Texas Monthly articles from January 2005

Texas Monthly archives from January 2005

The games begin: what does the 2005 legislative session have to do with the 2006 elections? Everything. Oh, boy, is this going to be fun.(Behind the Lines)
January 1, 2005... In October, a few days before the presidential election, I drove to Lubbock--through the Hill Country, into the empty West Texas ranch lands, and then onto the Plains, where late cotton waited in the fields to be picked. In all that time, from...

Bushwhacking.(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... I can forgive Mimi Swartz for giving voice to Laura Bush's sentiments that she isn't interested in any return other than a return to normalcy ["The Good Wife," November 2004]. I can also forgive Ms. Swartz the observation that "the country is...

He said, he said.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... What is it about George W. Bush's presidency and reelection campaign that makes me feel like I wandered into a modern-day presentation of The President Has No Clothes? Good, decent, intelligent folks plan to vote for him for reasons that make...

Trial and error.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... The biggest victim of our criminal justice system and the use of the death penalty is justice itself ["And Justice for Some," November 2004]. No one in the criminal justice system is interested in finding the truth in the cases before the...

Public enemy no. 1.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... Read your fear-mongering article about the Houston Ship Channel and terrorist attacks ["Attack Here," November 2004]. Why don't you join them? You've done their homework and, with a complete lack of responsibility, published it. As I've said...

Los Lonely Boys.(People, Places, Events, Attractions)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... I first heard LOS LONELY BOYS--Ringo, Jojo, and Henry Garza--at a club in downtown Austin and invited them to record at my studio. They were as good as I thought they'd be. It's something about being brothers; it's in their DNA. Their voices...

Around the state: wheelchair accessibility key.(Calendar)
January 1, 2005... Austin Music/Dance JAN 22: JONNY LANG To simply listen to Lang--raspy, gravely vocals and wicked guitar solos--is to imagine a well-aged, well-weathered blues veteran. To see him is another story. At 23 and baby-faced, Lang is a...

State secrets.(Coming attractions: the month in politics.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Thousands of Texans descend on the CAPITOL during a legislative session, ranging from lobbyists to tourists (you'll have no trouble telling which is which). Visit during the 140 days from January 11 to May 30, and by all means take the...

Tour of duty.(Coming attractions: the month in politics.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Political junkies who have felt adrift since the end of the presidential campaign should make their way to Dallas this month, where three exhibits will help fill the void. At Southern Methodist University's Bridwell Library until January 20,...

Jolly good fellow.(Coming attractions: the month in politics)(Sam Rayburn Library and Museum)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The Sam Rayburn Library and Museum, in Bonham, hosts an open house on January 6 to celebrate what would be the 123rd birthday of the former Speaker of the US. House. H. G. Dulaney went to work for Rayburn in 1951 and oversaw the library from...

Texas citrus fiesta.(Gather round: fair, fests, and other reasons to get together.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Part folk art, part pageantry, Mission's Texas Citrus Fiesta (January 21-29) is one of America's classic festivals, displaying native creativity while promoting the area's main export: fruit. Locals spend hundreds of hours decorating costumes...

King of the crop.(Gather round: fair, fests, and other reasons to get together.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The Royal Coronation, one of the most anticipated events of the festival, takes place on January 27. Among those honored will be the new King Citrus, whose identity is top secret until the night of the ceremony. Jud Flowers, 2004's king, shares...

It's not just for breakfast anymore.(Gather round: fair, fests, and other reasons to get together.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... In 1932, when the Citrus Fiesta held its first PRODUCT COSTUME STYLE SHOW, Mission's beauties slipped into outfits that were, shall we say, crude--just imagine the look, and smell, of models decked out in cabbage leaves. But technology and...

The Dallas morning blues: it's been nothing but bad news lately for Belo, the media conglomerate that owns the state's leading newspaper. But to understand how Texas's oldest company can survive in the brave new world, you have to read between the lines.(Reporter)
January 1, 2005... The following tabloid-style headline would never run in the conservative, sober sided Dallas Morning News: "Scandal Shocks Family Empire!" Nor would this shamelessly embellished subhead: "Company Reels From Onslaught of Bad News." Both,...

Funny, you don't look fluish.(Minister Of Health)
January 1, 2005... You might have already forgotten about the Great Flu Vaccination Shortage of 2004--you know, the one that had the Kerry campaign whipped into a frenzy last October. But though the issue has disappeared from the cable-news crawls, here in Texas...

Previews + reviews.(meshed briefs)
January 1, 2005... 1 Like the blues, jazz is steeped in such tradition that players can spend decades finding their own voice. Many never do. Which makes what JASON MORAN has accomplished in just over five years of recording even more remarkable. SAME MOTHER...

Write wing: how conservative political activists turned public school textbooks into the latest test of our moral values.(FAQ)
January 1, 2005... Who decides which textbooks are used in the public schools? It's up to the State Board of Education, whose fifteen members are elected from districts around the state. But by the time a book actually gets in front of the SBOE, it seems that...

No hat, no cattle: Texas's venerable myth, rooted in our rugged, wide-open spaces, is seriously in need of a big-city makeover.
January 1, 2005... Retro Texas, meet metro Texas. For generations the history-redolent mythology supposedly hardwired into every Texan's brain has hallowed our rural wide-open spaces, even as the eastern third of the state has experienced an unprecedented...

And still champion: Galveston's Jack Johnson was the first black man to wear boxing's heavyweight crown--and white America has never forgiven him for it. A presidential pardon for a trumped-up crime would right a century-old wrong.(Biography)
January 1, 2005... While researching a history of Galveston in the late eighties, I came across an abstract sculpture in a small park on Seawall Boulevard. Its steel spirals were a representation of Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion of the world....

The gay non-issue: the Legislature may push a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage--never mind that it's already illegal--but the election of a lesbian sheriff in Dallas County says a lot more about the new politics of sexual orientation in Texas.
January 1, 2005... Lupe Valdez would rather not talk about it anymore. After she won the race for Dallas County sheriff in November, she was deluged with calls and requests for interviews. Everyone from the New York Times and National Public Radio to, well, TEXAS...

Ben Barnes: the 66-year-old Democratic lightning rod on why he's not sorry about 60 Minutes, the real reasons John Kerry lost, and how his party can come back from the dead.(Texas Monthly Talks)(Interview)
January 1, 2005... You put a lot of time and energy into [Democratic presidential nominee] John Kerry over the past year, and into winning the U.S. Senate back for the Democrats, and particularly into getting [Senate minority leader] Tom Daschle reelected. None...

The 2005 Bum Steer Awards.
January 1, 2005... How do we explain a year like 2004? George W. Bush had more people vote against him, some 57 million, than any previous candidate for president ever--and won. The Astros, just a win away from their first World Series, handed the ball to one...

Sunk: when the swift boat veterans for truth capsized John Kerry's presidential campaign, much of the unfriendly fire came from Texas. Here's how, in their own words, another band of brothers--and a few sisters--changed history. Or, at least, rewrote it.
January 1, 2005... ON APRIL 4, 2004, nine Vietnam veterans gathered in the conference room of a Dallas PR firm. They agreed that Senator John Kerry, then the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, should not be elected and spent the day talking about how to...

L. on wheels: eight days in a rental car with Larry L. King, the crotchety West Texan who has written some of the greatest magazine stories of all time, would be enough to drive anyone crazy. Except his biggest fan.
January 1, 2005... APPRECIATING THE WRITER Larry L. King is no chore, unless of course you're easily offended. Or overly judgmental. Or constitutionally genteel, hyperpious, or self-consciously intellectual, i.e., you have outgrown your britches, as Larry might...

Your J-J looked good until a 5-6-7 turned up on the flop, a 3 walked down fourth street, and a 4 came down the river: did we lose you already? Then it's time you learned to play no-limit Texas Hold 'Em. Everybody else has.
January 1, 2005... If you haven't seen a Texas Hold 'Em tournament on TV lately, it's probably because you haven't actually turned your TV on. On any given night, you can now watch Las Vegas professionals playing Hold 'Em, Hollywood actors playing Hold 'Em, even...

"She had brains a body, and the ability to make men love her": how a 22-year-old former homecoming queen discovered prostitution, helped put 68 high-profile Johns in handcuffs, and brought Odessa to its knees.
January 1, 2005... THEY WERE NOT RUN-OF-THE-MILL WHORES. Anybody in Odessa would tell you that. Clients and investigators agree that you could have been in church and not have realized that you were sitting next to one of the Healing Touch massage parlor...

Pat's pick: Noe.(The Dining Guide)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... As nearly as I can tell. chef Robert Gadsby's mind is moving at warp speed. His complex, multi-ingredient, Asian-inflected French cuisine took shape when he opened the first Noe restaurant, in the Omni Hotel in Los Angeles, in 2003, and his...

The Dining Guide: policies and definitions.
January 1, 2005... The Dining 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 list. The reviewers' identities are kept anonymous...

Eating around: gastronomic getaways in Texas--and beyond.(The Dining Guide)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Photo Op Do you suspect that your friends hit the "delete" key whenever they see that you've e-mailed them the usual lame, out-of-focus pictures from your vacation? You're right--which is why you might want to sign up for the Travel and...

Dome improvement: as your governor, I'll tell the truth, give power to young people, and send Californians packing. Have I mentioned my plan to invade Oklahoma?
January 1, 2005... Many of us remember, in that dim and distant corridor of childhood, a book titled If I Ran the Zoo. What's that? You don't remember reading it? Okay. Push pause. There once was a zoo that some folks liked to call Texas politics. In this zoo...