You can make an argument that Skip Hollandsworth is the all-time champ among D Magazine writers. He’s the only staffer, current or former, to have placed three bylines in our list of our 40 greatest stories ever, which we put together a couple years ago. (If you haven’t read “The Black Widow,” “Max’s Last Hurrah,” or “The Fall of the House of Von Erich,” you should.)
Hollandsworth defected to Texas Monthly in 1989 and is now one of five (!) executive editors on that magazine’s masthead. He still lives in Dallas and is the author of a well-reviewed new book called The Midnight Assassin, about the unsolved mystery of a serial killer in 19th-century Austin.
He was good enough to sit down with us at the Old Monk for a chat that spent far more time focused on the merits of Costco than I would’ve expected.
You can have a listen via the player below, or find EarBurner on iTunes, Stitcher, or through your favorite podcatcher. But first, please note:
1. The Old Monk has occupied its corner of Henderson Avenue for 18 years.
2. Legendary Dallas sports writer Blackie Sherrod died last month. Among other accomplishments, he too authored one of D Magazine’s 40 greatest stories.
3. Tim’s imitation Converse sneakers, purchased at Costco:
4. Earlier this week, the Dallas Observer’s Jim Schutze advocated the systematic slaying of roving dog gangs.
5. Zac’s Twitter bio:
6. Mayor Mike Rawlings gets adorably excited watching vacant, derelict southern Dallas houses torn down.
7. Hollandsworth first wrote about the crimes of the Midnight Assassin in a July 2000 article in Texas Monthly.
8. During the Ebola crisis in October 2014, Mayor Mike Rawlings said, “I am saddened that the randomness of life has landed this in Dallas, but it’s a sign of how diverse and international we are as a city.”
9. David Lindsey is a crime fiction author whose novels include Black Gold, Red Death and In the Lake of the Moon.
10. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio is re-teaming with director Martin Scorsese on a film adaptation of Erik Larson’s best-seller, The Devil in the White City.
11. The Alienist is a 2006 novel by Caleb Carr.
12. The Moonlight Towers in Austin may be the only ones left in the world.
13. Hollandsworth’s 1998 Texas Monthly article, “Midnight in the Garden of East Texas,” was adapted into the 2011 movie Bernie.
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14. “Janky” is defined at “of poor quality, odd.”
15. I stand in solidarity with Zac: Outside of a pool or a locker room situation, men should never wear flip-flops. It’s just gross.
16. Brian D. Sweany is editor in chief of Texas Monthly, a former D Magazine staffer, and a helluva nice guy. I don’t know who’d win a fistfight between him and Hollandsworth, but if it were anything like the pantomime that Hollandsworth’s wife, Shannon, performed during the podcast recording session, it would be enjoyable to watch.
OK, on to the show:
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