June 1997
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Features
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Out There
For seven days Rick McLaren and his armed cohorts were holed up in their Republic of Texas “embassy” while reporters dug for stories, lawmen kept watch, and the residents of nearby Fort Davis wished they’d all go away.
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Sloane, Alone
Dallas’ Sloane Simpson was a society queen who enchanted New York, seduced Mexico City, and turned Acapulco into a jet-set getaway. But when she died last year at age eighty, she was almost completely forgotten.
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Shock Therapy
By employing stereotypes like Sambo and Aunt Jemima, Austin painter Michael Ray Charles hopes to master the art of racial healing.
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The Curse of Romeo and Juliet
Frankie Mitchell and Janet Evans want to be together, but their families are feuding. It’s a story as old as Shakespeare—older, in fact, because they’re Gypsies, the children of two prominent Dallas clans, and ancient superstitions guide every aspect of their lives. Even love.
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Captions and Comments
Left: Untitled, 1993. Right: Beware, 1994. The old stereotypes have only been repackaged, Charles says. Right: Clockwise from top left, four paintings from the Liberty Bros. Permanent Daily Circus series: Blue Period, 1995, Oop’s, 1995, Desperados Leap for Life, 1996, and Smiles, 1996. “I’m trying to be as honest as possible in depicting these caricatures,” …
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The Way We Wore
From buckskin to polyester, a look at 166 years of Texas fashion that doesn’t skirt the issues.
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Nothing To It
Bolstered by his favorite phrase, my son Mark faced life with grace, dignity, and good humor. I knew he’d face death the same way.
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Biz
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Mutual Admiration
Investors are bullish about Houston’s AIM Management Company, whose mutual funds have been on target for two decades.
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Columns
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Sierra High
High in the Mexican mountains and only a day’s drive from Texas lies El Cielo, a stunning cloud forest where exotic birds soar but the temperature doesn’t.
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My Front Nine
I grew up playing alongside some of the best Texas golfers of my generation. Then I started to lose my grip.
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The First Protester
How a man named Eldrewey Stearns began the fight for civil rights in Houston.
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The Doctor Is In
For El Paso physician Abraham Verghese, writing about life and death in the age of AIDS is a prescription for literary success.
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Reporter
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Punkytonk
The state prison name game; Dallas alternative-country band the Old 97’s is feeling no depression.
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Cell-Out
A little-known financial institution could be the future of the war on poverty in Texas.
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Satisfaction
That’s what Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall got on their recent trip to West Texas. West Texas retailers got it too.
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Triumph of the Williams
After five years ex-Austinite Lucinda Williams’ follow-up to her 1992 CD Sweet Old World is finally kicking up dust. The album’s title, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (American Recordings), refers not to the sound of the Grammy award winner’s voice but to the cross-country travels that inspired such geographically specific songs as “Jackson,” “Greenville,” …
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CD and Book Reviews
Hot CDs The Horsies are an extremely unusual outfit, so it figures that the perverse, polymorphously percussive Austin combo’s second record, Touch Me Columbus, is only available on the relatively obscure Japanese label Benten (though some Texas record stores will be carrying it). A giddy three-man, three-woman band with five often simultaneous vocalists, the Horsies …
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Uma Pemmaraju
While she was still in high school, Uma Pemmaraju persuaded the editors of the San Antonio Express-News to let her write the weekly fishing report—even though she was, so to speak, out to sea on the subject. “I knew nothing about fishing,” she says. “I was basically calling around different ports to find out what …
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Jack Valenti
When I got out of high school at three o’clock each day, I went to work giving away movie passes and hanging up posters in barbershops and drugstores for coming attractions at the Iris or the Texan or the Ritz theaters in downtown Houston. Unfortunately, when I graduated I didn’t have any money to go …
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The New Welfare
A little-known financial institution could be the future of the war on poverty in Texas.
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Lights! Camera! No Action!
GEORGE W. BUSH may have the most power in the Capitol, but when it comes to power over the Capitol, he’s just number two. In one of the strangest rivalries of a contentious legislative session, the Texas Film Commission, an arm of the governor’s office, squared off against the State Preservation Board—and lost. The Film …
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War Rooms
A massive buildup for Texas Tech University’s Vietnam archive.
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Web
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Sautéed Shrimp on Cannellini Beans
Radicchio Walnut Salad 9 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (preferably from Modena) 2/3 cup sugar 1 cup walnut halves 2 heads radicchio, coarsely chopped or torn 3 ounces Gorgonzola, finely crumbled salt and pepper to taste Whisk oil and vinegar until thick and season with salt and pepper. Set aside. Put sugar …
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Miscellany
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Aggie Culture
Aggies: Gig ’em or dig ’em? Plus: Bringing up babies.
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Babe Didrikson
Which sports did Babe Didrikson dominate, and in what Hepburn-Tracy film did she appear?
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Wore Stories
For her history of Texas fashion (see “The Way We Wore”), senior editor Anne Dingus began with—who else?—Sam Houston. “He’s always a good place to start,” she says, “and he distinguished himself by being sartorially flamboyant.” Then, drawing on library research and her personal archive of vintage postcards, ads, magazines, and other ephemera, she built …
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State Fare
It’s okay to be shellfish: You won’t want to share this shrimp appetizer from San Antonio’s Massimo.
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