Texas Monthly articles from April 2002

Texas Monthly archives from April 2002

Life of the party: just when you thought that the Republicans had a lock on Texas, a Gubernatorial debate and a Mayoral election indicate that the democrats are very much alive. (Behind the Lines).
April 1, 2002... POLITICS IS SO DELICIOUSLY UNPREDICTABLE. Texas Republicans entered 2002 anticipating their second straight sweep of every statewide office and judgeship plus the election of substantial majorities in the state House and Senate. All of this may...

Fencing match. (Roar Of The Crowd).(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2002... DESPITE EFFORTS TO THE CONTRARY, the majority of wildlife in this state still belongs to all Texans, and in fact, migratory species belong to all Americans ["Which Side of the Fence Are You On?" February 2002]. High fencing can be a useful...

Alamo film 101. (Roar Of The Crowd).(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2002... HAVING JUST READ DON GRAHAM'S "MISSION: Impossible," I would like to throw in my two centavos' worth to Ron Howard and John Sayles [February 2002]. Ron, make this movie. John, read Stephen Harrigan's The Gates of the Alamo. Hell, buy the film...

Champ's gift. (Roar Of The Crowd).(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2002... WHAT A LOVELY, LOVELY ARTICLE ABOUT Champ Hood [Texas Monthly Reporter: "The Player," February 2002]. Michael Hall's ending ("He had terrible technique. But from him we got the soul") couldn't be better. Champ Hood is definitely bringing out...

True Christian. (Roar Of The Crowd).(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2002... IT HAS BEEN MY PRIVILEGE TO WORK FOR OR alongside George Christian for more than thirty years. Paul Burka's story nailed him perfectly [Behind the Lines: "Onward, Christian," February 2002]. George keeps on working, thank God, and pushing the...

Around the state: a selective guide to amusements and events.(Directory)
April 1, 2002... Austin MUSIC/DANCE Austin Symphony UT campus, Bass Concert Hall, 23rd & Robert Dedman Dr (512-476-6064 or 888-462-3787). Apr 5 & 6 at 8: Vaughan Williams: Serenade to Music. Barber: Concerto for Violin. Schumann: Symphony No 2 in C...

Tune in. (Around the state: a selective guide to amusements and events).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... INDEPENDENTS' DAY In 1982 John Kunz opened the doors to a 1,200-square-foot music store on Lamar Boulevard called Waterloo Records. Austin has changed over the years--for one thing, Lamar had considerably less traffic in those days--and so has...

Straight talk. (Around the state: a selective guide to amusements and events).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... NANU, NANU Academy award-winning actor and comedian Robin Williams brings his first one-man show in fifteen years to the University of Texas at Austin's Performing Arts Center on April 9, the Music Hall at Fair Park in Dallas on April 10, and...

A great weekend in Fort Worth. (Around the state: a selective guide to amusements and events).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... SPORTS CENTER May I have your attention, please? Fort Worth is the place to be the first weekend in April. For starters, check out Chevy Thunder Days in Sundance Square, a NASCAR celebration with concerts, racing displays, and driver...

Fine art. (Around the state: a selective guide to amusements and events).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... POINT OF VIEW Since 1993, the bodies of 266 murdered young Mexican women have been found in the desert surrounding Ciudad Juarez, an industrial city that sits directly across the border from El Paso. A multimedia exhibit that opened March 8 and...

Snow job: two aggressive Dallas cops. One confidential informant. Hundreds of pounds of cocaine. Fifty-three drug traffickers busted. Sound too good to be true? It was. (Letter From Dallas).
April 1, 2002... BY ALL ACCOUNTS, 2001 WAS SHAPING UP TO BE A BANNER YEAR FOR THE DALLAS police Department's narcotics squad. According to the buzz around headquarters, two aggressive undercover cops, 34-year-old senior corporal Mark Delapaz and 31-year-old...

Anne Dingus road test: teaching my teenage son to drive turned out to be a learning experience for both of us. (First Person).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... WANT TO FIND OUT HOW GOOD a driver you are? Try teaching your own child to drive. After my elder son acquired his learner's permit, I decided that getting a traffic ticket is the only thing more sobering than having a fifteen-year-old point out...

Johnny Winter: the Beaumont-born blues guitarist riffs on fighting, fake ID's, and life in Connecticut. (A Few Words With ...).(Brief Article)(Interview)
April 1, 2002... Although he left the state more than thirty years ago, Johnny Winter will always be a "Texas guitar slinger." After a two-year hiatus from touring in the mid-nineties, the Beaumont native hit the road again in 1997. Earlier this year Sony...

I, the juror; when I was practicing law, I thought juries were strange, unpredictable, and mysterious. Now that I've had a chance to serve on one, I'm sure of it. (on Law).
April 1, 2002... EVEN THE BEST TRIAL LAWYER WILL TELL YOU THAT juries are like snakes: They're hard to get ahold of and not necessarily fun when you do. That's why law schools concentrate on teaching the law. Aside from picking up a few rules of...

Our towns: does "Waxahachie" mean "buffalo droppings"? What does "Weslaco" stand for? The stories behind Texas' town names are all over the map. (on Texana).
April 1, 2002... WOULD YOU BELIEVE THAT WACO IS SO CALLED because the word is an anagram of "a cow"? That McAllen was named for a brand of scotch? That "Dumas" is a sanitized version of "Dumbass"? You wouldn't? Good, because I made all that up. Making...

Perilously plump: why does Texas have four of the ten fattest cities in America? The answers lie at the heart of our culture. (on Health).
April 1, 2002... SINCE THIS COLUMN IS ABOUT THE CURRENT FAT EPIDEMIC in the state of Texas, I should say from the outset that I've never had much trouble with my weight. Some might argue that this disqualifies me from discussing the subject, but it's not like...

Hot topics in 2002.(golfing)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... 1. Will Tiger Woods win another Masters? The big cigars at Augusta National have attempted to defend their hallowed ground from the pros' annual assault on par by lengthening and tightening the historic golf course. But by bringing in noted...

Big hitters.(2001 RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Galveston resident Candace Merrill placed second in the women's division. Waco resident Bobby Wilson placed third in the senior division. All that was missing from the 2001 RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship was a Texas representative in the...

The traitor next door: his name was Wadih el-Hage. He had an American wife and American kids, a home in Arlington, a job at a tire store in Fort Worth, and a secret past that led straight to Osama bin Laden.
April 1, 2002... The small wood-frame building sits next to a seedy fifties motel on a forlorn stretch of Fort Worth's East Lancaster Avenue, looking dilapidated despite a recent whitewash. Today it is home to a thrift shop stocked with goods that would appeal...

Mack McCormick still has the blues: the Houston folklorist with one of the most extraordinary archives of unreleased recordings and unpublished interviews in the world is 71 now and has had health problems of late. Who will save the legacy of the man who saved Texas music?
April 1, 2002... Mack McCormick loves to tell the story of Joe Patterson and the quills. Patterson was a musician from Alabama, who had performed at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island in 1964. He played the quills, or panpipes, like the ones the dancing...

Caught looking: when I was asked to step down as the manager of the Houston Astros last year, I bade a bittersweet farewell to a team I had loved for more than three decades. Among the many lessons I learned: how to motivate millionaires, how to lose in the playoffs, and how to wear a Hawaiian shirt.
April 1, 2002... "Have you ever seen anyone with a Hawaiian shirt on who wasn't having a good time?" --Larry Dierker, 1996 Aloha. I JUST WANT EVERYONE TO KNOW THAT I NEVER ASKED TO BE MANAGER. I never suggested it, and I didn't campaign for it. When...

Does Napoleon Beazley deserve to die? He was the hero of his hometown--football star, senior class president, the first black kid ever to be accepted by whites. And then, when he was seventeen, he committed a brutal, senseless murder. Now he's on death row, waiting for the courts to decide ...
April 1, 2002... ON APRIL 19, 1994, THE DAY that seventeen-year-old Napoleon Beazley committed cold-blooded murder, the high school senior came home from track practice, showered, and changed into a fresh pair of blue jeans. At that moment, just before he...

A good mango is hard to find; unless you're Susana Trilling, that is. At her cooking school in Mexico, the revered authority on Oaxacan cocina taught me how to turn the delicious fruit into a memorable dessert and to prepare many other traditional dishes. She can teach you too, and--this month, at least--you won't have to leave Texas.
April 1, 2002... CHOCOLATE WAS OOZING from the molino ("mill") at el Mercado de Abastos, the central market in the city of Oaxaca--thick rivers of deep brown chocolate. I was there with Susana Trilling, who owns the local cooking school and bed-and-breakfast...

Pescado empapelado al diablo.(Brief Article)(Recipe)
April 1, 2002... (FISH COOKED IN PAPER WITH DEVIL'S SAUCE) SERVES 4 to 6 Adapted from "Seasons of My Heart: A Culinary Journey Through Oaxaca, Mexico" (Ballantine Books) One of the most relaxing places on Oaxaca's coast is the picturesque Lagunas de...

Small stuff: jam-packed with everything from aircraft models to mastodon teeth, the miniature museum is another Houston monument to outsider art. (on Art).
April 1, 2002... NOWHERE BUT HOUSTON DOES OUTSIDER ART enjoy such insider status. Folk art icons like the venerable Orange Show, postman Jeff McKissack's mini-Disneyland of recycled machinery and salvaged building materials, or upholsterer John Milkovisch's...

We are the world: with a top-notch lineup of performers from Africa to Asia, the Houston International Festival has establish itself as the center of the musical universe. (on Music).
April 1, 2002... SOMETIME BETWEEN THE INVOLUNTARY HIP spasms brought on by Congolese singer Ricardo Lemvo's soukous band as I nibbled on fried bananas and the melancholy induced by Irish folk-rocker Paul Brady's antihero anthem "Nobody Knows" as I wolfed down...

Corpus Christi * USA.
April 1, 2002... Visitors often are amazed by the beauty that greets them on their arrival at the Corpus Christi bayfront * Don't be surprised if you suddenly find yourself relaxing a bit. Corpus Christi is a great place to get away from the hustle and bustle...

Itinerary.(Corpus Christi, Texas)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... CHRISTUS Spohn Health System Christusspohn.org CHRISTUS Spohn Health System, a part of CHRISTUS Health, is a comprehensive, faith-based health care network spanning South Texas. The System consists of six hospitals featuring technologically...

State of wonder.
April 1, 2002... Texas. It's where you'll discover a melting pot of cultures, a friendly people, and a vibrant history. It's also where you'll find a flurry of activity as visitors and Texans alike experience new cultures, new avenues of art appreciation, and...

Restaurant guide: a selective guide to food and drink.
April 1, 2002... Austin [UPDATE] Asti 408 E. 43rd (512-451-1218). Overly leisurely service was the only down side of a recent lunch visit to this sleek, modern Italian trattoria. We excused it, however, upon the first taste of our fine grilled...

Pat's pick. (Restaurant guide: a selective guide to food and drink).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... THE SMELL OF YUMMY Here are my top five reasons to visit the Scented Geranium, a cool new Vietnamese cafe in Dallas owned by Sony Nguyen. Reason number five: The decor--minimalist and edgy, with walls painted chartreuse, lavender, aquamarine,...

Primary flavors. (Restaurant guide: a selective guide to food and drink).(teas)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... BUBBLES IN PARADISE Think of bubble tea as the Hello Kitty of beverages. The trendy Asian drink is as frivolous and fun as the perennially popular Sanrio character, with the same power to appeal to your inner adolescent. The main ingredients in...

On the road. (Restaurant guide: a selective guide to food and drink).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... TOP OF THE LINE We never need an excuse to hop in the car and drive to Round Top, but if we did, the assorted annual spring antiques festivals March 27-April 7 in this east central Texas hamlet would be the perfect reason. Part of the...

Does not compute: why do I refuse to use a PC, get an e-mail address, or surf the internet? Dude, I won't do the devil's work. (The Last Roundup).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... DUDE, YOU'RE GETTING A DELL! You may be going to hell, but at least you'll be able to take your computer with you. You see, I believe the Internet is the work of Satan. As far as I can tell, this seductive spider-web of insanity has only two...