Dallas D-coded

Q: Whatever happened to the talented playwright D.L. Coburn? Is he still living in Dallas?-W.S., Irving

A: Coburn, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1978 for The Gin Game, is living here and working on a new play. Odd twist: After reading about Dallas police officer Al Pagan in the February’ D Magazine, Coburn contacted the book-loving cop and asked him to read and critique his current work-in-progress, which deals with race and violence. Neither party will say much, but Pagan, who enjoyed his stint as a literary critic, calls Coburn’s new script “incendiary.”



Q: I had lunch at Sfuzzi recently and had to sign two receipts when I used my credit card to pay. Is that because Sfuzzi is in bankruptcy court? -E.C.,

Dallas

A: The word from Kenyon Price, regional vice president of Sfuzzi, is that the practice of asking patrons to sign two receipts has nothing to do with its bankruptcy filing. “It’s because people sometimes leave without signing the credit card voucher or they take the wrong receipt with them,” Price says. To avoid later confusion, Sfuzzi waiters ask diners to sign both the credit card voucher and the bill. By the way, Price says the restaurant chain will be out of bankruptcy reorganization by May and on solid financial footing.

Q: I hate those downtown parking lots where you have to stuff limp dollars into those tiny slots. Do they really know if I pay or not? -B.S., Highland Park

A: Absolutely yes, says George Westby (no relation to die pub of the same name), a vice president of Parking Company of America. Employees check those boxes regularly, he says, and note the license numbers of the cars in the numbered spaces. And in case you are towed, Westby points out that it’s against the law for parking companies to profit from towing from their lots, so they don’t make a nickel from your agony.