In the early-morning hours of July 8, 1995, Sky Callahan staggered through the dark and unfamiliar streets of Guatemala City, his mind and body reeling from a brutal beating. Two men whom he believed to be government agents had kidnapped the Dallas documentary filmmaker, forced him into their car at…
It began with the battle of the big men–a bloody scrap they’d still be talking about months later. In one corner was David “Tank” Abbott. A 280-pound 6-footer, Abbott looked the part of the classic barroom brawler–big, with an enormous beer belly, buzz-cut hair, and no discernible neck. His martial…
D and Bartlett to make match? Hot publishing buzz has unprofitable D magazine, just out with its (yawn) “How to marry a millionaire” issue, about to hook up with a new set of monied mates. The word is that owner Glen Solomon, who restarted the moribund monthly, will step down…
A campaign targeting gay journalists launched last month by the Christian, conservative American Family Association has chalked up its first victory. Responding to a complaint from an AFA member, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has transferred a gay editor out of a job that occasionally required him to work with schoolchildren…
Go ahead, touch that dial I feel like I have just lost a very good friend. I feel like I should be in the middle of some kind of “identity crisis,” because I don’t know where I fit in at KERA radio [“Stop the music,” January 11]. I am a…
Sitting in one of those hard seats in the cavernous central jury room of the George L. Allen Sr. courts building in downtown Dallas, I knew only two things for certain: That my day was shot to hell; and that I was bored out of my mind. Well, things change…
News’ child-custody saga probes Wright and wrong The January 21 edition of The Dallas Morning News contained an extraordinary story: the saga of Channel 5 anchor Brad Wright’s messy, messy divorce and custody battle. The Sunday piece, by Tim Wyatt and Howard Swindle, began at the bottom of the front…
Danny Wettreich, a 44-year-old native of London, England, personifies precisely what many find repugnant about American capitalism. In the 13 years since he moved to Dallas, Wettreich has bought and shut down businesses, shuffled millions of dollars in securities, drawn suspicion from two federal agencies, and thrown people out of…
Between a Boulder and a hard place More than a year ago, feminist Karen Ashmore said goodbye and good riddance to Dallas. Ashmore, who co-founded the Dallas Rainbow Chapter of the National Organization for Women, said she was burned out on Big D’s provincialism–especially when it came to race relations…
Gold Rush! Yee-haw! Look at them settlers lashin’ their teams and bouncin’ their wagons in an all-out scramble to stake a claim in Electronville. The telecommunications bill is the Gold Rush of 1996, an industry free-for-all, a wild, pell-mell greed-stampede. All the settlers have pretty fair grubstakes to start with;…
On the eve of Armageddon, my grandma sat on the living-room sofa and considered this theological conundrum: Was it right to pray for the Green Bay Packers to win? Was it right to beg divine intervention on behalf of the more virtuous, if less talented, team? If Jesus were here…
Any real-estate agent worth his listings knows staying ahead in the business these days means getting a piece of the hottest property around, cyberspace. But just how to go about getting a presence on the Internet has caused a schism among Realtors. Nationwide, agents are bickering and even competing among…
Granbury’s jewel on the square During the summer of 1989, I was fortunate enough to direct a production of Kander and Ebb’s musical Chicago at the Granbury Opera House. I had met Jo Ann Miller on a previous visit, and was enthusiastic about working with her and my old friend…
Julie Mote–whose name, I assure you, would not ring any bells at Dallas City Hall–was sitting in her North Dallas home with her husband two Wednesdays ago, eating baked chicken and asparagus, when something unusual happened. The couple began discussing city politics. “We don’t usually talk politics in this house…
Daisy Duke dreams Is it some kind of colossal I.Q. test? Buzz learned last week that Texas Motor Speedway officials have been “overwhelmed” by interest in the condominiums they plan to build at the stock-car racetrack under construction north of Fort Worth. If the interest turns into deals, the condos,…
On January 5, KERA-FM music director and disc jockey Gabrielle West was not returning phone calls, nor would she for the next several days. Her voice-mail message at the public radio station explained why: “We’re going through some serious changes that will involve everybody–including you, as well,” she offered callers…
So long, 1995; what a year you were. Bob Packwood, the Republican “revolution,” O.J. Simpson, Oklahoma City–ah, yes, we remember it well. Onward we march, through the accumulating history of human folly, greed, bad manners, and general goofiness, with the touching faith that next year will be better–a faith founded…
Susan Campbell takes pride in knowing a chameleon from an anole. (It’s an anole running down your backyard fence.) She has been known to spend 100 hours designing a box of skulls and bones and animal teeth for children to paw through, and her idea of a good time is…
“I do not like to put ladies in jail,” Judge Leonard Hoffman told Tonjua Benge. In her 31 years, the soft-spoken single mother of two has never been convicted of a crime. But on this day in February 1995, on the Texas visiting judge’s orders, she had just completed four…
Final curtain As an old friend and admirer of Jo Ann Miller, I must congratulate Mark Donald on his outstanding article about the way this remarkable woman has been ousted from the Granbury Opera House by an ambitious actress and a shortsighted board of directors [“Suspense! Intrigue! Betrayal!” December 28,…
The Kimberly-Clark News Psssst. BeloWatch has a tip for local businesses that really want the kid-gloves treatment in The Dallas Morning News. Not the standard News kid-gloves treatment. The extra-special, deluxe, we-drool-at-the-mention-of-your-corporation’s-name kid-gloves treatment. The tip: Put Belo CEO Robert Decherd on your board. Irving-based Kimberly-Clark did it late last…
Ron Kirk was being uncharacteristically subdued. He was standing up against a wall, a good distance from the political action, arms folded across his perfectly pressed denim workshirt, lizard boots planted firmly on the floor. This was last May, two weeks after he’d surprised the city of Dallas, not to…
