April 1997 Issue

On the Cover

Did You Hear the One About the New Aggies?

They overcame politics, poverty, isolation, and Old Aggies to make Texas A&M the state’s academic powerhouse.

Features


Speed

This month, more than 150,000 fans will pack an enormous new venue near Fort Worth to watch the state’s first major stock car race. Clearly, NASCAR is on the right track in Texas.

Blowin’ in the Wind

Itchy eyes, sore throat, runny nose: It must be allergy season. But what causes allergies? How do you pick a doctor? And what’s the best treatment? An in-depth look at an affliction that’s nothing to sneeze at.

The Crossing

If U.S. officials put an end to illegal trips across the Rio Grande at Boquillas, the enchanting border town will find itself caught between countries and cultures. Of course, that’s where it has always been.

Range Rover

After fifty years of traveling the Southwest, ranch photographer Frank Reeves left behind a vast body of work and unforgettable portraits of the cowboy’s way of life.

Columns


Hardball

Whether playing for the luckless Houston Astros, running the world-champion New York Yankees, or confronting racism, Bob Watson has always stepped up to the plate.

Reporter


Bill Paxton

When my friend Tom Huckabee and I were seventeen, we pooled our money and bought a new Kodak Ektasound Super-8 system. One of the first films we made was a black and white pseudodocumentary called Victory at Auschwitz, which we shot in the old train yard off West Vickery in

Patrick Curry, Luis Borromeo, and Richard Worley

In the youth-oriented world of Web page designers, calling someone young is really saying something—but these guys are young. Before any of them is old enough to drink, in fact, the cyberwunderkinder who run two-year-old Zero Factor Interactive (ZFI) have garnered an impressive roster of clients, including Who bassist John

Let Them Read Shrake

It would be wrong to say that Bud Shrake has finished writing one third of a new novel; it’s actually an old novel, one he has been writing off and on for the past fifteen years. “It’s about love, violence, sex, and murder,” the 65-year-old Austinite explains, and is set

Game Daze

IF FILLING OUT YOUR TAX forms this month wasn’t complicated enough for you, Richardson’s 7th Level has a new computer game that may be right up your alley. In G-Nome, you can pilot a lumbering craft that looks like one of the Imperial walkers from The Empire Strikes Back. But

CD and Book Reviews

Hot CDsSing, Cowboy, Sing: The Gene Autry Collection (Rhino) is a three-CD set featuring 84 favorites by the singing cowboy from Tioga. But these aren’t always the best-known versions; many are previously unreleased transcriptions from his Melody Ranch radio show that measure up well and thus add to the Autry

Web


Walnut-Crusted Striped Bass

Recipe from The Grape’s chef Jason Gorman.Cranberry-Mango Chutney1/8 cup minced garlic 1 cup cranberry juice 1/2 cup honey 1 cup fresh cranberries 1 small mango, diced 1/2 cup dried apricots, diced 1 stick cinnamon 1 tablespoon diced fresh gingerSauté garlic in a saucepan until golden brown. Add remaining ingredients and

Miscellany


Marathon Man

In 1988, when James H. Evans was in his mid-thirties, he left behind a successful photography studio in Austin and moved to remote Marathon, where he took a job as a cook at the Gage Hotel and shot pictures on the side. “Everyone thought I was nuts,” he says. “I

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