In August 1997, when they took him to jail, Nick Jolly was 18 years old and had just graduated from Lincoln High School, where his mother and aunt both graduated before him. He was a third-generation Dallasite. His grandfather came here from South Texas to work for the Dallas water…
Dallas 1998. Think back with us to the unique, exciting moments over the past year. Really, we mean it. Think back with us. Better yet, think back for us, because, frankly, Buzz’s memory is not what it was before we discovered beer many, many years ago. Let’s see. We recall…
Every other January, 181 state legislators, supposedly representative of Texas and supposedly armed with good intentions, come to Austin and instantly become the most sought-after people in town. For every legislator, there are at least eight lobbyists–about 1,500 type A personalities paid to troll the halls in search of something…
Coals to Newcastle It’s not easy to survive on the mean streets, especially in a tough burg like Highland Park, where crime is a way of life and the peace is shattered nightly by the sound of barking gats blazing away in nocturnal leadfests. Sorry, Buzz is feeling noirish. Apparently,…
Keep on truckin’ Hooray for someone to finally speak out about truck drivers [“Highway Roulette,” December 31]. I have driven in Dallas for 10 years and have always noticed how dangerous some truckers are, seeing near-accidents on a weekly basis during my commute. It wasn’t until September that I realized…
During afternoon rush hour on a sweltering mid-June day, five cars heading east on Texas 121 in Frisco line up at a red light at the intersection with Custer Road. As the drivers wait for the light to change, a 64,000-pound cement mixer barrels down the two-lane highway. The truck…
Calling Mr. Grant Forget the millennial fervor. Forget that the Super Bowl is just weeks away. For Buzz, the best part of the new year is that January 1 is the scheduled start-up date for TXCN, A.H. Belo Corp.’s all-news, all-Texas cable channel. We’re not so dweebish as to become…
Paul Coggins, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, raised suspicions about his political plans when he announced earlier this month that he was dropping his bid to become a federal judge. “I just decided it wasn’t the way I wanted to go,” Coggins says. “I had been…
Deconstructing Joe Bob Before moving to Dallas this year, I read an old Calvin Trillin article for The New Yorker detailing Joe Bob Briggs/John Bloom’s rise and fall in Dallas in the ’80s. Needless to say, I moved to Dallas anyway. Since then I’ve read other Joe Bob articles and…
December 12, 1995 He isn’t saying that it was a miracle, that an angel of God guided him to a particular place at a particular time and said, “Here she is.” He’s not saying that at all. But he’s not saying it was entirely coincidental, either. After one coincidence leads…
Info: Blowing smoke Denton residents like Parks and Delores Olmon want to know how a posse of city slickers managed to railroad plans for a lead-belching copper factory in their town By Miriam Rozen These days, Denton folks write dueling versions of history. To some, January 6, 1998, was the…
Things appear to be looking up for Walter Waldhauser Jr. After being convicted of playing a central role in a gruesome triple murder-for-hire in Houston in 1980, he was released from prison in 1990 after serving a third of his plea-bargained sentence. He wound up back behind bars last month,…
Fire two Last week, Buzz saluted city council member Don Hicks for nominating former Councilman Chris Luna to the new city task force on ethics. (That would be the Chris Luna whose character is so flawed that it even offended his former fellow council members–not an easy thing to do.)…
Wishing you a nasty Christmas Jimmy Fowler’s article titled “Holiday whores” and featuring a picture of 11-year-old Greta Sleeper in the December 17 issue is one of the worst-written criticisms of a theatrical production I have ever read. In my opinion, Mr. Fowler’s article is contradictory, ill-informed, full of generalizations,…
On a Wednesday afternoon in late October, about two weeks before Texas voters went to the polls to re-elect the governor and decide several close state-wide races, the numbers somehow got loose. They were poll numbers, the results of the Texas Poll, the most widely publicized pre-election poll in the…
It’s an unusually warm afternoon for a Texas Saturday in December, but inside the AMS Studios in Addison, the air feels cold enough to hang beef carcasses in. Nobody feels this more than Rusty the TNT Mailgirl, a strawberry-blond waitress at Humperdink’s in Arlington, who remains here all day and…
Every man for himself Lame duck Attorney General Dan Morales has often stood alone. As a conservative Democratic legislator, he crossed ways with the Democratic leadership in Austin. As attorney general, he went against the wishes of many Hispanic activists by not challenging a court decision that overturned the UT…
For decades Dale Robinson has left his Lakewood home and headed over to Tenison Park, golf bag slung over his shoulder. Four times a week every week since he retired from his job as a mechanical contractor 20 years ago, Robinson has risen early in the morning, paid the reduced…
Paving paradise Somebody ought to give Jim Schutze whatever award of excellence you journalists get for his story on the Asian Gardens of East Dallas [“The garden of life,” December 3]. It is a beautiful, moving piece that chronicles the endurance and triumph of valuable refugees-turned-neighbors, brought here from Asia…
One minute, the woman in the clingy, curvy red and black dress makes the rounds as a waitress, taking drink orders from the tables of men at Mike’s El Socio Nightclub. The next moment, she is sitting with a customer in boots and straw hat, talking and laughing with him…
It can be difficult to define precisely what Deep Ellum was. Visual representations of its earliest street life are scant, aside from this 1922 photo of streetcar track being laid on Elm Street, several photos of Jewish shopkeepers, and a couple of images of blacks walking along Central Track. Deep…
Father of the year Upon returning to the team he abandoned for money at the end of the 1996 season, once-and-future Dallas Cowboys cornerback Larry Brown told local scribes that God brought him and his loving family back to Texas Stadium. Brown was contemplating retirement and seeking a little guidance…
