwaves. The young blond mother exits the Kohl’s store with her pigtailed little girl, walks to her white SUV and glances over her right shoulder. She then plants her child in the backseat and begins to smack her…
There is a small child outside the window. He’s maybe 5 or 6, and he has a basketball tucked under his arm. It’s almost as big as he is. He’s looking through the glass–his nose is pressed against it, leaving a snotty smudge–just trying to catch a glimpse of Magic…
“I’m Jed from Survivor,” is how he introduced himself, flashing the proud pearlies of a Baylor College of Dentistry student who practices what he preaches. No last name was needed, of course, no introductions necessary. Well, we needed one, sure; we haven’t seen an episode of Survivor since we discovered…
No One’s LaughingSomething stupid: What were you guys thinking? Silly me, but I thought that “Best of Dallas” meant something (September 26). As the 2000 recipient of “Best Gay Bar,” we were proud of the selection. It was also good for business, because people do read your picks. Is it…
The former leader of a Western democracy is found to have had an extramarital affair with a woman of questionable taste, and members of the press are sharpening their long knives. Surprise! It’s not Bill Clinton. At least not this week, so far as we know. Nope, this round the…
