(1) She’s running for governor, for sure, probably, maybe, perhaps. (2) She will resign from the Senate sometime in 2009 to come home and campaign, allowing Rick Perry to appoint her successor. (I have always thought that Tony Garza had the inside track, but there is talk that Garza doesn’t
I watched the Republican presidential debate tonight at Dearborn, Michigan. The subject was limited to economics. The debate had actually been held several hours earlier and MSNBC broadcast it on tape delay. Before it aired, however, the network undercut their own exclusive by having Chris Matthews, who hosted the debate,
OK, OK, “pirate” doesn’t convey the right image, but it made you look, didn’t it? Houstonian Monica Pope, chef/owner of T’afia, has an ocean-going and environmentally friendly recipe featured on the Web site of the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC). It’s for chermoula halibut with a salad of
When those obnoxious cackling-witch toys show up in stores, you know it’s pumpkin time. One of the best pumpkin desserts I’ve tried in the last couple of days is the walnut pumpkin mini-loaf at Mandola’s Italian Market in Austin (in the Triangle, 4700 W. Guadalupe, open 7
Big Mouth has been busy in Southern Arizona this week — staying at the charming Amado Territory Inn — and eating out south of Tucson. Southwestern specialties abound, among my favorite:Baby back ribs with a caramelized pinon glaze at Rex RanchKobe beef burger at the Amado Inn CafeShelby’s Bistro in
Often pairing wines with food is hard. One Sauvignon Blanc might pair well with shrimp, but not well with salmon. It takes time, development of a palate, and an interest in wine to be able to choose wines properly.This week’s Texas Wine Recipe is Shrimp and Grits from Patton’s On
Last week, House parliamentarian Terry Keel gave a power point presentation to the Political Advocacy Association of Texas — the trade association for the lobby — on the rules issues that are likely to be the subject of debate in January 2009. Below are the elements of his presentation and
If I were making a top-of-the-top-shelf marg, I would use Paula’s Texas Orange liqueur. Forget triple sec and Curacao. They pale in comparison to this stuff, which is super-intense and fresh-tasting. Now Paula’s has come out with an orange-and-chocolate candy. Wow. Each piece is a half-moon of top-quality
. . . salmon roe on foie gras for “color”? Pork bellies at high altitude? Prawns so giant that don’t even fit in the serving bowl? In the season finale of Top Chef, Casey Thompson, of Shinsei in Dallas, had a minor meltdown and started putting
Nope, this isn’t mudslinging in the Democratic Presidential Primary, but rather what Gary Vaynerchuck–a wine merchant in New Jersey– does while evangelizing about wine. Last night on Nightline, ABC profiled Gary and his mission to convert the masses from beer to wine.Most fascinating was his $60 Silver Oak
Can a Jersey boy make a good taco? I am afraid so, my dear Texans, I’m afraid so. On a recent Fenway Park outing (how quickly I have earned my Red Sox Nation citizenship), we dropped by the takeout window of La Verdad, an affordable gourmet taco spot recently opened
But he must not be very proud of it, because the White House website makes no mention of the veto, which occurred this morning. [Note: the veto message is now available on the White House Web site, at 1:14 p.m. See below.] One item does refer to “State
Amazing. A. H. Belo will spin off the Dallas Morning News and newspapers in Providence, Rhode Island and Riverside, California. The News, once uncontested as Texas’s leading newspaper and the newspaper of record for the state, will be spun off to Belo’s shareholders. Not a good day for those of
A friend returned from a weekend in the country and reported that the natives are incensed that Rick and Anita Perry are renting a house for $10,000 a month or thereabouts while the Governor’s Mansion is being refurbished. He says the home folk are really hot about it. They see
A Republican consultant copied me on an e-mail he sent to a well known national political writer about Hillary Clinton’s likely effect on the Democratic ticket in Texas. Here are the points he made (I have edited the order, not the wording):1. Hillary’s relatively unpopularity translates into a ballot test
I was a huge fan of Robert Gates when he was president of Texas A&M–I know a good writer should never take off on a digression in the middle of the first sentence, but, shouldn’t the Aggies, almost a year after Gates’ departure, be more interested in replacing the president
No misnomer seems more indelible to Texas than the conflation of “Mexican” food and “Tex-Mex.” And, in her recently published cookbook Mexican Light: Healthy Cuisine for Today’s Cook/Cocina Mexicana Ligera: Para el Cocinero Actual, Kris Randolph, a native of Houston who now lives in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and
These six entrepreneurs are members of a unique Dallas program that is bringing the promise of microcredit to the Untied States: one small business at a time.
Hip-checking Wes Anderson.
Going, going, Gonzales.
Laurens Fish III was born and raised in Austin. A fourth-generation funeral director, he is following in the tradition of his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. He is the managing partner of Fish Funeral Services, which handles more than one thousand funerals each year and has buried many notable Texans.I’m not
The corn dog’s birthplace may be disputed among gastronomists, but there is no denying that the corny dog, as the fried delicacy is known in these parts, made its first appearance at the State Fair of Texas. Dallas native Neil Fletcher formulated the recipe in 1942, set up a
Richard and Bunny Becker on making Texas wine.
A Quickie Guide.
A menagerie of team mascots at work—and play.
Your article “The Next Frontier” captured the essence of the King Ranch, its history, family, finance, and future [August 2007]. And the black and white photos by Kurt Markus were perfect; color would have ruined them. I felt as though I were there.Sandra WrayAustinI can appreciate your work
For his first all-gospel release, Everybody’s Brother, the 68-year-old outlaw country legend assembled a cast that includes Tanya Tucker, Kris Kristofferson, and John Carter Cash. Why a gospel album now? It was time. It’s strong-medicine gospel, like “If you don’t love Jesus, go to hell”
Let’s have a heart-to-heart.
The effortless goodwill of my high school reunion weekend.
Space, time, and Donald Judd reconsidered.
Here comes another all-the-decibels-you-can-handle musical gathering. The Big State Festival, which spans a weekend this month (and has a moniker only a Texan could love), is aiming to do for country music what the Austin City Limits Music Festival does for rock and roll: that is, lure in thousands
Corpus Christi “The Sparkling City by the Sea might just deserve a big colored thumbtack on the state’s cultural map after all.” That was our assessment last October as the Art Museum of South Texas unveiled its new 28,000-square-foot wing. In the year since, the expanded digs have ushered
Brasserie Max And Julie, Houston and Soleil Bistro and Wine Bar, San Antonio
Cibolo Creek RanchNeed your space but can’t afford to buy it? You can rent it by the night at Cibolo Creek Ranch, which clocks in with a whopping 35,000 acres of desert mountains, unexpected springs, and far-reaching history. The resort’s expansive nature extends to its rooms, big enough to
Austin Street Cafe, MarfaThis renovated adobe house, on a quiet corner a few blocks off Marfa’s main drags, is as dapper and welcoming as a fifties-era fantasy housewife in heels and starched apron holding a plate of warm cookies. The floors are glossy white, abundant windows open to the
Miranda Lambert likes guns, but there’s more to her than that, just as the sultry pouts on her album covers don’t tell the whole story of an East Texas girl who always wanted to be Merle Haggard.
In Bill Wittliff’s Lonesome Dove photos, make-believe has never seemed so real.
All over Dallas are working-class dreamers with more will than wallet, would-be entrepreneurs who’d start their own businesses if only they had savings, good credit, home equity. That’s what brings them to the PLAN Fund.
Why all the fuss about Craig Biggio?
Marathon
One of the inevitable realities of being in business for nearly 35 years is that you have a lot of ex-employees (all of them gruntled, I’m sure). Even though a surprisingly high number of the names on our masthead—seven!—have been here for more than three decades, the vast majority
Bill Wittliff, Erin Trieb, and Robert Grossman
By now, the novelty of the small-town family band Eisley has worn off; it’s not enough that the five youngsters learned to play because they had little else to do or that they went from their parents’ Tyler coffee-house to Madison Square Garden in 2003. Combinations (Reprise) is
Don’t expect to pick right up on the acrid leftist dogma of 2004’s The Revolution Starts . . . Now. The new Steve Earle album, Washington Square Serenade (New West), finds the singer’s head in a completely different place. Relocated to NYC and happily wed to singer Allison
I was a server at Pappasito’s for a week. It felt like a lifetime.
What the double-breasted buffoons in today’s broadcast booths can learn from a legend of the game.
Karl Rove’s mixed legacy.
Themes of family and loyalty provide a nice counterbalance to the gruesome violence (wood chipper, anyone?) in The Last Jew Standing, the fourth excellent offering from lit noir master Michael Simon. The action begins when small-time hoodlum Ben Reles shows up on the doorstep of his son, Lieutenant
Expectations run low for a river-paddling diary named after a popular (though decidedly watery) Mexican cerveza, which accounts in part for the pleasure of discovering The Tecate Journals: Seventy Days on the Rio Grande, in which Laredo journalist and writing professor Keith Bowden documents his grueling voyage along
Texas-raised news anchor Jim Lehrer is too much the gentleman to author a full-blown satire, but he’s not above a genial send-up of middling America—the Midwest, the middle class, and the midlife crisis—in his crisply executed novel Eureka. Fifty-nine-year-old insurance executive Otis Halstead, secretly frustrated over his abandoned
