Texas Monthly articles from December 2006

Texas Monthly archives from December 2006

His way or the highway: now that Rick Perry has won another term, his transportation plan moves on down the road. What kind of a toll will it take on Texas?(Behind the Lines)
December 1, 2006... Every day I can look out the window of my office in downtown Austin and watch traffic creep along Interstate 35, half a mile away. The time of day doesn't seem to matter, nor does the weather: morning or evening, wet or dry, the snarl persists....

Walk this way.(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2006... I have to protest your exclusion of what I consider one of the most magnificently beautiful areas of Texas from your "Take a Hike" article: the Panhandle [October 2006]. My father grew up in Vega, the county seat of Oldham County, 35 miles west...

Farewell to arms.(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2006... Oh, how I loved "Great Guns," by John Graves [October 2006]. It brought back sweet memories of growing up in the farm-ranch town of Stamford, out near Abilene, in the forties and early fifties. My dad, a small-business man, was an avid hunter....

Odd man out.(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2006... Imagine my surprise at learning from Michael Ennis that the most recent gubernatorial contest was a four-way race ["All Shook Up," October 2006]. As the fifth candidate in that four-way race, I was somewhat distressed to learn that neither I...

Private matters.(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2006... Sarah Bird helped me discover that it is possible to laugh and cry at the same time ["Going Private," October 2006]. I've been on the same roller-coaster ride through the education system. Public schools have amazing people doing their very...

Not ready to make nice.(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2006... I was not aware a vote was taken that put you in charge of inviting the Dixie Chicks to return to Texas [Reporter, Topic A, October 2006]. The response that folks are giving them by not buying tickets to their concerts should tell you something...

Now serving.
December 1, 2006... There's a controversial war goingon, the aftermath of an election to mop up, the stock market rising, the price of oil falling, famine, pestilence--and our December cover story is about tacos? You bet. For as long as there's been a TEXAS...

Topic A: squeaker of the house: the Democrats' surge on Election Day may be just enough to imperil Tom Craddick.(Reporter)
December 1, 2006... So Texas has a Democratic party after all, and no matter what you're hearing about who signed what pledge card, the Legislature may have a Speaker's race. With many of their own incumbents facing tough races for reelection and no party...

Being a Rockette.(The Horse's Mouth: EVERYTHING I COULD EVER TELL YOU ABOUT ...)(Angie Everett)(Interview)
December 1, 2006... NAME: Angie Everett AGE: 33 HOMETOWN: The Woodlands QUALIFICATIONS: Radio City Rockette since 1999/Will perform in the 2006 Radio City Christmas Spectacular tour (through December 3 in Dallas and December 7-31 in Houston) * When I was...

Air power: how Texas got to be number one in wind energy.(FAQ: BRIAN D. SWEANY ON THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY)
December 1, 2006... Giant wind turbines are popping up all across West Texas, Where do we stand when it comes to wind energy? This has been a banner year for the state's wind industry, which now has approximately 2,150 turbines. In May Jerry Patterson, the...

She's here!(Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch: Part V: STORIES FROM SOUTH TEXAS)(arrival of a new calf )
December 1, 2006... The long-awaited Lucky Star II finally came into the world. We are all beside ourselves with excitement, and no one more so than my daughter, Claudette. (Lucky Star, if you remember, is Claudette's only and favorite cow, and this is her first...

CityFest Houston: Eleanor Tinsley Park / October 7 & 8, 2006.(Faith Bases: WILLIAM MARTIN REVIEWS OUR PLACES OF WORSHIP)
December 1, 2006... "Make some noise, you guys. It's all about the Kiiiinnnngggg!" The King was King Jesus, and the liturgist soundingthe call to worship was the emcee for the King of Kings Skateboarding Ministry. The group was serving as the opening act in...

The big D.(Minister of Health: JIM ATKINSON CURES WHAT AILS US)
December 1, 2006... "My friend's father is not going to have his foot amputated," my wife informed me one morning. [paragraph] "Oh, good," I said. [paragraph] "They have to take the entire lower leg," she quickly added, frowning. "Diabetes. I didn't know it could...

Beverly Kearney.(Cojones: A TIP OF THE HAT TO RISK-TAKING, BARRIER-BREAKING, ESTABLISHMENT-TWEAKING TEXANS)
December 1, 2006... If they ever make a movie about University of Texas women's track coach Bev Kearney's life, which they almost certainly will, the last scene will go like this: The year is 2005. It is June 11, a warm night in Sacramento, California. Before...

Immaculate misconception: The Nativity Story is much too virtuous for its own good.(Hollywood, TX: CHRISTOPHER KELLY ON OUR STATE OF ENTERTAINMENT)
December 1, 2006... The dark-eyed girl, living in ancient Nazareth, arrives home one afternoon. She's a typical fifteen-year-old, often preoccupied with her friends and with the village's cutest boy. But on this day, young Mary (Keisha Castle-Hughes) finds her...

Saved by her works: Hardwicke on DVD.(Hollywood, TX: CHRISTOPHER KELLY ON OUR STATE OF ENTERTAINMENT)
December 1, 2006... Even if The Nativity Story disappoints, Catherine Hardwicke--and her two previous features, both available on DVD--should not be dismissed. A longtime production designer who did impressive work on titles like The Newton Boys and Three Kings,...

The Complete Atlantic Sessions.(Box Scores: The 2006 Texas compilations to have and to hold.)(Sound recording review)
December 1, 2006... The liner notes pin it down to a single moment: a 1972 George McGovern rally in Austin's Zilker Park, when new-to-town country singer WILLIE NELSON found himself on the bill with a lot of hippie rock bands. Unintimidated, Nelson forged ahead...

Nashville Rebel.(Box Scores: The 2006 Texas compilations to have and to hold)(Sound recording review)
December 1, 2006... Like his compatriot "outlaw" Willie Nelson, WAYLON JENNINGS had already done a lot of solid work in Music City before reaching his breaking point, one set off by an accumulation of road dates, divorces, unpaid bills, and pep pills. So NASHVILLE...

Rockin' Bones: 1950s Punk and Rockabilly.(Box Scores: The 2006 Texas compilations to have and to hold)(Sound recording review)
December 1, 2006... ROCKIN' BONES: 1950S PUNK & ROCKABILLY (Rhino), a reverb-drenched four-CD set of blistering guitar abandon, establishes this Eisenhower-era crew of JDs as the original punk rockers. Assembled with the same fanaticism as Lenny Kaye's Nuggets,...

Detractors of Dallas's RED GARLAND disdained him as a "cocktail pianist" and claimed he made it into Miles Davis's first classic quintet (from 1955 to 1957) only because of a stylistic similarity to Davis obsession Ahmad Jamal.(Box Scores: The 2006 Texas compilations to have and to hold.)
December 1, 2006... Detractors of Dallas's RED GARLAND disdained him as a "cocktail pianist" and claimed he made it into Miles Davis's first classic quintet (from 1955 to 1957) only because of a stylistic similarity to Davis obsession Ahmad Jamal. Yet he proved...

La Vida Brinca.(Pretty As a Thousand Words: The best Texas picture books of 2006.)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2006... If simplicity can be the hallmark of genius, BILL WITTLIFF earns a gold seal for the sepia-toned photos in LA VIDA BRINCA ("Life Jumps"). The Austinite, who is probably better known as the screenwriter of Lonesome Dove and The Perfect Storm...

Weeping Mary.(Pretty As a Thousand Words: The best Texas picture books of 2006.)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2006... Black-and-white is more than the chosen medium in WEEPING MARY, a photo essay about the tiny Texas town with this unusual name by TEXAS MONTHLY contributing photographer o. RUFUS LOVETT. It's also the unmentioned divide embodied by a white...

The Amazing Faith of Texas.(Pretty As a Thousand Words: The best Texas picture books of 2006.)
December 1, 2006... Even cynics can find inspiration in THE AMAZING FAITH OF TEXAS, a surprisingly affecting survey of fifty Texans and their beliefs from GSD&M ad agency honcho ROY SPENCE, With brief interviews by Mike Blair and telling portraits by Randal Ford,...

Between Heaven and Texas.(Pretty As a Thousand Words: The best Texas picture books of 2006.)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2006... BETWEEN HEAVEN AND TEXAS is dazzling. In a collection of meticulous prints, WYMAN MEINZER (who was proclaimed official state photographer in 1997 by then-governor George W. Bush) captures the limitless permutations of the Lone Star sky, from...

He peds, she peds.(Buy This Now: AMY PRINCE ON THE THINGS YOU CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT)
December 1, 2006... We love the idea of his-and-hers holiday gifting. It's so old-school, like monogrammed towels and matching Mercedes ordered from the Neiman Marcus Christmas Book. So for the Della and Jim of the new millennium, here's a modern spin on the...

West Nineteenth, Houston: where tempting treasures--antique, retro, and exotic--await.(Street Smarts: A QUICKIE GUIDE TO ...)
December 1, 2006... 1 THE HOMESTRETCH is, simply, irresistible. Its antiques and objets have been collected and presented with novelty, vision, and simplicity--such as a froufrou chaise, say, recovered and reborn in burlap. The folk art is real as opposed to...

Forest Whitaker.(Texas Monthly Talks: EVAN SMITH SITS DOWN WITH)(Interview)
December 1, 2006... "What does it say about us as human beings when we listen to leaders who lie to us and, as a result, thousands of people are killed?" I'm not normally affected by characters in movies, but your portrayal of Idi Amin in The Last King of...

The best public schools.(The List)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Three times before, in November 1996, November 2001, and November 2002, we've published a list of the top public schools in Texas. Those stories were enormously popular with our readers, which is why we're going back to the well again. As was...

The list: elementary schools.
December 1, 2006... The List: Elementary Schools Campus Name District Name WILLIAM B TRAVIS ACADEMY * Dallas * LIBERTY * Eagle Pass * WALNUT GLEN ACADEMY FOR EXCELLENCE * Garland *...

The list: middle schools.(Table)
December 1, 2006... The List: Middle Schools Students were divided into "previously passing" and "previously below passing" based on their performance in the same subject in the prior year. For further details, go to texasmonthly.com. Campus Name ...

The list: high schools.(Table)
December 1, 2006... The List: High Schools [check] = The school was consistently higher performing in this subject. x = The school was not consistently higher performing in this subject. N/A = The school was not eligible to be rated due to grade span or...

As Plano goes ... so goes the nation? Commentators around the country have been debating that for months. If only they understood what the booming Dallas suburb is really like.
December 1, 2006... Last December, as pundits turned Brokeback Mountain into the culture wars' latest ammunition depot (It's an attack on marriage! It's a landmark event! It's just a movie!), New York Times columnist Frank Rich momentarily called a cease-fire....

Physician, heal thysef: what happens when a neurosurgeon who's treated hundreds of patients with malignant brain tumors gets one himself?(Letter From Houston)
December 1, 2006... Sam Hassenbusch had been having headaches. They weren't severe--he could knock down the pain with Tylenol--but they kept coming back. He mentioned them to his wife, Rhonda, who thought maybe he'd been pushing himself too hard. At 51, Sam was...

The greatest tacos ever sold: they're wrapped in yellow-corn or white-flour tortillas. They're filled with beef, chicken, pork--even octopus. They're topped with everything from fresh tomatoes to jalapeno relish. But of the hundreds of combinations we tasted, only one could rank as the best in the state. Are you ready to get your picadillo on?(Cover story)
December 1, 2006... When I was a kid growing up in Austin in the fifties and sixties, the regulation Texas taco was a single- sized, hard-fried corn tortilla shaped by machine into the form of a U. This was called a crispy taco. Filled with ground beef and topped...

Eating a dead horse: every year tens of thousands of America's noble steeds are slaughtered, shipped to Europe, and devoured by communists! There should be a law against such things! Or maybe there shouldn't ...
December 1, 2006... HERE'S WHAT YOU PROBABLY don't want to take home from a horse auction. A horse with a big swollen knee or a ringbone on the front of the foot or any kind of enlargement of the ankle. A horse with pointy little pin ears poking up from its head...

Ron White gets the last laugh: did you hear the one about the high school screwup who got kicked out of the Navy, went to rehab, and ended up in Arlington selling storm windows from the back of his pickup? That's when he met an unknown comic named Jeff Foxworthy *--and became the funniest man in America.(Interview)
December 1, 2006... Ron "Tater Salad" White looked as if he had just been poked in the eye by someone he strongly disliked. Early one evening in August, while walking through the alley behind Austin's Paramount Theatre, he had encountered a photographer and two...

"You don't want to know what we do after dark": on the streets of Southwest Houston, violent gangs are out of control, dealing drugs, robbing businesses, and protecting their turf at all costs. For one longtime member, each day comes down to two simple questions: will I have to kill? Will I be killed?
December 1, 2006... On a muggy late-summer afternoon, I am sitting in my rental car in front of an apartment complex in southwest Houston. A young man named Alex, wearing a blue T-shirt and jeans, opens the passenger door and slides into the front seat. "Oh,...

Spurs of the moment: with curlicues and jinglebobs, these ornate accessories of the cowboy lifestyle are sought-after Western collectibles. And each pair has a story to tell.
December 1, 2006... WHETHER JANGLING FROM A COWBOY'S HEEL AS HE shuffles around a dance hall or digging into a horse's flank as it crests a hill, spurs have had a small but pointed part to play in the history of the West. Not only do they enable a rider to control...

Paso por, aqui: Jose Cisneros has been drawing the history of the Southwest for 84 years. And he's not done yet.(Interview)
December 1, 2006... Everyone who has written about Jose Cisneros, the legendary historian and illustrator of the Spanish Southwest, has remarked on his excessive modesty and almost painful shyness. Indeed, at our first meeting in his tidy El Paso home, he admitted...

Central 214: Dallas.(crab cakes)
December 1, 2006... I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU, BUT every time I go out to eat, I say a little prayer to the kitchen gods: "Oh please, oh please, oh please, let there be something fabulous on the menu tonight." Usually, however, the kitchen gods are out having a smoke...

New + noteworthy: a new chef at a Dallas landmark; an Asian bistro in Houston.(The Filter: Dining: OUR FAVORITE RESTAURANTS, BISTRO, CAFES, AND JOINTS)
December 1, 2006... Dallas BARCELONA The offerings could be straight from Spain at this charming spot with its bright-yellow-and-cream interior. We began with gazpacho--almost a purge of the traditional ingredients--served in a shot glass. Polio a Vast...

Victorian Christmas Train Ride: Palestine.(JORDAN'S PICK)
December 1, 2006... THERE YOU ARE, ALL bundled up, climbing aboard the Victorian Christmas Train Ride in East Texas with your loved ones. The antique locomotive picks up steam as you sip hot cider and warble, uninhibitedly, your favorite carols. With the verdant...

Pas de Adieu.(The Filter: Events: WHERE TO GO, WHAT TO DO, WHO TO SEE)(Lauren Anderson, ballerina)(Interview)
December 1, 2006... HOUSTON If only ballerinas were as evergreen as The Nutcracker itself, we would never have to imagine the Christmas classic without the Houston Ballet's dazzling Lauren Anderson. But that's a reality we'll soon face when the 41-year-old retires...

The song remains the same.(The Filter: Events: WHERE TO GO, WHAT TO DO, WHO TO SEE)
December 1, 2006... FORT WORTH It's been 45 years since Langston Hughes' song-play "Black Nativity" debuted on Broadway, and the criticism then--"There is a lot of song but hardly any play," wrote the legendary New York Times theater critic Howard Taubman--still...

Talk talk.(Southern Methodist University's conference)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... DALLAS How do we know when we've made the right generalization? Is pop culture dumbing us down or smartening us up? Can you read people's thoughts just by looking at them? These are just a few of the trademark questions asked by Malcolm...

On the road again.(musical groups)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... EL PASO For a vocalist whose commercial zenith has come and gone but who still has the intonation, lung capacity, and charm of his heyday, hitting the road with a second-tier tour sure beats full-fledged retirement. For Peabo Bryson, Deniece...

Bows of jolly.(The Filter: Events: WHERE TO GO, WHAT TO DO, WHO TO SEE)
December 1, 2006... CLEAR LAKE If you want to float with the best of'em at the annual Christmas Boat Lane Parade on Clear Lake (and, fingers crossed, take home one of the top awards), you'll need, according to a previous winner, the following: "big things, moving...

Play dates.(Houston Museum of Natural Science)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... HOUSTON Even if you factor in predictions for a wetter and possibly even cooler winter courtesy of El Nino (yes, he's back), a snowy December remains a slim prospect for southeast Texas. (The freak mini-blizzard that hit two years ago...

Love, American-style.(tennis)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... AUSTIN, FRISCO "It's a testament to this country's historical amnesia that tennis is now considered not quite American." Zing! And the point goes to Tennis Magazine, which made that incisive assessment in its recent special report on the state...

Bowl-o-Rama.(college football)
December 1, 2006... FORT WORTH, HOUSTON, EL PASO, SAN ANTONIO, DALLAS Bowl season, a college football fan's favorite three-week stretch, kicks off this month. Like manna from the heavens, a record 32 postseason matchups will rain down on the faithful, providing...

Forecast stars.(jewelry)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... REWARDS 18kt gold and diamond star earrings $1,650-$1,700 | Austin | 800-292-0195 or 512-502-9799 | shoprewards.com [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SOUTHWEST GALLERY Sterling silver bracelet with spiny oyster star, $200 Black leather...

Snakes on a brain: now playing at a googolplex near you: nothing good, even if you slither from theater to theater.
December 1, 2006... Netflix has ruined me for the movies-at least old-school, get-out-of-your-pajamas-and-go-to-a-theater-filled-with-other-humans kinds of movies. Instead I multitask: I fold laundry, check e-mail, talk on the phone, watch Transamerica. Like a lot...