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A Daily Conversation About Dallas
You know, this photo from developer Amreit does sort of make the Wells Fargo at Pearl and McKinney look like the nexus of Dallas nightlife.
You know, this photo from developer Amreit does sort of make the Wells Fargo at Pearl and McKinney look like the nexus of Dallas nightlife.

[Editor’s note: Wylie H. Dallas is a frequent commenter on this and other notable blogs in Dallas. We’ve been so impressed by his/her contributions to the public conversation that we gave him/her a Best of Big D award this year and have invited him/her to become a regular contributor to FrontBurner. We’re delighted that he/she has accepted the opportunity and look forward to sharing his/her perspective in this space. No, we still don’t know who he/she/them is in the real world, so keep that in mind as you read this and future efforts.]

Saturday night, after dropping a friend at her swanky Main Street pad, I decided to head over to Highland Park Village for a bit of merry-making. This would require cash. Luckily, a strip shopping center with plenty of free parking (and, most importantly, an ATM) was right on the way, located at the corner of Pearl and McKinney.

As I whipped in to the parking space in front of the bank, I observed three bewildered-looking, well-dressed middle-aged men standing in front. A rough transcript of our conversation follows.

Wylie H.:  “Hey guys, how’s it goin’?”

Three men at a bank:  “Fine.”

Wylie H.:  “What’s up?  Are you going to rob me?”

Three men at a bank (laughing):  “No, we’re from Miami!”

Wylie H.:  “And that is supposed to reassure me?”

Three men at a bank:  “Hahaha. Yeah. We’re here for a real estate convention. Staying at the An-uh-toll-ee. It’s out in the middle of nowhere!!!” (My trusty friend Mr. Google revealed them to be attending the “Five Star Conference”)

Wylie H.:  “Hmmm… right. So, what are you doing here?”

Three men at a bank:  “We asked where the action is, and they told us to go to McKinney Avenue. Our taxi driver dropped us here.”

Wylie H.:  “But what are you doing HERE, in front of the bank?”

Three men at a bank:  “We can’t figure out where to go. We tried walking down that way (points towards Sambuca), but we couldn’t find anything. So, now we’re back here. It’s tricky walking around; I tripped over a brick and almost fell down. (he demonstrates by balancing on one leg, leaning forward, and splaying his hands outwards).”

Wylie H.:  “Ah, got it. Well (pointing in the direction of the gas station and drive-through BBQ place) …. there’s a popular club in the hotel over there … Skews a bit on the young side through.”

(Three men at a bank stare confusedly at the gas station.)

Wylie H.:  “Look. See the woman in the skin-tight dress and high heels walking through the gas station.”

Three men at a bank (exchanging knowing glances between themselves):  “Yes….???”

Wylie H.:  “Well, that’s where she’s heading. But she may cost you. Be careful. Most of the nightlife on McKinney is farther up the street, but tends to be a younger crowd.”

Three men at a bank:  “Oh.”

Wylie H.:  “You might want to check out Avanti’s … that’s pretty nice, and more people your age. (Pausing.) Oh, never mind—I’ve got a better idea.”

Three men at a bank:  “Not Avanti’s?”

Wylie H.:  “No. It’s hard to get to, because the sidewalk between here and there is closed, so you have to cut back and forth across McKinney. (Gestures towards the Ritz). It’s hard to tell from the outside, but the bar at the Ritz will be very lively. You could check that out. Also (pointing at Sambuca), you could check that place out, they have live music.”

Three men at a bank:  “Hmmm….”

Wylie H.:  “The bar at the Ritz will have more ladies like the one that was walking through the gas station. (Pointing back towards the Ritz, again) You could also walk down here, take a right, then walk down to the corner and cross the street and check out Ocean Prime. Plus, there are another couple of places further on, but it’s kind of hard to explain how to find them. Maybe you could ask someone once you get closer?”

Three men at a bank: “Hmmm….”

Wylie H. (shaking hands):  “Well, I hope you have fun! See ya’ later!”

Three men at a bank:  “Thanks!”

As I pull away, I observe the three men still standing in front of the bank and start feeling somewhat glum, wondering what the hell people from other cities think when they are confronted with the bewildering, un-walkable mess that passes for our nightlife district. After a brief second, however, I recall that right before meeting the three men at a bank, I had been startled on Routh Street by a “gang” of 15 people on unicycles, riding into One Arts Plaza for reasons I can’t begin to fathom. And I suddenly felt more optimistic about Dallas’ future.

Follow the unicyclists; they’ll lead us to a better world.

We reveal to you the last group of bachelors. The five gents need you to give them a click of approval to advance to the final round. Up this week: Leandre Johns, your local Uber GM; Ben Patton, serial entrepreneur and former reality TV star; Ernest Rodriguez, a mixed martial artist and auto care company CEO; Chris Kimbrough, director of stores for a luxury jewelry designer; and David Coté, a musician and music instructor. Vote for three every day through Sunday. Check back Wednesday, when we’ll show you the semifinalists for one last round of voting.

Local News

Leading Off (9/15/2014)

Liz Johnstone
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Dallas Cowboys Are Winners. I enjoy the fact that because these games are on Sundays, I have become your de facto announcer of sports information that you are probably already aware of, unless you live under a rock. Anyway, they overcame the misery of last week’s season opening loss to beat the Tennessee Titans, 26-10. All is right in the world, except for these next few news items.

Man Falls From AT&T Stadium Stands. This happened at the UCLA vs. UT game on Saturday. The man is in critical condition after falling 12-15 feet from the 100 section to the floor level suites.

Body Pulled From West Dallas Pond. Jerry Sanchez, 42, was reported missing on Friday. He has been identified as the man divers found in a pond off Canada Drive on Saturday. Cause of death is still undetermined.

Full Report On Fired Dallas ISD Investigator Released. Jeremy Liebbe was the head of the district’s Professional Standards Office. A couple months ago, he was placed on leave, allegedly without being told a reason, but he had done some digging into his boss’ background (she had a criminal conviction that she hadn’t reported on her job application) and there were questions regarding the installation of surveillance cameras. He was fired on September 5, and the district released statement saying that they had found ““multiple instances of poor behavior and decision-making, and violations of law and the Texas Education Code.” Now, Liebbe’s lawyer provided the Dallas Morning News with a copy of the 17-page report compiled by an outside attorney, along with a rebuttal to the findings.

Civics

North Texas Gets TIGER Grant to Study Schools, Transportation

Bradford Pearson
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The feds announced their annual divvying up of TIGER grants today, and North Texas once again finds itself in the mix, albeit for one of the smallest amounts granted.

The $210,00 grant will help “create a regional program and implementation plan to promote connections and coordination between transportation agencies, local governments, and schools.” The benefit, according to the U.S. DOT:

There are very high pedestrian and bicyclist accidents within a half mile radius of schools in the region. The project seeks not only to improve critical aspects of bicycle/pedestrian access to schools, but also will advance community health, environmental quality, and economic vitality as communities’ accessibility to schools and school-related activities is increased. The proposal will target an awareness-building campaign to communities found to be most vulnerable to bicycle/pedestrian crashes in the Dallas region.

Bicycles! Community safety! Education! What could be wrong with this?

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COME ON.

Update: Transpo guru Patrick Kennedy has some ideas for next year’s TIGER applications:

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Entertainment

Things To Do In Dallas This Weekend: Sept. 12—14

Chris Mosley
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A scene from a past DSO Gala. Credit: Jeanne Prejean.
A scene from a past DSO Gala. Credit: Jeanne Prejean.
As if the fall sports season wasn’t generating enough column space (of a rather undesirable variety, honestly), the fall arts season has definitely arrived. Festivals, galas, and launches of all varieties will descend upon Dallas this evening and it’s almost exhilarating to feel overwhelmed by having to choose just a few events every day. Our critics gave us a benign warning about how to sort some of this out earlier this month, and I encourage you to take their advice.

Friday 

Local music website Gorilla vs Bear has been the go-to resource for those looking for something a little adventurous yet largely accessible for nearly a decade now. That’s not just in Dallas, but as it’s been stated on multiple occasions, far beyond the area as well. Its influence is easily traceable to entertainment hubs like New York, Los Angeles, and Paris, and beyond. The site will host its fourth annual celebration at the Granada Theater this evening, and it’s an event that we’ve become so fond of over the years that it is designated as “Best Music Festival” in the 2014 “Best of Big D” issue. This year’s lineup includes Panda Bear, otherwise known as Noah Lennox, who has had a healthy symbiotic relationship with the site over the years. Although he is best known for his indispensable contributions to the extremely popular indie act, Animal Collective, he has enjoyed a very successful solo career as well. His last appearance at the Granada was a sellout, and this could very well be a repeat performance.

Uptown Players will also host a 4th annual celebration tonight, although one much larger in scope. The Pride Festival will begin an intense 9-day run of programming which will end with a special appearance by Dan Savage at the Kalita Humphreys later this month. The Last Session will kick things off tonight, and the Off Broadway production will be performed concert-style while touching on themes both deeply tragic and uplifting.

Saturday 

Earlier today, Peter Simek threw some ideas around regarding how to improve the dire state of bus transportation in Dallas. In it, he mentions designer Thomas Heatherwick and the way his revolutionary approach to design has transformed London’s revamped bus system. The work of Heatherwick’s studio will be showcased at the Nasher Sculpture Center on Saturday called Provocations. Heatherwick himself will give a talk for the center’s 360 lecture series, and that begins at 2 pm. A wine reception will follow the talk. Provocations, indeed.

None other than Itzhak Perlman will be on hand at this year’s DSO Gala, and the iconic violinist will be joined by our own Jaap van Zweden through a handful of essential pieces, including compositions by Bruch, Ravel, and Tchaikovsky, of course. The performance is at 8:45 pm, which is dangerously close to what could be considered “late evening.” Call a car.

Along with the Black Keys upcoming performance, I have to say that I’m a little surprised to see that Aziz Ansari is a big enough deal to perform at the AAC. It’s true. He’ll be breaking character tonight with his humorously chiding takes on his particularly engaged generation. Expect a lively audience, one that we hope won’t shout Ansari’s signature catchphrases into the abyss.

Sunday

Finally, the Isa Genzken retrospective will start a triumphant run at the DMA on Sunday. I use that presumptuous word only because I saw the same exhibit at Chicago’s MCA this past summer and it was one of the most incredible art events I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing in recent memory. At turns eyebrow-raising and simultaneously moving, Genzken uses a diverse arsenal of multimedia approaches to address the serious complexities of the past 40 years, from capitalism to 9-11, and the vast imagery provided therein. Will it be as memorable as the Chicago show? I’ll have to stop by in order to answer that, but I believe in you, Dallas. Sometimes.

For more things to do, go here.

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Take nine minutes to watch the above video. It is truly amazing. What you’ll see: DISD trustee Bernadette Nutall trying and failing to understand a math problem that my 8-year-old daughter could probably grasp. The district budgeted $1.9 million for a program last school year. It spent all but about $400,000. So it is going to roll that amount over to the next school year. The district’s CFO spends nearly 10 minutes trying to explain that concept to Nutall. Watching the video, I laughed out loud at several points. It’s almost like Nutall is trolling the CFO, just screwing around with him.

Bernadette Nutall
Bernadette Nutall
Eric didn’t think it was so funny. He spent a few minutes yelling into my ear about how this sort of foolishness happens at every board meeting and how it hurts the district because good, smart staffers simply can’t put up with this sort of thing very long before they throw up their hands and go get another job. He’ll have a much lengthier post over on LearningCurve about this. For now, just watch the video. Start at the 1:04:48 mark.

Business

Former Parkland CEO Ron Anderson, RIP

Jason Heid
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The longtime Parkland CEO died yesterday of cancer at age 68. Read much more on D Healthcare Daily. The hospital system’s release about the man who ran the place for almost 30 years is below:

A native of Chickasha, OK, Dr. Anderson was President and CEO of Parkland Health & Hospital System for 29 years, a job he assumed in 1982 at the age of 35 after serving for two years as Medical Director of Parkland’s Emergency Room and Outpatient Clinic and Head of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center’s Division of Internal Medicine. He retired in 2011. In his final years at Parkland he led the successful bond campaign that secured public financing for the new $1.3 billion Parkland hospital due to open in mid-2015.

On Sept. 10, the Parkland Board of Managers unanimously endorsed a plan led by Parkland Foundation to place a commemorative statue in the new hospital and to name Parkland’s new medical/surgical outpatient clinic after Dr. Anderson. In the 1980s, Dr. Anderson suggested setting up health clinics in Dallas’ poorest neighborhoods, convincing skeptical Board members and local officials of the need. Parkland now operates a dozen Community Oriented Primary Care clinics throughout the county, making primary and preventive health care more accessible.

“Dr. Anderson epitomized the ideal of the servant leader,” said Debbie D. Branson, Chair of Parkland’s Board of Managers. “His passionate dedication to improve health care for the poor and underserved inspired a generation of caregivers. He successfully advocated on the local, state and national levels to expand services and helped to ensure the viability of Parkland and all public safety-net hospitals in the U.S.”

Fred Cerise, MD, MPH, who succeeded Dr. Anderson as CEO of Parkland Health & Hospital System in March of this year, stated, “Standing in the shoes of Dr. Ron Anderson is a humbling experience. Dr. Anderson’s focus was always on the patient, and he used his talents tirelessly to advance medical care and expand access for the indigent. The people of Dallas County and indeed, the entire nation, benefited from his vision and innovations.”

To his colleagues and friends, Dr. Anderson was not only an outstanding doctor and administrator, but a man of the highest integrity and honor.

“I don’t know of anyone for whom I have greater respect than Ron Anderson,” said the late Charles C. Sprague, MD, who was president of UT Southwestern when Dr. Anderson was appointed to the top Parkland post. “He epitomized what a professional and committed citizen can do for his community and country. Our community is tremendously indebted to him.”

In the mid-1980s Dr. Anderson was thrust into the national spotlight when he spoke out against “patient dumping” — the practice of transferring medically unstable patients from private to public hospitals because of the patients’ inability to pay. Dr. Anderson’s championship of the cause led to the passage of landmark legislation concerning indigent care in Texas, and to passage of federal legislation in 1986 banning the practice.

Throughout his life he advocated for making health care a right for everyone, universally available to every U.S. citizen.

His vision of health care for all, regardless of ability to pay, paved the way for Parkland’s Community Oriented Primary Care (COPC), a network of neighborhood-based health centers that provide a “medical home” to primarily low-income communities.

Health care administrators and physicians came from as far away as Thailand to study Parkland’s system of health centers. The system became a national model for other communities across the country and won numerous awards for its ability to involve the community in clinic activities.

Under his guidance, the system grew to include 12 local health care clinics, 12 school-based clinics and the Homeless Outreach Medical Services that provides medical care in more than 20 homeless shelters around Dallas County.

In the mid-1990s he was once again thrust into the role of a national spokesperson because of his concern for the confidentiality of the physician-patient relationship when welfare reform measures threatened to require physicians and other health care providers to report undocumented immigrants to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

He received his medical degree from the University of Oklahoma and his pharmacology degree from Southwestern Oklahoma State University, where he was named a Distinguished Alumnus in 1987. He said he found his niche at Parkland, where he could teach, do research and take care of patients under mentors like W. Donald Seldin, MD, who built UT Southwestern’s internal medicine department and, Dr. Anderson said, helped bring Parkland to world-class status.

When Dr. Anderson was approached by Parkland board chairman Ralph Rogers in 1982 to assume the chief administrator’s position, he initially refused the offer. He recalled that Rogers, a respected community leader who rarely took “no” for an answer, persuaded him to accept the job by convincing Dr. Anderson that rather than take care of one person, he could take care of hundreds of people a day, and influence the health care of hundreds of thousands of others every year as CEO of Parkland.

Dr. Anderson promised Rogers five years. His tenure extended far beyond that.

During his years at Parkland, Dr. Anderson was courted by other hospitals and institutions across the country, but he never lost his zeal for the Dallas hospital. He often said that people at Parkland, himself included, had a missionary mentality and a passion for their work that transcended the lure of other institutions.

“Work at Parkland isn’t a job,” he said. “It is what you do — who you are. It is your life. There are very few places where you can get that.”

Dr. Anderson’s zest for life extended beyond the walls of the hospital. He was an avid reader, devouring everything from current medical literature and popular fiction and nonfiction to ancient classics. He was a writer, as well, and authored hundreds of medical and scholarly articles, monoliths and other essays.

His Oklahoma upbringing gave him a love and appreciation of American Indian culture — and the Indian name of Medicine Bear, a name he said was not associated with his profession. He was an avid hiker who often included Indian reservations and ancient Indian relics as part of his walking vacations. His interest in Indian lore became almost an obsession, judging by the walls of his office, which were covered in Indian artifacts and relics.

He was a devout Baptist who disliked religious labels but who believed in living the life of an involved activist. “All of the people I have admired are people who are activists,” he said. “Here (at Parkland) you can take care of the least of our brethren.”

Dr. Anderson once told a UT Southwestern graduating class, “It is not enough just to try ‘to do good’ and try ‘to avoid evil,’ although these are the ethical keystones of the physician/patient relationship. We cannot be paternalistic toward patients and must accept their cultural, religious, ethnic and social differences. We must respect our patients’ autonomy and desire for wholeness, which should stimulate us to address the social justice issues affecting our patients’ lives.”

Throughout his life, Dr. Ron Anderson fought long and hard for that reform.

Yesterday Unfair Park told us that DART has some competition from another transit organization that may be cannibalizing its main source of income, namely, the self-defeating strategy that forces DART to continually gobble up further flung municipalities into its system so it can increase the sales tax dollars coming into its coffers — all the while promising service that is increasingly spread thin.

As I have argued before (here and here), DART’s problem is that it lacks a centralized network that can get people in and around the city efficiently and practically, connecting people to jobs, entertainment, shops, etc. And I think the best way create such a system quickly and cheaply (relatively) is to rethink DARTs miserable bus system. Step one should be to force all DART board members to ride the bus every day for a month so they realize how miserable the bus service they provide actually is.

Step two is a new idea inspired by an exhibition that is about to open at the Nasher Sculpture Center. British designer Thomas Heatherwick has been called a 21st century Leonardo Da Vinci, and his projects — which blend architecture and sculpture with a penchant for innovative materials, novel technology, and outlandish solutions to seemingly simple design challenges — range from the cauldron at the London Olympics to the Seed Cathedral. He also designed the first new double-decker bus in London in over 50 years.

Ah, the double-decker bus. Now there’s a form of transit that, whenever you’re in London, you kind of have to ride on just because it’s London and they have big red double-decker buses. What’s great about the double-decker bus, though, is that it’s not a tourist attraction. It’s an actual, viable way of getting around London. So that’s my idea: in addition to redesigning routes and investing increased bus frequency, better route demarcations, timed stop lights, and bus stations that look more like streetcar stops, DART should get this city’s always-willing-to-drop-a-buck-on-a-big-name art patrons to commission a — oh, goodness, I’m going to say it — “world class” designer to create a new bus for Dallas. We don’t need a lot of them, just a few for the central part of downtown. And I’m not saying we need double-decker buses. Goodness, Dallas introducing double-decker buses: that’s exactly the kind of embarrassing publicity ploy Dallas might actually do. I’m just saying get someone smart like Heatherwick to design something appropriate for Dallas.

Yes, I know “world  class.” Listen, I’m just trying to think how this city thinks — throw money at things, make it an attraction, make a down payment on a little cultural prestige. You may find it crass. I see it as a way of getting people to care about public transit, a backdoor to an actual, usable bus network.

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Despite trying to rebrand itself as The Shack and hiring a bunch of has-beens to be in its ads and whatever else, the formerly useful electronics store now says it can’t stay afloat “beyond the very near term.” (As of August 2, it had $30.5 million in cash, or $6,800 for each of its 4,485 stores.) Yeesh. If it goes under, I don’t know where I’m going to get my, uh, hmm, my, let’s see here, my, um, uh — yeah.

Crime

Leading Off (9/12/14)

Jason Heid
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Planners Back Off Tolling Central. The Regional Transportation Council met Thursday, and its members indicated they’re not moving forward with plans to toll some lanes of U.S. Highway 75. Of course, the move comes only after the Texas Transportation Commission, which is in charge of state-owned highways, said it wouldn’t support tolling. And the RTC didn’t actually take any action Thursday and could still move to toll other highways as a funding mechanism to increase traffic capacity throughout North Texas.

Lawsuit Against Jerry Jones May Be Too Late. The statute of limitations on civil claims of sexual assault is five years. The incident at the center of Jana Weckerly’s suit against the Dallas Cowboys owner, which was filed this week, took place five years and 10 weeks ago. But legal experts say Weckerly’s attorneys could argue that she was of unsound mind for more than 10 weeks of that period, or that Jones was out of the state on business for longer than 10 weeks since the alleged crime occurred. Either finding would make it possible for a judge to decide that the case can proceed.

Mineral Wells is Thirsty. The home of Crazy Water is looking for new water sources, as its primary reservoir (Lake Palo Pinto) has dropped from 28 feet to 14 feet in the last six months. If drought conditions don’t improve, the town could run dry by May of next year.

In our September issue, I wrote a little ditty on Merritt’s Tierce’s first novel, Love Me Back (Doubleday), which comes out Tuesday. You should pre-order it right here. As I said in our pages, “it is a beautifully bleak, sex- and drug-filled story.” Yes, I just quoted myself. Writing for Texas Monthly, Michael Ennis said, “[T]his first novel could well emerge as a milestone in Texas literature.” Seriously. It’s a great book. Tierce is a protégé of Ben Fountain’s. I’m not saying this book is going to do what Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk did. But this book belongs on the same shelf. In fact, these two books can be read as companion pieces that explore some of the same themes — alienation, excess, money — in two very Dallas settings, a Cowboys game and a steakhouse.

Anyway, the book’s narrator is a sexually adventuresome (and deeply damaged) waitress named Marie. Much of her story takes place in a steak joint she calls The Restaurant. The book is autobiographical, though, and Tierce worked for years at Nick & Sam’s. So while The Restaurant isn’t exactly Nick & Sam’s, it’s pretty much Nick & Sam’s. Folks who know the score will recognize real-life Dallas characters in the book.

For the magazine piece, I just had Tierce tell funny stories about celebrities she has waited on. (She was really high on coke when she waited on George Clooney.) There was a whole bunch of stuff, though, that Tierce and I talked about that I didn’t have space for. Like, you know, what’s Joe Palladino going to think about this book and all the screwing and snorting it suggests goes down in his restaurant? Here’s a transcript of the material that didn’t make it into the magazine:

I have to tell you that this book hurts my heart.

Oh, good! Good, I love hearing that.

I mean that as a compliment. I’m really having a hard time — I keep having to remind myself that you’re not that character. I think that’s part of my problem, because I know you. Not well, but we’ve met. And I keep having to tell myself, “This is not Merritt. You are not reading about Merritt.”

Photo by Jeremy Sharp

[laughs] Good luck with that.

Assure me that that character has almost no relationship to you. Even though you were both waiters, it ends there. I hope.

Is that what you want to hear, Tim?

I think so. I don’t know. I guess I want to know the truth, but I’m not sure I can handle it.

The book draws heavily on my own experience, for sure. It was written as fiction specifically so I could have some distance. I mean, it wasn’t intentional, but I never thought about writing a memoir. I was always trying to tell a story. And not all of it is true. I did invent some shit. But, you know, a lot of it comes from personal experience.

Your husband has read it, I assume?

[chuckles] He actually has not read it. I mean, he’s probably read three-fourths of it as stories. But the stories he hasn’t read are some of the heavy hitters towards the end of the book. He’s a big video-games nerd, and after he’d read a couple, I gave him another one, and he said, “Man, every time I read another one of these, I feel like I’ve leveled up.” So yeah. You get, like, grandmaster by the end.

You know what? I’ve found that I can’t read the book in public. I was waiting for a ride outside our building yesterday, and I was reading it. And, uh, I don’t want to share more details than I ought to with you. But there are just some sections that are hard to read in public. [laughs nervously]

Yeah, yeah. You’re blushing. You want to make sure you have your clothes on. Yeah.

It filled with me all sorts of conflicting emotions. This is sad but this is also sexy.

Good.

Talk to me a little bit about how you wrote the book. Because, as I understand it, you didn’t just sit down and go, “I know this is my story, the arc from beginning to end.” You did it piecemeal, right?

Yeah. I never set out to write a novel. I’ve always been too intimidated by the thought of it, actually. You mention the word “arc.” I’ve actually been criticized — I guess some people consider it criticism — but some people will say the book doesn’t really have an arc. There’s no change. There’s no epiphany. There’s no transformation. It’s not like she really gets from here to there, in the traditional sense. I did write it as stories, without a book in mind. The first story I ever wrote and published was called “Suck It,” and that story kind of anchors the book in the middle. I just kept writing, and I kept writing stories set in a restaurant that featured some of the same characters. After I’d written about six of those, that was about the time I got an agent and things started happening.

So you sold it based on six interrelated stories you’d written?

Yeah. Actually, I think I had eight by then. My agent wisely put it out in the world without saying it was a story collection or a novel. She just said it was a debut or a book. And we sold it as a novel. I wrote the interstitial pieces after we sold it. When I go back now, those are some of my favorite parts. So I’m actually glad I was pushed to make it into a more cohesive book.

Let’s address the Nick & Sam’s issue, because you told me in email that this is not a tell-all, behind-the-scenes look at Nick & Sam’s. Marie, for example, says she works at Chili’s and the Olive Garden. But then, when she gets to the steakhouse, she calls it The Restaurant. So why didn’t you use the name in the book?

Because Chili’s and the Olive Garden are chains, and they’re pretty much the same anywhere you go, and I didn’t feel like that had as much significance as Nick & Sam’s, which there’s only one. I also didn’t want anyone to think that this culture that’s described is specific to Nick & Sam’s. As I was writing the stories that are set at the steakhouse, I gave the restaurant several different aliases, none of which I liked. Eventually I just called it The Restaurant, which I felt the best about because it was an obvious indicator that you shouldn’t think about it as any particular place. But, I don’t know. I have no idea what the management — I’m mainly concerned about Joe Palladino and Phil Romano. It’s not like they sit around reading debut literary fiction.

[laughing] You don’t know that.

Yes, yeah. You should never underestimate the powerful. It’s possible they might not read the book even if they hear about it. I have no idea how they would respond to it. So I don’t want to rub it in anyone’s face by calling it Nick & Sam’s and forcing anyone who is associated with Nick & Sam’s to answer for it. Also, that place was insane, and I am often surprised that I survived, but it helped me — maybe I had to sell my soul, but it got me through seven years of my life and let me put clothes on my kids and feed them. And I love to death some of the people who work there.

Why do you say sell your soul? It would be one thing if you were writing ads for cigarette companies. But why do you look at waiting tables there as having sold your soul?

Anytime you are in a position where you feel you are forced to choose between a certain kind of performance that will let you maintain whatever stability you’ve grabbed onto in your life, as opposed to responding to events in a more authentic way or a way that is more true to your actual feelings and who you are — I feel like that is a real compromise. And I did that over and over, almost every night.

But life is a series of performances, to one degree or another, you know? All you were doing was bringing expensive food to people who could afford to eat it. I get what you’re saying, but to me it just seems like you’re being a little hard on yourself if you say that what you did involved selling your soul. I mean, it wasn’t evil what you were doing.

No, you’re right. It was pretty banal. It was just bringing expensive food to expensive people. But, um, at that level of service there’s a whole — you have to suppress all kinds of things that make you human in order to pretend like the person you’re waiting on is so important. The implication is that they are much more important in life than you are. And you’re there to perform that, specifically. It doesn’t have a whole lot to do with the food.

Yeah, I get that. I still say you’re being too hard on yourself.

Part of it that I haven’t really talked about yet has to do with explicitly being a woman in that culture and having to act like I don’t notice the blatant misogyny and the, like, sexual harassment and all of it that’s just rampant and letting people touch me while they’re talking to me — all these things that, if I weren’t wearing that uniform and standing in that place, I would probably have a very different reaction to.

Are there things that you miss about it?

Yeah, there are. I mean, I miss the people mainly. I say this in the book, but anytime you are thrown into a really intense scenario with a bunch people, you inevitably bond deeply with some of them and become mortal enemies with some of them, too. I mean, it is just serving meat, so obviously it’s nothing like being in the military. But you have a mission, and you’re all doing it together, and some of you are great at it, and some of you suck. That’s a soup for all kinds of interesting things to happen. And at the end of it, you feel really spent, and you need to go somewhere with those people and, like, download it. I miss that. I’m never really challenged like that now. Physically, I’m never exhausted the way I was for years. I didn’t even realize it, but I was running on fumes for so long. There’s something really nice about it, about wearing yourself out. I was always hungry, too. Which now I’m never hungry. There’s nothing preventing me from eating now, when I’m hungry. When I was working at the restaurant, I was never able to eat when it was time to eat. Food tastes so good when you’re hungry.

I waited tables in college. I still have waiter nightmares where I’m in the weeds and I’ve completely forgotten to put in my entire section’s orders, and everybody is pissed off. Do you have those?

Yeah, I do. I’ve heard those never end. The nightmarish part for me is that I can never get back to my table. You know in dreams when you’re trying to run and you just can’t? I keep trying to get back to them, but I can’t, and at some point it’s like “I’m fucked now. Even when I get back there, they’re going to be so mad.” That was the feeling that was the worst for me when I was waiting tables. Like, some people care most about what the management thinks because they control whether or not you have a job, more or less. So they’ll do what they can to stay in good with the management. And some people care most about what the guests think, so that’s what they’ll prioritize. And you would think the management would want you to prioritize that. But the way a restaurant at that price point makes money is by doing a lot of volume, and you can’t do a lot of volume without making everybody do a ton of shit really fast. A lot of times, I would not run food as much as other people because I was trying to make sure my table was happy. Yeah, so, I still have nightmares about that.

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