The Thumb Awards

Thumbs Down: To DISD

Superintendent Nolan Estes, who, after tripling the administrative staff of the school district during his tenure, decided it was high time to “take the scissors to the bureaucratic tape and trim the administrative fat.” How? Supt. Estes set up a 3-5 month “organizational study” to look into the problem.



Thumbs Up: To Dallas City Councilman John Leedom for speaking up in an effort to get something done about North Central Expressway – a highway that was obsolete the day it opened. Unfortunately, Leedom’s proposal – a second-deck tollway – was a bomb (environmental blight, construction havoc around the existing roadway, and a minimum estimated price tag of $120 million that even 500 tolls wouldn’t cover). But at least he is trying to deal with a problem that should have been dealt with ten years ago.



Thumbs Down: To radio station KLIF for their promotion gimmick for the arrival of new hot-shot disc jockey Charlie Brown. Brown climbed to the top of P.C. Cobb Stadium and dropped 2,000 $1 bills to the crowd of 4,000 below. Five people were treated for injuries at Parkland Hospital.



Thumbs Out: To ex-Ranger outfielder Jeff Burroughs. After batting .226 and .237 the past two seasons, Jeff still thought he should be able to play his baseball where he wanted to and balked (and squawked) at being traded to Atlanta. Jeff still wanted to stay and play baseball in Arlington. Well, he’s not alone there – a lot of people have wanted Jeff to play baseball in Arlington.