July 2000 Archives

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On the Cover

How W. Can Win

The first test was whether primary voters thought he had what it takes to be president. It was touch and go for a while, but he passed. Now George W. Bush has to get the rest of the country on his side. An inside look at his plan for doing precisely that.

By Paul Burka

Features

Feature

Whatabusiness!

On the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Whataburger, we sink our teeth into the fast-food chain’s lore. And, no, we don’t want fries with that.

By Mark Mazzetti

Feature

Franco File

The best French restaurant in Texas is in San Antonio? Mais oui. And around the state, there are others that are très bon as well.

By Patricia Sharpe

Feature

The Anti-Tiger

He’d like to just do it—but for Dallas native Justin Leonard to reclaim his spot in pro golf’s upper echelon, he’ll have to workeven harder than you know who.

By Michael DiLeo

True Crime

Capital Murder

In a year-long spree that began in late 1884, Texas’ first serial killer butchered seven women and one man in Austin. More than a century later questions about his identity and his motive remain unanswered.

By Skip Hollandsworth

Politics & Policy

How W. Can Lose

What are George Bush’s weaknesses as he heads into the fall campaign? We asked six Texas Democrats— a former governor, a former lieutenant governor, two wannabes, and two wiseacre pundits—to make the case against him. They pulled no punches.

By Evan Smith

Feature

George W. Es Muy Bueno

The selling of George W.—in Spanish.

By Patricia Hart

Feature

Conservative. Compassionate?

The two faces of Bush’s compassionate conservatism guru.

By Patricia Hart

Biz

High Tech Answer Man

Gimme a Breakup!

What the Microsoft case means for us.

By Peter Lewis

Biz Feature

The New, New Henry C

Henry Cisneros, TV star.

By Kathryn Jones

How I Made It

Gordon Bethune

I was in the Navy, and by default, I got promoted to petty officer second class. I supervised the second shift, which worked from seven at night to seven in the morning. We were airplane mechanics, but I was in charge. I had to get these other eight guys to

By Patricia McConnico

Y’all Street

EOG Resources

The Texas stock to buy right now.

By Alexandra Biesada

The List

Disorder in the Court

Five ways the state's legal profession is changing.

By Anne S. Lewis

Columns

Behind the Lines

It’s Been Fun

I’ll be seeing you.

By Gregory Curtis

The Culture

E’er Heads

I think, therefore iamb: My personal tour of the history of bad Texas poetry, from best to versed, prose to cons.

By Anne Dingus

Film

Easy Writer

In Rosanky, Texas (pop: 210), far from the pressures of Hollywood, screenwriter-director Tim McCanlies thrives.

By Alison Macor

Music

On the Fringe

You might have thought Waco’s Hank Thompson, a forebear of today’s alt-country scene, was dead and gone. But faster than you can say “No Depression,” he’s back, and even at 74, he shows no signs of slowing down.

By John Morthland

Health

Vocal Heroes

The doctors at Abilene’s Voice Institute of West Texas can treat all manner of problems with the way you talk? Speech, speech!

By Jim Atkinson

Reporter

Book Review

The Special Prisoner

In Japanese POW camps in World War II, American airmen were designated as “special prisoners,” but the title of Jim Lehrer’s novel The Special Prisoner (Random House) refers to septuagenarian Bishop John Quincy Watson of San Antonio. Fifty years after he endured a horrific imprisonment in Camp Sengei 4, Watson

By Mike Shea

Book Review

It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life

Two Lance Armstrongs can be found in the Austinite’s self-reflection, It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life (G. P. Putnam’s Sons). There’s Fairy Tale Lance—the cyclist who survives cancer to win bike racing’s greatest prize, the Tour de France. And there’s Lance the Id—the still-young man struggling

By Mike Shea

Book Review

Hot Books

If time, money, or other constraints prevent you from answering the call of the open road this summer, you can still take a long trip—at least vicariously—with Larry McMurtry. Roads, his latest effort, is a look at America’s highways, and in a way, a larger-scale version of In a Narrow

By Anne Dingus

Music Review

The Complete Science Fiction Sessions. Sessions Skies of America

After disbanding his precedent-setting quartet in 1961, Ornette Coleman spent the decade releasing sporadic and stylistically varied recordings. Hamstrung by low budgets and an apparent artistic funk, the Fort Worth native’s work rarely achieved its earlier brilliance. In 1971, when Tony Orlando ruled the airwaves, Coleman signed with Columbia Records

By Jeff McCord

Music Review

Peep Show

Austin’s Goudie has built a reputation for melodic pop, but its major-label debut is surprisingly rock: Peep Show wallows in thick walls of guitar and arrangements constantly on the verge of collapse. While it’s not the kind of bombast you’d expect on Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich’s Elektra imprint, rarely do

By Andy Langer

Music Review

Dallas Alley Drag

In the history of Texas blues the glory often went to the guitar players, but this collection of twenties and thirties blues, rags, and stomps proves they weren’t the only show in town. Playing rolling bass underpinnings with their left hand and rocking lead lines with their right, the Dallas

By John Morthland

Music Review

Red River

You’d probably never call Knife in the Water’s music “country,” but it certainly evokes country music in the sense that it takes painful and melancholy experiences and turns them into something strangely beautiful. Red River is the Austin quintet’s second release, ten moody and meandering tunes that wash together with

By Luann Williams

Music Review

Transcendental Blues

In the fourteen years since Steve Earle released his debut LP, Guitar Town, and carved “Dwight Yoakam Eats Sushi” into an elevator wall at MCA-Nashville, he has given a generation of songwriters the courage to buck the Nashville suits. But somewhere in Earle’s well-documented war with authority (a dollar for

By John Spong

Web

Recipe

Crispy Veal Sweetbreads With Truffle Oil

Ris de Veau à L’Huile de Truffe(Crispy Veal Sweetbreads With Truffle Oil)1 pound veal sweetbreads bouquet garni (composed of some celery leaves, parsley stems, carrot greens, 2 bay leaves, a sprig of thyme, and a couple of whole cloves, in a small cheesecloth bag tied with string) kosher salt freshly

By Texas Monthly

Recipe

Lemon-Basil Risotto With Diver Scallops

Risotto5 cups fish or chicken stock 2 tablespoons olive oil 2 shallots, peeled and minced 1 small stalk celery, minced 2 tablespoons finely chopped celery leaf 1 1/2 cups carnaroli or arborio rice 1/3 cup dry vermouth 1/4 cup unsalted butter zest of 1 small lemon 1/3 cup fresh basil

By Texas Monthly

Recipe

Rabbit With Green Olives

Recipe from Café Perrier, HoustonRabbit With Green Olives (Lapin aux Olives Vertes)1 fresh rabbit (2 to 3 pounds) or chicken, cut into 7 or 8 pieces salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste 3 tablespoons olive oil 2 medium onions, coarsely chopped 1 tablespoon flour 2 1/2 cups dry

By Texas Monthly

Recipe

Very Lemon Tarts

Tartelettes aux CitronVery Lemon TartsLemon Crust1/2 pound flour 2 tablespoons sugar zest of 2 lemons, finely grated 1/2 pound chilled unsalted butter, cut in pea-size chunks 2 drops pure lemon oil (or 4 drops of an oil-based lemon flavoring) 2 to 3 tablespoons ice waterSift flour and sugar together

By Texas Monthly

Miscellany

State Fare

When it grains, it scores: The smoothest risotto yet, courtesy of Salve! in Dallas.

By Patricia Sharpe

Texas Classics

A Woman of Independent Means

My First Thirty Years.

By Don Graham

Roar of the Crowd

Unsung heroes of Texas music.

By Texas Monthly

Reporter

End of the Line

A small town loses its largest private employer—but not its drive to survive.

By Joe O’Connell

Texas Primer

Ginger Rogers

In what movie was Ginger Rogers first paired with Fred Astaire?

By Anne Dingus

Around the State

The Victoria Bach Festival celebrates 25 years with a Passion. Plus: Cyclists in Beeville ride the highway to Hell; museums in Fort Worth and Houston roll out the red carpet; theaters in Austin and Houston go Topsy-Turvy; and Joe Ely, Lloyd Maines, and Terri Hendrix keep their cool in Conroe.

By Texas Monthly

The Ex Files