Texas Monthly articles from February 2002

Texas Monthly archives from February 2002

Onward, Christian: the wisest, kindest man in Texas politics has cancer, and he has rejected chemotherapy. But the fight hasn't left George Christian yet. (Behind the Lines).(George Christian, former public official)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... IN THE SUMMER OF 1987, THE STATE'S TWO most prominent Democrats announced their departure from electoral politics. I used the occasion to write a short article that I soon wished I hadn't. The headline was "Famine, Pestilence, Destruction, and...

Test of faith. (Roar of the Crowd).
February 1, 2002... I SERVED IN 1996 ON GOVERNOR George W. Bush's Advisory Task Force on Faith-Based Community Service Groups and later as vice chair of the Texas Department of Human Services. I join Pamela Colloff in condemning the alleged abuse inflicted on...

Roky's road. (Roar of the Crowd).
February 1, 2002... IN 1965 AND 1966 I TRAVELED THE country with the 13th Floor Elevators and my friends-drummer John Ike Walton, lead guitarist Stacy Sutherland, bass guitarist Ronnie Leatherman, and my fellow equipment manager Cecil Morris, all of us from...

Novel approach. (Roar of the Crowd).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... PAUL BURKA'S "WAR AND PEACE" PROVIDES a rare glimpse of reality as it applies to the politics in the Indian subcontinent and Afghanistan [Behind the Lines, December 20011. Clearly there are important lessons to be learned from history. Foreign...

Around the state: a selective guide to amusements and events.
February 1, 2002... FEBRUARY 2002 SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY 1 2 Wear Charlie ...

The player: when Champ Hood succumbed to cancer last fall at age 49, we lost a musician's musician--one of the most talented sidemen not just in Texas but anywhere. (The State of our State).(rest in peace)(Obituary)
February 1, 2002... THE PREACHER EULOGIZED Champ Hood with Scripture; the musicians did it with song. Dozens of them were at his funeral--famous ones like Lyle Lovett, David Ball, Jimmie Dale Austin music scene. Along with seven hundred fans and friends, they...

First person: Patricia Busa McConnico reconnected: visiting my folks after the Causeway was repaired, I found that--on the surface, at least--South Padre was getting back to normal. (Texas Monthly reporter).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... THERE'S THE CAUSEWAY," I ANNOUNCED AS Mom and I rounded the bend near Laguna Vista on a Thursday in December. I've said this hundreds of times when I catch my first glimpse of the massive bridge that connects South Padre Island, where my...

A few words with ... Todd Hays: how the Del Rio native iced a spot on the U.S. bobsled team and raced to Olympic heights. (Texas Monthly reporter).(Interview)
February 1, 2002... Todd Hays has had a lot of great moments as an athlete. The 32-year-old played quarterback for Del Rio High School. In 1991, when he was a linebacker for the University of Tulsa, his team upset Texas A&M. Two years later Hays won the national...

Bioterrified? After ingesting huge amounts of cable-channel blather about anthrax, I most certainly was--so I made a few calls.
February 1, 2002... IN LATE NOVEMBER TWO THINGS HAPPENED THAT REVIVED my flagging interest in bioterrorism. The first was news that at least two more people had died of random anthrax infection--apparently contracted via cross-contamination of mail--and that tens...

Up in the air: how the CEOs of American, Continental, and Southwest Airlines are navigating the uncertainty of the world since 9-11.
February 1, 2002... "YOU LIKE TACO BELL?" GORDON BETHUNE, CONTINENTAL Airlines' chairman and chief executive officer, asks me as he leads the way through bustling Terminal C at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Usually CEO lunch interviews are bland,...

Green with envy: just once I'd like my alma mater, the University of North Texas, to get as much respect as, say, the University of Texas. Is that too much to ask?(Interview)
February 1, 2002... MY CUE TO LEAVE CAME WHEN EXACTLY ONE HALF of the more than 75,000 fans at the Cotton Bowl flew out of their seats and flashed the upside-down "Hook 'em, Horns" sign. With two minutes to play, Oklahoma safety Roy Williams had blitzed Texas...

Can Rick Perry stand on his own? With George W. Bush no longer at the top of the ballot for the first time in five elections, Texas can look forward to the most intriguing political year in a generation: four big races, two strong tickets, and a healthy debate over whether this is still a two-party state. Can the Republicans stomp out the challenge, or will the Democrats send the governor and his allies to Boot Hill?
February 1, 2002... THE UNVEILING OF GEORGE W. BUSH'S PORTRAIT IN THE ROTUNDA OF THE STATE capitol on a cold January morning was an occasion for nostalgia. It was Governor Bush, not President Bush, who showed up on the small dais--a man completely at ease,...

Mission: impossible: rumor has it that director Ron Howard and screenwriter John Sayles are coming to Austin this spring to make a $100 million movie about the Alamo. It may be too much to ask that they get Texas' defining battle right (since no one knows what really happened), but I've got my fingers crossed--and a few friendly words of advice.
February 1, 2002... Dear Ron and John: Heard y'all are coming to Texas to make a moving picture. We are mighty excited! It has been a long, lonely fifteen years since somebody made an epic about our favorite subject, the Alamo. Here are a few tips to make...

Durst case scenarios: how did a human torso end up floating in Galveston Bay? That's just one of the many unknowns that police officers in several states (and true-crime junkies in the popular press) are grappling with as they learn more about the bizarre life of multimillionaire murder suspect Robert Durst.
February 1, 2002... GALVESTON IS ONE OF GOD'S FORSAKEN packages, a place where the desperate and the disenfranchised wash ashore with every tide, so the wiry little man with the bleached peach-pit face and a fishing cap pulled over his ears looked no different...

Where to eat now: want to know the Indian restaurant all of Houston is talking about? The Dallas dining room with "crackling chicken" that's to die for? The Austin cafe where the elite meet to eat? Just ask me.
February 1, 2002... I HAVE A RECURRING DREAM. IN IT, I AM TRAPPED IN A CORNER WHILE INQUISITORS WITH BURNING eyes bombard me with questions: "Where's the best chicken-fried steak in Texas?" "Where should I take my wife for our anniversary?" "What's fun?" "What's...

Which side of the fence are you on? All over Texas, ranchers are putting up eight-foot fences to keep their deer from roaming so they can charge more for hunting leases. Purists say shooting such deer doesn't amount to "fair chase." Biologists say penning them in causes disease. I say it's the best thing that could happen to the land.
February 1, 2002... GENE RISER wheels his pickup over the caliche road in the thorny South Texas brush country near the town of George West, halfway between Corpus Christi and San Antonio. He's showing off his 2,500-acre mesquite-studded property while explaining...

Love birds: when it comes to lasting romance, we humans could learn a thing or two from the whooping cranes that winter on the Texas coast.
February 1, 2002... I'LL NEVER EMBRACE VALENTINE'S DAY, WITH ITS greeting-card sentiments about love, but after nearly eighteen years of marriage, I'll concede that romance occasionally needs a nudge. With this in mind, I whisked my husband, Richard, to the harbor...

Polka dotty: Brave Combo never knew how crazy polkaholics were until the Dentonites won a Grammy. Now--perish the thought--they could win another.
February 1, 2002... IT ALL STARTED WITH THE GRAMMY. TWO YEARS AGO Brave Combo touched off no small controversy when Polkasonic won best polka album, beating out such pillars of the traditional genre as Jimmy Sturr and Eddie Blazonczyk. The backlash came quickly....

Restaurant guide: a selective guide to food and drink.
February 1, 2002... FEBRUARY 2000 Austin UPDATE Ella's Jefferson Square, Kerbey Ln at W. 38th (512-458-2148). Impress your new beau with dinner at this smart neighborhood spot. Crunchy oysters with a tart tomatillo aioli began our repast on the...

Don Imus has heart: in New Mexico--far west Texas to you and me--my old friend the radio jock runs a ranch for kids with cancer. And you thought he was all talk.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... WITH THE DECLINE OF THE VILLAGE People, there aren't many crazy cowboys left in New York City, and Don Imus and I like to keep it that way. We've been friends for almost thirty years, and we spent the first half of that friendship determinedly...