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2002 – Page 7 of 10

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April 30, 2002

The Fifty Best Texas Books [August 1981]

THESE ARE MY CHOICES FOR the fifty best Texas books. I would like to emphasize that these are the best books about Texas. By that I mean Texas is their main subject or, in the case of fiction and biography, their chief setting. They are not the best books written

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April 30, 2002

Dallas Is Better Than Houston [February 1978]

TRY TO REMEMBER, BILL, Hell and Houston both begin with a h. —letter from a 19th-century visitorI wish I’d said it first, but I can’t say it any better. It still begins with a h. Houston today is a dozen cities, and you couldn’t give me any of them if

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April 30, 2002

God’s Country [November 1975]

WHEN I WAS GROWING UP there in the Thirties and Forties, Abilene was a one-industry town: God.God met the biggest payroll and He was the local real estate magnate. Besides owning the fifty church buildings and employing the people in them, He held title to the three institutions of higher

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April 30, 2002

The Highland Park Woman [April 1976]

THE HIGHLAND PARK WOMAN is thirty-two or thirty-three. She says she honestly forgets sometimes. She’s not particularly afraid to tell her age (she’s not that old) but she seldom does. It’s not really necessary: a ten-year-old son in St. Mark’s and a seven-year-old daughter in Lamplighter, three bedrooms and three

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April 30, 2002

Jesus and Mead’s Fine Bread [May 1983]

WHEN UPON LIFE’S BILLOWS you are tempest tossed, When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost . . . Count your many blessings, ev’ry doubt will fly, And you will be singing as the days go by.— “Count Your Blessings”My first check as a radio gospel singer on KRBC in

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April 30, 2002

Old Times [November 1987]

WHY IS IT YOU NEVER REMEMBER the good things about certain jobs, only the bad—and yet the sweetest times, the days of your life you think you’d rather live over, are those seasons when salaries were lowest, the bosses were cruelest, your fellow workers were the most problematic? I spent

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April 30, 2002

Upwardly Mogul [November 1976]

THREE YEARS AGO ANYBODY in the business could describe a Texas movie producer for you: loud talking, fast moving (white Eldorado), Frye boots, and a rodeo shirt to match his California girl friend’s; born in Brooklyn (where else?), with two quickies to his credit—one that four-walled Waco, Temple, and died,

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April 30, 2002

Why Dallas? [December 1973]

A RIVER BEGAN IT. Sluggish in summer, scant. A red and awesome terror in a wet spring. Too much river . . . or not enough.Called Daycoa by some Indians, Arkikosa by others, in 1690 Alonso de Leon, a Mexican-born officer of the Spanish crown, bestowed its modern name: La

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Feature|
April 30, 2002

Driving Music

Sailor, the Steve Miller Band (Capitol) Return to the Wide Open Spaces, Live at the Caravan of Dreams featuring, among others, David “Fathead” Newman, Ellis Marsalis, and Cornell Dupree (Amazing) Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, Lucinda Williams (Mercury) La Musica de

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Feature|
April 30, 2002

Alternate Routes

South Padre Island to Rio Grande Valley International Airport, Harlingen, on Texas Highway 100 and FM 510 and 106 (33 miles) This narrow two-lane shortcut from the beach to the airport is one way to avoid the congestion and speed traps on U.S. 77. It slices through parts of the

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Feature|
April 30, 2002

Pretty Drives

Presidio to Lajitas on FM 170 (50 miles) At first El Camino del Rio dips and winds along the Rio Grande through a maze of low, dry arroyos framed by bare lunar landscapes. Before long, the West Texas sky looms so large that it practically swallows the road. The 15

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Pat's Pick|
April 30, 2002

Bookshelf

‘Cue Up The Smoke Gods are smiling: May marks the publication of two barbecue cookbooks by Texas authors. The best metaphor for Dotty Griffith’s book, Celebrating Barbecue: The Ultimate Guide to America’s 4 Regional Styles of ‘Cue (Simon and Schuster), is a savory four-meat platter. The

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Pat's Pick|
April 30, 2002

Primary Flavors

Banh, the Bomb Wondering where to find a bánh mì, the small, tasty Vietnamese sandwich you’ve been hearing about lately? It’s gaining a following among folks outside the Asian community. Typically served on a split, toasted baguette, this morsel is spread with mayonnaise and pork pté and then piled with

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Reporter|
April 30, 2002

Sand Trap

John Spong surveys the remaking—or is it the unmaking?—of Lajitas.

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Politics|
April 30, 2002

Right Makes Might

After a conservative think tank used its clout to help scuttle a science textbook, some Republicans declared victory. The rest declared war.

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Texana|
April 30, 2002

Cold Comfort

Texans turn to Dairy Queen for more than just Hungr-Busters, Steak Finger Country Baskets, and Blizzards. They also come for a taste of days gone by.

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News & Politics|
April 30, 2002

Giant

Master of the Senate, Robert Caro's third volume on the life of Lyndon Johnson, is an exhaustive study of power, persuasion, and private parts.

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Atsbox|
April 30, 2002

A Great Weekend In Houston

Treat Your Mama Right If Mom is an arts lover, then your search for the perfect Mother’s Day gift is over: Treat her to a weekend in Houston. You wouldn’t want to subject her to the inevitable Friday afternoon traffic, so arrive Thursday, May 9, and enjoy a stroll around

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Atsbox|
April 30, 2002

Dance

All the Right Moves For someone who grew up studying classical ballet, modern dance seems foreign to me. Where are the outward foot positions? The high jumps? Of course, ballet and modern share some of the same principles, and this month you can see moves that reflect both traditions. In

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Atsbox|
April 30, 2002

Straight Talk

MODEL ATHLETE LISA LESLIE, the starting center for the defending world champion Los Angeles Sparks, sashays into the Compaq Center on May 27 to play in the Houston Comets’ season opener.First of all, let me congratulate you on winning the WNBA title. Thanks. It’s a pretty great feeling. Our team

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Atsbox|
April 30, 2002

Fine Art

The Awakening Unlike Houston, whose thriving art market allows its artists to live in the Bayou City and sell globally, Austin has always had a tough time cultivating a reputation with dealers as a serious visual-art town. Before the high-tech economic boom, Austin artists complained that nobody bought art in

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Art|
April 30, 2002

Moving Pictures

At Houston's FotoFest 2002, digital art took center stage as never before-and proved that the Next Big Thing might really be the next big thing.

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Web Exclusive|
April 1, 2002

Gate Session

Weatherford ranch manager Larry McWhorter sees his poem “Gate Session” as an ode to the cowboy code—a set of rules that he believes is dying out. “You didn’t ride in front of a man. It was just considered impolite,” McWhorter says. “It used to be that people respected that, but

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April 1, 2002

SOWERS AND REAPERS

With a deep drawl that rivals actor Sam Elliott, J. B. Allen is the quintessential cowpuncher. The Cochran County commissioner has cowboyed all of his life, and that’s what he knows. He doesn’t call himself a writer; he’s just a cowman who writes poetry. His poems just come to him,

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April 1, 2002

Proverb

Lubbock writer and poet Andy Wilkinson doesn’t sound like a cowboy poet on the phone, but once he gets on the subject, his knowledge is extensive. The balladry is as much in his heart as in his head. His style is more modern than fellow wranglers, but the message is

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April 1, 2002

The Oyster

Cowboy humorist Baxter Black is known for his jokes, and so when he puts them in a poem, the crowds laugh twice as hard. “The Oyster” is one of his favorites, and he describes the poem as “a rubbing of cultural tectonic plates.”“It is country versus city,” Black chuckles. “‘The

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April 1, 2002

Anthem

“Anthem” is Buck Ramsey’s calling card in cowboy poetry and serves as an introduction to his sixty-page poem “And As I Rode Out on the Morning.” Awarded the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship in 1993, Ramsey is considered one of the best Texas cowboy poets, and every

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April 1, 2002

The Fence That Me and Shorty Built

As the cowboy poet of Texas, Red Steagall takes great pride in his poetry, as well as his songs. He considers “Born To This Land” from his first book Ride For the Brand and “The Fence That Me and Shorty Built” from his latest collection to be his banner poems.

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April 1, 2002

The Men Who Ride No More

Horse-breaker Joel Nelson tries to carry paper wherever he goes, and the second a line hits him, he has to scribble it down, putting whatever he is doing on hold. It’s a good practice that led to his poem “The Men Who Ride No More.” En route to Hawaii to

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