June 1999

Features
From antique benches to cast-iron planters, a selective guide to the yard art of your dreams.
As long as she spends most of her free time on a ranch outside Fredericksburg, Madeleine Stowe may never become, by Hollywood’s definition, a successful actress. And that’s fine with her.
How my grandfather’s death affected the town of Wharton—and me.

A special report on the presidential front-runner who isn’t running—yet.
Web
6 teaspoons honey 3 medium pears 6 ounces Brie, sliced 1/8 inch thick 3 fresh jalapeños, seeded and minced several sprigs thyme and basil, chopped 6 eight-inch flour tortillas 6 ounces sour cream (optional) sprigs of cilantro (for garnish) Fill a saucepan with…
2 medium cucumbers, peeled and seeded 1 small jícama, peeled 3 limes chile salt to taste (recipe above) 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro (for garnish) Cut cucumber and jícama into 1/4- by 2-inch strips. Sprinkle with lime juice and chile salt and garnish with cilantro.
Chile Salt 7 teaspoons ground cayenne 7 teaspoons ground red chile powder 3 teaspoons granulated garlic 2 tablespoons salt Mix all ingredients together. Roasted Corn on the Cob 6 ears of corn in their husks 3 tablespoons melted butter 1 1/2 teaspoons chile salt (recipe…

Chile Salt 7 teaspoons ground cayenne 7 teaspoons ground red chile powder 3 teaspoons granulated garlic 2 tablespoons salt Mix all ingredients together. Roasted Corn on the Cob 6 ears of corn in their husks 3 tablespoons melted butter 1 1/2 teaspoons chile salt (recipe…
Biz
Hollywood invests regularly these days in young Texas filmmakers. Not everyone, however, is a good bottom-line bet.
The man who can read the minds of today’s teens and predict tomorrow’s fashion trends is fifty years old? Gadzooks!
You’re a casual investor with a little money to burn. Should you spend it all on Vignette, pcOrder, or another Texas Internet stock? Not unless you have a strong stomach, and maybe not even then.
He’d certainly say no. But there are industries that have suffered on his watch, and at least a few CEOs who would describe his record as mixed.
Different people have different opinions about the controversial CEO of Maxxam, and nothing will change their minds—not even a deal on the Headwaters Forest.
Among all athletes with endorsements, Michael Jordan is still king. But Sheryl Swoopes of the Houston Comets is scoring in her own way—and she's having a ball.
Columns

Like the coffee and pie in the fictional town of Twin Peaks, the Arlington-based fanzine Wrapped in Plastic is damn fine.
Nearly three years after attorney Steve Davis’ body was found, his family still doesn’t know how he died. Thanks to an out-of-court settlement with Comanche County, they probably never will.
The Town Lake soccer fields in Austin, shopping at Kathleen Sommers in San Antonio, sunsets in Big Bend: Good-bye to all that and (sniff) a whole lot more.
Reporter
Twenty and a half million. That’s Texas’ projected population in 2000—an increase of more than 20 percent since 1990—and Republicans are salivating at the prospect of gaining seats in the mandatory 2001 redrawing of legislative and congressional districts. Any area that did not keep up with the state’s growth rate…
How the war in Kosovo turned an Austin online company into the Lone Star State Department.
Twenty-two-year-old twins Brent and Brad Hauser have the kind of track record that makes their competitors weak in the knees. Now seniors at Stanford University, the former Kingwood residents have both set school records in the 10,000-meter, 5,000-meter (indoor and outdoor), and 3,000-meter events. At last year’s NCAA championships, Brad…
Not too long after I graduated from UT, I went back to play the part of Macbeth at Hogg Auditorium. I wanted to see how somebody like that—a verified homicidal psychopathic murderer—behaved, so I went to the Austin State Hospital. The university set it up for me, and the warden…
CDs by the Jiménez brothers, the Old 97’s, and Lee Hazlewood; books by Joni Rodgers and Scott Zesch.
Miscellany
I AM A CASEWORKER WITH CHILD Protective Services in Dallas. Yours was the first article I have seen that honestly described the work we do [“No One Knows What Could Be Happening to Those Kids,” April 1999]. Our days are endless and many of our nights are sleepless because…
Which Américo Paredes book was made into a movie starring Edward James Olmos?
Who knew that it would be so hard to get pictures of George W. Bush as a child? Texas Monthly assistant art director Kathy Marcus surely didn’t, but she discovered the truth early on in the course of her photo research for this month’s special issue (see “Who Is George…
Piano men—and women—play around at the Van Cliburn Foundation’s amateur night (Fort Worth). Plus: An aquarium you simply have to sea (Galveston); George Bush, the exhibit (Fredericksburg); Cowtown’s sesquicentennial (Fort Worth); and surf’s up…on the wall (Corpus Christi).
From Tila’s in Houston: three Mexican appetizers that are, well, appetizing.