Texas Monthly articles from October 2003

Texas Monthly archives from October 2003

World Crass: Houston desperately wants to be a global player, but its mayor's race is strictly small-time.(Behind the Lines)
October 1, 2003... THE SWELLS RETURNED TO LA GRIGLIA in mid-August like the proverbial swallows to Capistrano, reclaiming their favorite tables, ordering their favorite off-the-menu items, and tablehopping with their favorite "frenemies." The high-octane,...

Survivor. (Roar of the Crowd).
October 1, 2003... I WENT TO COLLEGE WITH GILBERT Tuhabonye, and although I didn't meet him until my senior year, he is someone I will always remember ["Running for His Life," August 2003]. He was always good for a laugh. He also had a way of making you feel good...

Nailed. (Roar of the Crowd).
October 1, 2003... I AM SURE I WAS NOT THE ONLY reader appalled by and interested in Katy Vine's article "Little Shop of Horrors" [August 2003]. Two hundred forty-eight fingernails and 44 toenails--how many bodies is that? And what kind of testing is Watson...

Flour Power. (Roar of the Crowd).
October 1, 2003... PATRICIA SHARPE MISSED THE biggest metamorphosis in our national cuisine--the flour tortilla [Food: "Tex-Mex 101," August 2003]! When I left the University of Texas and Austin in 1955, I had never encountered a flour tortilla in my life. I...

Fowl play. (Roar of the Crowd).
October 1, 2003... I ENJOYED PAUL BURKA'S ARTICLE on Rice winning its first national championship [Behind the Lines: "Rice and Shine," August 2003]. I especially enjoyed the fact that nowhere did Mr. Burka disparage my alma mater, Stanford, or even gloat...

Well red. (Roar of the Crowd).
October 1, 2003... AS A GRADUATE OF TEXAS TECH'S CREATIVE writing program and former student of Stephen Graham Jones, I was thrilled to see his new book featured in the August issue [Books: "Killing Time"]. He is an amazing author, a wonderful professor, and a...

Girl friend. (Roar of the Crowd).
October 1, 2003... FOR A QUICK READ AND LAUGH I ALWAYS turn to the back page and read Kinky Friedman first. His twisted sense of humor, irony, and hipness are appealing. I was so impressed with his warmth and interest in the Girl Scouts whose mothers are behind...

Around the state: a selective guide to amusements and events.
October 1, 2003... AROUND THE state October 2003 WED- THURS- SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY NESDAY DAY FRIDAY SATURDAY 1 3 4 ...

Think small.(Art)
October 1, 2003... THINK SMALL Edward Hopper is known for his lonely scenes of the American cityscape, not his Impressionistic images of France. So when "Edwards Hopper: The Paris Years" opens on October 16, the location may strike you as fittingly incongruous;...

Dear Abby.(Extraordinary Women)
October 1, 2003... DEAR ABBY: I'm a working; mother trying to balance my family life with my career. Like so many millions of other women. I've discovered that encouragement is a huge motivator, whether it comes from someone I know or someone I don't. I'm writing...

Are we there yet?(A Great Weekend In Big Bend)
October 1, 2003... If ever there was a time to go to Big Bend, the weekend of October 10-12 is it. Period. (Let us clarify; For the purposes of our conversation, "Big Bend" means the Marfa-Alpine-Marathon corridor.) On Friday, head to Marfa, and before you...

Bright Weitz.(Straight Talk)
October 1, 2003... With his brother. Chris, 38-year-old Paul Weitz has co-directed or co-written such Hollywood Blockbusters as American Pie, Antz, and About a Boy. The two will be panelists at The Austin film Festival, which runs October 9-12. You have an...

The unkindest cut: the merits of redistricting are arguable, but one thing is not: David Dewhurst has wounded the Texas Senate--and his own reputation.(Letter From Austin)
October 1, 2003... AN EXPANSIVE, JOCULAR David Dewhurst greeted reporters warmly at a celebratory lunch in his elegant Capitol dining room in early June. This was a happy man. He had earned rave media reviews for forging bipartisan compromises on tough issues...

Letting go: in August I took my firstborn to college. He couldn't have been happier. That makes one of us.(First Person)
October 1, 2003... WHAT DID I DO ON MY SUMMER VACATION? I agonized over the impending departure of my older son, Philip, who was heading off to college in mid-August. Although I told Philip a couple of times how much I would miss him, I tried to hide the depth of...

Molly Ivins: the irreverent columnist and author on George W., the Democrats--and whether California is nuts.(A Few Words With ...)
October 1, 2003... This may seem like an obvious question, but how did you arrive at the president as a subject for the books you co-wrote with Lou Dubose, Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush and your new one, Bushwhacked: Life in George...

Holy trinity: unlike its North Texas stretches, the lower trinity river is an exotic shadowland of gators and giant cypresses, beautiful and forbidding.(Texas)
October 1, 2003... WHEN I WAS GROWING UP IN ARLINGTON in the forties, the upper Trinity River was a dirty joke. No one wrote love songs about the Trinity, much less ate its fish or canoed its rank and odoriferous waters. Today, the upper part of the river is a...

Cottage industry: for 32 years the temple-based Tourist Court Journal advised motel owners on what to do with half-used bars of soap--and problem guests.(Texana)
October 1, 2003... PERHAPS MY GREATEST CHILDHOOD regret is that I never talked one of my parents into ponying up a quarter for the Magic Fingers bed massage machine at the Spotted Horse Motel in Hamilton. Still, just staying in a motel was pretty exotic, compared...

Not-so-great plains: two Pulitzer prize winners attempt to lasso the look and culture of the state's emptiest quarter--with mixed results.(Books)
October 1, 2003... IN 1916 GEORGIA O'KEEFFE, WHO was then living in Canyon, wrote a friend back East about the beauty of the sky in that vast, open country: "The whole sky--and there is so much of it out here--was just blazing--and grey blue clouds were rioting...

Stirring the pot: in her Michoacan kitchen, Diana Kennedy--the Julia child of Mexican cooking--serves up squash-blossom tacos and strong opinions.(Food)
October 1, 2003... IT'S NOON AT DIANA KENNEDY'S rambling adobe house outside San Pancho, a hillside village of a few hundred souls located three hours west of Mexico City. The celebrated cookbook author and acknowledged godmother of Mexican cooking is unpacking a...

Greatness visible: the University of Texas has more going for it today than ever before: unregulated tuition, unfettered diversity, smart students, winning sports teams, first-class cultural facilities, academic programs with buzz, and finally, an administration with realistic goals. So why isn't it living up to its potential? Good question.
October 1, 2003... THE DREAM OF A GREAT UNIVERSITY rising out of the pairie north of the Colorado River is almost as old as Texas itself. The Battle of San Jacinto was only three years distant when in Austin, the soon-to-be seat of government, with an endowment...

King's ransom: here's one thing that's already great about UT: at the Humanities Research Center, you can see some of the most extraordinary cultural artifacts of all time. All you have to do is ask.
October 1, 2003... Here's one thing that's already great about UT: Center, you can see some of The most extraordinary cultural artifacts of all time. All you have to do is ask. WHEN I WAS A STUDENT at the University of Texas at Austin in the early nineties,...

God and man at Baylor: this summer, the talk on campus was about a murdered basketball player and a corrupt coach. This fall, it's about a controversial preacher-president who rules with an iron hand, puts religion at the head of the class, and is bent on changing--some say destroying--the culture of the world's largest Baptist university. And UT thinks it has problems.
October 1, 2003... BAYLORS, THE OLDEST UNIVERSITY in Texas, has added considerably to its number of spires in the past couple of years. The latest reach up to heaven from a parking garage that opened in August. The Dutton Avenue Office and Parking Facility is a...

The war at home: the Vietnam War wreaked havoc on lives across America as well as on the battlefield, tearing apart parents and children and husbands and wives--including one military family in El Paso that would never be the same.
October 1, 2003... IN FROM THE ABOVE-NINETY heat of the El Paso sun on a mid-June afternoon in 1967, Genevieve Coonly picked up her ringing telephone and shrieked with surprise as soon as she heard the first words from the caller. "Hello, Bebe." It was the...

The spirit of 76: do you know the inside story of Dazed and Confused, one of the greatest movies about high school ever made--and the flick that made this dude famous? It'd be a lot cooler if you did!
October 1, 2003... There was no good reason to expect Dazed and Confused, the second feature film from Slacker director Richard Linklater, to become a pop-culture phenomenon when filming began in Austin in June 1992. The only remotely recognizable faces in the...

Beth's story: do you want your life back? Women should feel healthy, vibrant and strong throughout their adult lives. If you have been told "it's in your mind" or "live with it," read on.
October 1, 2003... Health for Midlife Beth is a 53 year old female who presented to the Hotze Health and Wellness Center with a 13 year history of worsening fatigue. She had a long history of cold hands and feet as well as sensitivity to cold. She was...

Restaurant guide: a selective guide to food and drink.
October 1, 2003... Policies and Definitions The Restaurant Guide is a service to our leaders. 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...

Moonstruck.(Pat's Pick)
October 1, 2003... MOONSTRUCK "Luna" means "moon" in Italian and Spanish, but San Antonio newcomer Luna Blue Cafe will be on my must-visit list way more often than once in a blue moon. To begin with, the service at this bright, light ristorante is excellent--the...

Foreign affairs.(Best Fests)
October 1, 2003... FOREIGN AFFAIRS Forgo October's usual rowdy beer-drinking and bratwurst-eating festivities and instead treat yourself to souvlaki and spanakopita at Houston's thirty-seventh annual Original Greek Festival. To be held October 2-5 at the...

Style and sustenance.(Bookshelf)
October 1, 2003... STYLE AND SUSTENANCE Back when I was a newly minted teenager, my mother took me on a shopping expedition to the Neiman Marcus Store in downtown Dallas, complete with a lunch break at the Zodiac Room, The details of the trip are fuzzy, but the...

Lottie's love: Lottie Cotton cared for me and my siblings as if we were her own kids. When she died this summer at age one hundred, a piece of me died too.(The Last Roundup)
October 1, 2003... WHEN LOTTIE COTTON WAS BORN, on September 6, 1902, in the tiny southeast Texas town of Liberty, there were no airplanes in the sky. There were no SUVs, no superhighways, no cell phones, no televisions. When Lottie was laid to rest this past...