Texas Monthly articles from June 2003

Texas Monthly archives from June 2003

Can't hardly wait: we'll name our best and worst legislators next month, but with outrage and excess piling up, it's not too soon to drop a few hints. (Behind the Lines).
June 1, 2003... ONE DAY DURING A LEGISLATIVE SESSION IN THE mid-eighties, a freshman lawmaker walked up to me on the House floor. Without bothering to introduce himself, he launched into what was on his mind: "Why do you enjoy being an assassin?" I knew he was...

Changing places. (Roar of the Crowd).
June 1, 2003... GROWING UP ON THE LLANO RIVER, I thought the world changed at such a gradual pace that it was almost indistinguishable. I had no concept of the hustle and bustle that was shaping the world outside my microsphere. I grew to despise this...

Koresh's legacy. (Roar of the Crowd).
June 1, 2003... IN HIS EXCELLENT ARTICLE ON THE Branch Davidians, Michael Hall shows us what a false prophet looks like in stunning detail ["The Ghosts of Mount Carmel," April 2003]. David Koresh's con job on those innocent people gives readers nothing but a...

Mold standard. (Roar of the Crowd).
June 1, 2003... AS A MICROBIOLOGIST IN THE INdoor-air-quality business, I feel that Jim Atkinson's idea to dispel the myths of mold was excellent in theory; his article, however, erred too much on the side of indifference to mold growth in one's house [Health:...

Learning curve. (Roar of the Crowd).
June 1, 2003... WHEN THERE IS A DEFICIT IN THE state budget, there are only two options: cut funding for programs and/or raise taxes or fees. [Behind the Lines: "Hoodwinked," April 2003]. Americans have been so cowed into the belief that paying taxes is bad...

Around the state: a selective guide to amusements and events.
June 1, 2003... AUSTIN MUSIC/DANCE One World Theatre 7701 Bee Caves Rd (512-329-6753). June 6: Jean-Luc Ponty; $29-$70. June 20: Rippingtons featuring Russ Freeman; $55 & $70. At 7 & 9:30. (W+) Stubb's Bar-B-Q 801 Red River (512-480-8341). June 3...

Play dates. (A Great Family Weekend In Dallas).
June 1, 2003... Looking forward to the lazy days of summer, when hours meander and agendas consist of sipping lemonade beside a cool body of water while soaking up the sun's bronzing rays? Sure, that sounds nice--until boredom sets in. For a change of pace,...

Passed ball. (Get Out).
June 1, 2003... The national pastime is as much about the past as the present--and that's a good thing for Texas baseball fans this season. The Rangers were sent to the cellar almost immediately, and the Astros, even with their fast start and the addition of...

On track. (Straight talk).
June 1, 2003... Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Al Unser, Jrt, will be competing in the Bombardier 500K with the Indy Racing League at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth on June 7. You're doing some of the best driving of your career these days....

Free for all. (Special occasion).
June 1, 2003... On June 19 Texans will be celebrating the end of slavery in our state. It was on that day, back in 1865, that Union major general Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston and pronounced that the institution of slavery was dead. Ever since, various...

Drawl or nothin': did you think our beloved Texas accent was disappearing? Not so fast, y'all. Turns out it's hotter than a two-dollar pistol. (Reporter: the state of our state).
June 1, 2003... "SEE, I WAS WORKIN' AS AN ACTOR IN Hollywood," said Bob Hinkle. He grinned under his white straw hat as he told me the story of how his twang, which is pure West Texas, had changed the course of his life. "It was 1955, an' I had gone on an...

The Coffee Trader.
June 1, 2003... With his second novel, THE COFFEE TRADER (Random House), Edgar award-winner David Liss performs literary alchemy to transform an unheralded event--the introduction of coffee to the seventeenth-century European commodities exchange--into a...

Cold Springs.
June 1, 2003... COLD SPRINGS (Bantam Books) is San Antonian Rick Riordan's busman's holiday from his award-winning Tres Navarre series. Chadwick rounds up troubled teens and delivers them to Cold Springs--a Texas wilderness school with a tough-love approach to...

Gritos.
June 1, 2003... Even those not inclined toward essays will find Dagoberto Gilb's GRITOS (Grove Press) irresistible. A (Trito is a heartfelt outpouring--"the '!Viva!' at a wedding or political rally"--and Glib writes as though he were pouring out his heart at...

The RH Factor.
June 1, 2003... Jazz trumpeter ROY HARGROVE has loosened his belt and recorded some of the sweltering funk--R&B featured in recent live shows. The RH Factor (Verve) is star-packed; pals such as rapper Common, R&B crooner D'Angelo, and fellow Dallasite Erykah...

Growl.
June 1, 2003... RAY WYLIE HUBBARD ups the volume on Growl (Rounder), and the offhand, edgy blues boots the material into high gear. The country outlaw never met an idea he didn't like (there are a couple of throwaways here), but Growl maintains an affable...

The Gospel Collection.
June 1, 2003... GEORGE JONES, a Saratoga native, once owned the Nashville scene, but the new generation of hat acts has passed him in the fast lane. Last album's embarrassing "Beer Run" duet with Garth Brooks didn't boost his sales, but it was apparently...

Jack Teagarden.
June 1, 2003... Like his swing-era contemporary Louis Armstrong, Vernon's JACK TEAGARDEN was both a phenomenal jazz player and singer. He kept his trombone work loose and simple, favoring the upper register, where his glass-smooth liquid notes sliced through...

David Clyde: the one-time pitching phenom on big games, bigger injuries, and life after baseball. (A Few Words With ...).
June 1, 2003... It's been thirty years since the Texas Rangers drafted you first in the nation out of high school and had you pitching in the major leagues at age eighteen. What have you been doing since you retired? I've been working in my family's lumber...

Holy shiitakes! Even though I love to cook, I never thought a grocery store could change my life. Central Market has--and twenty varieties of mushrooms are only one reason. (Gary Cartwright's Texas).
June 1, 2003... MY CART RUNNETH OVER: Now what was that product code? WHAT I LIKE TO DO WHEN I'm not doing what I like to do best is eat. It follows that I also like to buy groceries and cook. Getting good groceries hasn't always been easy in Texas. Thirty...

The pet set: Texans have always doted on their animal pals, from Bob Wills's donkey to a fat cat that favored oysters and cream. (on Texana).
June 1, 2003... WE WENT A BIT WILD LAST MONTH, when we discussed the delights and drawbacks of adopting scaly, fangy, and otherwise feral pets directly from the arms of Mother Nature. Now let's rein in our beastly impulses and address a tamer subject:...

Prints of a fellow: the acquisition of Leo Steinberg's Stellar collection makes it official: UT-Austin has one of the top university art museums in the country. (on Art).
June 1, 2003... THERE'S A SENSE OF DEJA VU ABOUT "PRINTS From the Leo Steinberg Collection, Part I," the exhibition on view at the University of Texas at Austin's Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art through July 27. It's not that the work is familiar; much of it is...

Track record: riding the rails from San Antonio to New Orleans introduced me to the pleasures--and pitfalls--of train travel in Texas. (on Travel).
June 1, 2003... YOU CAN SET YOUR WATCH BY AMTRAK'S TRAINS. You'll be late, but you can still set your watch by them. Of course, as every veteran train traveler will tell you, "If you're in a hurry, don't take the train." Yet this throwback to the days when...

The story of O: he got kicked out of an exclusive prep school in Dallas. He didn't even graduate from UT. His first movie was a commercial disaster. (And that nose!) So why is everyone in Hollywood trying to be buddy-buddy with Owen Wilson?
June 1, 2003... "MOOOOOONSHINE," SAID OWEN WILSON, SOUNDING typically awed and random. "Isn't it too bad that something with such a great name has to be illegal? 'Moonshine.' It's beautiful. I've never even had any, but I've always wanted to try it. How could...

Little town on the Prairie: why do so many people trek to Albany (population: 2,000)? For starters, it has a serious art museum, an imposing courthouse, picturesque storefronts, historic ranches--and every June it lets it hair down with a Texas-size spectacular under the stars. Fandangle, anyone?
June 1, 2003... FOR MOST TRAVELERS, the first hint that Albany might be a little different from other small towns in Texas is the Burma Shave-style signs just outside the city limits: "See Jane bop / Jack hunt and fish / Drive carefully / Stop wildlife squish...

How sweet it is: we said they were cool. Would you believe cold? But even a late freeze can't dampen our enthusiasm for peaches, the juiciest crop of the summer.
June 1, 2003... BLUEFFORD HANCOCK SQUEEZED MY ELBOW AS IF testing it for ripeness--an understandable gesture, considering that he was in the midst of appraising peaches at the fortieth annual Stonewall Peach JAMboree, where he has served as a judge since the...

Is "Al Gonzales" Spanish for "stealth liberal?".
June 1, 2003... In the fall of 1996, George W. Bush, 21 months into his first term as governor, made a surprise decision: he would show up for Travis County jury duty. He made a very public appearance at the jury screening, telling reporters, "I'm just an...

Ciudad de la muerte: ten years of murder. Three hundred women and young girls dead. No credible arrests. What unknown evil stalks the street of Juarez? I almost found out for myself.
June 1, 2003... DO YOU KNOW what happens, to a human body in the desert? If it's fresh, the intestines eat themselves out. The body swells, the lung ooze fluids through the nostrils and mouth, and the decaying organs let out a cocktail of nauseating gases....

Distance learning, anywhere, anyplace, anytime.
June 1, 2003... 972-860-7828 telecollege.dcccd.edu DALLAS TeleCollege, the virtual campus of the Dallas Community Colleges, allows access to college-credit courses at a distance, without ever setting foot on campus. The combination of instruction and...

Au 79: Austin Hill Country: Texas gold.
June 1, 2003... When Spanish conquistadores entered Texas in search of the mythical Seven Cities of Gold, they veered away from the center of the state and headed toward New Mexico. If only those explorers had realized what a trove of treasures lay hidden in...

Restaurant guide: a selective guide to food and drink.
June 1, 2003... JUNE 2003 Policies and Definitions The Restaurant 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...

Capital hill. (Pat's Pick).
June 1, 2003... CAPITAL HILL I could feel the effects of a brutal day vanishing the minute I walked into the elegant dining room of the Mansion at Judges' Hill--the designers who create impeccable sets for Merchant-Ivory films have nothing on the architects...

Petal pushers. (Season's Eatings).
June 1, 2003... PETAL PUSHERS So many edible flowers covered our plates that we thought about requesting machetes to hack our way to the food. But, hey, we weren't complaining; that's what we had come for. Six days a week chef Edward Vervais of the Carriage...

Primary flavors.
June 1, 2003... MELLOW YELLOW Remember when "truffle" more often referred to a candy than to the now popular fungus? When arugula was still a mysterious green? Meet the squash blossom, another of the young guns of produce currently making its way into the...

My shelf life: because fame is fleeting, I've lent my name and likeness to a line of salsas. Of course, I've been called a dip for years. (The Last Roundup).
June 1, 2003... AFTER 25 YEARS OF SINGING "HOMO Erectus" on the road, and after having written eighteen pointy-headed mystery novels, I am now precariously close to becoming known as the salsa magnate of Texas. How did this happen? Will it harm my legacy? Is...