February 2000

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Features

Who Wants to Be a Billionaire?

You do, right? Joe Jamail, Red McCombs, Mark Cuban, and seven other superrich Texans tell you how.

by Claire Poole and Alexandra Biesada

The Man Who Loved Cat Burgling

For years Dallas’ most prolific jewel thief robbed the mansions of socialites like Nancy Brinker and Annette Simmons. If not for his girlfriend’s crack use, he might have gotten away with it forever.

by Skip Hollandsworth

This Is living.com?

He’s worth tens of millions of dollars at age 28, but money, as they say, can’t buy happiness: Two weeks in the life of Andrew Busey, dot-com hotshot.

by Katy Vine

Thanks a Million 1999

What do Tom Hicks, Jerry Jones, and Charles Barkley have in common? They’re all good sports — and they were three of Texas’ top philanthropists last year.

by Ann Castle

Top of the Morning

Recipes for the state’s best breakfasts, including empanadas from Joe T. Garcia’s Bakery in Fort Worth, smoked-salmon omelets from benjy’s in Houston, and gingerbread pancakes from Austin’s Magnolia Cafe.

by Patricia Sharpe

Northern Exposure

With Fort Worth’s Michael Auping as a curator and nine of the state’s artists participating, this year’s Whitney Biennial puts a New York spotlight on the art of Texas.

by Michael Ennis

Columns

Art

The Art Guy

He looks like a cross between Ed Asner and Uncle Charley from My Three Sons, but don’t get Dave Hickey started on the subject of beauty— his own or anyone else’s.

by Michael Hall

Crime

Unhappy Trails

Although they hate to let anyone get away with murder, Harris County detectives Harry Fikaris and Roger Wedgeworth are finding that cracking unsolved cases is no easy task.

by Ellise Pierce

Behind the Lines

Animal Magnetism

My mane attraction.

by Gregory Curtis

Books

Live and Learn

East Texas native George Dawson couldn’t read until he was 98. Now, at 102, he’s written a memoir. Next up: a high school equivalency diploma—but no driving.

by Gary Cartwright

Business

Green Acres

How a retired agribusinessman from Houston is betting the ranch (and the jungles of Mexico) on bamboo.

by Carol Flake Chapman

Reporter

Miscellaneous

State Fare

American Beauty Cake From Rather Sweet Bakery

A cake that gets to the heart of the batter from Austin's Rather Sweet Bakery.

by Patricia Sharpe

Around the State

San Antonio's Carver Center builds for the future with groundbreaking productions. Plus: A picture-perfect exhibit opens at the Dallas Museum of Art; celebrities open the book on Texas letters in Dallas; a capital gang heads to Odessa; and a music symposium composes itself in Georgetown.