Regular Joe
How a nobody became the somebody nearly everybody wanted to replace Speaker Tom Craddick.
April 2009 Issue
Features
Across the Line
Was the quaint East Texas town of Mineola home to a horrific child sex ring? Were the three people sent to prison last year for running it guilty? Was justice served? Depends on which district attorney you ask.
Ghosts Of War
Happy Texas Independence Day! Read five stories about our state's history, including this piece about the battlegrounds of Texas, which tell an incredible story of struggle, sorrow, triumph, and terror.
The State
The Texanist: Do I Have to Sit With My Kids in the Bluebonnets?
Must I pose with my kids in the bluebonnets?
Columns
Jan Reid
Cold Case
One year ago tejano star Emilio Navaira was nearly killed in a tour bus accident outside Houston. What are we still learning about the experimental medical procedure that may have saved his life?
Capitol Affairs
Nadine Eckhardt married not one but two legendary figures in the Texas liberal pantheon. And lived to tell the tale.
Reporter
Music Review
Hills and Valleys
Supergroups are best viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism. Nearly all, from Blind Faith to Little Village to the New York Yankees, are cynically conceived: They’re groups in name only; they reek of artifice. Yet the Flatlanders get a pass on such judgment. They were an actual band
Artist Interview
Hector Saldaña
In the early seventies, Hector Saldaña founded San Antonio’s Krayolas, whose British Invasion/Tex-Mex rock and roll made them a regional phenom through the early eighties. A 2007 singles compilation, Best Riffs Only, led the band to re-form; their comeback album, La Conquistadora, garnered national acclaim in 2008. They’ve just released
Author Interview
Rupert Isaacson
After their two-year-old son, Rowan, was diagnosed with autism in 2004, the author and his wife, Kristin, struggled with the challenge of finding effective treatment for an incontinent, uncommunicative child given to intractable tantrums. The Horse Boy: A father’s quest to heal his son tells of their journey to
Book Review
Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde
Jeff Guinn’s Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde is an entertaining, meticulously researched biography that gleans fact from the fables that grew up around this Depression-era outlaw duo. Clyde Barrow was the son of a junk man in the slums of west Dallas,
Book Review
The Color of Lightning
Stick a thumb into any page of Paulette Jiles’s The Color of Lightning and you’ll pull out a fine prose plum. The San Antonio author has trademarked an offhand lyricism, and she displays it amply in this intelligent Civil War–era novel: “Britt and Mary slept with the two
Catherine Hardwicke
“When you come with absolutely zero connections, you have to claw your way up, which I did.”
How to Chase a Tornado
The RationaleTexas soil is arguably Mother Nature’s favorite dance floor: More twisters touch down here annually than in any other state (132 on average). As a result, storm chasers consider the Panhandle and Red River Valley requisite destinations during tornado season (April through June). This activity won’t suit the lily-livered
Sister María P. Sánchez, Nun
Sánchez took her vows and entered Missionary Catechists of Divine Providence in 1984. She is the project manager for the Valley Initiative for Development and Advancement, a labor-relations organization based in Weslaco, where she lives. Between 1993 and 2004, she was the director of religious education at St. Joseph the
Music Review
Instead the Forest Rose to Sing
While many folksingers drape their work in mysticism, Austin’s Danny Schmidt is first and foremost a storyteller. He employs allegory, but more often than not his tales are just what they appear to be. The ten new songs on Instead the Forest Rose to Sing (Red House) nestle
Music Review
Down the Line: Rarities and Memorial Collection
Like many “best of” compilations, the Buddy Holly double-disc Down the Line: Rarities and the Holly triple-disc Memorial Collection (both Geffen/Decca) possess an air of unreality. Listen to a select body of an artist’s mature work—no album filler, no learning curve detectable in the songs—and you get
Web
Charlie Wilson’s War Plan
The legendary congressman talks about Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the future of the Middle East.
Web Exclusive
Behind Bars
Four San Antonio women convicted of sexual assault fifteen years ago maintain their innocence and remain in prison.
Hysteria
When adults are accused of unthinkable crimes against children, what’s fact and what’s fiction can get lost in translation.
Web Exclusive
The Witches of Garland
How a mother and daughter hired a hit man to kill their husband and father, and why they might just get away with it.
Web Exclusive
Kindergarten Cop-Out
The full-time pre-K bill seems like a slam dunk. The price tag: $300 million.
Under the Weather
If UTMB’s trauma center really is slated to reopen, the hospital will have a few questions to answer.
Feeling the Burn
I used to spend every weekend out by the pool, working on my tan. Now I check my body for changing moles or new spots, and call my doctor.
Web Exclusive
About a Guy
Austin native Ben McKenzie, who starred in the teen drama The O.C., talks about barbecue, Barack Obama, and his new show, Southland.
All in the Family
Childhood memories come to life in the work of Chicana artist Carmen Lomas Garza.
Recipe
Easy Maytag Blue Cheese Chips
Recipe from Chef Kent Rathbun, Jasper’s, The Woodlands1 cup heavy cream 4 ounces blue cheese, crumbled ½ ounce lemon juice 1 teaspoon kosher salt 2 teaspoons cracked black pepper 8 ounces potato chips, non-ruffled, thick-cut 1 ounce Maytag blue cheese, crumbled fine 1 ounce chives, snippedIn a medium saucepan, bring
Kinky Uncut
David Hartstein’s film about Kinky Friedman’s 2006 gubernatorial run shows the candidate’s earnest sincerity, a quality frequently obscured by his larger-than-life persona.
Recipe
Vuelva-a-la-Vida “Come Back to Life” Ceviche
Poached Seafood1 pound Manila clams, rinsed in cold water of all sand 1 pound shrimp, cleaned, deveined, and cut in half lengthwise 1 pound mussels, rinsed in cold water and debearded 1/2 pound sashimi-grade tuna, diced smallNote: In this ceviche we use line-caught fish, clams, and oysters from eco-friendly waters.
Miscellany
Roar of the Crowd
Low Blow
The only thing sadder than your choice of Kay Bailey Hutchison for the February cover is knowing that there are plenty of idiots in Texas who will vote for either her or Mr. Big Hair.Don HathawayFort WorthIncident ReportAs an SMU alum and a DEA special agent, I read the article
Editor's Letter
No Depression
According to T. S. Eliot and a now annual chorus of newspaper columnists, weathermen, bloggers, marketing departments, six o’clock news anchors, drive-time deejays, adolescent poets, and tax-mad accountants, April is the cruelest month. This year, however, January and February each made strong cases that the dubious honor should be
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