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By D Magazine |

Tempest in a Flowers Pot

Well, it seemed like a good idea. Society newsletter publisher nancy smith, as head of this year’s greer garson Gala benefiting the American Parkinson Disease Association, wanted to bring in some fresh entertainment. She booked bill Clinton’s pal Gennifer Flowers, now a local resident and a woman with a lot of experience: She used to sing at Dallas’ old Cipango Club in the early ’80s. The ladies who run the gala were not amused. Just weeks before the event, Flowers was yanked from the lineup. The substitute was an above-reproach pianist and trio.



On My Father’s Block Are Many Mansions

The annual Swiss Avenue home tour was a hit, as usual, but the house of the block’s most illustrious resident was not on display, as usual. Tour organizers have been trying for years to include the home of w.a. criswell, senior pastor of Dallas’ First Baptist Church. He’s turned them down three times, for reasons of privacy. Too bad. “It’s always perfect,” one neighbor says of Criswell’s yard, “like God has forbidden a weed to grow on it.”



Rumors of My Death Were.. .Correct

When century-old silent-comedy director hal roach wheeled into town for the USA Film Festival, he started asking about some of his Dallas pals. How, he wanted to know, was his good buddy h.l. Hunt. When told that Hunt had died years ago. Roach winked at the bearer of the news and said, “That’s OK. That happens to me often.”



Trading Places

Feisty ex-mayor Sam Rodriguez hasn’t lost his political hold on Cockrell Hill-and the City Council meetings haven’t gotten any less controversial. After council member tonY hinojosa narrowly defeated Rodriguez in the mayoral race, the City Council, in one whirlwind session, nominated and approved Rodriguez to fill Hinojosa’s vacated seat. Amid loud protests from members of the audience, including some of the police officers Rodriguez fired during his term, the former mayor took his council seat. As he lowered himself into his chair, Rodriguez looked straight at his old nemesis, ex-police officer Linda mccoy, smiled and said, “I’m back.”

Legal Muscle

Many lawyers aspire to be judges, but Harvey shapan, labor law maven at Godwin & Carlton, perspires as a judge. Shapan, a former body builder, specializes in judging muscle-man contests. A fifth-place winner in the 1987 Masters Mr. USA competition, Shapan has judged every Mr. Texas contest for the last six years. Although he no longer competes, Shapan still pumps, which can’t hurt when it comes to collecting his legal bills.



Jurist on the Roof

No one hates lawyers more than Alfred Adask, a Dallas roofer and publisher of the AntiShyster newsletter. Now the 47-year-old Adask, who attended college for a year and a half, hopes to run for the Texas Supreme Court on the Libertarian Party ticket- despite the fact that the Texas Constitution says candidates must be a practicing lawyer or judge with 10 years’ experience. Adask bases his candidacy on a “personal interpretation” of an old law that he says allows non-lawyers to run for judicial office in the 10 former Confederate states. “Of course, if my interpretation is ridiculous,” Adask writes in AntiShyster, “I’ll wind up looking like another nut on a soapbox.”



Un-M-Pressed

After gobbling up banks like Pac Man, Ohio-based Banc One Corp. doesn’t have to take guff from anyone. That wasn’t always the case. Back in 1989, when the holding company told the FDIC it wanted to bid on the remnants of Dallas’ failed MCorp., Banc One officials couldn’t get in the door. “They wouldn’t even let us in the building,” Chairman JOHN MCCOY told a recent gathering. “They put us up in a hotel a few blocks away and carried the documents back and forth.” Apparently the FDIC thought Banc One, which typically buys small banks, wasn’t serious in its bid for MCorp, which made large commercial loans in oil and real estate.



The Love Bench

Forget about the rough-and-tumble of the Clarence Thomas hearings. Most congressional sessions to approve U.S. judges are love feasts-and none more so than the one convened for the nomination of State District Judge JOE KENDALL to the federal bench. Kendall is so non-controversial he was asked only one question. Illinois Sen. Paul Simon, who sponsored legislation against hate crimes, wanted to know his view on the skinhead case the Republican Kendall handled a few years ago. Not only that, two prominent Democrats, Sen. LLOYD BENTSEN and Rep. JOHN BRYANT, spoke in Kendall’s behalf, despite his nomination by mondo-Repub-lican Sen. Phil gramm. Kendall was approved in a walk.



Heaving Pens

Harlequin romance readers who have dipped into the recent Second Thoughts, probably don’t know that author Dana Lindsey is really less-tempestuously named Doha Brown, a banking lawyer for AmWest Savings.



Q&A

Q: Why does the big oak tree on Swiss Avenue look like it has a bad haircut? A: The red oak is one of the biggest (77 feet tall with an 83-foot crown spread and a 14-foot circumference trunk) and most ancient (150 to 400 years old) in the county, but TU Electric has been snipping at it for years to keep it away from power lines. Q: What can be done? A: Tree owner Sue Miller and TU recently started discussing a solution that won’t aesthetically affect the tree. If allowed to grow naturally, the tree could become the local red oak champ, surpassing one in Garland that has a 95-foot crown spread.

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