September 2009
Table of Contents
Features
Mike Leach Is Thinking ...And you would be too if you were an itinerant Rollerblader with a passion for pirates who’d reinvented the game of college football, brought joy to Lubbock, beaten UT, and narrowly missed a shot at a national champi- onship. And what you’d be thinking is, “Gangway!” Fairest of the FairFrom Luling’s Watermelon Thump Queen to Gilmer’s Queen Yam, small-town Texas is full of festival royalty, and pretty is the head that wears the crown. Plus:Long Live the QueensA slide show of images featuring our state’s royalty, from the Poteet Strawberry Festival Queen to Sweetwater’s Miss Snake Charmer. |
Dream of a Common Language. Sueño de un Idioma Común.The future of Texas depends on how well we are able to educate kids who can’t speak English. Has an elementary school in El Paso figured out the best way to do it? Why Are Tortilla Chips So Damn Good?Is it the crispiness? The crunchiness? The saltiness? Thankfully, a small cadre of researchers in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences at Texas A&M has spent much of the past thirty years munching on this question. |
Columns
Behind the LinesLowe and BeholdAn open letter to the lucky new chair of the most dysfunctional agency in Texas, the State Board of Education. |
Letter From San AngeloThe End of The AffairEveryone was shocked when San Angelo’s hugely popular mayor suddenly left town with his gay lover. Everyone, that is, except the citizens of San Angelo. Letter From GalvestonNo Man’s IslandA year has passed since Hurricane Ike slammed into Galveston, but my hometown is still reeling from a storm without end. |
Reporter
The Horse’s MouthTeaching YogaStreet SmartsMarfaPlus:Street Cam: MarfaTake a virtual tour of Maiya’s in Marfa. Street Cam: MarfaTake a virtual tour of the Thunderbird Hotel in Marfa. The ManualDove HuntingHow to dove hunt. Plus:The Manual 2.0The experts from the Dallas Gun Club and World Wide Blast and Cast teach Andrea Valdez how to hunt dove. |
Object LessonTina Knowles’s Handbag |
The Filter
The Filter: DiningNew and Noteworthy |
Miscellany
Roar of the CrowdLetters to The TedatorContributorsSam Gwynne, David Strohl and Karen Olsson. |
Editor’s LetterSchool of Talk |
Web Exclusives
Shelley CaltonThe photographer talks about her new book and life on skates. Queen of HeartsShe’s the girl who wears cowboy boots under her poufy white taffeta dress every weekend as she rides in some other town’s parade. Exchange RateOne Lebanese student’s experience in Austin, Texas. Being a Super ModelI avoid saying the word “diet” like the plague. I try to be careful about what I eat and what I do because I know my six-year-old daughter is watching me. She’s listening. High SocietyColum McCann’s new novel revolves around Philippe Petit’s high-wire walk between the Twin Towers in 1974. |
Revolutionary KindDaniel Miller, the president of the Texas Nationalist Movement, is a proud secessionist. And the tea parties were just the beginning for this true believer. Talk RodeoFrom the cowgirls racing around barrels to the cowboys hanging on for their lives atop bucking bulls, there’s nothing quite as exciting as watching the rodeo at the Fort Worth Stockyards. The Time of His LifeThe original dirty dancer, Patrick Swayze, died Monday at the age of 57. Widespread PanicDespite its status as a public health emergency, is the swine flu just another flu? |
Multimedia
Recipes
Farmer’s Market Tomato SaladRecipe from Ellerbe Fine Foods, Fort Worth. |
Grilled Salmon With Spring Onions and Brown Butter CauliflowerRecipe From Chef David Bull’s Interactive Cookbook, Bull’s Eye On Food |
