My Photo

  • I'm a writer, journalist, and the editor of The Gambit, the alt-weekly newspaper in New Orleans.

    Journalism: My work has appeared in The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Globe & Mail (Canada), The Times- Picayune (New Orleans), The Oregonian, and Willamette Week, as well as in magazines including Details, Vogue, Publishers Weekly, and Portland Monthly.

    Publishing: Tight Shot, my first novel, was nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America. Its sequel, Hot Shot, was roundly ignored by everyone, but was a far better book. I'm also a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

    Stage: I was a member of the Groundlings and Circle Repertory West in Los Angeles, and am a playwright (see "Stage" in the right-hand rail).

CONTACT

  • View Kevin Allman's profile on LinkedIn

« The Portland tram and "blipsters" in the New York Times | Main | "I Committed Adultery in a Diabetic Coma" »

January 30, 2007

Slow day in Dallas

You kinda expect stories like this from the Mayberry Gazette, but the Fort Worth Star-Telegram?

4 towels, ashtray taken from Motel 6

...A police report states that a 28-year-old Watauga man who had been registered to the room from which the items were stolen was questioned by police officers in the motel's parking lot.

Patrol officers interviewed the man after noticing that he had been sitting in his vehicle in the parking lot for a long time.

In his vehicle were the missing towels and ashtray, reports state.

Worth noting:

A police report did not have the dollar loss in the theft.

And best of all... the Star-Telegram actually printed a map of the crime scene:

3874431364

02:38 AM in Funny, Journalism |

|

Comments

retreadranger

Hee... it's the map that really puts the frosting on this particular cake.

Think I'll call up my friends at the Ashland Daily Press; maybe some snazzy graphics would liven up the gas station drive-offs in the Police Blotter box.

Posted by: retreadranger | January 30, 2007 at 02:40 PM

retreadranger

You scooped Romenesko- he's got this story heading the Obscure Store today.

Posted by: retreadranger | January 31, 2007 at 12:26 PM

Kevin

Dang! And no linkback! Where's the love, Jim?

Posted by: Kevin | February 01, 2007 at 12:27 AM

Bev

I lived in a Motel Six in Merced, California, for four months, so I can imagine the motel manager reporting this big heist. In our unit the lamps were all bolted to the tables and there were no towels or ashtrays.

Posted by: Bev | February 01, 2007 at 09:47 AM

nancy

This is too frigging good. Ha!

Posted by: nancy | February 22, 2007 at 10:03 PM

The comments to this entry are closed.

RECENT ARTICLES

BOOKS


  • Booklist:
    "A worthy successor to Tight Shot, Allman's insider view of the seamier side of Hollywood is not only hip and entertaining but also has something serious to say about our insatiable hunger for tabloid thrills."

    Washington Post:
    "Barbed, breezy and often pretty funny...sharp and entertaining. Allman can be very funny, and Hot Shot complements nicely the less forgiving takes on Los Angeles as the future of us all. "

    ----------


  • EDGAR AWARD NOMINEE
    BEST FIRST NOVEL
    MYSTERY WRITERS OF AMERICA

    Booklist:
    "Allman turns a very sardonic pen loose on Hollywood's glitz-and-glamour crowd in this entertaining first novel... An impressive debut and an almost sure thing for a sequel."

    New Orleans Times-Picayune:
    "Allman clearly knows those of whom he writes. He's got L.A. nailed."

    Publishers Weekly:
    "Snappy debut... Readers will look for a sequel."

STAGE

  • BOO AND THE SHREVEPORT BABY
    A French Quarter convenience-store clerk has a hilariously traumatic encounter with a pair of Shreveport tourists. Part of Native Tongues 3 (Le Chat Noir, New Orleans; 2001; Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago; 2006).
  • BACKBONES
    An upper-class black caterer finds comeuppance and redemption. Part of Native Tongues 4 (Le Chat Noir, New Orleans; 2005).
  • MY-O-MY
    A recreation of an evening at the notorious New Orleans 1950s female-impersonator nightclub My-O-My (Le Chat Noir, New Orleans; 2005).
  • THE LOVE GIFT
    A lonely man discovers purpose when he intercepts a televangelist's letters from his neighbor's mailbox. Part of the Dramarama New Plays Festival (Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans; 2004).
  • BABYDADDY
    A black father discovers that no good deed goes unpunished when he helps his white neighbor bail her son out of Orleans Parish Prison. (Le Chat Noir, New Orleans; 2004; Walker Percy Southern Playwrights Festival, Covington; 2007).
  • TWO IN THE BUSH
    An evening of comedies. In The Stud Mule, the world's richest woman arranges to be impregnated by a doltish escort; in Snatching Victory, an earnest college student runs afoul of her lecherous professor and the dour head of a women's-studies department (Le Chat Noir, New Orleans; 2003).

NEW ORLEANS READING

  • Patty Friedmann: <i>A Little Bit Ruined</i>

    Patty Friedmann: A Little Bit Ruined
    One of the first post-Katrina novels, and probably destined to be one of the best. Friedmann's sequel to Eleanor Rushing finds her crazy heroine still holding everything together after the storm (after a fashion), until she has to leave New Orleans and she falls apart physically as well as mentally. Mordantly, morbidly funny.

  • Tom Piazza: <i>Why New Orleans Matters</i>

    Tom Piazza: Why New Orleans Matters
    The best post-Katrina book I've read. In 150 small pages, Piazza explicates the New Orleans experience simply and beautifully. I'll be passing this one on to anyone who wonders "But why would anyone want to live there?".

Archives

More...

Categories

SUBSCRIBE

  • Add to Technorati Favorites
  • Add to Google
  • BlogBurst.com
  • View Kevin Allman's profile on LinkedIn
Blog powered by Typepad