Texas Monthly articles from May 2003

Texas Monthly archives from May 2003

So far, so bad: it's a new era in Texas politics, but Republicans have been too busy fighting democrats--and each other--to get anything done. (Behind the Lines).
May 1, 2003... "CAN THE REPUBLICANS GOVERN?" FOUR MONTHS ago, at the start of the legislative session, I asked the question in this space and went on to say, "To some, the question may seem condescending. But rookies always have to prove themselves. The...

&#$@!% lucky too. (Roar of the Crowd).(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2003... SO. KARL ROVE WILL GO DOWN IN history for his ability to put empty suits into high public office ["Genius," March 2003]. I hope he enjoys his temporal success, because one thing I know for sure is that history will not view him as a statesman;...

Battle cry. (Roar of the Crowd).(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2003... WELL WHO WOULDA THUNK THE AGgies would get themselves some fancy Yankee professor who would write an article on how the Battle of the Alamo was all a mistake ["The Alamo Should Never Have Happened," March 2003]. I surely do hope Mr. Brands is...

Valley guy. (Roar of the Crowd).(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2003... I READ WITH COMFORTABLE FAMILiarity Cecilia Balli's story on Oscar Casares ["Bard of the Border," March 2003]. Being Anglo (sort of) and having grown up in the wilds of Willacy County before moving to Brownsville, I appreciate her ability to...

Battle cry II. (Roar of the Crowd).(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2003... GARY CARTWRIGHT GOES TO GREAT lengths to show Jack Jackson's deep roots in the counterculture of the sixties [Gary Cartwright's Texas: "Lines in the Sand," March 2003]. Indeed, to the point of overkill; for example, Joplin, head shops,...

Made in Texas. (Roar of the Crowd).(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2003... ANNE DINGUS' ARTICLE "BRANDS THAT I Love" is the Eleventh Commandment to a Texan away from home [Texana, March 2003]. I am temporarily living in South Florida, where putting the Texas stamp on any food product that has a semblance of spice is...

Around the state: a selective guide to amusements and events.
May 1, 2003... May 2003 SUNDAY MONDAY 4 5 The burial plot Alice Sebold, thickens today the author of when Fort Worth's ...

Revelations. (Opening).(Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center )(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... For more than thirty years the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center has stood on a corner of the UT-Austin campus like a colossal intellectual tease. "You could go into the center and ask to see a specific item--say, Charles Baudelaire's...

Step out. (Dance).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... James Brown once said that any problem in the world can be solved by dancing. So this seems like a particularly good time to slip on the footwear of your choice and start practicing those fancy steps--whether they be of the boot-scootin',...

Enter laughing. (Straight talk).
May 1, 2003... On May 19 actor-director Carl Reiner, who created the Emmy award-winning series The Dick Van Dyke Show, will interview Nell Simon for the debut of the Brinker International Lecture Series, in Dallas. What's the difference between the comedy...

Twosome. (Get out).
May 1, 2003... The whole world will be watching Annika Sorenstam (above) tee it up against the big boys May 22 through 25 at the Bank of America Colonial at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Sorenstam, the LPGA's number one player last year and winner of...

Git along ... why should Lubbock finally embrace its most dreaded pest? Because prairie dogs could be the city's biggest draw since Buddy Holly. (Letter From Lubbock).
May 1, 2003... ON A CRISP JANUARY MORNING, LYNDA Watson steps out of a weathered Winnebago parked just off Nineteenth Street on the eastern outskirts of Lubbock. A hazel-eyed, ruddy-cheeked woman who chain-smokes menthol cigarettes and wears a sweatshirt...

Proof negative: last winter the Houston Police Department's DNA crime lab came under fire for a litany of forensics flaws. Here's what happened--and how it could affect criminal cases across the state. (FAQ).
May 1, 2003... How did the HPD's crime lab get into this mess? In November 2002 TV station KHOU began airing a series of reports in which independent DNA experts reviewing the crime lab's work found that members of the lab's staff had made egregious...

Beck weathers: seven years to the month after he nearly died on Mount Everest, the Dallas pathologist feels like he's on top of the world. (A Few Words With ...).
May 1, 2003... You lost your nose, your right hand, and all the fingers of your left hand to frostbite on Mount Everest. What are the limitations for you now as a pathelogist? You adjust to doing things differently. God bless Velcro and elastics. But anything...

Play bawl: ah, spring--when grown men cry like babies over the prospect of another Astros postseason collapse. Except, maybe, this year could be different. (on Sports).
May 1, 2003... TWO KINDS OF TEAMS TRULY CAPTURE OUR IMAGination: champions (Cowboys, Stars) and big, fat dysfunctional losers (Cowboys, Rangers). Then there's the Houston Astros, a franchise of uncommon excellence that's never quite excellent enough. ...

Wild things: as a child I had the usual pets. But the feral critters I "adopted"--from chameleons to hermit crabs--were much more exciting. (on Texana).
May 1, 2003... HIS NAME WAS COWBOY, AND HE WAS BIG AND hairy, with mean, dark eyes. He wasn't likable; he made people nervous, and they kept their distance. But something about him kept their attention too: his inhuman stillness, maybe, coupled with an...

Bless this house: and the Senate too. But a couple of controversial morning prayers have some lawmakers saying a lot more than "amen." (on Faith).
May 1, 2003... THE TEXAS LEGISLATORE COULD USE a little divine intervention. It is beset by a budget crisis that has legislators talking about canceling health insurance for children, closing colleges for the summer, and tossing thousands of people out of...

Not moving on: despite his past statements to the contrary, Larry McMurtry is still writing fiction. And I for one, am glad. (on Books).(Book Review)
May 1, 2003... SINCE LARRY MCMURTRY ANNOUNCED that he was through writing novels fifteen years ago, he has written no fewer than twelve of them. The latest, The Wandering Hill, is due from Simon and Schuster this month. Book two of the Berrybender Narratives...

Independents' Day: record companies love telling talented young bands they can't make it on their own. Grupo Fantasma knows better. (on Music).
May 1, 2003... If it were easy as fishin 'you could be a musician.--Bachman-Turner Overdrive, "Takin' Care of Business" DIE-HARD ROCK AND ROLLERS SNICKER AT THIS example of hallowed rock lyricism, yet--and this is a phrase I never thought I would...

Pit stops: barbecue is nothing less than the national food of Texas, and--from a mom-and-pop joint in Eagle Lake to a temple of brisket in Taylor--we've searched out the best. On your mark, get set, dig in!
May 1, 2003... THIS SMOKIN' THING IS GETTING OUT OF HAND. The custom of cooking meats over wood fires has been going on since before there was a place called Texas, but in recent years the concept has gotten so refined and peculiar that--aside from the basic...

Cuts above.
May 1, 2003... To a hungry Texan, there's no more-tempting sight than a piece of butcher paper piled high with barbecue. But how often do we pause to appreciate the primal beauty of the slices of brisket, the links of sausage, the racks of ribs? These...

Mike Toomey is the enforcer: he's rough! He's tough! He won't take any guff! He's Rick Perry's chief of staff! He cuts Democrats--and Republicans--in half.
May 1, 2003... FOR THE PAST TWENTY years, Mike Toomey has loomed large in state government, as imposing and immovable--and some could say as cold--as the pink-granite Capitol itself. First as a Republican legislator then as the Capitol's premier business...

The skinny on slim: after six decades of trash-talking and bookmaking, card playing and shooting pool, Thomas Austin Preston, Jr., a.k.a. Amarillo Slim, is still the world's greatest living hustler. I am living proof.
May 1, 2003... "OH, MAN," HE SAID. "DID I LEAVE YOU with two dollars? I bought I'd bet it all. You better make a stand. Custer did, but of course you know that poor son of a bitch got massacred. So you can imagine what's fixing to happens to you." ...

O sister, where art thou? In the early forties, inmates of the Goree prison unit formed one of the first all-female country, capturing the hearts of millions of radio listeners. Then they nearly vanished forever.(Goree All Girl String Band)
May 1, 2003... SHE WAS SITTING IN HER WHEELCHAIR in the dayroom, staring at a television that flickered soundlessly in a corner. She didn't turn her head when I said her name. [paragraph] "Mrs. McDaniel?" I asked. [paragraph] "Honey, that's Mrs. Mozelle...

Restaurant guide: a selective guide to food and drink.(Directory)
May 1, 2003... Austin UPDATE Aquarelle 606 Rio Grande (512-479-8117). Ignore the floozies on Sixth Street brazenly hawking their wares. Down a side street sits this gem of a French restaurant, politely beckoning with tiny white lights and a...

Orient excess. (Pat's Pick).(The Dralion)(Restaurant Review)
May 1, 2003... What a piece of work: towering walls draped in burgundy velvet, colossal silver candelabra, track lighting worthy of The Phantom of the Opera--I fully expected the servers to burst into song. Its name an amalgam of "dragon" and "lion," The...

The meat of the matter. (Best Fests).(barbecue cookoffs)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Everyone has an opinion on what makes the best barbecue, and nowhere is this argument more intense than at a barbecue cookoff. In Texas there are more than 100 cookoffs a year, some 25 in May alone. Two of the more unusual ones focus on...

On The Road.(Randy's restaurant)(Restaurant Review)
May 1, 2003... PLAINS AND FANCY You have to admire any chef in the vastness of rural Texas who decides to buck the menu monoliths of barbecue and chicken-fried steak. But that's exactly what chef-owners Randy Allred and Edward Harvey are doing at Randy's of...

Prime properties.(Public Notice)
May 1, 2003... 8.5-Acre Creekfront Located 30 miles west of Austin off Texas Highway 71, this 8.5-acre tract features towering oaks, rolling meadows, and 400 feet of frontage on Double Horn Creek. Amenities include central water and underground utilities....

Mad cowboy disease: what's it like to be a Texan in England during a war declared by one? They think there's something wrong with me, the crumpet chompers. (The Last Roundup).
May 1, 2003... IN THE INNOCENTS ABROAD, MARK TWAIN OBSERVED, "THEY spell it Vinci and pronounce it Vinchy; foreigners always spell better than they pronounce." Twain didn't mention it, but they also spell better than they smell. All in all, very little seems...