2010 – Page 5 of 17

backyard

Rangers Win! Rangers Win!

A manager who admitted using cocaine? Owners who declared bankruptcy? Something about Claws and Antlers? No, the craziest story line of the season is that the Rangers have finally earned some respect.

A Q&A With James Hoggard

An interview with James Hoggard, author of Patterns of Illusion: Stories and a Novella

A Q&A With Keith Graves

An interview with Keith Graves, author of Loretta: Ace Pinky Scout

A Q&A With Amy Fusselman

An interview with Amy Fusselman, author of The Pharmacist’s Mate

A Q&A With Robert Bryce

An interview with Robert Bryce, author of Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enron

A Q&A With H. W. Brands

The author of The Age of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the New American Dream talks about peddling history and more.

Spill Way

When people ask me if cartel violence will find its way into Texas, I tell them it already has—and it’s going to get worse.

Bloggers, Babies, and the Benefits of Beer

A roundup of the latest and greatest scientific research from Texas universities.

Shawn Achor

The Harvard researcher talks about his new book, The Happiness Advantage, and more.

Roar of the Crowd

Marfa BlightsI take offense at your recent portrayal of the people of Marfa [“Breaking Away,” August 2010]. You state, “Marfa doesn’t seem to wake up till noon.” Yes, there are some imports—city folk, so-called artists—in town who may sleep till noon, but this is originally ranch country, and

October 2010 Contributors

Christopher and Kathleen Sleboda, D. J. Stout, and Paul Burka.

Guacamole “Al Gusto” (“Your Way”)

Recipe from Zandunga Mexican Bistro, Austin.

Huitlacoche Risotto

Recipe from Zandunga Mexican Bistro, Austin.

New and Noteworthy

Las Canarias, San Antonio and Patrizio, Fort Worth.

Zandunga Mexican Bistro

I’m a big believer in the helpful phonetic spelling of tricky words (it comes from a long-ago stint as a junior high school English teacher, a disorderly experience that we needn’t go into here). But in the case of “huitlacoche,” a Nahuatl word, the phonetic “hweet-la-koe-chay” doesn’t help much.

Buddy Miller

On working with Robert Plant and more.

The Grand Theatre: Volume One

A new album by the Old 97's.

Phosphene Dream

A new album by the Black Angels.

Andrea Karnes, Museum Curator

Karnes, who grew up in Fort Worth, earned art history degrees from the University of North Texas and Texas Christian University. She has worked at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth since 1989.This is my twentieth year at the Modern, and I still get the question, What is a

Dem Bums

Bill White’s toughest foe this fall isn’t Rick Perry. It’s the national Democrats. But he could still win. Maybe.

Trailer Thursday, Houston: Desi Grill and More

Some Austinites are snotty about Houston. Not me, I love it. The Montrose area. The Museum District. The Chocolate Bar. Alas, none of these are trailers. Fortunately, the Desi Grill and More has got Indian dhaba food in Houston covered. And I mean “covered” in

Under the bus again

Anise Parker has done it again. Bill White has been hit by the same bus twice. After defending Bill White yesterday against Perry’s charges that he mismanaged the city’s fiscal affairs, she then had this exchange with the Chronicle’s editorial page editor, John Wilburn: Wilburn: “What do you think about

Too late, Parker recants

No one in Texas has done more harm to Bill White’s campaign (with the exception of Rick Perry and White himself, by not releasing his taxes) than his successor as mayor, Anise Parker. No sooner had she taken office last January than she threw White under the bus with the

Texas Chef Makes Good:Houston’s Bryan Caswell To Be on “The Next Iron Chef” Starting This Sunday

On Sunday, October 3, The Next Iron Chef Season 3 will begin. Houston chef Bryan Caswell—of Reef, Stella Sola, and Little Bigs—is one of ten contestants nationwide competing over eight episodes to see who gets a shot at being on Iron Chef America.  The premiere airs at 8 p.m.

CQ Politics: R’s lead in social media “poll”

CQ Politics is reporting today that Republicans have a huge edge over Democrats in followers on the social media, Facebook and Twitter: Republican candidates for the Senate in the November midterm elections have on average four times as many Facebook fans and five times as many Twitter followers as

DGA targets Perry

The Washington Post has a story today that the Democratic Governor’s Association has decided to target Rick Perry. Political reporter Dan Balz, who was stationed in Austin back in the day when newspapers could still afford far-flung bureaus, is in town this week. Balz’s story today says that White

Innocence Lost

Anthony Graves has spent the past eighteen years behind bars—twelve of them on death row—for a grisly 1992 murder. There was no plausible motive nor any physical evidence to connect him to the crime, and the only witness against him repeatedly recanted his testimony. Yet he remains locked up. Did

Recommended reading: Wall Street Journal on polling

Rasmussen figures prominently in this story. An excerpt: What do you think of the job Barack Obama is doing as president? Your answer may depend on how you were asked. Subtle differences in how poll questions are phrased, or in which choices are offered as responses, have a significant

Newspapers’ poll: Perry +7

The Blum & Weprin poll has been published in the big city dailies, so I am going to pick and choose items to write about, rather than recapitulate the entire poll. The number that jumps out at me is White’s favorable/unfavorable. Yesterday, Rasmussen had this number as 42% favorable,

42-47

The headline is White’s favorable/unfavorable number in the Rasmussen poll. If that is accurate–and you can’t make a living in politics by betting that polls are wrong–White is destroyed. What happened? Here are some theories: 1. It all started with White dilly-dallying about releasing his tax returns. It looked as

Ames Jones responds to RRC budget cuts

TEXAS MONTHLY editor Jake Silverstein received this letter from Elizabeth Ames Jones, a member of the Texas Railroad Commission, in response to my proposed budget cuts concerning the agency, which appeared in the story, “The Eighteen Billion-Dollar Man,” in the October issue of TEXAS MONTHLY. The letter represents chairman Jones’

Rasmussen moves Tx Governor’s race from “solid Republican” to “leans Republican”

The new poll out today has Perry leading White by six points, 48% to 42%. The previous poll had Perry ahead by 49% to 41%. The survey of 500 Likely Voters in Texas was conducted on September 22, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/-

Texas Wine: Meet The Winemaker – Charlie Kidd of Flat Creek Estates, owned and operated by Rick and Madelyn Nabors

Texas Wine Crafted with the California Touch The wines at Flat Creek Estates Vineyard and Winery founded in 1998 by Rick and Madelyn Nabors have always been notable. But since California native Charlie Kidd joined the team as winemaker in 2008, the wines are even more impressive. Kidd

NCEW = No comment for editorial writers

This morning I attended the National Conference of Editorial Writers in Dallas. I was a member of the early morning panel (8:30 a.m.) about blogging and emerging technology. Governor Perry was the lunchtime speaker. I did not hear his remarks, as I left after my panel in what turned out

Grim news for Chet Edwards

The Bill Flores campaign is touting a poll that shows Flores leading Edwards by 55% to 36%. This is from the Flores’ release: A new general election poll of 400 likely voters taken by On Message, Inc. shows Republican nominee Bill Flores leading 20-year incumbent Democrat Congressman Chet Edwards (D-TX)

Gallup: Generic congressional ballot = 46 D, 45 R, but…

The August numbers were 49% R, 43% D. So this is a significant shift. But the intensity factor still overwhelmingly favors Republicans. The poll of registered voters (a very large sample in the mid-four digits) finds that 47% of Republicans are “very enthusiastic” about voting this fall, compared to

Trailer Thursday: Baltimore Ballers

Though the word “baller” might be a little crude, Baltimore Ballers‘ snow cones are anything but. This ain’t no Sno Beach, or anywhere that cherry syrup reigns supreme. And you’re more likely to find a line of midnight revelers here than a gaggle of swim-suited kiddies

Base ball [updated]

The Perry campaign is deliberately dull. It is full of old messages — more jobs, fewer taxes, secure the border, stop Obama, fight the feds and the liberals. There is no effort to expand the governor’s message beyond what Perry has been saying for years, no effort to attract new

Perry attacks White for being an environmentalist

It’s on Perry’s “Liberal Bill” Web site. Amid numerous allegations — His company did business in the Middle East and defaulted on a $60 million loan; Bill White profiteered in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita; Bill White was CEO of a company whose owner is a billionaire Lebanese politician;

Hailey’s Capitol Inside weighs in on Choctaw poll

I posted an item about the Choctaw poll last Friday. [See “Gambling Poll Shows Perry +12”]. The poll was directed at Texans’ attitudes towards gambling. It contained a single horserace question about the governor’s race, along with crosstabs, which I published. A Democrat who is a longtime friend called me

FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver on the Tea Party and the GOP

Silver’s article has a lot in common with my post about the danger the Tea Party poses for the Republican party. This article ran in the New York Times yesterday (Sept. 20). FiveThirtyEight – Nate Silver’s Political Calculus Assessing the G.O.P. and the Tea Party By NATE SILVER Whatever

Richard Murray on the Harris County Vote

In an earlier version of this post, I mistakenly wrote that the 1990 governor’s race was between Richards and Bush. It was, of course, between Bush and Clayton Williams. The mistake was mine, not Dr. Murray’s, and has been corrected. This article from the blog of Dr. Richard Murray, a

TPPF on the Texas economy and the stimulus

A Texas Public Policy Foundation policy brief that hit my In-box a few minutes ago (around one o’clock) has some interesting information about the performance of the Texas economy and the stimulus. The report was written in anticipation of a possible “second stimulus,” with the point being that the

Is a 142% budget increase over 20 years too much?

The Texas Tribune’s Web site has an audio clip today by KUT’s Ben Philpott about Texas Education Agency budget cuts totaling $250 million. Philpott interviews advocates on opposite sides of the ideological spectrum. The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Bill Peacock tells Philpott, “From 1987 to 2007, school district funding

Opie’s Barbeque

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR: Here’s the winning entry for the Texas Monthly BBQ Festival ticket giveaway. Jacob Reach offers this great review of Opie’s.The nice thing about making a BBQ trip with a lot of friends is that everyone will end up ordering something different, and with bartering you can

Tea for Terror

I have believed for some time that the Republican Party made a deal with the devil when it embraced the Tea Party. The tail is going to wind up wagging the dog. We are entering a phase of politics that is reminiscent of the Terror during the French revolution: universal

Gambling poll has Perry +12

A story goes with this poll. The poll was sent to me by a Perry operative. There have been rumblings about a poll for an Indian tribe in Oklahoma about gambling issues. The polling firm is California-based Fairbank, Maslin, which has been around for a long time. It does polling

Perry: no cuts to education budget in 2011

Sherry Kofler had a ten-minute live interview with Perry today. It is on the KERA Web site here. All of Kofler’s questions pertained to the budget. The most important part of the interview was when Kofler asked, “Can you assure public school educators that our education budget will not

Forensic Science Commission declines to clear Willingham arson investigators

The report comes from KERA in Dallas: DALLAS, TX (KERA) – Scientists reviewing a disputed arson finding that led to the execution of a Texas man are resisting efforts to clear fire investigators of professional misconduct. The scientists on the Texas Forensic Science Commission, meeting Friday in Dallas, said