Pulse of the City

Dr. Phil McGraw, you’ve hurt our feelings. Maybe that’s too touchy-feely for you. So, like you advise the millions who watch you on Oprah in your don’t-sugarcoat-it, tell-it-like-it-is style, we’ll cut to the chase: Dr. Phil, you’re rude and inconsiderate.

Over the past year, four writers at this magazine have been trying to reach you for four different stories, one of which was about your favorite subject: you. But you, the great communicator that you are, haven’t called us back, haven’t returned e-mails, haven’t shown an iota of caring about your hometown.

All we wanted was to report on another Dallas boy done good. We’re happy for your continued success mending relationships every Tuesday on Oprah. We can’t wait for your own show to start syndication next fall. Many of our friends have changed their lives and relationships after reading your two books, Life Strategies and Relationship Rescue, and everyone eagerly awaits each of the four books you signed a deal with Simon & Schuster to write. Almost as eagerly as we wait to hear from you.

When a publication from the city you live in calls your office to arrange something with you, your people follow up their initial excitement and willingness with a whole bunch of nothing. Your people are nice and enthusiastic and they actually sound like they want to make things work, but calls three, four, five, and 15 go unreturned.

Perhaps it’s our fault. Like you say in Life Lesson number eight: “Own, rather than complain about how people treat us.” But when you treat us like something you step in, it’s harder to take than a handful of anti-depressants.

Here’s a lesson we’ve learned on our own: drastic situations require drastic measures. And for us there’s nothing as drastic as a blank screen on deadline. To put it bluntly, we’re dealing with it. We’re releasing our dysfunctional inner child and you from our magazine.

We’re not complaining. We’re just telling it like it is.

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Top 10 Churches
Transplants and Hispanics have fueled Catholic growth in a city once known as the buckle of the Bible Belt.

1 Potter’s House
 Dallas
 22,000 members

2 St. Mark’s Catholic Church 
 Plano
 19,652

3 Prestonwood Baptist
 Plano
 19,000

4 St. Ann Catholic Church 
 Coppell
 15,000

5 Cathedral Santuario de Guadalupe
 Dallas
 11,000

6 St. Monica Catholic Church
 Dallas
 10,000

7 First Baptist Church of Dallas
 10,000

8 All Saints Catholic Church
 Dallas
 9,000

9 St. Luke’s Catholic Church
 Irving
 9,000

10 Park Cities Baptist Church
 Dallas
 8,504

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QUOTABLE
I’m shocked. I’ve only seen this on WWF.
—DISD Trustee Rafael Anchia, after Jesse Diaz, upset with proposed redistricting, knocked down a lectern.

…Each sermon eventually reveals itself as perfectly calibrated and balanced, cohering into an often exquisite extended metaphor.
—David Van Biema in a cover story about Dallas preacher T.D. Jakes, part three of Time magazine’s America’s Best series.

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TURKEY STATS

5,100
Pounds of turkey sold at Eatzi’s during last year’s Thanksgiving Holiday
250
Gallons of gravy
134
Gallons of cranberry sauce
17.75
Pounds of turkey consumed per person in 2000 (National Turkey Federation)
267
Estimated number (in millions) of turkeys raised in 2001 (NTF)

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Art Advisor
Dallas artist is a tastemaker for the nation.

For the last hundred years, designs for public monuments, buildings, art, and coins in Washington, D.C., and abroad have been given the thumbs up—or down—by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, a seven-person panel of (usually) East Coast art mavens who know what “good” art looks like.

For the next four years, the newly “Honorable” Pamela Nelson, a Dallas artist and director of the Stewpot’s art program for the homeless, will be adding her Texas two cents to the decision. A Bush appointee, of course, Nelson is the only member of the panel not from the East Coast and she is the only working artist. One of the Commission’s first projects will be to review Frank Gehry’s proposed addition to the Corcoran Museum. Nelson’s first project was to explain that art in Texas does not begin and end with DeMenil. Locally, The MAC is presenting Nelson’s one-woman show, “Eternity: 24/8,” in November.

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Pros & Coms
Some Dallas-based web sites still have an online presence—and success.

Not all Dallas dot.coms have gone the way of the dodo. Sure, online grocer WebVan.com failed to deliver and the credits have rolled on ReservedMovieSeats.com. But a choice group of Dallas entrepreneurs have proved they know how to keep their web sites up and running—and successful.

HotelDiscount.com
With nearly 3 million customers, this Dallas-based dot.com offers discounts at more than 3,000 top-notch hotels in approximately 140 major markets across the globe. By the end of this year, the company expects to tuck in more than 4 million users. A veteran of the info era with nearly a decade of experience, HotelDiscount.com has enjoyed a market cap of more than $2 billion dollars as of August 2001.

Gourmet on the Go.com
It’s the busy Dallasite’s dilemma—hungry for good food when there’s no room for free time. Enter GourmetontheGo.com, a dot.com bent on bringing pre-packaged meals to you at your beckon call (usually within three business days). Users order online from an extensive menu of beef, pork, poultry, and vegetable entrées.

Match.com
Singles lamenting about, well, singlehood have taken to Match.com with a force stronger than a teen’s hormones. This Plano-based dot.com has played cupid since April 1995 and boasts a fairy tale success story of approximately 1,200 marriages and “hundreds of thousands of relationships.” Members who’ve paid their dues use online templates to create and advertise personal profiles in hopes of finding their ideal (or close enough) mate.

YourImporter.com
Buyers and sellers meet in cyberspace to peddle excess inventory of household goods, general merchandise, office products, electronics, apparel and accessories, and more. YourImporter.com claims to be the “global online leader in opportunistic outsourcing,” and boasts relationships with approximately six of the top buyers in the United States—in addition to its alliances with 11,000 buyers and more than 200,000 suppliers globally.  

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Society Scorecard
Local celebrities compete head to head for local celebrity.

It’s the job of Dallas Morning News society columnist Alan Peppard to document who was where and why they matter, but it’s our job to keep track of which bold-face names he mentions the most. Here are the tallies from over the course of 96 columns, from the beginning of the year through the end of September. Congrats to the winners. To the losers, there’s always next year.

WINNERS
Jerry Jones (9)
Angie Harmon (4)
The Mansion (20)
Mike Modano (7)
Don Henley (6)
Dean Fearing (5)
Phil Romano (6)
Howard Rachofsky (5)
NorthPark (7)
Elizabeth Hurley (15)

LOSERS
Tom Hicks (7)
Janine Turner (2)
Al Biernat’s (10)
Troy Aikman (2)
Jessica Simpson (1)
Stephan Pyles (3)
Gene Street (6)
Ray Nasher (4)
Galleria (1)
Gwyneth Paltrow (5)

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The List
Buzz Crutcher
John Tillotson
Steve Bock
John Clark
Reuben Martinez
Peggy Galvin
Norm Brinker
Cynthia Beaird
David Childs
Howard Fitch
Ginny Sillers
Leslie Ermel
Gail Nogle
Kelly Haden
Scott Murray
Patty Haggar
Frank Miller
Bill Lively
Camille Crapeton
Bill Duval
Kathleen Gibson
David Biegler
David Brennan
Bill Marvel
Huntley Paton
Jamie Williams
Ted Enloe