Many, many months ago, we published a story about the best bars in Dallas. I asked the noted painter Richard Patterson to contribute a 300-word story about a bar that he and I both love, the joint at the Lakewood Whole Foods. His submission came in a bit over the word count. Like 4,000 words over the assigned limit. Which, appropriately, is pretty much how the bloke paints. He goes beyond.
So I did what any reasonable editor would do. I told Richard that he was a horrible, terrible, sucky writer. I said there was no way D Magazine could accommodate all the words he’d written. Um, but then, because Richard is brilliant, not to put too fine a point on it, I thought we should maybe run his entire essay. Oh, okay, I cut a few words. But if you care about Dallas and culture and Dallas culture and beer and cheese and everything that is important to humanity, then read his essay. It’s in our July issue and just went online.
