Texas Monthly articles from April 2003

Texas Monthly archives from April 2003

Hoodwinked: no fooling--the Robin Hood School-finance law has got to go. But can anybody fix it? Here's how. (Behind the Lines).
April 1, 2003... ANYONE WHO HAS SEEN A CINEMATIC VERSION of the story of Robin Hood knows the ineffectualness of the Sheriff of Nottingham. The sheriff puts a price on Robin's head, lures him into traps, and has him cornered and hopelessly outnumbered-but catch...

Wonder women. (Roar Of The Crowd).
April 1, 2003... HOORAY FOR TEXAS WOMEN! I ENjoyed all the articles in the issue, especially Paul Burka's, on the women in his family, and Cecilia Balli's, on her mother [February 2003]. Mission accomplished. ESTELLA M. ZERMENO Goliad

Destiny's child. (Roar Of The Crowd).
April 1, 2003... AS A PARKER DESCENDANT, I HAVE spent my entire life listening to family facts and lore regarding Cynthia Ann ["The Warrior's Bride," February 2003]. As an adult, I have spent much time sifting through the numerous books and articles regarding...

All hail the Queen. (Roar Of The Crowd).
April 1, 2003... I HAD THE HONOR OF JUDGING the Miss Texas Teen USA pageant and want to compliment Pamela Colloff for the unique and informative article she wrote about the event ["Queen for a Day," February 2003]. It was interesting to find out the goings-on...

Family ties. (Roar Of The Crowd).
April 1, 2003... I JUST SPENT A FORTUNE BUYING up this month's issue, so as to give Cecilia Balli's article to all of the women in my parish ["All About My Mother," February 2003]. Most won't be able to read it, as they don't manage English that well, but I am...

Luv ya. (Roar Of The Crowd).
April 1, 2003... I RECENTLY RETIRED FROM SOUTHwest Airlines after 21 luv-ly years. I was most happy to see the story about Colleen Barrett [My Life: "Mother Nurture," February 2003]. I talked with Colleen on numerous occasions, and she is truly a down-to-earth...

Rah power. (Roar Of The Crowd).
April 1, 2003... AS A FORMER CHEERLEADER AND "cheer mom," I read your article "Pom-pom and Circumstance" with interest [My Life, February 2003]. I have been telling school superintendents and teachers that not all cheerleaders are shallow, as many people make...

Ride `em, Cowgirls. (Roar Of The Crowd).
April 1, 2003... CONGRATULATIONS TO KATHRYN Jones for her fine article "Into the Sunset" and for citing the woman who literally wrote the book on the cowgirl, Joyce Gibson Roach [Texas Monthly Reporter, February 2003]. In Roach's preface to The Cowgirls, she...

Around the state. (A Selective Guide to Amusements and Events).
April 1, 2003... APRIL 2003 SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY 1 6 7 8 The punk trio Yao Ming...

A Great Museum weekend in Houston. (A Selective Guide to Amusements and Events).
April 1, 2003... TOUR OF DUTY With two must-see blockbuster touring shows and several one-artist exhibitions in Houston this month, going museum-hopping could prove as tiring as barhopping. Rather than tackle at the outset the dauntingly huge...

Nature. (A Selective Guide to Amusements and Events).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... CALL OF THE WILD You might like to think of yourself as the rugged outdoorsy type, more--interested in a challenging hike than in remaining incredibly still for long periods of time just to catch a glimpse of a flickering feathered mass--but...

Straight talk.
April 1, 2003... ALL THE WAY WITH LBJ Author Robert Caro, whose tome on Lyndon Johnson's legislative years, Master of the Senate, won the 2002 National Book Award, will be speaking at Arts and Letters Live, in Dallas, on April 4. Rumors has it that you and...

Get out.
April 1, 2003... EASY RIDERS Bulletin: Lance Armstrong's Ride for the Roses has been moved from April to October (the Sports Illustrated 2002 sportsman of the year wanted more time to train for the Tour de France). But don't think that means you have a license...

Lost and found: after the space shuttle Columbia exploded, thousands of pieces rained down on me and my neighbors. Our corner of East Texas will never be the same again. (Letter From Nacogdoches).
April 1, 2003... IT PROMISED TO BE A BEAUTIFUL SATURDAY, this first day of February, with a cloudless sky and a predicted high of 70 degrees. Already the sun was easing the chill of early morning. I let the cat out the back door and took one last look at the...

J.J. Sedelmaier Productions, Inc. & Texas Monthly present ... "Theft of the Thorns": a tale of greed and lawlessness in the Chihuahuan Desert. (In Other News).
April 1, 2003... THE STATES OF ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO, AND NEVADA, WHOSE CITIZENS ARE INCREASINGLY LANDSCAPING THEIR YARDS WITH DROUGHT-TOLERANT PLANTS SUCH AS OCOTILLO, EAGLE CLAW CACTUS, AND BARREL CACTUS PLUCKED FROM THE CHIHUAHUAN DESERT. BETWEEN 1998 AND...

Troubled Water? Last January the Austin American-Statesman warned that Barton Springs, one of the state's prized natural swimming holes, was dangerously polluted. Here's what you need to know before you dip your toe back in. (FAQ).
April 1, 2003... Exactly what did the Statesman find In Barton Springs? Hazardous chemicals--most notably, benzoapyrene, a carcinogenic product of burning coal, gas, or oil. According to the paper's independent testing, the chemical was found in both the...

Natural female hormones. (do you want your life back?).
April 1, 2003... Women should feel healthy, vibrant and strong throughout their adult lives. If you have been told "it's in your mind" or "live with it," read on. Health for Midlife Beth is a 53 year old female who presented to me with a history of...

-30-: the very best columnist ever to grace the pages of a Texas newspaper has called it quits--but please don't tell Blackie Sherrod I mentioned it.
April 1, 2003... THE RAILBIRDS AT THE STONELEIGH BAR keep asking the man on the corner stool what retirement is like. "Like a steam bath," Blackie Sherrod grumbles, copping a line from his final column in the Dallas Morning News, which ran just after the first...

Mold age: news reports once warned of a toxic fungus that could destroy your home and your family's health. Was it all a bunch of hype? (on health).
April 1, 2003... NOT LONG AGO, MY FAMILIARITY WITH MOLD could be boiled down to the following: It turns up if you fail to put your bread in the fridge soon enough, it may have been the culprit in an offensive case of athlete's foot I acquired back in high...

Ride on: thanks to miles of new trails and an ambitious plan to revitalize the neglected trinity river, the metroplex is slowly pedaling toward a bike-friendly future. (on the great outdoors).
April 1, 2003... ON A MILD SATURDAY AFTERNOON IN JANUARY, I'M riding my bicycle along the Clear Fork of the Trinity River just southwest of downtown Fort Worth. It's an easy ride through a primarily urban landscape, and the river itself is mostly tame--it...

The minimalist: how did Donald Judd go from painting generic nudes to creating the works that have made Marfa the art Mecca it is today? (on art).
April 1, 2003... NINE YEARS AFTER HIS UNTIMELY DEATH from cancer at the age of 65, Donald Judd has never been more fascinating. After moving to West Texas as a newly minted international icon in 1972, Judd spent the last two decades of his life creating the...

The old country: few places on earth manage to stay the same. Why should a wrinkled piece of Texas receive exemption? But I'm grateful that I came to know the hill country before it was overrun.
April 1, 2003... >> During most of my life I have cherished the Hill Country, as have large numbers of my fellow Texans. It is a swath of rumpled terrain whose eastern and southern edge sweeps in an arc some two hundred miles long from the Austin area down past...

Head for the Hills: 25 things I love about the Hill Country.
April 1, 2003... Sure, I adore the Hill Country. Of course, I have to avert my eyes from a few flaws, like towns where I can sling a baby back rib and hit a Home Depot or a Chili's restaurant. (Good-bye Boerne, Kerrville, Marble Falls, and Touristenburg--uh, I...

The whistle-blower: all over America--and on the cover of Time magazine--Sherron Watkins is heralded as who exposed Enron's financial shenanigans. So why does the high-rolling crowd back in Houston consider her Public Enemy Number One?
April 1, 2003... When Enron was riding high, in the fall of 1995, an accountant named Sherron Watkins completed in a tournament that her boss, Andy Fastow, had devised, a contest he called the Paint Ball War. The actions that would make both of them...

The ghosts of Mount Carmel.
April 1, 2003... In the ten years since a devastating fire took the lives of 74 Davidians, a group of survivors has returned to the windswept plains east of Waco, like ghost haunting the site of their former compound. A new church has been built at Mount...

Heaven & earth: only when something goes terribly wrong are we reminded that astronauts live two lives--one heroic, taking them on the world's most dangerous commute, the other mundane, involving the hopes and fears and workaday tasks so familiar to us all.
April 1, 2003... A BLOCK OR SO AWAY from the main entrance of the Johnson Space Center, in Clear Lake City, is a McDonald's whose exterior is crowned with a hovering fiberglass astronaut. The astronaut is thirteen feet high. His left arm is outstretched, and in...

Pat's pick.
April 1, 2003... Making waves when the Oceanaire Seafood Room steamed into port in Dallas last November, I felt like standing on the dock and waving hello--the only things missing were a sea breeze, paper streamers, and a brass band. Although the place is the...

Primary flavors.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... GREEN WITH ENVY Thanks to a memorable movie, just about everyone has heard of fried green tomatoes. But how many people have ever tasted one? Supposedly, green tomatoes are tart--not sweet, like red ones. So why would anyone want to eat the...

Best fests.
April 1, 2003... BERRY BLISS Sweet on strawberries? Join the club. Legend has it that an eighteenth-century French socialite was so fond of the luscious fruit that she would have twenty pounds of berries crushed just to bathe in their fragrant juices. (Do you...

Change, pardners: the whole world, it seems, is moving to my beloved Texas Hill Country. Is that a good thing? Only if you and your Volvo want to free Tibet. (The Last Roundup).
April 1, 2003... I NEVER THOUGHT I'D SEE THE DAY WHEN I'd miss gun racks in the back windows of pickup trucks, but I almost do. I miss the old Texas Hill Country, where Adolph Hofner and the Pearl Wranglers performed at outdoor dance halls under the stars. I...