Texas Monthly articles from March 2005

Texas Monthly archives from March 2005

That blog won't hunt: my counterparts on the Internet think they're so clever and so cutting-edge--and they are. But that doesn't mean they can't learn a thing or two from the mainstream media.(Behind the Lines)
March 1, 2005... Over the years, Dan Rather, the subject of Gary Cartwright's cover story (see page 136), has withstood the criticism of presidents, members of Congress, and fellow journalists. But when CBS aired his 60 Minutes Wednesday report on young George...

T-shirts for everyone.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... Come on, guys. Do you really think for one minute that the dim utterances of Jessica Simpson, no doubt an easy target and one not likely to fight back, can possibly compete for the ultimate Bum Steer ["The 2005 Bum Steer Awards," January 2005]?...

Vet offensive.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... There is a blind spot in the center of Pamela Colloff's article big enough to drive George Bush, Karl Rove, the RNC, and a whole boatload of Swift Boat liars through without a scratch ["Sunk," January 2005]. Colloff managed to describe what...

Big Ben.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... In case you don't know it, Ben Barnes, Texans have quit believing the myth that the Democrats "are the party that creates a better standard of living and a better way of life and a better environment for the small-business person to make money...

Breaking news.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... The January Reporter article on the Dallas Morning News was so on target, but the conclusion as to the bottom-line problem at Belo Corporation was not mentioned [TEXAS MONTHLY Reporter, "The Dallas Morning Blues," January 2005]. Bottom line:...

Around the state.(Brief Article)(Calendar)
March 1, 2005... March PEOPLE, PLACES, EVENTS, ATTRACTIONS Dennis Quaid returns to Texas, finds true love in Austin, and experiences a career comeback. Coincidence? We think not. The state's influence on the silver screen is only too evident this...

Around the state.(events)(Calendar)
March 1, 2005... WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBILITY KEY (W) The place is accessible to wheelchairs: The main entrance is at least 32 inches wide and there are no steps; restrooms, however, are not accessible. (W+) The place and its restrooms are accessible. ...

Big Bend Country: this spring break, take your family to Big Bend Country, one of the most spectacular and otherworldly parts of the American Southwest. The desert--warm and lovely and in full bloom this month--awaits.(Nature calls: adventures in the great outdoors.)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... A kid-friendly float Want to enjoy the spectacular volcanic scenery and stay within the attention span of your children? Big Bend River Tours offers a half-day rafting trip on the Rio Grande through the rugged, rocky canyons of Big Bend...

Roy Hargrove + Herbie Hancock.(Hey, you! Look who's coming to Texas.)(Interview)
March 1, 2005... In 2001, a year which would have seen the seventy-fifth birthdays of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, the seemingly incongruous triumvirate of versatile pianist Herbie Hancock (who played in Davis's classic sixties quintet), mainstream tenor...

The survivors: for the severely burned and near-fatally wounded soldiers who arrive at Brooke Army Medical Center, in San Antonio, the war in Iraq is over. But their fight has just begun.(Letter From San Antonio)
March 1, 2005... When it was time for Dustin Hill to receive his Purple Heart, he was wheeled from an aisle in the packed auditorium up a ramp and onto the stage. He wore glasses, warm-up pants, unscuffed running shoes, and a U.S. Army cap, under which was a...

Relief pitchers.(Minister of health: Jim Atkinson cures what ails us.)
March 1, 2005... Ever since the pharmaceutical giant Merck withdrew its famed pain reliever Vioxx from the market last fall, the roughly four million Texas adults who suffer from arthritis have been left with a confounding conundrum: Are any company's pain...

Pick your poison: remedies are coming from unexpected places.(Minister of health: Jim Atkinson cures what ails us.)
March 1, 2005... It turns out that the toxin that's changed a million faces has a social conscience after all. The wonders of Botox, a concentrated form of botulinum toxin, have been touted ad nauseam: By paralyzing facial muscles, it was smoothing out...

Worlds Apart.
March 1, 2005... So what do you make of a rock album that begins with "Ode to Isis," an orchestral slow build that chants the names of mythological gods? Or the lecture-prone title track, the 5/4 meters, or even the pictures of Bach and Shakespeare inside? Are...

America's Most Hated Woman: The Life And Gruesome Death of Madalyn Murray O'Hair.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Austin native ANN ROWE SEAMAN has turned a wealth of research into a morbidly fascinating biography of the world's most famous atheist in AMERICA'S MOST HATED WOMAN: THE LIFE AND GRUESOME DEATh OF MADALYN MURRAY O'HAIR (Continuum). Seaman...

Room Noises.
March 1, 2005... EISLEY, a group of four siblings (and a neighbor) who began performing seven years ago in their parents' Tyler coffee shop, might seem the most improbable of success stories. The youngest DuPree sister was just eight when she and her sisters,...

Ten Little New Yorkers.
March 1, 2005... Chances are good that TEN LITTLE NEW YORKERS (Simon & Schuster) is the last print appearance of KINKY FRIEDMAN's fictional alter ego (see "Killing Me Softly," page 292). Which perhaps explains why the Kinksters, scribe and sleuth both, appear...

Heard It on the X.
March 1, 2005... The conceit of the LOS SUPER SEVEN projects--which joined members of Los Lobos with the likes of Freddy Fender, Flaco Jimenez, and Rick Trevino--was an all-inclusive vision of Latin music that included in its lineup Anglos Joe Ely and Doug...

Honky Tonk Hero.
March 1, 2005... When your memoir begins, "I was not even born yet when my father first tried to kill me," you had better be prepared to deliver the goods, and indeed, BILLY JOE SHAVER recounts enough tales of hell-raising, songwriting, tragedy, and...

LiveStrong and prosper: what the ubiquitous yellow bracelet has raised--and wrought.(FAQ: Christopher Keyes on the story behind the story.)
March 1, 2005... Where did the idea for the LiveStrong bracelet come from? From Nike, which approached Texas cyclist Lance Armstrong, who has a multimillion-dollar endorsement deal with the company, about selling yellow synthetic rubber bracelets to raise money...

Grand opportunity party: the Republicans and George W. Bush won a record share of the Hispanic vote in November--and that ought to scare the Democrats to death.
March 1, 2005... The critical battle for the Hispanic vote, and all it portends for Texas and for America in the years to come, has its roots in a meeting at the Capitol in the fall of 1998. Karl Rove, the political adviser to then-governor George W. Bush,...

The thrill of the hunt: what's the appeal of squeezing off a few rounds into a defenseless animal? We commie liberals may never understand, but that didn't stop me from heading into the woods with my right-wing-nutcase friend.
March 1, 2005... As part of my continuing education in the mysteries of red-state Texas, I decided in December to visit my right-wing-nutcase friend, Dr. Robert McFarlane, at his 7,500-acre ranch in the Trinity River bottom, near the community of Tennessee...

In the year 1974: leaving home for the first time is never easy. Finding your way back can be even harder.
March 1, 2005... It was only a few months after I turned ten that I discovered the world. Before this time, I had spent most of my life in Brownsville, feeling as remote and isolated as you could growing up in the last city in Texas. One of our few excursions...

John Mackey: the 51-year-old co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market on profits, principles, chocolate-enrobed salmon, and why his wife won't play games with him anymore.(Talks)
March 1, 2005... On the way over to see you I passed the old Whole Foods location, at Tenth and Lamar [in Austin], and I got to thinking about how far you've come in the past couple of decades--not distancewise, since it's only a few blocks from there to the...

Dan Rather retorting: ever since his Bush-bashing 60 Minutes report, the CBS icon has been the right wing's favorite whipping boy (well, they weren't exactly fans before then, either). But when he leaves the anchor's chair on March 9, he has no intention of giving up the fight.(George W. Bush)(Interview)(Cover Story)(Biography)
March 1, 2005... A LIGHT SNOW dusts the sprawling CBS News complex in Hell's Kitchen, on New York's West Side, as a figure in a black slouch hat and long trench coat swirls through the Fifty-seventh Street door, bids good cheer to the security guards in the...

In humane society: the things that went on for years at San Antonio's Animal Care Facility shouldn't happen to a dog. Or a cat.
March 1, 2005... LAST YEAR, SAN ANTONIO EUTHANIZED approximately 49,000 cats and dogs--more per capita than any other big city in the United States. Complaints about its Animal Care Facility have persisted for years, including concerns about overcrowding and...

Till death do us part: for half a century, in sickness and in health, the marriage of Baylor Medical School and Methodist Hospital produced first-class medicine for Houston and the world. But money, egos, and backstabbing came between them, and now both institutions--and all of us--are the poorer for it.
March 1, 2005... ONE CHARACTERISTIC that has never been associated with Dr. Michael DeBakey in all his 96 years is bewilderment. But the breakup between the medical school he built, Baylor College of Medicine, and the hospital he built, Methodist Hospital, and...

Confessions of a "skinny bitch".
March 1, 2005... Over the past thirty years, as a restaurant reviewer and an editor for this magazine, I've had my share of flaccid flautas, gummy grits, and barely edible brisket--and some pretty extraordinary meals as well. Yes, it's nice getting paid to eat...

Return to splendor: Hunter S. Thompson, Larry McMurtry, and other literary lions remember San Antonio native Grover Lewis, the pioneering journalist who became one of the greatest magazine writers of our time--and whose best stories are being republished next month by the University of Texas Press.(Biography)
March 1, 2005... ALMOST ANYONE WHO KNEW WRITER GROVER LEWIS could list a few items key to his biography: His father and mother had shot each other to death, in the forties, when Grover was very young; he grew up poor in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas; he...

Pat's pick: Bistro Moderne.(March: restaurants, cafes, bistros, joints)
March 1, 2005... The long identity crisis is over. The dining room that started out as Ling & Javier and then morphed into Maverick has finally come into its own as Bistro Moderne. And if early visits are any indication, this smartly turned out black-and-cream...

The Dining Guide.
March 1, 2005... POLICIES AND DEFINITIONS 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'...

They know beans: quick, what's the difference between the Starbucks outlets in Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio? Answer: nothing. And that's the trouble. Reassuring as it is to have a corporate caffeine fix on every block, there are times when you just want something in tune with the local vibe.(Liquid assets: these are a few of our favorite drinks.)
March 1, 2005... * AUSTIN PROGRESS COFFEE--with its environmentally friendly shade-grown beans, custom-roasted blends, casual menu of seasonal organic foods, free wireless Internet access, and browsable magazine rack--fits the "Keep Austin Weird" image to...

Killing me softly: why did I commit literary suicide in my seventeenth (and last) mystery novel? I had no choice; it was spiritual self-defense.
March 1, 2005... Why would the author of a successful series of mystery novels featuring himself as the central character want to commit literary suicide by killing off his hero? Is the author, who just happens to be named Kinky Friedman, subconsciously jealous...