Texas Monthly articles from August 2003

Texas Monthly archives from August 2003

Rice and shine: my alma mater has its first national title and the NCAA's best graduation rate. If president Malcolm Gillis could reform college athletics, we'd be unbeatable. (Behind the Lines).(Rice University )(Interview)
August 1, 2003... MALCOLM GILLIS, THE PRESIDENT of Rice University, likes to tell the story of the football player who was being recruited by Rice and another Texas university of, shall we say, less intellectual rigor. The coach of the other school asked the...

Fruit stand. (Roar of the Crowd).(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2003... AS A THIRD-GENERATION PEACH grower in Gillespie County, it was wonderful to see the coverage of our beloved peaches in your magazine ["How Sweet It Is," June 2003]. As one of the first growers in Fredericksburg, my family has worked hard since...

No justice. (Roar of the Crowd).(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2003... THE STORY OF THE RAPE-MURDER of young girls in the Juarez area is one of the grimmest I've ever read ["Ciudad de la Muerte," June 2003]. A question remains, one that Cecilia Balli is unable to answer: Will the perpetrators of these atrocities...

Grand Central. (Roar of the Crowd).(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2003... I COULDN'T AGREE MORE WITH "Holy Shiitakes!" [Gary Cartwright's Texas, June 2003]. I live in the Boston area, and one of my favorite things to do when I visit my family in Austin is go to Central Market. I'll set aside a whole afternoon just to...

Honest engine. (Roar of the Crowd).(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2003... THANKS TO SUZY BANKS FOR A TERRIFIC article on Amtrak and the Sunset Limited [Travel: "Track Record," June 2003]. Until I began taking the train, I'd never realized how much I hated behemoth airports, inconsiderate airlines, luggage screeners,...

That's drawl, folks. (Roar of the Crowd).(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2003... PAMELA COLLOFF'S INTERESTING (inneresting?) article on Texas accents [Texas Monthly Reporter: "Drawl or Nothin'," June 2003] reminds me that as far as the rest of the country is concerned, it's really us and not them that talk funny. IRV...

Around the state: a selective guide to amusements and events.(Calendar)
August 1, 2003... Austin MUSIC/DANCE The Backyard TX Hwy 71 at RR 620 (512-469-7469 or 888-597-7827). Aug 2 at 8: Tracy Chapman with Joseph Arthur; $42. Aug 4 at 7:30: David Gray with Turin Brakes; $42. (W+) Blues on the Green Zilker Park, 2100...

Cowboy junkies. (Western).(exhibits and historical reenactments)(Calendar)
August 1, 2003... COWBOY JUNKIES If you're anything like the city slicker I am, then the closest you've come to experiencing the West is through books and movies--not all of us have that urge to visit a working ranch a la Billy Crystal. But this month we can get...

For the good times. (Straight Talk).(musician Kris Kristofferson)(his induction into Texas Country Music Hall of Fame )(Interview)
August 1, 2003... FOR THE GOOD TIMES Singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson will be inducted by Willie Nelson into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in Carthage on August 16. I've always thought that Hawaii has a lot in common with Texas. My old friends...

Shake, rattle, and roll. (Festivals).
August 1, 2003... SHAKE, RATTLE, AND ROLL When summertime playlists begin to sound like good elevator music and Paradise Hotel seems like quality TV programming, you know it's time for a change. And there's no better way to get rid of a funk than with some live...

Back to the future. (Nostalgia).
August 1, 2003... BACK TO THE FUTURE For those of you mid-thirtysomethings and early-fortysomethings who think you're still cool, I've got news: Not. But this month, you can relive your glory days--the eighties. First, rent a few flicks (Sixteen Candles, Fast...

Rain of error: dry enough for you? It was for General R.G. Dyrenforth, whose bizarre attempts more than a century ago to solve Texas' little drought problem precipitated only ridicule. (Texas Monthly reporter: the state of our state).
August 1, 2003... GENERAL R. G. DYRENFORTH SUBSCRIBED to the theory, successfully field-tested by countless twelve-year-old boys, that there is nothing wrong with the world that a little gunpowder won't fix. He was a concussionist, which meant that he believed...

Clifford Antone: the Austin music impresario on life in prison, his reading list, and the rising stars of Texas blues. (A Few Words With ...).(Interview)
August 1, 2003... You've made a career of discovering new talent at your club. Who do you like these days? Two sets of brothers. First of all, the Moellers--Johnny, the guitar player, and Jason, the drummer. Johnny's the only one I've seen who has the heart to...

Shut out: the Texas Rangers have never made it to the World Series. Neither have the Houston Astros. Two baseball veterans talk about what went wrong--and how our favorite teams can fix it. (Conference Call).(Interview)
August 1, 2003... PARTICIPANTS Paul Burka, senior executive editor Larry Dierker (below), former Houston Astros pitcher and manager; author of This Ain't Brain Surgery: How to Win the Pennant Without Losing Your Mind Tom Schieffer (right), former...

Bad air days: in 1981 we ran a story about pollution and disease in Southeast Texas. I went back to see if anything had changed. It had--but not for the better. (on Health).
August 1, 2003... "I'M SORRY," HILTON KELLEY SAYS, letting out a dry, barking cough. "Ever since I moved back to Port Arthur three years ago I've had this." He gestures to his throat and coughs again. I understand. I've been in Port Arthur for barely a day...

Tex-Mex 101: nachos, tomatillo sauce, chile con queso--will the real Mexican food please stand up? A crash course in Texans' favorite fusion fare. (on Food).
August 1, 2003... I'M WRITING THIS COLUMN TO APOLOGIZE FOR having laughed at my friend and colleague Sam Gwynne. (I was laughing with you, Sam. Honest.) A recovering Yankee, Sam has made enormous progress in understanding the behavior and tribal customs of...

Killing time: two young novelists offer compelling portraits of serial murderers--one skin-crawlingly odd, the other surprisingly sympathetic. (on Books).(Stephen Graham Jones and Austinite Amanda Eyre Ward)(Book Review)
August 1, 2003... AS THOUGH THEY WERE VYING to be the poster children of Texas summer fiction, serial killers are front and center in a pair of smartly rendered novels from Lubbock's Stephen Graham Jones and Austinite Amanda Eyre Ward. Equally moving in...

Get outta here! You know you want to. After all, it's summer in Texas, when the cool thing to do is to go someplace else for a couple of days. Here are five of our favorite getaways, including a Vegas golf-a-thon, a New Mexico spa weekend for people who hate spas, and a play date in California with, like, a zillion Legos.
August 1, 2003... OJO CALIENTE, NEW MEXICO Arsenic tubs, Swedish massages--but no nightingale-poop facials. [BY SUZY BANKS] I THINK MY AIRLINE CONSPIRED TO heighten my appreciation of Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs, a venerable resort between Taos and...

Ten years ago, before he came to Texas and established himself as a world-class marathoner, Gilbert Tuhabonye cheated death at the hands of tribal warriors by running for his life. Now he wants you to run for yours.(Biography)
August 1, 2003... HE WAS ON FIRE. It was three in the morning, and most of his classmates from the Kibimba school in Burundi were dead--beaten and burned alive by friends of theirs, kids and grown-ups they had known most of their lives. Smoldering bodies, lay in...

Making waves: Kenny Braun's surfing photographs pay homage to the sport's resurgence in Texas--and to his favorite place on earth.
August 1, 2003... Despite Texas' nearly four hundred miles of coastline, the word "gulf" probably calls to mind an orange gas-station sign before it evokes the image of a surfboard. Even sunbathers who frequent Padre or Port A would tell you that surfable waves...

Allen Tyler had a good job looking after corpses that had been donated to the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. He stored them, chopped them up, packed and shipped the parts. Then he got a wonderful idea: he would start his own enterprise on the side. What's a few toenails among friends?
August 1, 2003... IN APRIL 2000 Allen Tyler made a lot of money in fingernail and toenail sales: $4,380, to be exact. That month his office received a purchase order for a batch of human nails from Watson Laboratories, a pharmaceutical company located in Salt...

About a girl: she can barely see, she doesn't like to be hugged, and she's already forgotten most of what happened last winter. Which is why, just maybe, Audra Thomas has such a strong sense of the world around her--and of herself.
August 1, 2003... BLESSED AS I AM WITH AN ordinary memory, I am able to reconstruct my first meeting with Audra Thomas, which took place last February at her family's house, as a series of discrete moments. [paragraph] One: On the way there, I crept along in...

Restaurant guide: a selective guide to food and drink.(Restaurant Review)
August 1, 2003... AUGUST 2003 Policies and Definitions The Restaurant Guide is a service to our readers. The magazine accepts no advertising or other consideration in exchange for a listing. Reviews are written by resident critics in the cities that we...

Not my back yard. (Pat's Pick).(Jasper's in Plano, Texas)(Restaurant Review)
August 1, 2003... What's in a name--or, rather, a slogan? To me, the "gourmet backyard cuisine" at Jasper's in Plano is about 90 percent gourmet and 10 percent backyard (not that there's anything wrong with that), What's more, curtains made of bronze mesh and...

Lean and green. (Primary Flavors).(availability of green chiles)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... LEAN AND GREEN You can find the slim, distinctive chiles called long greens or Anaheims growing in areas throughout the Southwest United States, but by almost universal assent, the ones cultivated around Hatch, New Mexico, are the best....

No bull. (Word of Mouth).(David Bull, executive chef, receives award by Food & Wine periodical)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... NO BULL Food & Wine recently named David Bull, the 28-year-old executive chef at Austin's Driskill Hotel, one of its ten best new American chefs of 2003. (Next month we'll talk to Scott Tycer, of Aries in Houston, the other Texas chef to make...

Scout's honor: their mothers are in prison (or have been), but my favorite girls in uniform won't end up there themselves. (The Last Roundup).
August 1, 2003... THE FIRST TIME I WENT TO A CHARITY car wash, Richard Nixon was president. I think some high school cheerleaders were trying to raise money to go to a cheerleading camp in Fat Chance, Arkansas. My vehicle was a dusty green 1953 Plymouth...