Eyes on the Pies
Five modern twists on traditional recipes make mincemeat out of store-bought desserts.
Five modern twists on traditional recipes make mincemeat out of store-bought desserts.
For forty years Nellie Connally has been talking about that day, when she was in that car and saw that tragedy unfold. She’s still talking—and now she’s writing too.
Riding a camel across the West Texas sand dunes, I got in touch with my inner O'Toole and left the modern world far behind.
Long before The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, there was “La Grange,” a blues shuffle that rolled onto radio in brazen celebration of the state’s unofficial rest stop. ZZ Top already boasted a string of minor successes, but “La Grange” recruited an armada of beer drinkers and hell-raisers and launched
Being labeled a pioneer in modern jazz is the musical equivalent of making the cover of Sports Illustrated; you almost never live up to anyone’s expectations. Yet after his third stunning album in a row (and fifth overall), Jason Moran is looking more and more like he’s beaten the curse.
It’s a sad commentary on the state of rock music when an angry young man gets treated as something of a novelty. Steve Earle is one of the few artists willing and—more important—able to translate his passion into great music. Just an American Boy: The Audio Documentary (Artemis), a live
Before the curtain rises on DBC Pierre‘s coal-black comedy Vernon God Little (Canongate), fifteen-year-old Vernon Little is just another potty-mouthed high school loser trapped in the fictional Texas town of Martirio. After his much-abused friend Jesus shoots sixteen classmates and then himself, Vernon is branded a probable psychokiller (or at
The King Is Dead (Knopf), Austinite Jim Lewis‘s sterling novel of politics, race, fidelity, and regret, is a model of literary economy. In an epicworthy tale packed into a brisk 260 pages, Walter Selby, a top aide to Tennessee’s governor, wrestles with the dodgy ethics of political life and the
How much Larry McMurtry is too much? Ready or not, here he comes again with the third installment of his seriocomic Berrybender Narratives a scant six months after book two. By Sorrow’s River (Simon & Schuster) won’t win him another Pulitzer, but the pages blow by like a prairie wind
YOUNG BUCK Satirist Christopher Buckley will be speaking November 3 at the Celebration of Reading in Dallas.First of all, I hear your power is out in Washington. Are all the phones working? We have phones but no electricity, so we’re essentially back to the days before answering machines, which may
XTREME SPORTS Some tough decisions need to be made in Houston, and I’m not talking about the mayor’s race. You’ll want to be there to hear “Ladies and gentlemen, U.S. Open winner Andy Roddick” when the onetime (and soon-to-be-part-time) Austinite is introduced at the Tennis Masters Cup, which takes place
NUMBER ONE FAN Some favor the celebrities of the big screen, others bow at the altars of superstar athletes. We, however, prefer master wordsmiths. Luckily for us, this month offers plenty of reasons to break out the Sharpie. Former first couple George and Barbara Bush host heavyweights Michael Beschloss, Christopher
LIVE LONG AND PROSPER Before the Empire struck back, there was the Federation and the USS Enterprise. Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek, which first aired on the small screen from 1966 to 1969, ingeniously used science fiction to address real-life issues like race and gender relations, gaining a cultlike following of
DEAR JOHN November 22, 1963—like September 11, 2001—was a watershed date. On one side lay the optimism of John F. Kennedy’s Camelot, on the other the disillusionment and unrest that followed his assassination. The nation is still fixated on that fateful day—the motorcade through downtown Dallas, the blood on Jackie’s
My grandfather's Watergate.
What Walter Cronkite really thinks about cable TV shoutfests, the length of network newscasts, and (ahem) Jayson Blair.
Priscilla Owen judged.
This was the summer of George W. Bush's discontent, when sixteen specious words in the State of the Union address threw the White House into disarray. Can his 32-year-old mediameister, Dan Bartlett, get the message and the messenger back on track?
It took a while, but I finally found my niche at the University of Texas at Austin.
Senior executive editor Paul Burka talks about this month's cover story, "Greatness Visible."
Senior editor Anne Dingus discusses auto camps, motels, and newfangled amenities like swimming pools, ice machines, and television.
Harry Ransom made sure Texas would be known for more than its cowboys.
Associate editor John Spong talks about Hollywood types, drinking beer, and a typical high school scene.
Photographer Peter Yang talks about hanging out at the Texas Union and the key to taking a great portrait.
Author Gregory Curtis talks about Paris, impressions, and the Venus de Milo.
I was looking for a change when I decided to move to Austin and attend the University of Texas. Until I got there, I had no idea how big the change would be.
You may know the story of Bevo, but do you know when UT first played a football game against A&M?
From the Neiman Marcus Cookbook.
Tlacoyo is the common name, a variation of the Nahuatl words tlatlaoyo and claclaoyo, given to an antojito typical of central Mexico: corn masa formed into a flattish elongated oval and stuffed often with ricotta, requeson, or a paste of fava beans. They vary enormously in size from very large—about
The tiny community of Egypt, southwest of Houston, is a place of antiquity, which makes it the perfect town to visit if you are a history lover like me.
Clean Your Plate: Dishes for Every Occasion
When I was growing up in Arlington, the upper Trinity River was a dirty jokeand it still is. But the lower Trinity? You've got to see it to believe it.
For decades, family-run motels looked after weary travelers all across Texas. And who looked after the families who ran them? The Temple-based Tourist Court Journal.
A whole Lottie love.
Molly Ivins goes nuts for Arnold.
Anne Dingus drives herself to tears.
Three months ago we named David Dewhurst one of the state's best legislators. Now we're not so sure.
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 lasting effects have been an
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 Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral, the event features—what else?—all things Greek: music, dancing, crafts, jewelry, and of course, food
What Julia Child is to French cooking, Diana Kennedy is to Mexican: a pioneer in her field with creativity to spare and strong opinions about everything.
For so many American families with loved ones overseas, Vietnam complicated everything. The Allens, of El Paso, found that out the hardest way possible.
Can one man change the world's largest Baptist university? He can if he's controversial preacher-president Robert Sloan, Jr. And, just maybe, one man can destroy it too.
At UT's Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, extraordinary cultural treasures are available for your inspectionif you know the magic word.
The dream of a first-rate university rising out of the prairie north of the Colorado River is almost as old as Texas itself. Which prompts the question, When will UT finally live up to its potential?
Will Houston's next mayor be White?
Suzan-Lori Parks gets the culture and cadence of West Texas right, sort of; Annie Proulx doesn't.
BRIGHT WEITZ 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 extensive filmography for your age. Are you a workaholic or
ARE WE THERE YET? 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 retire for the night,
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 to you because this month there are
THINK SMALL Edward Hopper is known for his lonely scenes of the American cityscape, not his Impressionistic images of France. So when “Edward Hopper: The Paris Years” opens on October 16, the location may strike you as fittingly incongruous: the Tyler Museum of Art (it isn’t every day that a