March 2005 Archives

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On the Cover

Dan Rather Retorting

“My hope has always been, for all my flaws and weaknesses, that people will say this: ‘He wanted to be a reporter and he is.’ I think they know that I love this country.” And other reflections on retirement from the broadcast-news icon turned right-wing punching bag.

By Gary Cartwright

Features

The Culture

Return to Splendor

From humble Oak Cliff roots did a hip intellectual giant grow. In this oral history, friends and fans remember the late Grover Lewis, one of the great magazine writers of our day.

By Katy Vine

Food & Drink

Confessions of a “Skinny Bitch”

Over the past thirty years, I’ve edited or written more than 28,000 restaurant reviews for this magazine. That’s a lot of crème brûlée under the bridge, folks. So what’s my life been like, exactly? And how have I stayed this thin? Good questions.

By Patricia Sharpe

Health

Till Death Do Us Part

The marriage of Baylor College of Medicine and Methodist Hospital should have been made in heaven—and until recently, it was. Their nasty breakup is a bell tolling for American medicine.

By Mimi Swartz

Feature

Inhumane Society

In 2004 San Antonio euthanized some 49,000 cats and dogs—more per capita than any other major city in the United States—using an outdated, sometimes painful method that has been criticized for years. The expression “not fit for a dog” resonates.

By Roberto Guerra

Around the State

March—People, Places, Events, Attractions03.2005Dennis Quaid returns to Texas, finds true love in Austin, and experiences a career comeback. Coincidence? We think not.The state’s influence on the silver screen is only too evident this month in the Capital City, which hosts the TEXAS FILM HALL OF FAME AWARDS on March 11.

By Texas Monthly

Columns

Books

Killing Me Softly

Professional suicide times two.

By Kinky Friedman

Oscar Casares

In the Year 1974

I still remember the moment I discovered that a world existed outside Brownsville. I’ve been trying to explore it ever since.

By Oscar Cásares

Hunting

The Thrill Of the Hunt

How I learned to stop worrying and love “blood sport”—or at least understand its appeal.

By Gary Cartwright

Behind the Lines

That Blog Won’t Hunt

Why old media hacks like me matter.

By Paul Burka

Politics & Policy

Grand Opportunity Party

The Republicans have made real inroads into winning over Hispanic voters. If that doesn’t freak out the Democrats, I don’t know what will.

By Jan Jarboe Russell

Reporter

Music Review

Room Noises

EISLEY, a group of four siblings (and a neighbor) who began performing seven years ago in their parents’ Tyler coffee shop, might seem the most improbable of success stories. The youngest DuPree sister was just eight when she and her sisters, shunning cable and video games, sat in their room

By Jeff McCord

Music Review

Heard It On The X

The conceit of the LOS SUPER SEVEN projects—which joined members of Los Lobos with the likes of Freddy Fender, Flaco Jimenez, and Rick Treviño—was an all-inclusive vision of Latin music that included in its lineup Anglos Joe Ely and Doug Sahm. Ethnic music has been homogenized longer than milk has,

By Jeff McCord

Music Review

Worlds Apart

So what do you make of a rock album that begins with “Ode to Isis,” an orchestral slow build that chants the names of mythological gods? Or the lecture-prone title track, the 5⁄4 meters, or even the pictures of Bach and Shakespeare inside? Are Austin’s . . . AND YOU

By Jeff McCord

Book Review

Honky Tonk Hero

When your memoir begins, “I was not even born yet when my father first tried to kill me,” you had better be prepared to deliver the goods, and indeed, BILLY JOE SHAVER recounts enough tales of hell-raising, songwriting, tragedy, and near-brushes with stardom to fill several lifetimes in HONKY TONK

By Mike Shea

Book Review

Ten Little New Yorkers

Chances are good that TEN LITTLE NEW YORKERS (Simon & Schuster) is the last print appearance of KINKY FRIEDMAN’s fictional alter ego (see “Killing Me Softly,”). Which perhaps explains why the Kinksters, scribe and sleuth both, appear uncommonly morose in writing and partaking of their usual ration of Cuban

By Mike Shea

Book Review

America’s Most Hated Woman: The Life and Gruesome Death of Madalyn Murray O’Hair

Austin native ANN ROWE SEAMAN has turned a wealth of research into a morbidly fascinating biography of the world’s most famous atheist in AMERICA’S MOST HATED WOMAN: THE LIFE AND GRUESOME DEATH OF MADALYN MURRAY O’HAIR (Continuum). Seaman convincingly portrays the late O’Hair as part celebrity-craving nutcase and part tireless

By Mike Shea

Health

Relief Pitchers

Pain, pain, go away

By Jim Atkinson

Sports

Live Strong and Prosper

Yellow band = Green in hand.

By Christopher Keyes

Business

John Mackey

“I used to resent the fact that people romanticize Whole Foods. I always wanted to shake them and say, ‘Gosh, we’re just a grocery store!’ ”

By Evan Smith

Health

Pick Your Poison

It turns out that the toxin that’s changed a million faces has a social conscience after all. The wonders of Botox, a concentrated form of botulinum toxin, have been touted ad nauseam: By paralyzing facial muscles, it was smoothing out Hollywood’s wrinkles long before the FDA approved it, in 2002.

By Jim Atkinson

Reporter

The Survivors

Whether burned, shot, or blown up, the brave soldiers who leave Iraq on a stretcher and start to rebuild their lives at Brooke Army Medical Center, in San Antonio, have a lot of fight left in them.

By Michael Hall

Web

Contributors

Oscar Casares

“It’s one of those stories that would always come up when I talked to people about growing up in Brownsville,” says writer-at-large Oscar Casares about discovering the world—and the wonders of pizza—as a ten-year-old. “I have told it often when trying to convey how remote and isolated I felt there.”

By Texas Monthly

Contributors

Gary Cartwright

“When [founder and publisher] Mike Levy first came to me with the idea of creating a Texas magazine,” reminisces senior editor Gary Cartwright, “I thought it was the dumbest thing I’d ever heard.” Cartwright must have changed his mind, because thirty-three years later, he’s still writing for TEXAS MONTHLY. Two

By Texas Monthly

Contributors

Roberto Guerra

“San Antonio has a number of social conditions that merit attention,” says photographer Roberto Guerra, “and the problem of stray animals is an important one.” So he decided to document his hometown’s run-down animal shelter (“Inhumane Society,”). “I wanted to show the facility itself, of course—the building is from

By Texas Monthly

Web Exclusive

Grover’s Corner

Associate editor Katy Vine on writer Grover Lewis and interviewing some of the biggest names in the magazine business.

By Katherine Sands

Recipe

Rice Pudding Tart

Recipe from Bistro Moderne, Houston.

By Texas Monthly

Texas Tidbits

Count your lucky charms. When it comes to St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, the end of the rainbow lies in Shamrock, Texas.

By Katherine Sands

Web Exclusive

Rather Controversial

Senior editor Gary Cartwright, who wrote this month’s cover story, talks about getting access to retiring CBS News anchorman Dan Rather and the changing face of journalism.

By Katherine Sands

Texas History 101

The struggle for independence, the pioneering spirit—it seems that the Irish were made for Texas. In fact, in many ways Texas was made by the Irish.

By Katherine Sands

Web Exclusive

Free Fido

Photographer Roberto Guerra on life at the pound.

By Katherine Sands

Happy Trails

Beads, balls, and bands—Mardi Gras Galveston is reveling the Texas way.

By Katherine Sands

Books That Cook

Cooking With the Original Search Engine

A review of Cooking With the Original Search Engine.

By Erin Gage

Web Exclusive

The Fight of Their Lives

Senior editor Michael Hall on talking to wounded soldiers at Brooke Army Medical Center’s burn unit.

By Katherine Sands

Art

Drawing Conclusions

Illustrator Jody Hewgill on where she finds inspiration and deciding how to portray Whole Foods’ co-founder and CEO John Mackey.

By Katherine Sands

Pat's Pick

Liquid Assets

These are a few of our favorite drinksThey Know Beans Quick, what’s the difference between the Starbucks outlets in Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio? Answer: nothing. And that’s the trouble. Reassuring as it is to have a corporate caffeine ﬁx on every block, there are times when you just

By Patricia Sharpe

Pat's Pick

Bistro Moderne

The long identity crisis is over. The dining room that started out as Ling & Javier and then morphed into Maverick has finally come into its own as Bistro Moderne. And if early visits are any indication, this smartly turned out black-and-cream spot is here to stay. The menu,

By Patricia Sharpe