Texas Monthly articles from January 2002

Texas Monthly archives from January 2002

The perfect storm: that's how Enron describes the forces that sunk its stock. But it caused its own disaster-through greed, arrogance, and a failure to learn from the past. (Behind the Lines).
January 1, 2002... "IT'S NOTHING BUT A HOUSE OF CARDS." If you lived in Houston, you heard that description of Enron every once in a while-around the water-coolers at the downtown banks or at dinner parties where the guests worked for the competition. It was...

Ratings game. (Roar of the Crowd).(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2002... I HAVE FOUND THAT MOST ORGANIZAtions that rate public schools leave out one of the most important factors in the success of students in testing and in the world of work ["How Good Is Your Kid's School?" November 2001]. That factor is parents....

Trading places. (Roar of the Crowd).(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2002... MIMI SWARTZ'S STORY ON WHAT ENron is like to work for is most accurate ["How Enron Blew It," November 2001]. I worked for Enron Capital and Trade Resources from 1995 to 1998 in the analyst associate program. I experienced Super Saturday...

The candidate. (Roar of the Crowd).(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2002... JAN REID'S DISAPPOINTING ARTICLE on Tony Sanchez smacks of a loosely strung series of innuendos and old stereotypes ["Tony Sanchez's New Deal," November 2001]. He avoided focusing on the well-established substance of Tony Sanchez--a good...

Radio daze. (Roar of the Crowd).(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2002... AS THE GENERAL MANAGER OF SIX Clear Channel stations in Corpus Christi, I can tell you that Joe Nick Patoski is dead wrong about cookie-cutter radio and programming dictates [Media: "Distress Signal," November 2001]. No one at Clear Channel has...

Around the state: a selective guide to amusements and events.
January 1, 2002... JANUARY 2002 SUNDAY MONDAY 6 7 Sins of the Father, a TV movie about Tom Cherry and an Alabama church bombing-based on the Texas Monthly article of the same name by Pamela...

You are there: I spent a month in Peshawar, Pakistan, thousands of miles from my home and family in Austin, covering the war for National Public Radio. Here's what I saw. (Letter From Pakistan).
January 1, 2002... AS WE WALKED BRISKLY THROUGH the narrow streets of Peshawar, Pakistan, toward my first "Death to America" rally, my translator, Hasan, called over his shoulder, "Stay close to me. If anyone asks, tell them you're Canadian. And don't worry, the...

Suzy Banks nerd watching: as Houston conventiongoers crowded around one of his inventions, my dad was in his element. (First Person).(Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Conference and Exhibition)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... MY FATHER CAME INTO THIS WORLD A fully formed engineer, born with a slide rule in one hand and a tape measure in the other. Bluntly put, he is a nerd. Until recently, Dad wore the nerd uniform: horn-rimmed glasses and short-sleeved dress...

Anne Wilkes Tucker: how the photography curator developed a world-class collection in Houston--and made time. (A Few Words With ...).(Brief Article)(Interview)
January 1, 2002... Who is America's best museum curator? According to a recent issue of Time magazine recognizing the nation's cultural innovators, the answer is Anne Wilkes Tucker of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. A Louisiana native, the 56-year-old was hired...

Death and Texas: when I discovered that potter county has the highest urban mortality rate in the state, I decided to find out why. (on Health).
January 1, 2002... WHEN I BEGAN MY SEARCH FOR THE STATE'S deadliest place about a year ago, I assumed I'd discover it among our biggest cities, with their violent crime and resurgent incidences of AIDS; or along the border, with its unsanitary air and water and...

"Cheap! Cheap!" the Dixie Chicks say that Sony Music owes them millions. If they can break their contract, the record business will never be the same. (on Law).
January 1, 2002... I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THAT THE DIXIE CHICKS AND their record label, Sony Music, would end up in court. One night about a year and a half ago, I was interviewing Charlie Robison in the Olmos Park cottage he shares with his wife, Emily, the banjo...

Paper chase: while newspaper monopolies dominate our big cities. In a few small towns the competition is still fast and furious. (on Media).
January 1, 2002... "WE KNOW EACH OTHER; WE TALK TO EACH other, says Caned Cardwell, the senior reporter for the Alpine Observer, of Betse Brooks, her rival at the Alpine Avalanche. "At council meetings we'll check with each other about spellings." There are even...

Bum Steer Awards 2002.(humour)
January 1, 2002... HAPPIER NEW YEAR! Surely 2002 has to be better than 2001, and the best way to help it get off to a good start is with a little laughter. Along with our regular January feature, the Bum Steer Awards, in this issue we present a collection of...

Presents! Kitsch and tell with the Bum Steer gift guide.(collectibles)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... The 2002 Texas Swimsuit Calendar, available from Delario Publishing Group, San Antonio ($14.95). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Dallas Cowboys pocket watch, from the Franklin Mint, Franklin Center, Pennsylvania ($69). [ILLUSTRATION...

My short, unhappy life as a rodeo clown: I learned four important things when I enrolled in Leon Coffee's program for aspiring cowboys: protect the bull rider, protect your partner, protect yourself, and go to law school.
January 1, 2002... LEON COFFEE, PERHAPS THE MOST REVERED AND beloved clown in the history of American rodeo, had already had about enough of my crap well before I led a rank and irate fighting bull named Ghostbuster directly to the spot near the arena wall where...

Deep thoughts about me: questions I am often asked (and my answers).(humour)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Is that your real name? I thought Jack Handey was a made-up name. Jack Handey is a made-up name. It was made up by my parents when I was born. However, I am a real person. I was born in San Antonio on February 25, 1949, went to high school...

Grand Royal: director Wes Anderson's new movie, The Royal Tenenbaums, is all about dysfunction, despair, and death. Leave it to the Houston native to make it one of the funniest films of 2001. (The Humor Issue).(Interview)
January 1, 2002... AT A TIME OF DUMB AND dumber Hollywood fare, Wes Anderson is making comedy smart again. The 32-year-old Houston native has made arguably the funniest movie of 2001, though he seems unsure just what to call The Royal Tenenbaums' mix of deadpan...

Punchline Willie: who knew the world's best-loved country singer had such a good sense of humor? Willie Nelson's just-published memoir is filled with jokes, both clean and dirty. Here are some of his favorites--and ours. (The Humor Issue).
January 1, 2002... DID YOU HEAR THE ONE ABOUT THE country singer who was funny enough to be a stand-up comic? At least that's what Willie Nelson's friends say. "He's very sharp," insists Texas Monthly writer-at-large Kinky Friedman, a pal for thirty years. "If he...

Yee-ha! We Texans love to laugh-especially at ourselves. So read on for 200 classic jokes with a serious Texas accent.
January 1, 2002... KNOCK, KNOCK. WHO'S THERE? TEXAS. TEXAS WHO? TEXAS NO TIME AT ALL TO ROUND UP A HERD OF regional jokes. On these pages are two hundred of them, from hoary groaners to vintage postcard sentiments to modern one-liners. More than a fourth are...

Amon high: Fort Worth's newly expanded Amon Carter Museum offers a thrilling roller-coaster ride through the American psyche. (on Art).
January 1, 2002... WHEN THE AMON CARTER MUseum first opened, in 1961, the compact modernist temple perched on a Fort Worth hillside seemed little more than an elegant cenotaph to its late benefactor, local publishing and oil magnate Amon G. Carter, Sr. Crammed...

War fare: surviving for 48 hours on a diet of "meals ready to eat" gave me a taste of military life-and a new respect for Tabasco sauce. (on Food).(military meals)(Column)
January 1, 2002... THE EDITOR OF THIS MAGAZINE IS TRYING TO kill me. Oh, I know what you're thinking: "Come on, that can't be right. Why, Evan Smith seems so nice, a family man and all. Whatever could make you think he has it in for you?" But I swear...

Restaurant guide: a selective guide to food and drink.(Directory)
January 1, 2002... JANUARY 2002 Austin * Hudson's on the Bend 3509 Ranch Rd 620, 1.5 miles southwest of Mansfield Dam (512-266-1369). We began with the very good and very rich lobster-and-goat-cheese quesadillas. Our mixed grill entree produced mixed...

The jest is history: from David Koresh's theme park to Jack Ruby's shopping spree, the Beaumont scrolls reveal Texas' secret past. (The Last Roundup).(Humor)(Column)
January 1, 2002... THE FABLED, LONG-LOST Beaumont Scrolls, rumored to have been written by Bubba Nostradamus and clandestinely passed along for generations at otherwise stultifyingly dull Rotary Club meetings, have at last been found! The B.S., as they are...