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Pulse of the CITY

By D Magazine |

for the record

HISTORY LESSON AT THE NEWS

The daily’s Op-Ed page never tells readers it- and they-got snookered.



■ On July 4, the News Op-Ed page reprinted a Boston Globe piece by columnist Jeff Jacoby that purported to tell the horrors visited on prominent signers of the Declaration of Independence. Within two days, the Globe announced the column was factually inaccurate. A week later, the newspaper suspended Jacoby without pay for four months. His infraction: recycling an urban myth from an anonymous e-mail making the rounds on the Internet. Most of the claims in the e-mail have been refuted by historians. For example, signer Thomas Nelson did not die bankrupt; he bequeathed 11 plantations to his heirs. Signer Lewis Morris’ estate was not ravaged by the British; it was occupied by the Continental Army.

But Dallas readers were left to believe the column until July 14. Only after a call from D Magazine did the News inform its readers that the July 4 column was untrue. Instead of running the explanation on its Op-Ed page, where the original appeared, the small correction ran at the bottom of the Overnight page.

Have Baton, Will Travel!



Andrew Litton and the DSO pack for the Continent.



HOW TO GET RESPECT IN your own hometown? Simple. Go out of town. The strategy is as old as Julius Caesar’s march into Gaul. The trick is to come home with laurels.

The laurels were plentiful and enthusiastic on Andrew Litton s first foray with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra to Europe three years ago. The Times of London praised his “’shrewdly judged pacing and assured responses.” Le Libre Belgique said he demonstrated “from beginning to end flawless and dazzling direction.”

Since that tour, Litton has continued to hone the orchestra’s skills and sound, attracting new talent and introducing new works into the repertoire. Today’s Dallas orchestra is a more mature, polished ensemble with its own unique sound, an ever-growing collection of recordings, and a series of nationally syndicated radio broadcasts, thanks to Litton’s driving ambition to see the DSO rated as one of the top orchestras not only in the nation, but in the world.

On the theory of “once tried, twice proven,” Litton and the DSO embark on their second European tour this month. Litton has chosen works-including Shostakovich, Dvorak, Aaron Cope-land, and Texas composer Cindy McTee’s “Timepiece”-that will show off the DSO’s technical skill and intuitive understanding of the pieces.

Litton’s next challenge? Translate these foreign laurels into hometown momentum for the DSO’s capital campaign.

QUOTABLES

“I’m willing to be his pen pal for a while…. People write to inmates all the time, [so] I don’t know why people would think I’m crazy. A few months ago, I would have never imagined writing to a murderer, but I empathize with him.”

-Juror Curtis Kling, talking about Patrick Timothy Richardson, sentenced to 60 years in prison for murdering his wife, Mary Richardson.

“America’s Greatest Luggage Store”

David Letterman has made a Preston Center luggage store- and its wallet inserts-famous.

ACTRESS GWYNETH PALTROW CONSIDERS AL Cordova the Steven Spielberg of luggage sales. Cordova is a salesman at Preston Luggage and Gifts in Preston Center. Ever since Cordova and store owner Kathy Lynd started making regular appearances on The Late Show with David Letter-man, business is booming–particularly for $1.50 wallet inserts.

“Dave made such a big deal about the wallet inserts-you know, those plastic things thai hold credit cards and pictures-that we’ve had to reorder several times,” Lynd chirps. The store has been in her family for 31 years. “We’ve gotten faxes from Australia and France. We just sold an insert to someone in Virginia.”

For his part, Cordova is hip to the idea of being billed as “America’s Greatest Luggage Salesman.”

“Our existing customers realty like it,” Cordova grins. “They come in after they’ve seen us on the show. Sometimes they buy a bag.” Cordova excuses himself to take a phone call. These days it could be from anyone. Producers, starlets, an Indonesian banker who needs a wallet insert. “Yes,” Cordova answers into the receiver, “I think I have one left….Yes, sit…5:30…Okay.”

The neighbors are catching on to the sight of television trucks parked out front. “A lady came in here one time,” Cordova recalls, as he writes up a ticket for a customer buying a backgammon set but no wallet insert. “1 knew her from Park Cities Baptist Church. She asked what the cameras were doing in the store. I told her. When she came back an hour later, she was all done up. Hair. Everything. Got on the show in the background.”



STATS

5,602

Number of graduates in DISD class of 2000.



$32,603,925

Amount of scholarship money awarded to DISD class of 2000.

$4,000,000

Increase over the amount of scholarship money awarded to DISD 1999 graduates.



$5,216,648

Amount of scholarships awarded to members of the Booker T. Washington graduating class of 2000.



13

Number of DISD high schools with scholarships totaling $1,000,000 or more.

Source: DISD



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SHARK ATTACK

Lawyers with Jaws

When attorney James Best is asked why he plunked an 18-foot fiberglass shark atop his Best & Hicks building at Central and Knox-Henderson, he laughs. “Do you want the good story or the real story?” he asks. “I’m a fisherman and I used to fish sharks all the time. And I’m the meanest lawyer in town.”

What better advertisement for an “aggressive personal injury” law firm than a relentless predator known for “swift, surprise attacks from below”? The sleek blue beast, formed from a mold of a real shark, went up this summer. Best says he’s not worried about reinforcing negative images of attorneys. “Nobody wants a nice lawyer,” Best says. “For that, you’d hire your grandma.”

A Woman In Her Own Right

Dallas model Jerry hall steps out on the London stage.

ONE YEAR AFTER HER $25 million divorce from Mick Jagger, Dallas model Jerry Hall has taken a new role, playing the seductive Mrs. Robinson in a London revival of The Graduate.

Early reviews were generally tepid to awful. London’s Daily-Telegraph reported “the 44-year-old Texan was every inch the haughty stylish model. But subtlety, complexity, and occasionally even audibility were missing.” The Daily Mail’s critic was acerbic, writing that “her range of emotions would not have discredited a retiring clam.” According to the London Times, “The trouble with having endless legs and almost equally extendible arms would seem to be that you have to have some idea of what do with them between delivering the lines.”

Most of the pre-show press attention focused– predictably-on a nude scene that lasted for approximately 10 seconds with very dimmed stage lighting. The Manchester Guardian noted that “anyone seeking erotic satisfaction out of the moment would either have to be pretty desperate or in possession of cats’ eyes.”

Still, following Kathleen Turner in the role made famous on the screen by Anne Bancroft proved to be a debut of sorts for Hall. After 22 years of reading about her husband’s affairs in the tabloids, she made it to the serious newspapers on her own. The Tintes noted that from the day her casting was announced. Hall had received 143 mentions in the British press, more than any other person, and that was before the show even opened.

Dallas admirers who want to catch a glimpse of Hall on stage had better hurry-and call ahead. Her run ends at an unspecified date in October.

High-Dollar Houses Stay Hot

Inventory is sparse. Builders are swamped. Buyers are plentiful.



“TWENTY YEARS AGO, THE PERFECT HOME IN Dallas was a new house in a new neighborhood,” explains Dave Perry-Miller of Adleta and Poston Realtors. ’Ten years ago it was a new house in an old neighborhoed. Today, buyers want new houses in established neighborhoods, but they want the houses to have a certain age. Buyers have spent time in Italy and France. They want exceptional materials, craftsmanship, and landscaping.”

Multimillion-dollar tear-down stories in Highland Park and Preston Hollow are the talk at cocktail parties from Armstrong Parkway to Royal Lane. But the mansion building craze has created materials shortages. Nationwide. High-grade lum-her is in short supply, fine hardware on back order, hardwoods like cherry and mahogany are almost unavailable. Local builders are swamped.

“We’re seeing unsolicited offers of $5 million on new properties thet might have a relative value of $3.5 million,” says Eleanor Mowery-Sheets of Coldwell Banker Realty. “But for the buyer, the premium might be worth it. They can move in right away. They don’t have to spend three years building. And they get all new features.”

THE LIST



Lee Trevino Sam Papert Rick MacArthur Rex Jobe June Leftwich Anita Middleton Winfield Padgett Ira Lipson Mary Brinegar Bonnie Cobb Jeff Moseley Kerri Houston Tex Lezar Marianne Staubach Don Harris dim Yoder Barry Hughes Scott Leslie Ross Perot TV. Mangelsdorf Sharon Baca Curtis Meadows Pam Mundo Ramona Austin Craig Diebel Holly Becka Jim Washington Carolyn Barta Cherri Oakley John Egnatis Mark Tolle Patricia LaSalle Neal Sleeper James Chambers Crawford Brock Lyria Howland John Scovell Jeff Murray

It’s In The Bag

For fall, Prada has an entité line of carry-on travel bags. luggage, and the updated version of the “bowling bag” ^ purse. And the bowling bag quickly slid past this past summer’s Fendi bagette as the “in” bag. Shown here are the all-seasonal yellow leather “Borsa A Mano” purse, $1,020; the new edi-tion of the “Bauletto” in black leather with yellow, white, and maroon stitching, $850; and the “Doctors Bag”-perfeet for the woman who carries everything in her purse-in red leather, $950. Available at the Prada Boutique.

The classic Burberry plaid with its tweeds and plaids is back with a vengeance. Plaid purse with fringe overlap, $395; plaid purse with shearing lining, $395. Available at Burherry.

Bettina Du has a pretty set of handbags with black top stitching and dainty leather bows, finished off with a sterling silver clasp. Perfect for day or evening- $300/East 61st Street Christian Dior has a purse fit for Dallas-the “saddle | bag”-to go with all of fall’s new looks. Shown here are the double-breasted denim Christian Dior logo saddle bag, $1,020, and the tie-dye saddle bag, which will complement the “to dye for” tie-dye this season, $820. Available at the Christian Dior Boutique and Saks Fifth Ave.

CHEERLEADERS

HIT THE BOOKS



KELLI FINGLASS is the director of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and has been representing the team since 1984, either as a cheerleader or director. She recently read Map of the World by Jane Hamilton. “I grabbed it on the way to Puerto Vallarta for the Cheerleaders’ 2001 calendar shoot. By the time we landed, my face was swollen from crying so hard.”

ANGIE MICHELL just finished The Greatest feneration by Tom Brokaw. “My grandfather is a veteran of World War II. This is a fascinating read for Americans of all ages. It makes you proud to be an American.”



CINDI BURCK-ALSOBROOK, a member of the Show Group and a mainframe systems specialist for a major telecommunications corporation, is reading Front Row At The White House by Helen Thomas. “If you enjoy politics, straight shooting, and strong women, read this memoir.”

Julie moulas is a Show Group member and counts among her heroes her sister and Princess Diana. Julie is reading Then Came Heaven by LaVyrie Spencer, a love story between a widower with two girls and a nun. “If you’re looking for an interesting book with feeling and purpose, you should pick this one up!”

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