Texas Monthly articles from July 2008

Texas Monthly archives from July 2008

The cowboy way..(TexasMonthly.com)
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A slide show of the true Texas hero--the working cowboy.

Cattle recall.(TexasMonthly.com)
July 1, 2008... Evan Smith talks with novelist Elmer Kelton about reclaiming the word "cowboy" from the pundits and the politicians.

The war within.(TexasMonthly.com)
July 1, 2008... Soldier Matt Cook on his experience in Iraq, coming home, and his new documentary, Swim.

Get kinky.(TexasMonthly.com)
July 1, 2008... Your daily dose of wit and wisdom, courtesy of Kinky Friedman.

Wining and dining.(TexasMonthly.com)
July 1, 2008... Check out our new online dining guide, and search Texas restaurant listings by city, cuisine, and price.

Flashback.(TexasMonthly.com)
July 1, 2008... Topical stories from our archives: Gary Cartwright on the plight of the modern cowboy in "The Last Roundup" (February 1985), Pamela Colloff on Fort Hood in "Life During Wartime" (February 2004), and Patricia Kilday Hart on Ron Kirk's U.S....

Blog on.(TexasMonthly.com)
July 1, 2008... TEXAS MONTHLY editors follow the 2008 election on the irreverent Poll Dancing biog. Paul Burka talks Texas politics, and Evan Smith speaks his mind. Plus: Patricia Sharpe on food and our editors on Texas sports.

Podcasts.(TexasMonthly.com)
July 1, 2008... Kinky Friedman reads his latest column, on Fox News talking head Bill O'Reilly.

Mission impossible: why we should end the war in Iraq--now.(Behind the Lines)
July 1, 2008... My grandfather served in World War I, my father in World War II. I was Marine in Vietnam. The longest love affair of my life is with the United States Marine Corps. I believe in its values, its commitment, its ethic of sacrifice and excellence....

CoverBoy.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Looking at your Willie cover, I see him praying, my wife sees him stoned, and my daughter sees him reflecting on along, well-lived life. It is truly a work of art. James Jolley ODESSA Twenty-four hours...

A mountain's due.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2008... You have my sincere thanks for the in-depth story on Jerry Patterson and the Christmas Mountains ["This Land Is His Land," May 2008]. From what I knew about the issue from local news, I could not imagine why Patterson appeared to be so...

Grave concerns.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2008... I found Mr. Cartwright's history of the Texas State Cemetery a bit lacking and the racial undertone throughout somewhat disturbing ["Remains of the Day," May 2008]. The innuendo that this hallowed ground was established as a Confederate...

Code names.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2008... I was reading your finished piece on Farmers Branch and wanted to thank you for your interest in our city ["No Place Like Home," May 2008]. There is one very specific inaccuracy I need to bring to your attention. Your story makes reference to...

Government 101.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2008... Excuse me, Margaret Spellings. While your expertise may have qualified you to become Secretary of Education, you seem to misunderstand a basic tenet of the way this country is supposed to work [Reporter, Texas Monthly Talks, May 2008]. Your...

Stinky Friedman.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2008... Years ago I knew a cowboy in Big Bend country. If he heard a joke or a story that wasn't funny to him, he'd roar and say, "Now, men, that's about as funny as cat poop in the church punch bowl." I wish he were alive to have read the Kinky story...

Color theory.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2008... Come on, Burka. Your analysis of the overwhelming Democratic turnout for the primary missed only the most obvious reason for such a disparity: that the GOP race was already over and there was no need for Republicans to even show up, unless they...

The war at home.(Editor's Letter)(Editorial)
July 1, 2008... Of the many concerns I have about the Iraq war, one of the biggest is this: The media have done an inadequate job, abetted by the Bush administration's no-images-of-flag-draped-coffins dictate, of covering the massive loss of life, limb, and...

Dallas, our Dallas.(In the Chute)
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WHEN OUR FAVORITE BOOZY, greedy, love-to-hate TV family, the Ewings, first entered our homes, in 1978, Jimmy Carter was in office and oil was just shy of $40 a barrel. Led by the scheming J. R., the campy clan...

Sudden Exposure.(In the Chute)(Canyon Lake Gorge)
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] PICTURE A CHUNK of rock-solid earth the size of a football field and three stories high. Now imagine it disappearing almost overnight. Gone. In an unfathomable feat, an equivalent amount of land vanished six summers...

Diamond days.(In the Chute)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] HITTING A BALL with a stick, that august pastime, has been around for so long--in Texas it dates back to at least the 1870's-we forget baseball was ever a novelty. But now the original game is experiencing a...

Go to TEXASMONTHLY.COM for more than 170 other July events, including ...(Reporter)(Brief article)(Calendar)
July 1, 2008... Willie Nelson's Fourth of July Picnic The Braided One brings his patriotic gig to Selma. 7/4, willienelson.com Free Kick Masters The soccer world's top kickers and goalkeepers face off in Houston. 7/5, freekickmasters.com...

A happy marriage.(The Horse's Mouth: EVERYTHING WE COULD EVER TELL YOU ABOUT ...)
July 1, 2008... NAMES: Melvin and Minnie Lou Scotta AGES: 101 and 100 HOMETOWN: Frankston QUALIFICATIONS: Married eighty years ago on November 11, 1927 / The first of five living generations (one son, three grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, and The...

A loss for words: when coaches say something, why don't they say something?(The Cheap Seats)
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] After the home team wins a big game, fans are likely to say, "We beat the [bleep] out of those [bleep]!" But the coach takes a more elliptical approach. He runs away from definitive statements the way a running back...

Kevin Hutchison, 45 fly-fishing guide.(The Working Life: STORIES FROM THE 9 TO 5)
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Fly-fishing in Texas is underappreciated. When people think of Texas, they think of cowboys and cattle, hunting, and fishing with conventional tackle. That's ingrained in our culture. Fly-fishing is this interloper...

Beltway Park Baptist Church.(Faith Bases)(Organization overview)
July 1, 2008... Abilene | April 20, 2008 More than twenty denominations have a presence in Abilene, but a troika of Baptists, Methodists, and Churches of Christ dominates religious life in the city, likely reflecting the presence of matching universities:...

Custom hats: how to keep a cool head.(The Manual: WHAT EVERY TEXAN SHOULD KNOW ABOUT)
July 1, 2008... THE MATERIAL A cowboy hat is a beloved possession: It fans fires, it blocks the rain, it gives shade--and it lends authenticity at any honky-tonk or greased-pig contest. But it's also an extension of one's personality, so commissioning one...

Porn yesterday: Debbie Does Dallas turns thirty.(Hollywood, TX)
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] How do you capture XXX-rated lightning in a bottle? In the case of Debbie Does Dallas, you start with a title--one so splendidly alliterative, so lusciously evocative, that it hardly matters that, over the course of...

La Conquistadora.(Krayolas)(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Cash-in reunions from chart-topping warhorses aren't tough to predict: Few could feign surprise at, say, the Police returning to arenas for ticket prices equivalent to the average family vacation. But foreseeing a...

Forgiven.(Los Lonely Boys)(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] After the stunning success of their 2003 self-titled release, San Angelo's LOS LONELY BOYS settled in for a world-class sophomore slump. Sacred, in 2006, was formulaic and felt like a rush job; the record-buying...

Pinetop Perkins and Friends.
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Over the years, the ancestral line of prewar American blues-men has just about vanished. Mississippi-born pianist PINE TOP PERKINS, who relocated to Austin in 2004, is one of the few survivors. A sideman for the...

Kat Edmonson.(Previews+Reviews:Music)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... The 24-year-old Austin singer created a grassroots phenomenon with her song and video "Be the Change" (written and produced with collaborator Kevin Lovejoy), which has garnered radio and television play, become a top local seller, and received...

Books: A Memoir.
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] More than forty years into his career as an antiquarian bookseller (not to mention his other job as a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist), LARRY MCMURTRY has paused to reflect on a life hawking secondhand tomes in...

Alive In Necropolis.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The real-world town of Colma, California--home to about 1,600 residents and more than two million corpses in seventeen cemeteries (motto: "It's great to be alive in Colma")--provides an odd but effective setting for...

Sichan Siv.(Previews+Reviews:Books)(Golden Bones)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2008... It took the San Antonio resident thirty years to write the memoir Golden Bones-a reasonable time, perhaps, to assess a life that includes an escape from Cambodia's killing fields and stints as both a New York City cabbie and a deputy assistant...

Water world: scuba diving! Heated pools! Giant catfish! This is Athens?(Go)
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I went to Athens to check out Ray Price's tour bus. Of course, Ray wasn't in this particular bus, since it broke down long ago and now sits at the bottom of a 35-foot-deep, eight-acre reservoir at Athens Scuba Park,...

TwinWells: Chapter Seven: the hospitality of the county.(Texquisite Corpse: A STORY IN TWELVE PARTS AND TWELVE VOICES)(Excerpt)
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Don't go anywhere, the deputy had said, but as Baldwin dressed he decided that the deputy meant in the general sense of "don't leave town." A city-limits sort of proscription, which suited Baldwin fine, since he...

Ricardo Sanchez: "Do I blame the nation for the mistakes we made that led us to Abu Ghraib and the abuses that occurred as a result of the actions we took? Do I blame the military or the Department of Defense for trying to contain this extremely embarrassing period in our history? I think when you look at it, what happened to me is that I got caught in a perfect storm.".(Texas Monthly Talks)(Interview)
July 1, 2008... Your memoir, Wiser in Battle, is bracingly candid. For somebody who spent 33 years in the Army, you're fairly critical of many of the people you worked with and their pros. coition of the war in Iraq. It was excruciatingly painful for me to...

Tour de Farce: the agony--and ecstasy--of taking my son to visit colleges.
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Sam has made it very clear that he is on his way out. Our son is seventeen now, and though he tries to be nice about it--"Did you guys have a good time [all alone, without me] last night?" he asked last Sunday...

Please go away: an open letter to Cormac McCarthy.
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Dear Cormac, A couple of years ago the Texas Book Festival "Bookended" you. (They will Bookend anybody, so it's nothing to feel cocky about.) Since you famously do not appear in person to receive awards and over...

True grit.(Cowboys)(Cover story)
July 1, 2008... To me, the word "COWBOY" calls to mind a long and noble tradition of hard work and honesty. But every time I turn on the news, I hear it thrown around as a pejorative, hijacked by pundits and politicians to refer to arrogant, reckless types who...

Soldier: after five years as a student at the University of Texas at Austin, I joined the Army because I wanted a challenge. I wanted adventure. Then I started basic training on September 11, 2001, and got more than I expected. After serving multiple tours in Iraq--patrolling city streets in the dead of night, hunting down insurgents, shooting at the enemy and being shot at--I will never be the same.(Short story)
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "EVERY MAN THINKS MEANLY OF HIMSELF FOR NOT HAVING BEEN A SOLDIER..." --SAMUEL JOHNSON SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 I SIT IN THE FORMATION AREA PACKED with two hundred other cherry recruits. Here it doesn't...

Keeper of the flame: nothing says summer like a cookout, and nobody understands a cookout better than Paul Petersen. The executive chef of the Gage Hotel, in Marathon, as created a feast in which everything is grilled--even dessert.
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] When you visit chef Paul Petersen at the historic Gage Hotel, in the West Texas town of Marathon, it isn't long before he escorts you out back to see his favorite toy: a mammoth, soot-blackened smoker and grill. The...

You're Rick Noriega. Do you approve this message? Beating John Cornyn and reclaiming a U.S. Senate seat for the Democrats won't be easy. It may even be impossible. But there are a couple of things you can do to improve your chances. The first is, read this memo.
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] MEMO To: The Honorable Rick Noriega From: John Spong Re: Your campaign for the U.S. Senate Every two years or so, an assignment comes up for grabs at TEXAS MONTHLY that is inevitably greeted by the...

Feast: Houston.(PAT'S PICK)
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I QUITE FANCY THE LITTLE drawing of a spotted pig on the menu at three-month-old Houston restaurant Feast. It's chipper, that pig, its snout stuck in the air as if it were sniffing a mysterious scent. The critter...

Sage on West Alabama: Houston.(NEW + NOTEWORTHY)(Restaurant review)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... A generation ago, when our era's fascination with gourmet food took off, many restaurants were tucked into charming old buildings and houses just like this one. Once an antiques shop, Sage's pleasant warren of small rooms and patios invites a...

El Chile: Austin.(NEW + NOTEWORTHY)(Restaurant review)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Norteno Austinites are practically dancing on the tables now that E1 Chile has finally established an outpost in their neck of the woods, in the former Mesa Hills Cafe location. On our maiden visit, we noticed many...

The filter: dining: our favorite restaurants, bistros, cafes, and joints.
July 1, 2008... Amarillo BOOT HILL A location on Old Route 66, some forty miles west of Amarillo. Folks dressed as dance hall girls and cowboys. Tin and wood and red velvet. You'll think you've walked onto a movie set. But Rory Schepisi, of Next Food...

The cable guy: how Bill O'Reilly became a factor in my life.
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Ten years ago I spent the winter alone at the ranch watching cable news with my five dogs, the Friedmans. In the beginning I preferred CNN, but the Friedmans became viscerally addicted to the rabid pursuit of Fox...