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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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L’etat, c’est moi
“There is no law, no law, against me smoking in here,” Tarrant County Commissioner J. D. Johnson bellowed to Static as he ground out a Marlboro he’d smoked down to the filter during a bail bond board hearing in commissioners’ court last week. Funny thing, county workers who were braving some high winds on the sidewalks outside the administration building in order to grab their daily hit of nicotine thought otherwise. “We can’t smoke inside,” one said. “Against the law. Commissioners banned smoking years ago.” And it says so right there on the posters plastered all around the building. Fine: $500. Maybe old J.D. didn’t vote the day that one passed.
Regardless, Static caught him in the act, crouching down to take his surreptitious puffs during an open meeting — but still in front of a bunch of judges and the keeper of the county jail keys, none of whom batted an eye. But hey, old J.D. is special around here. Kinda like Leona Helmsley, he probably thinks laws were made to be obeyed by the “little people,” not by those who actually make the laws, like, oh say, him.
Hail and farewell
Get out the smiles-and-frowns masks. Big frown: Senior editor Christy Goldfinch is leaving the Weekly, the better to contemplate the joys of freelancing and complete her defining creative oeuvre — the re-do of a daringly retro ranch-style abode in east Fort Worth, soon, surely, to grace the cover of Architecture magazine. And speaking of that slick mag, Christy’s place has been taken by Architecture’s erstwhile assistant editor, the decidedly slick Anthony (“Don’t call me Tony”) Mariani. Static is ecstatic that Anthony — also former music editor of the alt-weekly Houston Press — is here and that Christy will continue to count the Weekly among her freelance clients.
Frown: Dave Mann, chronicler in these pages of various disasters ecological and bureaucratic, is also heading for the wilds of Freelancia. He, too, will continue to scribble in our direction from time to time. Second smile: Dan Malone, owner of a Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting, will be putting his native-Texan boots up on Dave’s old desk beginning April 22. That makes two Pulitzer-ians at the Weekly, since editor Gayle Reaves also owns a share in one.
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