Windfalls

Columbus at NorthPark is an import shop whose wide variety of merchandise is incredibly inexpensive. These Capiz shell placemats are only $3.99 apiece, though elsewhere I’ve seen them for as much as $10. White Puka shell necklaces sell here for $12.99 and crystal stemware from Germany for $1.98 a stem. Moving up the price ladder, there is a great Japanese pin ball machine for $39.99, a bargain. There are a few justifiably expensive items: a large Italian game table with a roulette wheel, backgammon set, chess board and card table is $600. But even this is a steal. The same table in another store at NorthPark is a cool $950.

Columbus, NorthPark, 691-5252 Embalmed Palms

Here’s a tip for those of you who have presided over the deaths of half the plants in your home in the past year, but still aren’t ready to stoop down to those plastic artificial numbers: the embalmed palm. The trick here is a special glycerine solution: palm leaves are stripped, treated and preserved, and actually come out a richer green than the real palm leaves. You can buy the leaves pre-assembled, but The Market on Henderson has a designer who will custom-build your plant to specifications.

If you want a big palm, he’ll even come to your home or office to assemble it. Cost runs around $10 a foot, depending on the size and number of leaves. These palms don’t grow, but they don’t die either. And while they aren’t guaranteed for eternity, one happy owner says her embalmed palm looks great after five years.

The Market, 2923 N. Henderson, 824-2464

Willow Creek, 9803 North Central, 369-3776

The Wicker Market, 9707 North Central, 369-2661

Swap Art

Exchange DFW/SFO is the Fort Worth Art Museum’s featured show during August. It’s a cooperative exhibition of work in all media by performing and creative artists from the Dallas-Fort Worth and San Francisco – Oakland areas. The show opens at the FWAM on July 27 and runs through September 7. In January, it will open at the San Francisco Museum of Art.

The exhibition will begin with a panel of featured artists on July 27. Other scheduled events include performances by dancer Christina Patoski on July 30, video-tape artist Howard Fried on August 3, musician Robert Ashley on August 6, artists Bill Morrison and Terry Fox on August 13, and the rock group El Roacho on August 17. An evening of experimental film by Jordan Belson, Bruce Conner, Peter Hut-ton, and Tyler Turkle will be featured on August 20.

Admission to most events is free, but space is limited. To reserve seats, and to get a full schedule of activities, call the museum, 1309 Montgomery, (817) 738-9215.

Bye-bye-Bellbottoms

Whether you call them “pipe stem,” “pencil cut,” or just plain “skinny pants,” you’ll see them this fall. Some will be as narrow as eight inches at the bottom – perfect for stuffing into boots.

Re-Threads



That super re-sale store, Clotheshorse Anonymous, now stocks an excellent array of second-hand men’s garments. The racks have lots of designer suits: Ralph Lauren, Pierre Cardin, Oxford, Bill Blass. (Plenty of 40 regulars.) There are also sport coats, slacks, sweaters, shirts, shoes, ties, belts. (I saw six pairs of Cardin tennis shorts that had never been worn.) Owners Nancy and Judy Ungerman and Jan Kennedy estimate that garments are discounted an average of two thirds.

Clotheshorse Anonymous for Men and Women

1459 Preston Forest Square, Suite 213, 233-6082

Backyard Baedeker



Whether you’ve lived in Dallas all your life or just moved here, a recently-published book, North Texas, every nook and cranny, by Laura Trim of Dallas, promises new discoveries for you and your family right here in your own backyard. The author and a group of friends drew an imaginary 100-mile radius around Dallas, and for five years explored every possible place of interest within that radius. It is a delightful, bouncy book with charming illustrations, and a thorough calendar of annual events for every town and county, as well as a guide to Texas weather and outings. Even if you pride yourself on being a history buff, odds are you are going to learn something new. Available in all major bookstores. $4.95.

Ronald Reagan Can Be Bought

Enterprising Kim Dawson has added yet another dimension to her multi-faceted agency: the Kim Dawson Lecture and Celebrity Speaker Service. Kim has lined up over 125 speakers whose topics range from women’s rights to future shock to theater to dream study. Ronald Reagan, Joan Foniaine, Will Rogers, Jr., Paul Harvey and Dr. Joyce Brothers are among the available celebs. Local speakers include Jane Graham on “How to Be a Fascinating Woman,” Leon Hall on “The History of Fashion” and Brad Angers on “Electronic Surveillance: Manufacturing, Installing and Sweeping.” Booking costs range from $300 to $13,000 for Bill Cosby. The agency will “block” bookings for colleges.

Call Doris Byrns at the Apparel Mart, 638-2414.

Summer Rerunis



If you’re preoccupied with the remembrance of things past, the Summer Nostalgia Season, a film series sponsored by the University of Texas at Dallas student government association, ought to be your cup of Proustian tea. Remember Brando as a motorcycle hood, Bo-gart as Captain Queeg, Dick Powell as Philip Marlowe? Here’s your chance to recall the ambience of the Bijou or the Rialto in the Forties and Fifties.

The series runs from the campy (William Boyd as Hopalong Cas-sidy) to the classic (John Ford’s Stagecoach). The schedule includes / Married a Witch, with Veronica Lake and Fredric March, on July 18; Murder My Sweet, with Dick Powell, on July 25; The Wild One, with Brando, on August 1; Stagecoach, with John Wayne, on August 8; The Caine Mutiny, with Bogart, on August 15; The Frontiersman, with William Boyd, on August 22; and a double feature, The Philadelphia Story, with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, and M*A*S*H, with Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland, on August 29.

All films are at 7:30 p.m. in Founders North Auditorium on the UTD campus in Richardson. Admission is $1 for adults, 50￠ for kids.