February 2010 Cover

Composite photograph by Dan Winters. Creative retouching by Joe Zeff Design.

February 2010

Table of Contents

Features

A year ago Rick Perry’s political future seemed to be in peril. Now he’s looking past the 2010 elections—and all the way to the White House. Think I’m kidding? How about a cup of tea?

Rick Perry's road to the White House in under three minutes.

Catching up on the governor’s race—taxes, coyotes, NASCAR, and pool houses—in under three minutes.

You had to be brave to open a restaurant last year. Or you had to be a genius. Or, like Robert Del Grande, whose revamped Houston eatery tops our list of the ten best gastronomical debuts of 2009, you had to be both.

A slide show of images featuring our state’s top ten restaurants, from Il Sogno, in San Antonio, to RDG + Bar Annie, in Houston, to Samar by Stephan Pyles, in Dallas.

That’s the number of times Harris County housewife Susan Wright stabbed her husband in a brutal 2003 murder that riveted the nation and landed her in prison for 25 years. But should the butcher of the burbs be freed?

Country, jazz, blues, R&B, polka, and conjunto—the late, great Doug Sahm was a walking encyclopedia of Texas music. An exclusive excerpt from a new biography explores how he stirred it all together and found his own sound in his first great song.

Columns

Behind the Lines

Why the proposed merger between Baylor College of Medicine and my alma mater could turn out to be a bad prescription.

Letter From Bryan

After a sudden pang of conscience, former Bryan Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson became a pro-life activist and a star on the conservative talk show circuit. But is she telling the truth?

Letter From Fort Worth

Fort Worth clergyman Jack Iker’s battle with the Episcopal Church has become an all-out war. And the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Vegetarian offspring, a barroom dispute, maintaining the “Texas identity,” and whether anything can be done to cure a marriage-threatening case of snoring.

Reporter

The Horse’s Mouth

Adelina Anthony on performing comedy.

The Working Life

Matchmaker

The Manual

How to dance cumbia.

Watch the experts at Calle Ocho teach Andrea Valdez how to dance cumbia.

Street Smarts

Hollywood, TX

The blind side of The Blind Side.

Book Review

Book Review

Author Interview

Music Review

Music Review

Music Review

Artist Interview

The Filter

Pat’s Pick

Plano

The Filter: Dining

Miscellany

Editor’s Letter

Roar of the Crowd

Jan Reid, Philip Burke, and Patricia Sharpe.

Web Exclusives

The shocking testimony of Vanessa Bulls against Matt Baker.

Finding the blues in a bar in Bursa.

Showing a new intern the tricks of the trade.

Not everyone can spin a pistol. Gun twirling champion Paula Saletnik talks about being a modern-day Annie Oakley.

A prayer for the broken hearted.

For more than thirty years, artist Damian Priour has crafted beautiful sculptures made of limestone, metal, wood, bronze, and glass.

How the state's top two players made their college choices.

Sip a little here, nosh a little there, and fall in love with Texas wineries.

The John Doe case that continues to haunt a small town in Texas.

Charlie served his district and his state well, and he never tried to hide his shortcomings, and he was a good friend. A lot of people would settle for that as an epitaph.

Multimedia

Rick Perry's road to the White House in under three minutes.

Watch the experts at Calle Ocho teach Andrea Valdez how to dance cumbia.

A slide show of images featuring our state’s top ten restaurants, from Il Sogno, in San Antonio, to RDG + Bar Annie, in Houston, to Samar by Stephan Pyles, in Dallas.

Recipes

Recipe from Chef Larry McGuire, Perla’s, Austin

Recipe from Master Baker Richard Michot, W.M. Bakery and Watermark Grill, San Antonio

Recipe from Chef Dean Fearing, Fearing’s, Dallas

Recipe from Chef Scott Cohen, Pavil, San Antonio

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