As D’s and R’s prepare for an all-out battle for supremacy in Harris County, the numbers for party identification in Harris County today track what was happening in Dallas over the previous two election cycles. These are from a Republican campaign shop: Dallas County 2004: R’s +6 Dallas County 2006:
To hell with Zagat. What you want is The Ultimate Food Lover’s Guide to Houston. A little larger than a pocket book but still handy (at 5″ x 8″), it is a smart, witty, 352-page guide to not only Houston restaurants but the area’s entire food scene. I especially like
Here’s who I think the presumptive nominees should choose: Obama: Governor Kaine of Virginia McCain: Mitt Romney Both of my choices have the ability to deliver a state. In Romney’s case, it is Michigan. I should add that the last vice-presidential nominee who was chosen with the idea of delivering
With the resignation of Dianne Delisi, vice-chair Jodie Laubenberg becomes chairman. Craddick’s policy has been to elevate vice-chairs but to regard these appointments as only extending through the end of the two-year legislative cycle. Readers may recall that Brian McCall inherited the chairmanship of Ways and Means during the 78th
Dianne Delisi’s resignation from the Legislature wrote an end to a great career. Public health is the most difficult area of state government to understand, much less master. The language is filled with acronyms and jargon. The bureaucracy is impenetrable, the appropriations huge, the problems intractrable. For three sessions, Delisi
To readers: Whenever I don’t post for several days, you can assume the reason is that I am doing real work–the difference between blogging and real work being that the latter has deadlines that take precedence. When I got back from Washington, I immediately wrote a story for the September
This joint came with high praise, so I drove about two hours to give it a try. Approaching the place, my hopes seemed fulfilled. The sheet metal and wood exterior along with the faded sign reeked potential. Talk about disappointment. The ribs here were nearly devoid of flavor and were
No, it’s not as lucrative as the Pillsbury Bake-off, but it’s not as nerve-racking either. Enter the Driskill Hotel’s first annual Pie Bake-off and you could be the winner of a $500 gift certificate from the historic Austin hotel. Plus, your pie will be famous not just for fifteen minutes
Beaver’s Ice House, in Houston, has gone blue with a vengeance. You know Beaver’s, right, it’s Monica Pope’s retro-mod barbecue joint. Seems that the girl has thrown political neutrality to the four winds and is having what she calls “Blue State Tuesdays” there every Tuesday evening from
Reader feedback on "The Killing Field."
Recipe courtesy of Screen Door in Dallas.
Sarah Wilson, Stephanie Elizondo Griest, and Charlie Llewellin.
As I type these words, it is July 4— a day filled with bunting, parades, hot dogs, and political candidates slyly impugning one another’s patriotism. It is also a day to contemplate what this country of ours owes us, and what we owe it. The former has been the subject
Poor June Cleaver would be so confused. The pretty, proper dining room at Screen Door—the two-month-old restaurant at Dallas’s One Arts Plaza—looks as if it could be the Cleavers’ living room. But June would never have served iced tea in a milk bottle. And if there had been daughters in
Café ZolHouston This charming spot offers an intriguing selection of what it calls “Scandinavian tapas.” The lobster chowder with crawfish and the Exotic House Salad of greens, grapes, and kiwi whetted our appetite for an amalgam of flavors and textures. Give serious consideration to the shrimp in phyllo with
Since 1979 the guitarist, key-boardist, and accordionist (center) has led Denton’s famed “nuclear polka” outfit Brave Combo, whose latest project has been to score the sound track for As the Wrench Turns, a PBS animated series based on the NPR program Car Talk. The show debuted July 9. How
Menacing, grandiose, romantic, apocalyptic: The music of Shearwater is no summertime fling. The four-piece band is the brainchild of ornithologist and Austin transplant Jonathan Meiburg, who delivers his strange, arresting imagery in a voice—part crooning, part ghostly falsetto—that evokes an anguished Bryan Ferry. Shearwater’s music is typified by a
Austin violinist-turned-fiddler-turned-singer Carrie Rodriguez capped her multiyear tutelage with songwriter Chip Taylor in her 2006 debut, Seven Angels on a Bicycle. While the album featured several Taylor compositions, it was a folksy and soulful stunner that was clearly a step up for the theretofore reserved Rodriguez. Now She
Life is kicking Pulitzer-nominated journalist Cason Statler squarely in the pants at the outset of Joe R. Lansdale’s potent seriocomic thriller Leather Maiden. Fired by his editor at a Houston paper for personal reasons (“I was banging his wife. And his stepdaughter”), Statler retreats to his hometown of
Over the course of two decades living in Montana’s remote Yaak Valley, Houston-bred Rick Bass has produced 21 books—largely about the wilderness that surrounds him—and acquired a reputation as a zealous, not to say rabid, environmental activist. Why I Came West is his attempt to redefine himself as
The play Alice Invents a Little Game and Alice Always Wins represents a chance for the award-winning poet and memoirist (Another Bullshit Night in Suck City) to “work a muscle [he] hadn’t before.” He currently teaches creative writing at the University of Houston.Is Alice your first play?In my memoir
Faulk was born in Missouri and raised in Corpus Christi. Before becoming a truck driver with her husband, Tony, she lived in the West Texas town of Terlingua (population: 267), where she worked as a horseback wilderness guide and owned a popular, though now defunct, liquor store. Tony was a
Jeremy Wariner on being an Olympic sprinter.
I enjoyed your barbecue story and am planning my summer trips so that they include stops at some from the top five on your list. [“BBQ08,” June 2008]. But I must say that y’all missed a great one: Martin’s Place in Bryan.Matt WiedersteinBryan. . . Angelo’s Bar-B-Que in Fort
Talking trash (and compost).
LBJ at 100, Beachcomber’s Museum, The Black List Project.
Politics as sports (and sports as politics).
The new play from the author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City.
Can you ask your buddy to put sunscreen on your back?
Chapter Eight of “Twin Wells,” by Jill Patterson.
“‘LBJ’s war’ was not a war he had sought. It was a war he had inherited. It was a war he was trying desperately to get out of.”
Where hip meets history.
Alan Ball’s near-great teen sex flick.
The inside story of the Aggie sailing tragedy.
What kind of Latina am I if I can’t speak Spanish?
You may think you know how the Obama-McCain battle in Texas is going to turn out. You may even be right. But the more important outcome is down-ballot, where two dozen or so races—and the future of politics and policy here—will be affected by what happens at the top of
For the 140 full-time, residential students lucky enough to be enrolled there, the Texas School for the Blind is “heaven,” “home,” and “the first place I had friends.”
Before they clubbed two deer to death in their tiny West Texas town, the four high school football stars were treated like royalty. Afterward, when news of their exploits hit the Internet, they were celebrities of a very different sort.
Grab your towel, your sunscreen, and go! Presenting our 25 favorite swimming holes: Barton Springs, Blue Hole, Balmorhea, and other iconic places to lower your core temperature. At least for a couple of hours.
Putting the fun in fun bags! The mommy in mommy muffins! (I could go on.)
Paul Petersen, executive chef of Cafe Cenizo at the Gage Hotel in Marathon, is scouting locations in Austin. So says a trustworthy source. Plans are to develop a second restaurant here in town, with Paul directing both it and the one at the Gage. Fantastic! Read up
When it comes to campaigning, Rick Perry seldom makes a mistake, but he may have made a big one with his hamhanded and ill-timed fundraising tactics. Perry has been aggressively seeking contributions for his 2010 reelection bid at the same time that Republican candidates and strategists are trying to raise
One of the first things that I became aware of when I interviewed House members was that Republicans are quite angry about the procedural rules being employed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to control floor debate. This is rather arcane stuff, and my understanding of it is imperfect, but I will
I think it’s weekend silliness setting in, but I am rolling on the floor (well, maybe flopping around on the floor is more like it) after reading the list of attractions for a trip to Palau, including fabulous waterfalls, jungle river-boat cruises, and fruit bat soup! Yes,
No, I didn’t hear it directly from her. I got it indirectly from a Texas Republican congressman who is a strong supporter of hers. He got it from her. She has been having regular meetings with Republican members of the Texas delegation (19 R’s, 13 D’s), telling them that she
Congressional Quarterly has changed its evaluation of three Texas congressional races, in the 7th, 10th, and 22nd districts. Two of the three shifts are in the Democrats’ direction: 7th District (Houston) John Culberson, Republican incumbent, vs. Democrat Mike Skelly. Two years ago, in a down Republican year, Culberson
During an interview with congressman Pete Sessions, of Dallas, he brought up the “Employee Free Choice Act,” which the Democrats have been pushing for the last couple of years. The bill would allow the National Labor Relations Board to certify a union without conducting a secret-ballot election. Under current law, employers
It may seem far-fetched back home, but here in Washington there is a good case to be made for Edwards. Basically, it’s this: He is a “strong national defense” Democrat. Edwards became chairman of the House Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee in 2007. He championed an $11.8 billion in veterans’ health care and benefits, which
I’m here to work on a feature story and also to interview members of the Texas congressional delegation. The latter has been less successful than the former, because, although I allotted an entire week for the visit, no votes were scheduled for last Friday or this Monday or Tuesday, which
Rick Perry’s semiannual report, the first he has filed since announcing his intention to run again in 2010, showed the following numbers: Total political contributions: $1,933,165.05 Total political expenditures: $1,502,828.86 Cash on hand: $2,978,864.07 This is not a particularly strong showing. The amount of expenditures is very high compared to
