The mimosa tree stands between two houses sheathed in aluminum. It grows in a yard on Sherman Street, in the waning heart of Dalworth, a predominantly black Grand Prairie neighborhood where drugs are sold in vacant lots amid boarded-up houses waiting to be torn down. The tree’s branches shade a…
Sometime in the early 21st century–when America is scourged everywhere by violent crime, and terrorist groups roam the world with biological weapons and suitcase-sized nuclear bombs–a computer programming genius and his Dallas-based company perfect the first 100 percent foolproof lie detector. Its use throughout American society–in law enforcement, the judicial…
Gather the elders. Light the faggots. After a 300-year hiatus, witch-hunting is back! Not since the days of the Massachusetts Bay colony has the prospect of barbecuing Satanists been so much the rage. And it’s right next door in Arlington. Bless their hearts, those godless witches of Interstate 20, and…
News hounds KRLD-AM radio sure knows how to kick off a promotional campaign. No sooner did the station put up bold new billboards advertising, “KRLD: The Source For Local News,” than the station made big changes in its newsroom–reducing its news staff by five employees. What’s going on at KRLD?…
Reefer madness A recent article [“Just say maybe to nicotine,” Buzz, November 7] described “a cop in Arlington” who was seen smoking a cigarette “in a spanking-new, tricked-up Ford Taurus emblazoned with the DARE logo.” I am writing this letter on behalf of all the officers in the Arlington Police…
San Francisco isn’t just the setting of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo: It’s the movie’s muse. Along with composer Bernard Herrmann, who transforms convoluted psychology into resounding lyricism, and co-star Kim Novak, whose pheromones and otherworldliness give body and soul to tortured romance, San Francisco enables Hitchcock to conjure a nether world…
Kevin Massey gets so worked up before he “posts,” he can feel the sweat. His face aglow in the blue light of his 20-inch Sony monitor, he grips a pencil-shaped “mouse” in his right hand–the letters “F-T-W” (Fuck The World) tattooed between his knuckles–and prepares to cast his thoughts worldwide…
Human remains from at least 40 unmarked graves dating back to pioneer days have been hastily excavated and reburied to clear the way for Columbus Realty Trust to develop a 6-acre tract of the historic Greenwood Cemetery. Although excavation work at the site proceeded methodically and quietly for about three…
No pity Your recent story concerning the “victims” of Kathy Kingsmore [“God and mammon,” November 7] elicited no feelings of sympathy from me. There is only one reason why someone would invest his money in a scheme that promises “500 percent within 90 days” or “100 percent every 30 days.”…
San Antonio goes in the toilet It isn’t often that Buzz is lured away from home turf for a choice idiocy, but we couldn’t resist this story out of San Antonio. Station KENS-TV Channel 11 hit the ratings-sweeps bottom with a splash of slime last week when reporter Al Zimmerman…
“Pornography,” Randy replies. It is rather more than I expect to hear, having interviewed a half-dozen men on the floor of Texas Stadium during the Promise Keepers rally. Dallas is the latest stop on the Promise Keepers tour, a traveling stadium revival that has allowed Christian men to make a…
Most con men flourish in anonymity and forever seek fresh territory. Roll into town, filch bingo money from a few grandmothers, then split before the heat comes down. Never stand still. That’s the hustler’s way. But Bryan Wilson Taylor is no ordinary hustler. He’s more of a hometown boy who…
For more than a year, elected officials have agreed that Dallas needs a Hispanic cultural center. After all, Hispanics are the fastest growing segment of the city’s population, and not having a center dedicated to their cultural contributions seems a huge oversight. The prerequisite feasibility study has already been performed,…
Unlovely Rita Memo to Dallas’ meter cops: Don’t mess with geeks bearing high-tech equipment. It seems that Dallas’ parking enforcement corps has been having a field day (and night) ticketing the cars that squeeze into the Ross Avenue area once a month to buy and sell computers and high technology…
Wise County Attorney Stephen Hale thought his decision to routinely dismiss cases of misdemeanor pot possession made perfect legal and moral sense. But it turns out the voters of his largely rural jurisdiction just said no. Hale, a Democrat seeking his second term, lost on November 5 to political newcomer…
Roof-raising good time Just wanted to set you straight on your information campaign about our thriving little metropolis of Grand Prairie, ‘twixt big dirty D and Cowtown. While we appreciate all of the free press we can get about our Festival of Peace, Light, and Sheetrock [“A tale of two…
In one corner: Tom Campitelli, 45 years old, 220 pounds, 6-foot-2, hiding his middle-age spread under baggy shirt and shorts, slow-footed and lacking endurance. In the other: Darla Johnson, 21 years old, 115 pounds, 5-foot-7, with legs up to her collarbone, creamy bronzed skin under tight Lycra bike shorts, and…
By appearances, Kathy and Richard Kingsmore’s world was picture-perfect. The thirtysomething couple had three kids and a $413,000 house on a quiet street, with purple impatiens bordering the manicured lawn. The Kingsmores were shining stars at Prestonwood Baptist Church, a North Dallas megasanctuary that attracts a wealthy congregation. Richard was…
The eatery is packed, with a line that presses against the glass windows and threatens to go outside. It’s Thursday night at Vitto’s Italian Restaurant in North Oak Cliff, and that means family night. A quick look around the room shows that “family” takes on all its hues of meaning…
The Dallas Observer was recognized as the best nondaily newspaper in a five-state region in this year’s Dallas Press Club awards. Three Observer writers won individual press club awards. The Dallas Bar Association also honored a fourth Observer writer last week for reporting on legal affairs. Judges selected the Observer…
No hockey face guard? It must have been the pre-Halloween rush that made The Dallas Morning News do it. You know, all the kids clamoring for the newest freaky look that makes Freddy Krueger and Hannibal Lecter look about as menacing as Pumba. This year, any self-respecting kid who wanted…
Whiner Glen Warchol states in his article [“Promise keeper?” October 24] that the only segment of the population that holds WRR [-FM 101.1] sacred is the “blue-haired society types.” He is wrong. Anybody who likes to be able to tune in to classical music on the radio holds WRR sacred…
