LET’R RIP

The reaction to our November feature on American Airlines chief Bob Crandall illustrates once again the Rorschach ink blot theory of journalism: everyone brings something to whatever they read, and some bring more than others. Who woulda thunk that Sally Giddens’s story would be read as, among other things, a betrayal of the entire feminist movement? And who woulda thunk that the illustration of Crandall, commissioned after Crandall declined to sit for a photograph (which followed logically upon his refusal to be interviewed for the story he was convinced would be a “hatchet job” and which, in the eyes of many, became more of a hatchet job due to that refusal) would have become such a target of scorn and derision? One caller even accused us of making it look like Crandall was “smoking grass” with our inside illustration. It is a strange world out there. Crandall’s own reaction was mailed to D’s board of directors, in a lofty executive exchange not meant for the masses. Sorry. Can’t print it. But since we started with ink blots, let’s end with handwriting analysis. We hereby invite graphologists both amateur and professional to submit their reading of the Crandall signature. This could be almost as good us an interview.

Moving on, 44th District Judge Candace G. Tyson writes to respond to our response to the response of some 1,000 members of the Dallas Bar Association. In July, the lawyers were asked to rate 131 local judges. The collective sense of the bar is that Judge Tyson is a miserable, pathetic excuse, for a judge. Eighty percent of the respondents, for instance, said that she did not correctly apply the law, and only 25 percent described her as “hard-working.” Now Tyson writes D to complain about a Dallas Morning News headline labeling her the worst judge in the poll. Why us? As reported here earlier, The News recently broke off a harmonious fifteen-year relationship with D, announcing in a fit of competitive pique that it would no longer sell us any photographs. However, since we did refer to Tyson not as the “worst “judge but as the “potted plant’ of the courthouse, we feel obliged to note her objection. She is not the worst judge in town, she says, because Appeals Judge Charles Ben Howell is the worst. Checking the poll numbers, we found to our dismay that Howell was indeed flung into a chamber of judicial hell even lower than ’Tyson’s. An astonishing 90 percent of lawyers in the bar poll said that Howell lacked “proper judicial temperament” while 87 percent did not approve of the judge’s overall performance. But 35 percent of the judges granted that Howell was hard-working, which leads to a conundrum: if a judge who is a slime mold (Howell) works harder than a judge who is just a very bad judge (Tyson), is that bad or good? Perhaps if Howell did not work so hard, he would get involved in fewer cases, misunderstand fewer subtle points of law, and render fewer unjust verdicts. Judge Tyson, objection overruled.

Bob Crandall:

A “Hatchet Job”?

I want to express my sense of outrage over your article about Bob Crandall [“Sky King,” November]. You assured me that any article published in your magazine would be fair, balanced, and objective, and that no one had any intention of doing a “hatchet job” on Bob Crandall. Surely you do not believe that the article written by Sally Giddens satisfies those standards.

From the cartoon cover to the opening line, the acerbic tone, backhanded references, one-sidedness, and misleading factual presentations were calculated to hold Bob Crandall up to scorn and ridicule. Perhaps , 1 am biased [as Crandall’s attorney], but I am also literate and understand the use of language, nuances, syntax, and innuendo. The article did not really inform your readership. It did not really explore the complex issues at D/FW Airport. It did what I believe it was intended to do: paint a negative word picture of Bob Crandall.

RICHARD A. FRELING

DALLAS

Robert Crandall’s much-publicized scare tactic of threatening to build a parking garage as far as the eye could see at Love Field upon repeal of the Wright Amendment speaks volumes and should have raised red flags in the minds of elected officials as to the type of sensitive, caring man we’re dealing with. This is a man who believes that because his airline involves thousands of jobs and millions of dollars, his company should be able to enjoy unrestricted, unchecked growth.

Threats by Crandall’s staff that if runway expansion is opposed, American will take its airplanes and play somewhere else are met with fear from civic leaders, rather than a call to the bluff. Go ahead and leave: see how many minutes it takes for your terminals to fill with other airlines.

PATTY DONOVAN

IRVING

In the very same issue that ran Giddens’s accusations about American Airlines1 lack of community concern, a quick perusal of same turned up the following recent “involvements”: a $500,000 gift to the Meyer-son concert hall, Centre Development Co.’s ad showing AAL as one of the “most successful companies in the world.” a listing of AAL as a Special Sponsor of the Crew Classic 4th Annual Golf Open, AAL as a cosponsor for little Cassie Price on KERA Channel 13, and a mention that American sponsors the weekday broadcasts of “Morning Edition” on KERA-FM 90.1. All of these references just happened to be juxtaposed in various sections of that same November issue and are only the tip of American’s corporate-caring iceberg. Doesn’t sound like an uninvolved outfit to me!

The next time Sally Giddens’s thin professional hide is bruised by a major corporation’s CEO’s not being able to fit her interview into his busy schedule, perhaps she might give consideration to waiting even longer to present her offerings. Though if the next corporate leader on her hit list has happened to scan this latest of her attempts, it could be a very long wait indeed.

DAVID R. HUME

INSTRUCTOR

AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT

ACADEMY

ARLINGTON



Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Glib Sally Giddens’s gibberish proves that point. Her mean-spirited cover story on Bob Crandall makes one reach the conclusion that, since Sally couldn’t get her foot in the door of AA’s CEO, she used her foot for revenge. She sounded angry.

I feel ashamed of D Magazine and the thirty-four gals on the masthead for letting this article run. They’ve set the women’s movement back ten years. One longs to see a Lee Cullum back on the staff. 1 doubt that D will ever be able to afford anyone of Cullum’s caliber and integrity again.

When I got a B.S. in journalism, it didn’t mean that we women were going to go out and write b.s. I’ve never read an article, even in D, with such a petty, negative approach to its subject.

MARY HELEN BURNE

DALLAS



Congratulations to Sally Giddens. She shows us the bully we seldom get to see.

Bob Crandall avoids the press because he is quite different from the image AA, its PR men, and millions of dollars in advertising and PR create for the media. Bob Crandall has terrified his employees for years, summarily firing or losing top managers and then paying hush money to keep them quiet.

Crandall attempts to bully both Dallas and Fort Worth to gain concessions for his company. All too often the cities and airports cave in at Crandail’s demand. AA needs Dallas and its docile, work-free work force. AA enjoys huge tax benefits here. There’s simply no place better for AA than the Metroplex.

R. COCHRAN

DALLAS



“The Tragedy of 1O-4-1”



Generally my opinion is that Dennis Holder developed the story conclusion and then used his research to support that conclusion [“The Tragedy of 10-4-1.” November] . In addition, I feel the personal attack on Ray Hutchison was particularly unfair.

During the committee’s work it was obvious that statements of some committee members, as well as some of the testimony received, were prepared as “testimony” for Judge Buchmeyer’s court rather than for a committee searching for a consensus. There were constructive discussions, to be sure, including the debates on council member compensation and board composition. However, regarding the issue of council districts, the willingness to look for compromise solutions, recalled so vividly in the article, was not evident during the committee’s work or during the five-plus years I served on the City Council.

DEAN VANDERBI

DALLAS



I enjoyed Dennis Holder’s article immensely. It substantiated the reasons why I voted against the 10-4-1 proposal. I did and still feel confident that the courts will strike it down. Congratulations for having the courage to anatomize the subject so clearly for publication in a magazine that is oriented for the most part to a retrogressive audience.

STANLEY MARCUS

DALLAS



I am deeply offended that “The Tragedy of 10-4-1” is iilustrated by an art rendition of the late officer John Chase portrayed as a “court jester.” Officer Chase did not seek active participation in the debate over 10-4-1, so I do not understand your readiness to use him in the graphics illustrating the article. It was cruel to portray a man who gave his life to protect Dallas citizens as a court jester. A “Thumbs Down” to you for bad taste.

As for the article, good ol’ Dallas power politics has been practiced like arm wrestling for a long time by each politically ambitious group. Name-calling as a blunt instrument is not new. One day, the word “racist” will get old and worn and go on the shelf next to “commie.” Neither word will have solved one single problem.

MONICA SMITH

PRESIDE

DALLAS POLICE ASSOCIATION



Class of ’93

I found the “Dear Applicant…” article [November] very interesting and feel it should be required reading for the college-bound student and his parents. It is good to see confirmation of our experience that it takes “a hook”-something truly unusual about these very good students that sets them apart from all the other very good students- to be accepted in very highly selective colleges.

CHARLES A. MAPLES

PRINCIPAL

LAKE HIGHLANDS HIGH SCHOOL

DALLAS



I greatly enjoyed the article by Lucie Nelka. It was well written and well rounded. I graduated from SMU in ’81 and I now attend Pepperdine University’s graduate school. I was so pleased to see Pepperdine listed as a “hot spot.” I plan to return to Dallas, but for the next couple of years Malibu is totally radical!

REBECCA FOLS

LOS ANGELES

Voodoo Redux

Your “Voodoo You Love?” Thumbs Down on page 20, November, was absolutely priceless. Everyone should get hold of a copy and read it.

LARRY ROGE

DALLAS



So what if the ceremonies of voodoo involve hacking the heads off innocent chickens and sloshing the blood all over the jerking and twitching believers? And whose business is it if the faithful make a practice of raising their dead friends and neighbors from the grave to serve as slave labor? Zombies, after all, are incapable of talking back or thinking for themselves, and they never take sick days, so they probably constitute an ideal work force. Corporate biggies like Bob Crandall and Ross Perot should think this over, then ask themselves what their present religions are doing for them.

BAILEY HANKINS

DALLAS



A Looming Crisis



A word of sincere thanks for Chris Tucker’s “Man vs. Nature” [November]. A century from now, will our descendants look back and wonder why we did so little in the face of an environmental crisis such as the one looming before us?

I do a lot of career counseling with teenagers, and cutting back on “growth and consumption” is not something they are willing to entertain. Many of them want to be lawyers or engineers, not because public service is involved, but because that is where the “big bucks” are. Perhaps people such as Tucker, with the ability to write and the public arena in which to do it, can help us to focus our vision on some very important priorities before it’s too late.

JIM MAUS

FORT WORTH



Saving Bret Gaither

Re: “Bret Gaither: His Parent’s Next Victim?” [November].

I am enraged to think that Cachena Sim-mons’s attorney could even consider asking for a new trial for her. Does he have no conscience? Cachena Simmons and her boyfriend don’t deserve to be walking around free, let alone walking around and reproducing! It’s bad enough when people have children they can’t afford and expect the government to support, but when they’re also abusing them and murdering (I don’t think that’s an inappropriate word for what they did to their seven-month-old baby) them, they should be stopped!

SARA MISKIMIS

GARLAND



Reader To Reader



I would like to respond to Charles Meyer’s letter in the November issue. It’s true Arkansas does support its football team, but that’s about it! Everything else, including education and the arts, takes second place. They finally got wise and replaced “Land of Opportunity” as the state motto, because there isn’t any. Mr. Meyer, I can personally attest to the “soundness” of Arkansas banks. I moved to Dallas thirteen years ago in order to use my banking experience after being out of work for three months. I was laid off from a “sound” Arkansas bank due to the poor state of economy. Indeed we have had some tough times in Dallas, but thank goodness we are innovative enough to find solutions. Don’t attack my city. Dallas was here for me when I needed it and will always have my support through good and bad times. We are still the greatest “Can Do” city in America. That’s why your wives fly in to shop, your children leave to attend school here, and you buy D Magazine. Look out. Dallas is coming back and without the help of Jerry Jones or football.

DENNIS H. LASIT

DALLAS