January 1997

Table of Contents

Features

The 1997 Bum Steer Awards

A year of absent atheists, barbecue bias, College Station Cinderellas, devilish Disney, exiting egrets, far-out fingernails, goatsucker galas, hysterical historians, indoctrinated inmates, junkie joinings, kosher konfusion, loaded lawyers, murderous martinis, naughty Nolan, outvoted orbiters, porcine psychics, quaff quarrels, rapture rifts, senile senators, tackling tarantulas, unconstitutional urine, variable vegetarians, Web site warnings, x-pired x-cursionists, yoicks! YA-HOO!, and zany zoning.

So Much to Learn, So Little Time

Today students at Southwestern Medical School in Dallas are expected to master more hard-core science than ever before. Yet after graduation, they’ll have to keep studying, and be counselors and business experts too. A hard look at the way we teach our doctors—and why it has had to change.

Whose Art Is It, Anyway?

Most everyone agrees that Dominique de Menil did the right thing when she paid for two stolen Cypriot frescoes and had them painstakingly restored. But her decision to build a chapel to house them in Houston has proved controversial.

Down on the Drag

Panhandling, digging through dumpsters for food, roaming the streets near the University of Texas campus: This is the life of Austin’s “gutter punks,” homeless kids with little money and even less hope.

The Honeymoon Is Over

In the last legislative session, George W. Bush’s moderate program won over Bob Bullock, Pete Laney, and other top Democrats. But this time, Bush’s agenda is more partisan, and Republicans are measuring his presidential potential—so Texas politics is going to get ugly.

Columns

Behind the Lines

Testy Mail

Health

Cancer Patience

To perfect a promising new gene therapy, doctors at Houston’s M. D. Anderson need time. Unfortunately, that’s one thing people with malignant brain tumors don’t have.

Lifestyle

To Die For

Obituaries are a grave matter, of course. But they can also be funny, insightful, and poetic, which is why I’m so obsessed with them.

Television

Saintly Bernard

Spring’s Crystal Bernard is already a top dog in the sitcom world. Will her new country CD separate her from the pack?

Travel

What a Hall!

Rock, don’t run, to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, where Texas greats from T-Bone Walker to Sly Stone get their due.

Reporter

Reporter

Drawing the Line

Where is the Texas-Oklahoma border? The answer has people on both sides of the river seeing Red.

Reporter

Smokin’!

Sowing the seeds of the hemp craze.

Reporter

.commies

A Fort Worth filmmaker makes history on the Internet.

Reporter

Saucy

Saucy Katherine Anne Porter’s recipe for mole.

The Ex Files

Stephen Herek

Programming

War Stories

Low Talk

Lars Attacks!

Why Texas’ best-known homeless writer is back on the streets.

Miscellaneous

The Inside Story

Bum Rap

Last Page

Bonnie and Clyde

To whom were Bonnie and Clyde really married, and whose saxophone was found in their car?

Roar of the Crowd

School Spirit

State Fare

Salmonchanted evening, you’ll get hooked by a delectable fish dish at Fort Worth’s Bistro Louise.