Dallas D-coded

Q:I was just at the main library downtown and noticed some black grime that seems to be dripping off the roof and the facade of both the library and City Hall. What is that stuff and can the city do anything about it?

-B.R, Dallas

A: According to Beverly Davis, assistant director of the city’s public works and transportation departments, the black streaks, which have become more noticeable in the past year, are a combination of mold and environmental pollution that have accumulated over time. Last year, the city began looking into removing the unsightly stuff, and Davis said her department wants to hire a consultant to help the city with treatment options, including a look at the environmental impact of the chemicals that could be used, and a plan to prevent the grime from coming back. The department is asking for $30,000 in the 1996-97 budget to hire the consultant.

Q: Is there an upcoming hook about the spending habits and social lives of wealthy Dallas women, including grand dames Lupe Murchison and Caroline Hunt? -N, H., Dallas

A: European transplant Cornelia Heins is trying to interest a publisher in her manuscript, which carries the working title Big Hair: The Secrets and Charms of the Women of Dallas. Judging from an excerpt-in which the names John F. Kennedy, J.R. Ewing and H. Ross Perot appear within the same sentence-the book appears to provide little more than an outsider’s view of Texas. “In the eyes of many Europeans, Texans are larger-than-life, indestructible, wealthy, strong, but at the same time charmingly wicked and ruthless,” says Heins, who moved to Dallas four years ago. “The idea for the book came after someone asked me whether these characterizations are accurate or based on myth-or perhaps even a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. “