Texas Monthly articles from November 2006

Texas Monthly archives from November 2006

His thoughts exactly: if only I could read Rick Perry's mind ...(Behind the Lines)
November 1, 2006... A strange scene ensued after the lone governor's debate in early October. Members of the media had not been allowed to watch the debate in person. We found ourselves contained in an impromptu pressroom in the foyer of a building in the Belo...

Thin ice.(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2006... About your September cover... As a lifetime Texan and hockey dad, I'm a bit offended. Okay, I'm over it. However, I'm wondering if you know that the state of Texas houses more pro hockey teams than any other state. I'm wondering if you know...

Good Fridays.(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2006... Thanks for including a name from my father's era, Clyde "Bulldog" Turner, in "Thank God It's Friday" [September 2006]. I appreciate that the reach of your football memory includes players from different times and circumstances. Connor...

Love story.(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2006... I think I'm tough as hell, but Gary Cartwright's "Main Squeeze Blues" made me cry [September 2006]. Darrell Cook FARWELL At eleven o'clock on a Wednesday night, I crawled into bed with my TEXAS MONTHLY to read myself to sleep. I...

Book, fair?(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2006... I appreciated John Spong's article "The Good Book and the Bad Book" very much and the fact that you saw fit to print it [September 2006]. After getting partially through the article, I was already asking which side I was on. While Brokeback...

Praise the word.(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2006... The spirit of H. L. Mencken lives! Nate Blakeslee's article on "Christocrat" David Barton is one of the best pieces of investigative journalism I've seen in this magazine in a long time ["King of the Christocrats," September 2006]. Indeed, Mr....

Spurred.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2006... Cowboy boots not chic [Reporter, "The Horse's Mouth," September 2006]? Only for Rodeo Day in junior high? Quite frankly, cowboy boots would have done wonders for that unfortunate outfit Kim France chose to wear in her photograph. Check that...

Party lines.(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2006... I often do not agree with what Paul Burka writes, but his "Grand Old Parry" article in your Behind the Lines section in the September issue was right on. There is entirely too much posturing for the "party hard core" and not enough...

The spy who loved them.(Editor's Letter)
November 1, 2006... When I moved to Texas to work for TEXAS MONTHLY in late 1991, the two words staring out at me from an upcoming cover were "Aggie Sex." Was I on a different planet? I quickly got up to speed on what an Aggie was--sex I'd heard of--but it took me...

Topic A: wait till next year: the thrill and agony of rooting for the Astros--and why 2007 could be better.(Reporter 11.06)
November 1, 2006... The Houston Astros gave us another pennant race to remember. That they hadn't won half their games when the winning streak began hardly diminished the excitement; they tantalized us right up to the last day, the last out. But in the end, our...

How to win an election.(The Horse's Mouth: EVERYTHING I COULD EVER TELL YOU ABOUT ...)(Matthew Dowd)(Interview)
November 1, 2006... NAME: Matthew Dowd AGE: 45 HOMETOWN: Austin QUALIFICATIONS: Chief strategist for George W. Bush's presidential campaigns/Current strategist for California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger/Co-author of Applebee's America, a new book about...

Red all over: the Republicans are (still) cruising in Texas, but there's drama in the November elections if you know where to look.(FAQ: BRIAN D. SWEANY ON THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY)
November 1, 2006... Rick Perry has held a double-digit lead in the governor's race all year long. Republicans are heavily favored to run the table in all the other statewide races. Does anything matter in these contests? Strangely enough, second place matters--for...

The bull was named Fred.(rural life teaches )
November 1, 2006... My brother, Mitch, and I were little at the time--he was probably seven and I was four--and Fred was his show bull. Mitch loved this bull, and he took him everywhere, to shows around the state. But one day Fred was in a pasture in front of our...

Church at Quail Creek: Amarillo / August 20, 2006.
November 1, 2006... Over the past decade, the fifteen novels of the Left Behind series, written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, have racked up nearly 70 million sales, making them the fastest-selling adult fiction books in the country. These novels describe a...

Texas myth #: 113.(Thanksgiving day celebrated at Texas)(Jack Ruby didnot go to prison)(hats wore by cowboys)
November 1, 2006... THE TEN-GALLON HAT HOLDS TEN GALLONS. The king-size cowboy hat has nothing to do with gallons at all. The phrase comes from the Spanish word galon, meaning "braid." Cowboys mistranslated the word as "gallon," so a ten-gallon hat came to...

Err America: bush-bashing filmmakers are grossly missing the mark.(Hollywood, TX: CHRISTOPHER KELLY ON OUR STATE OF ENTERTAINMENT)
November 1, 2006... Midway through Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck's new documentary, Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing, we witness a showdown of sorts. Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines is watching video footage of George W. Bush being interviewed by a television...

Made in Ohio: the best political doc of the decade.(So Goes the Nation)(Movie review)
November 1, 2006... Adam Del Deo and James D. Stern's... So Goes the Nation, released by IFC Films last month, returns us to the tense battleground of Ohio, circa 2004, as George W. Bush and John Kerry waged war for that state's twenty electoral votes. Without...

War and Peace.(Previews+Reviews: Music: JEFF MCCORD ON THE MONTH'S NEW RELEASES)(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... "Civilizations wearin' thin/ Like an old sad shirt." BUTCH HANCOCK pulls no punches on his latest diatribe, WAR AND PEACE (Two Roads). Hancock emerges from his Terlingua exile with his first solo album in six years, and he's obviously been...

The Californian.(Previews+Reviews: Music: JEFF MCCORD ON THE MONTH'S NEW RELEASES)(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... Being Sandra Bullock's onetime boy toy as well as the leader of a scatological frat band known as the Scabs is not the resume from which instant respectability springs. He's no critic's darling, yet Austin rocker BOB SCHNEIDER seems utterly...

Trying to Never Catch Up.(Previews+Reviews: Music: JEFF MCCORD ON THE MONTH'S NEW RELEASES)(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... Your band can't get going? Here's some advice: Take a look at your singer. If his or her vocals lack character, there's little chance of moving beyond the odd house party. There are many reasons the self-released debut from Austin's WHAT MADE...

Barbara Orbison.(In Dreams)(Video recording review)
November 1, 2006... Barbara and Roy Orbison were married nineteen years before his death, in 1988. Just released are three of the legendary rocker's classics, Crying, In Dreams, and Sings Lonely and Blue (Monument/Legacy), along with the new DVD documentary, In...

The Lives of Rocks.(Previews+Reviews: Books: MIKE SHEA ON THE MONTH'S NEW RELEASES)(Brief article)(Book review)
November 1, 2006... Fort Worth native RICK BASS has loaded his earthy story collection, THE LIVES OF ROCKS, with three-way relationships of all stripes-platonic, romantic, familial, adversarial--and with characteristic economy of language, he mines a wide range of...

In a Special Light.(Previews+Reviews: Books: MIKE SHEA ON THE MONTH'S NEW RELEASES)(Brief article)(Book review)
November 1, 2006... It's tempting to focus on ELROY BODE'S celebrations of life's simple pleasures (birds, interesting strangers, barbershops) in this El Pasoan's new collection of microscopically short ruminations, IN A SPECIAL LIGHT. But there is no denying the...

The Long Night of Winchell Dear.(Previews+Reviews: Books: MIKE SHEA ON THE MONTH'S NEW RELEASES)(Brief article)(Book review)
November 1, 2006... At a mere 158 pages, THE LONG NIGHT OF WINCHELL DEAR calls to mind that kvetch of the hoary Catskills resort patron: "The food is terrible--and such small portions!" To be fair, the latest from brand-name Hill Country novelist ROBERT JAMES...

Douglass St. Clair Smith.(The Subgenius Psychlopaedia of Slack: The Bobliographon)(Brief article)(Book review)
November 1, 2006... The SubGenius Psychlopaedia of Slack: The Bobliographon is--how to put this--the most unusual text most folk will ever encounter. Its Fort Worth-bred author-editor mid-wifed the birth of the for-profit Church of the SubGenius ("the only...

Foot notes.(Buy This Now: AMY PRINCE ON THE THINGS YOU CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT)
November 1, 2006... Victoriana foppery is big for fall, but Hornament, a Tyler-based furniture company, was harking back to the 1870's before the fad swept runways and retailers. Launched last year by two best friends and neighbors, each with an East Texas...

Cold comfort: call me loony, but the time to visit Bolivar Peninsula is in the winter.(Go: SUZY BANKS HITS THE ROADS LESS TRAVELED)
November 1, 2006... The common loon has the sense to summer in Canada and avoid the Texas coast until fall, when the he at, hurricanes, and mosquitoes are less overwhelming. I never fully appreciated the bird's wisdom until one winter several years ago when a...

Molly Ivins.(Texas Monthly Talks: EVAN SMITH SITS DOWN WITH ...)(Interview)
November 1, 2006... Molly, I feel like it's fitting to talk about Ann Richards first. Let's talk about Annie. I've been writing about her and thinking about her, and what I remember is that the '90 campaign was so crazy. I mean, there was Ann, running as the...

Soldier of fortune: did Vice President Dick Cheney steer $7 billion in Iraq war contracts to his old pals at Halliburton?(Letter From Washington, D.C.)
November 1, 2006... Michael Mobbs's June 8, 2004, briefing of a House committee staff included one very surprising moment of testimony. Mobbs, a special adviser to the under secretary of defense for policy at the Pentagon, was on the Hill to discuss what the staff...

Ready for some futbol? Don't tell me that the soccer stars from Brownsville's Gladys Porter High--my alma mater--aren't as American as they come.
November 1, 2006... Speedy Gonzales, the famous cartoon star of the fifties and sixties, has been in the news again lately. It seems the image of the "fastest mouse in all Mexico" was evoked recently at the boys' 5A state soccer championship, pitting the...

Man about town: now that my friend Carlton Carl owns Martindale, once the cotton and cottonseed capital of Central Texas, people want him to do something with it. Gee, what did he expect?
November 1, 2006... My first thought on hearing that my friend Carlton Carl had bought the sleepy Central Texas hamlet of Martindale was that the dog stole one of our best ideas. Turns out he did--and he's welcome to it. Back in the seventies, we few founding...

Agent of change: Robert Gates helped win the Cold War as director of the CIA, but that assignment was a walk in the park compared with his current one: bringing Texas A&M University's unique but not always admired culture into the modern era and remaking the way the world views Aggieland--and the way Aggieland views the world.
November 1, 2006... Some may boast of the prowess bold, Of the school they think so grand, But there's a spirit can ne'er be told It's the spirit of Aggieland. SO BEGINS THE TEXAS A&M ALMA MATER. Like school songs everywhere, it was not written to be...

The desert of the dead: far from the divisive debates in Congress about immigration, illegals are dying in record numbers along a desolate stretch of South Texas scrubland. For the ranchers and border patrol agents who find them, it's a nightmare without end.
November 1, 2006... HIS NAME WAS Ezequiel Amaya Escobar, although no one knew who he was when his body was discovered one morning last August under a mesquite tree. He was lying five and a half miles from the nearest paved road, in a stretch of South Texas...

The chop is in the mail: what's the best thing about the holidays? The food. The worst? Racing from store to store to buy it. So to help you save time--and keep your sanity--I've tasted smoked turkeys, buttermilk pies, and the like from more than one hundred Texas companies that will ship them to your door. Needless to say, my favorites are first-class.(Buyers guide)
November 1, 2006... I know, I know: You're on the way to ruining your diet with Halloween candy and here I am yakking about the holidays. But believe me, it is not too early to get your ducks--not to mention turkeys, briskets, steaks, slabs o' bacon, relishes,...

Ann: an appreciation.(Ann Richards)(Obituary)
November 1, 2006... THE FIRST TIME I SAW ANN RICHARDS she was playing bridge with old friends at the home of Fletcher and Libby Boone in the hills overlooking Austin. With kids whooping in the bedrooms, a half-dozen card games uproarious in the living room, and...

Acting up: the most dangerous teenagers in Texas are sent to the Giddings State School, where, in a jailhouse version of group therapy, they reenact their brutal crimes in order to come to terms with their violent impulses. This is what we do with young murderers? Yes, and it works. For a while, at least.
November 1, 2006... ONE HUMID DAY LAST SUMMER, WHEN MOST teenagers were on vacation or at camp or slaving away at tedious jobs, a burly, flirtatious nineteen-year-old named Raymond was locked inside a small, frigid metal building with five other boys to whom he...

Open season: every year, starting on the first Saturday in November, half a million hunters take to the state's hills and hollows in pursuit of white-tailed deer. Over the next three months, these sportsmen log more than 4.1 million man-days afield, shell out more than $130 million, and kill more than 450,000 of their prey.
November 1, 2006... CHIPPER DIPPEL (kneeling) guides ten hunts a year at Whispering Water Ranch and Resort, in Menard, which is home to two hundred whitetails. Here he guides for STEVE SAUNDERS, an oil field pipe salesman from Midland. "I get five to six...

The Filter: Dining: our favorite restaurants, bistros, cafes and joints.
November 1, 2006... The Filter: Dining POLICIES AND DEFINITIONS The Filter: Dining 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 cites that...

Catalan: Houston.(PAT'S PICK)(Restaurant review)
November 1, 2006... JUICY, VERY JUICY. AS MY HAPPILY dazed friend remarked, perusing the tabletop, "There's so much to dip your bread in that you hardly know where to reach next." Consider yourself warned: The one thing you do not want to do at Catalan is run out...

New + noteworthy: deja vu in Austin; seaworthy fare in Houston.(The Filter: Dining: OUR FAVORITE RESTAURANTS, BISTROS, CAFES, AND JOINTS)(Restaurant review)
November 1, 2006... Austin THE BELMONT You almost expect Frankie, Dean, and Sammy to be laughing it up in one of the tall, dark, and handsome booths. Yet another of Austin's retro restaurants, the Belmont is such a magnet for trend-conscious clubgoers...

The filter: events: where to go, what to do, who to see.
November 1, 2006... Sew Hip HOUSTON, AUSTIN, BELTON, CANYON This month the congenial domestic art of quilting escalates from mere hobby to cultural phenomenon with a slew of patchwork presentations across the state. Far and away the largest will be the...

Dallas Opera: Dallas.(JORDAN'S PICK)
November 1, 2006... LIKE SO MANY BABY boomers warily approaching that milestone birthday--yes, you know which one--the Dallas Opera finds itself at the contemplative crossroads of half a century. Happily, there's no midlife crisis in sight: Beginning this month,...

Artists' block.(The Filter: Events: WHERE TO GO, WHAT TO DO, WHO TO SEE)
November 1, 2006... DENISON This small town 65 miles north of Dallas may be best known as Dwight D. Eisenhower's birthplace, but it's the local art scene that's been drawing attention of late. What residents already know--and tourists are quickly realizing--is...

Neck and neck: Nora Ephron knows almost as little about the joy of wrinkles as she does about the grit of Texas women.(I feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman)(Book review)
November 1, 2006... Growing up, the high points of my month were the "Can This Marriage Be Saved?" feature my mother's Good Housekeeping and Nora Ephron's column in my father's Esquire. GH generally advised women to "make it work" at any cost--to hang on like a...