Borderline Insanity
How else to describe the murder and mayhem and fear that have gripped Nuevo Laredo for months—and are now spilling over into Texas?
August 2005 Issue
Features
Feature
My Name is Jonathan Moss
And I will soon be a soldier in Iraq—again. Here’s what’s going through my mind.
Feature
Grease
At restaurants across Texas, there are any number of things that taste better dipped in egg and milk, dredged in flour, and pan-fried in hot oil. If you think steak is the only chicken-fried, uh, delicacy, wake up and smell the bacon. And the antelope. And the lobster. And…
Ten Ways To Fix Texas
They’re obvious to everyone except, apparently, the people we elected to fix Texas. They include some easy solutions and at least one that will probably get me a lot of hate mail (but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong).
Columns
Patricia Kilday Hart
Home Buyer Beware
The state agency that’s supposed to protect you is a captive of the industry you need protection from.
Reporter
“Friedman’s Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose”
The Kinky-for-governor circus pulls into Galveston.
Music Review
Funky Funky Houston
If you were of the first to latch on to Archie Bell and the Drells’ “Tighten Up” back in 1968, you probably bought the 45 on the tiny Ovide label. When the single took off, Atlantic Records stepped in, and thanks in no small part to the sale of Archie
Music Review
Cost of Living
“Dependable” is a good word for DELBERT MCCLINTON’s music. After thirty years and eighteen albums, there aren’t a whole lot of surprises; few artists have stuck so tenaciously to their guns. Here’s why: Mc-Clinton’s seamless splicing of blues, rock and roll, and country, driven by a fixation with roadhouse R&B,
Music Review
The Outsider
RODNEY CROWELL, the talented Houston-born songwriter who began recording in the late seventies, has followed an uneven road to success. At times he’s sounded adrift or bored, trapped by the “progressive country” parameters he imposed on himself. But starting in 2001, something clicked. First came The Houston Kid, followed by
Book Review
In Perfect Light
El Paso’s BENJAMIN ALIRE SAENZ doesn’t do easy. Death, racism, child molestation, and U.S.-Mexico border issues are just a few of the topics he grazes in his dignified but heart-wrenching novel In Perfect Light. Meet Andrés Segovia and Grace Delgado. Segovia is a conundrum, an intelligent and en-gaging man whose
Book Review
The Rogues’ Game
Aspiring writers embarking on their first caper novel will find much to emulate in The Rogues’ Game (St. Martin’s), a rollicking debut by Tyler’s MILTON T. BURTON. It features all the excitement that a 1947 West Texas oil town can muster: a mysterious out-of-towner in a Lincoln convertible, a sassy
Book Review
Body Scissors
The year is 1991, the city is Austin, and a young black girl is killed by a stray bullet meant for her political activist mother, Virginia Key. So opens Body Scissors (Viking), the notable second thriller from MICHAEL SIMON featuring the Capital City’s lone Jewish homicide detective, Dan Reles. The
Web
Pat's Pick
Nobu
Dine at the right time, get the right server, and order the right things, and you can have a dazzling meal at Dallas’s very own Nobu, an outpost of renowned chef Nobu Matsuhisa’s eponymous restaurant empire. I, for one, liked my seared toro (the prized “fatty tuna”) with jalapeño,
Contributors
Contributors
John MorthlandWhen writer-at-large John Morthland first started writing about food, in the eighties, he turned to what he liked best: “Barbecue, Cajun, regional American stuff,” he says. “Comfort food.” So cataloging chicken-fried cuisine around the state for “Grease” was easy as pie. “I already had a mental file of
Pat's Pick
Off the Menu
How to make the perfect… Persimmon FlanFew things in the plant world are more mouth-puckeringly bitter than an unripe persimmon—and few things are more gloriously flavorful than a ripe one, which all but melts to a mellow custard inside its glossy orange skin. The season for persimmons begins in August,
Texas History 101
Texas History 101
The last battle of the civil war was fought in Texas—a month after the war officially ended.
Web Exclusive
Border Patrol
Writer-at-large Cecilia Ballí discusses the plight of violence-ridden Nuevo Laredo.
Web Exclusive
Preacher Man
Contributing editor William Martin, who wrote this month’s cover story, on the rise of America’s largest church, positive thinking versus old-time religion, and why Joel Osteen doesn’t cry on camera.
Web Exclusive
Fry Daddy
Writer-at-large John Morthland on channeling Calvin Trillin and chasing down all things chicken-fried.
Recipe
Persimmon Flan
Persimmon Puree 1⁄2 cup sugar 1 cone piloncillo (Mexican unrefined brown sugar, available in ethnic markets such as Fiesta) 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1⁄2 stick cinnamon 10 ripe persimmons, unpeeled, stem end cut off flat 1⁄2 cup orange juiceA day ahead, put all ingredients in a large saucepan
Books That Cook
Books That Cook
Let’s be honest, when planning a party menu, one factors in practicality as much as pleasing the palate. Constant stove-top attention and complicated recipes don’t sit well with the other responsibilities of hosting. Menus depend on such basic considerations as seating, oven space, and how long into the night guests
Miscellany
Around the State
08.08.05
August—People, Places, Events, Attractions08.08.2005To celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary, the Inprint Brown Reading Series has invited a writer whose penchant for eccentricity, outspokenness, and outlandishness (in print at least) equals that of his host city. John Irving, that master of weirdly irresistible characters and extravagant, tragically comic plots (or is it
Roar of the Crowd
Devils Advocate
As a landowner of Devils River property for 75 years, I can assure you, Mr. Gwynne, that the only reason the Devils River is the pure and pristine river it is today is because of those ornery landowners, who were, and still are, trying their best to preserve for future
Edward E. Whitacre Jr.
“The worry is that we’re going to put the Bell system back together. You hear that a lot. Anybody who says that is just not informed.”
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