Buzzworthy

This is what happens when you remove a clock in Lakewood

It was like any other morning in the neighborhood. Until workers took down the historic clock that has adorned the Dixie House façade in the Lakewood Shopping Center for decades. Then came digital chaos.

The comments sections exploded with readers speaking out against the move, made by the center’s owner, Lincoln Property Co.

“Is there anything we can do to save our quaint neighborhood and all of its history? Watch out Lakewood Theater!”

—Barbara via Advocate Daily Digest

“Oh, great it will look just like every other shopping center in North Dallas.”

—Jennifer Jordy Woods via Facebook

“Lincoln is the enemy of everything good and decent about the neighborhood.”

—Lee Gibson via Advocate Daily Digest

“Why? Does Lincoln have a reason? I can’t imagine what it would be — just curious if they have something against history. Or timekeeping.”

—Karen Yates Muncy via Facebook

The next day, after outraged readers emailed Lincoln and stormed one of its Facebook pages, the company released a statement saying the clock is safe.

“We’ve spoken with our commercial division regarding the issue and have learned that the clock will NOT be removed and that it is currently being repaired! Great news for the community and residents of Lakewood!”

—Sheri Sandefur of Lincoln Property Co.

Whether this was the plan all along, we don’t know. Calls to Lincoln have not been returned.

Q&A: James Scott, Veggie Fair founder

In October 2010, even as Dallasites drooled over the meaty, cheesy texas Fried Frito Pie (taste-division winner of the State Fair’s big tex choice Awards that year), White rock Area resident James Scott organized a culinary-based event that was free of meat and animal products. Scott rallied several local vegetarian and vegan vendors and saw some 500 visitors in and out of the Deep ellum warehouse in which he hosted that first veg fest. three years later his texas Veggie Fair has outgrown two venues, acquired participants from around the nation and made a strong case for the fun side of vegan and vegetarianism. More than 5,000 visitors came through the 2012 event, now held at reverchon Park, 3505 Maple in the turtle creek area. even one of east Dallas’ most prolific celebs, erykah badu, has taken notice. A practicing vegan, badu will be the keynote speaker and entertainer at this year’s fair, Sunday, Oct. 20 from 11 a.m.-6 p.m.

Why the interest in veganism?

Initially, about 10 years ago, I became a vegetarian for health purposes. But that led me to research some of the other reasons why people become vegetarian or vegan. Once I started learning about practices of the food industry, which involve a general inhumaneness toward animals and environmentally irresponsible procedures, I became vegan. So avoiding contribution to that industry — the factory farming — became my motivation.

That led to the blog [dallasvegan.com], which I started, and the feedback there let me know there was a community out there of people who felt the same way I did. That’s when I started thinking about the fair.

Unlike, say, Austin, Dallas doesn’t seem to have a ton of vegan options.

Is it difficult to be a vegan in Dallas?

That is part of the reason I wanted to do this. I noticed many restaurants around that have vegan options or potentially vegan options on their menus. Often they aren’t marked that way, but they are there if you look for them. On my blog, I started encouraging a dialog about vegan items in restaurants. Some of the local restaurateurs noticed the commentary and the demand, and some even asked me to work with them on their menus.

What restaurants — ones we might not think about — have vegan menu choices?

One of the big ones that’s been on my radar for a while is Trinity Hall Irish Pub [at Mockingbird Station]. They always had a couple of menu items, but recently they put together a vegan menu. Hacienda on Henderson also has reached out through the blog and has developed some vegan options.

How does incorporating organic, meatless and/or vegan options benefit restaurants?

There are plenty of vegans out there, but often their families and social groups are not. Sometimes when you have a vegetarian in the group, a restaurant can be ruled out based on what we call the “vegetarian veto.”

What’s that?

It means that a large group of diners might rule out a particular restaurant based on its lack of options for the pickiest of the group’s eaters. So a restaurant with zero vegan options might lose out on a whole family of diners because of the single vegetarian among them.

Did you create the Veggie Fair as an opposition to the State Fair and its deep-fried, bacon-centric offerings?

No — that’s not it. There was a nod to the Texas State Fair. Initially we called it the State Veggie Fair. But really what you will find at the veggie fair is that vegan and vegetarian food, while it can be healthy, can also be as sweet, fatty and fried, and creative and fun as your traditional state fair food. Our hope is to include everyone. Yes, we are here for vegans and those who are leaning toward that lifestyle, but we really want to get the non-vegetarians out here and let them see that this food can be fun, too. The speakers, the entertainment and the activities we put on for kids, too, will be a draw for everyone. And the beer. Trinity Hall is sponsoring our beer garden. So, no, I wouldn’t even call it an alternative, just another fun thing to do in October.

Speaking of entertainment, how did you score Erykah Badu?

Well, for one I’ve now got a good team of people working with me, like Stephanie Casey — she reached out to Erykah. And because Erykah believes in this, she accepted the chance to help educate and improve the lives of animals. We will have several vendors out talking about ways to do that.

—Christina Hughes Babb Answers have been edited for brevity.

Writer in residence: Richard Ellison

East Dallas neighbor Richard Ellison is a man full of stories. And at 86, he has more than a few of them.

Recently he published a book, “Monmouth in the Morning: Book 1 — a Gannon Family Trilogy,” which is historical fiction loosely based on the life of a friend he knew half a lifetime ago.

“In the 15 years that I knew him, I got this story,” Ellison says. “Of course I’ve fictionalized a lot of things.”

The book is a “good, clean family adventure” that follows the life of the Gannon family, Ellison says, so rather than it being centered on one person, “all of the family members get in the action.”

In the book, a young man named John is based on Ellison’s friend, who was also named John.

“I knew John when he was 50 years old,” Ellison says. “He was an extraordinary man. We’d sit and talk for hours about his adven- tures. I always said I was going to write his story someday.”

In the book, the Gannon family moves from Monmouth, Ill., to South Dakota on the Brule River.

“It’s a life that happened to hundreds of thousands of Americans during the Industrial Revolution,” Ellison explains. “They moved west and they did things.”

Things like try their hands at frontier banking, show off their musical talents and form lasting friendships with other frontier townsfolk.

Ellison studied creative fiction at New York University while living in Manhattan (and boy, if you get him started talking about his life in Manhattan, you won’t want him to stop). When Ellison reached his 80s and retired, he figured “someday” had better be today.

“I said, ‘Richard, you don’t have any more excuses; you better get to writing,’ ” Ellison says with a laugh.

“Monmouth” is the result, and Ellison is working on the rest of the books in the “Monmouth” trilogy. —Brittany Nunn

“MonMouth in the Morning: Book 1” is available on amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

Monkey around

Do you know the “mountain man”?

That’s the nickname bestowed upon neighbor Mike Henry, who spends his free time practicing rock-climbing moves on the homemade climbing wall in his driveway along Monticello.

“People drive or walk by all the time,” Henry says. “Sometimes they’ll slow down or stop to watch me climb.”

Climbing is great exercise, both physically and mentally, Henry says.

“I call it the vertical dance,” he says. “The movement of climbing is beautiful, the technique involved.

“There’s a lot of science to climbing, and you better be completely focused, because you have to process information very quickly. You have to be thinking at least three of four moves ahead, because you can’t get into a place you can’t get out of — it’s mental, physical chess.”

If you ask Henry how long he’s been climbing, he just shrugs and says, “too long.”

Henry started climbing back when climbing was “in its infancy” in the United States, he says, around 25 years ago. “At the time, there might’ve been, in this country, maybe 30 climbers. We all knew each other. We were in this kind of bohemian, really tight community.”

It was through that community that Henry met his wife, Karen Henry, many years ago. Karen used to climb competitively, especially back when she was Karen Rand.

“She has beautiful form,” Henry says. “She’s a very talented climber — strong. She’s slowed down now, but she still gets out there with me some.”

In 1991, the Henrys opened an indoor climbing wall in Carrollton, called Stoneworks, which was built out of grain silos and was the tallest indoor gym in the world at 112 feet, Henry says. It’s possible it’s still the tallest climbing wall, although it has changed ownership several times and is now called North Texas Outdoor Pursuits.

Henry is still good friends with most of the indoor-climbing-wall owners in the area.

“This makes me feel old, but I’ve known most of them since they started climbing,” he says. “A lot of them I helped teach to climb. Now they’re the owners.”

Henry now works as an exercise instructor at SMU, and climbing is a passport to the country. On any given weekend, you’ll find him scaling a cliff face somewhere in the United States From limestone to sandstone to granite — you name it, he’s climbed it.

“Good climbers can climb on any kind of rock,” Henry says. —Brittany Nunn