November 2003 Issue

On the Cover

The Witness

For forty years Nellie Connally has been talking about that day, when she was in that car and saw that tragedy unfold. She’s still talking—and now she’s writing too.

Features


Artist of the Portrait

In September 1985 this magazine published twenty portraits from Richard Avedon's landmark "In the American West" series. I worked with the celebrated photographer on those shoots, and I documented the making of many memorable images. Here are five great behind-the-scenes stories.

Weapon of Mass Communication

This was the summer of George W. Bush's discontent, when sixteen specious words in the State of the Union address threw the White House into disarray. Can his 32-year-old mediameister, Dan Bartlett, get the message and the messenger back on track?

Feature

Anchor Away

What Walter Cronkite really thinks about cable TV shoutfests, the length of network newscasts, and (ahem) Jayson Blair.

Columns


Sports

Miner Threat

Why would a mere mortal want to step into the outsized shoes of UTEP's Don Haskins, the only Texas college basketball coach ever to win a national championship? To win another NCAA title—and Billy Gillispie thinks he can.

Great Outdoors

One Hump or Two?

Riding a camel across the West Texas sand dunes, I got in touch with my inner O'Toole— and left the modern world far behind.

Cartwright's Texas

Saving Cupid

Every year, at least two hundred sea mammals get stranded on Texas beaches. This is the story of one of them, a 199-pound dolphin with a neurological disorder, a sardonic grin, and a willingness to swim with yours truly.

Reporter


Reporter

Barbara Bush

The former first lady on her new book, how she writes— and why she never liked Alice in Wonderland.

Web


Stagestruck

At Aurora, the key word is “drama.” You step into the small, curtained vestibule of this new Dallas restaurant. The hostess ceremoniously verifies your reservation (“Omigod,” you think. “What if they don’t have my name?”). Then she flings open the draperies to reveal a jewel box of a dining

Recipe

Carmel Avocado Parfait With Royal Iranian Osetra Caviar

2 avocados 1 teaspoon lemon juice salt and pepper to taste 4 tablespoons heavy cream 1 ounce Royal Iranian Oestra CaviarNote: Chill martini glasses before serving.Peel avocados and purée through a very fine sifter. Add lemon juice, salt, and pepper to taste. Refrigerate for 2 hours.Mix heavy cream, salt, and

Hoop It Up

Texas basketball legend Don Haskins on his 38 years courtside with UTEP and the Miners' prospects under new head coach Billy Gillispie.

Eye On America

The co-authors of a new book about the assassination of JFK talk about how that tragic event changed the way the media cover news.

Web Exclusive

Visual Impact

Photographer Beth Perkins talks about taking photographs of mentally ill children and teenagers for this month's story "Their Last Good Chance to Get Better."

Web Exclusive

True Story

Executive editor Mimi Swartz discusses this month's cover story, "The Witness."

Texas Tidbits

Texas Tidbits

Who killed JFK? Was it the FBI? the CIA? the Mob? With so many conspiracy theories out there, you can pick and choose.

Texas History 101

Texas History 101

Walter Cronkite left the University of Texas to pursue a career in journalism. Over the years, he covered some of the biggest events in history and became the most trusted man in America.

Happy Trails

Happy Trails

We spent a lovely fall afternoon in Boerne, shopping at antiques stores and picking out the perfect pumpkin.

Books That Cook

Books That Cook

Occasional cooks and seasoned chefs will find something to suit their palates in Deep In the Heart, a collection of recipes from the Dallas Junior Forum. In its ninth printing, the cookbook is well organized, with easy-to-follow recipes. Chapters correspond with courses of a meal: appetizers and beverages, soups, salads

Recipe

Orange-Blossom Honey Ice Cream

2 cups whole milk 2 cups heavy cream 1 teaspoon vanilla 3/4 cup orange-blossom honey (don’t use ordinary commercial honey) 6 egg yolks 3/4 cup granulated sugarIn a medium saucepan, bring the milk, cream, vanilla extract, and honey to a boil. Remove from heat and let rest for 10 minutes.In

Recipe

Beef Tenderloin With Black Truffle Watercress Pesto

2 large Yukon Gold potatoes, diced 8 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 1 cup finely diced onion thinly sliced black truffles to taste (at least 3 or 4 slices per person) 1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic 1 cup finely chopped watercress 1 teaspoon lemon juice salt to taste 1 cup

SHIPPING NEWS

PIE AND MIGHTY Just because you’re too busy to bake a holiday pie doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. Give yourself a break and order one of these superlative pies by mail. The monster apple pie from Texas Heritage Provisions Company, in the East Texas town of Jasper, stands more

Recipe

Very Lemony Buttermilk Pie

Recipe from Sarah Stevens, Lambert’s, AustinCrust1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) all-purpose flour 2 tablespoons sugar pinch salt zest of 1 lemon, minced 1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubesPreheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, mix together flour, sugar, salt, and lemon zest.

Recipe

Spicy Chocolate-Mince Pie

Recipe from Lilla Geisler, Biga on the Banks, San AntonioCrust1 3/4 cups (7 ounces) all-purpose flour 1 tablespoon sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1 stick (8 tablespoons) cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes 1 egg yolk 4 to 5 tablespoons ice waterSift dry ingredients together. With

Recipe

Cinnamon-Cherry Pie

Recipe from Jason Foss, the pastry chef of the Landmark Restaurant, in Dallas’s Melrose Hotel.Crust4 3/4 cups (1 pound) pastry flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon sugar 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 2 sticks (16 tablespoons) cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes 1 small or medium egg, lightly

Recipe

Black-Bottom Pumpkin Pie

Recipe from Randy Gehman, Four Seasons Resort and Club at Las Colinas, IrvingCrust1 teaspoon sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) cold, unsalted butter 2/3 cup Crisco 2 2/3 cups (11 ounces) all-purpose flour 2 to 3 tablespoons ice waterPlace all ingredients except water in a mixer with a

SEASON’S EATINGS

UNDERGROUND GOURMET Troubles with your love life? Truffles could be the answer. We’re speaking of the exotic fungus, a purported aphrodisiac as well as a turn-on for any epicure. Truffles grow underground in Europe (especially France and Italy) and in Oregon, and with the peak of the season each November,

Miscellany


Book Review

By Sorrow’s River

How much Larry McMurtry is too much? Ready or not, here he comes again with the third installment of his seriocomic Berrybender Narratives a scant six months after book two. By Sorrow’s River (Simon & Schuster) won’t win him another Pulitzer, but the pages blow by like a prairie wind

Music Review

Chrome, Smoke & BBQ

Long before The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, there was “La Grange,” a blues shuffle that rolled onto radio in brazen celebration of the state’s unofficial rest stop. ZZ Top already boasted a string of minor successes, but “La Grange” recruited an armada of beer drinkers and hell-raisers and launched

Music Review

The Bandwagon

Being labeled a pioneer in modern jazz is the musical equivalent of making the cover of Sports Illustrated; you almost never live up to anyone’s expectations. Yet after his third stunning album in a row (and fifth overall), Jason Moran is looking more and more like he’s beaten the curse.

Music Review

Just an American Boy: The Audio Documentary

It’s a sad commentary on the state of rock music when an angry young man gets treated as something of a novelty. Steve Earle is one of the few artists willing and—more important—able to translate his passion into great music. Just an American Boy: The Audio Documentary (Artemis), a live

Book Review

Vernon God Little

Before the curtain rises on DBC Pierre‘s coal-black comedy Vernon God Little (Canongate), fifteen-year-old Vernon Little is just another potty-mouthed high school loser trapped in the fictional Texas town of Martirio. After his much-abused friend Jesus shoots sixteen classmates and then himself, Vernon is branded a probable psychokiller (or at

Book Review

The King Is Dead

The King Is Dead (Knopf), Austinite Jim Lewis‘s sterling novel of politics, race, fidelity, and regret, is a model of literary economy. In an epicworthy tale packed into a brisk 260 pages, Walter Selby, a top aide to Tennessee’s governor, wrestles with the dodgy ethics of political life and the

Atsbox

STRAIGHT TALK

YOUNG BUCK Satirist Christopher Buckley will be speaking November 3 at the Celebration of Reading in Dallas.First of all, I hear your power is out in Washington. Are all the phones working? We have phones but no electricity, so we’re essentially back to the days before answering machines, which may

Atsbox

A GREAT WEEKEND IN HOUSTON

XTREME SPORTS Some tough decisions need to be made in Houston, and I’m not talking about the mayor’s race. You’ll want to be there to hear “Ladies and gentlemen, U.S. Open winner Andy Roddick” when the onetime (and soon-to-be-part-time) Austinite is introduced at the Tennis Masters Cup, which takes place

Atsbox

BOOKS

NUMBER ONE FAN Some favor the celebrities of the big screen, others bow at the altars of superstar athletes. We, however, prefer master wordsmiths. Luckily for us, this month offers plenty of reasons to break out the Sharpie. Former first couple George and Barbara Bush host heavyweights Michael Beschloss, Christopher

Atsbox

POP CULTURE

LIVE LONG AND PROSPER Before the Empire struck back, there was the Federation and the USS Enterprise. Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek, which first aired on the small screen from 1966 to 1969, ingeniously used science fiction to address real-life issues like race and gender relations, gaining a cultlike following of

Atsbox

WE REMEMBER

DEAR JOHN November 22, 1963—like September 11, 2001—was a watershed date. On one side lay the optimism of John F. Kennedy’s Camelot, on the other the disillusionment and unrest that followed his assassination. The nation is still fixated on that fateful day—the motorcade through downtown Dallas, the blood on Jackie’s

The Last Roundup

Unhappily Ever After

Once upon a time, there was a writer— it doesn't matter which writer—with talent to burn. Wanna guess how the story ends?

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