Legendary hoaxes: Neiman Marcus cookie recipe

September 30, 2007

Neiman Marcus cookies, Evans Caglage/Dallas Morning News photo, food styling by Jane Jarrell

[Substitute photo from Desserts by Juliette, dessertsbyjuliette.com]

Photo: Evans Caglage for the Dallas Morning News; food styling by Jane Jarrell [photo no longer available; substitute photo from Desserts by Juliette]

Caption: “When the legend wouldn’t die, Kevin Garvin created a cookie worthy of the Neiman Marcus name.”

Snopes.com and other sites debunk the old urban legend about the woman who was charged “two-fifty” for a chocolate chip cookie recipe at Neiman Marcus’ stores — but in defense of mainstream media, let it be noted that the Dallas Morning News does it up right, repeating the recipe, fact-checking the story, and actually baking the cookies and providing that mouth-watering photo above (et tu, Pavlov?)

The story began circulating in the late ’80s and spread quickly.

Although Neiman’s denied the story – in fact, the company said it had never served cookies in its restaurants – it kept gaining momentum. Finally, with the help of the Internet and e-mail, it became The Urban Legend That Would Not Die.

Inquiries about the costly recipe kept coming in until, finally, the store tasked its bakers to come up with a recipe worthy of the NM reputation. It was perfected in 1995 by Kevin Garvin and is on the company Web site, www.neimanmarcus.com. Free. It also is in the Neiman Marcus Cookbook (Clarkson Potter, $45) by Mr. Garvin and John Harrisson.

The store served cookies made from the recipe as part of its 100th anniversary celebration this month.

When victimized by a hoax, make a cookbook and make some money off of it. Of course, it’s a lot nicer being “Neiman Marcus cookied” than being “swift-boated.”

Here’s the Neiman Marcus version of the Neiman Marcus cookie made famous in the hoax:

  • ½  cup (1 stick) butter
  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  • 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 ½ teaspoons instant espresso coffee powder
  • 1 ½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 300 F. Cream the butter with the sugars until fluffy using an electric mixer on medium speed (approximately 30 seconds).

Beat in the egg and vanilla extract for another 30 seconds.

In a mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and baking soda and beat into the butter at low speed for about 15 seconds. Stir in the espresso coffee powder and the chocolate chips.

Using a 1-ounce scoop or 2-tablespoon measure, drop cookies onto a greased cookie sheet about 3 inches apart. Gently press down on the dough with the back of a spoon to spread out into a 2-inch circle.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until nicely browned around the edges. Bake a little longer for a crispy cookie.

Makes 2 dozen cookies.

PER SERVING: Calories 154 (43% fat) Fat 8 g (5 g sat) Cholesterol 20 mg Sodium 119 mg Fiber 1 g Carbohydrates 21 g Protein 2 g

More:

Read the rest of this entry »

6 Comments | Food history, History, Hoaxes, Texas, Texas history | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Texas earthquake!

September 23, 2007

Epicenter of Texas earthquake

Really. A Texas earthquake. September 15, 2007.

Missed it? Well, it was at the dinner hour, 06:16:42 PM (CDT). You may have thought it was Bubba’s great sauce for the barbecue, or the raspberry in the iced tea.

US Geological Survey provides a state-by-state listing of latest earthquakes. Texas is not a particularly active zone — but there are quakes, even here.

This last one, just over a week ago, was a 2.7 on the Richter scale, too weak to merit much news coverage even in the flatlands. It shook Milam County and surprised people there, but it didn’t do much damage:

In terms of destruction, the earthquake was hardly significant.

Emergency responders said they knew of only one report of damage: A teapot fell off of a woman’s stove.

In California, people probably wouldn’t have even noticed the tremor. But this earthquake happened in the Lone Star State and left Brazos Valley residents baffled.

“You just don’t expect your house to shake,” said Burleson County resident Karen Bolt. She was in her trailer home cleaning dishes when the temblor began.

USGS provides more details than you can use:

Magnitude 2.7
Date-Time
  • Saturday, September 15, 2007 at 23:16:42 (UTC) – Coordinated Universal Time
  • Saturday, September 15, 2007 at 06:16:42 PM local time at epicenter

    • Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
    Location 30.74N 96.74W
    Depth 5.0 kilometers
    Region CENTRAL TEXAS
    Distances 35 km (20 miles) W of Bryan, Texas
    65 km (40 miles) ENE of Taylor, Texas
    110 km (70 miles) ENE of AUSTIN, Texas
    170 km (105 miles) NW of Houston, Texas
    Location Uncertainty Error estimate: horizontal +/- 16.2 km; depth fixed by location program
    Parameters Nst=4, Nph=4, Dmin=123.3 km, Rmss=1.25 sec, Erho=16.2 km, Erzz=0 km, Gp=130.4 degrees
    Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
    Remarks Felt in the Caldwell-Rockdale area.
    Event ID ushhc

    Still, Texans should be relieved it was a small one. The largest recorded Texas earthquake was in 1931, with an epicenter near Valentine. At 5.7 magnitude and VII intensity, it nearly destroyed the little town of Valentine.

    In terms of magnitude and damage, this is the largest earthquake known to have occurred in Texas. The most severe damage was reported at Valentine, where all buildings except wood-frame houses were damaged severely and all brick chimneys toppled or were damaged. The schoolhouse, which consisted of one section of concrete blocks and another section of bricks, was damaged so badly that it had to be rebuilt. Small cracks formed in the schoolhouse yard. Some walls collapsed in adobe buildings, and ceilings and partitions were damaged in wood-frame structures. Some concrete and brick walls were cracked severely. One low wall, reinforced with concrete, was broken and thrown down. Tombstones in a local cemetery were rotated. Damage to property was reported from widely scattered points in Brewster, Jeff Davis, Culberson, and Presidio Counties. Landslides occurred in the Van Horn Mountaiins, southwest of Lobo; in the Chisos Mountains, in the area of Big Bend; and farther northwest, near Pilares and Porvenir. Landslides also occurred in the Guadalupe Mountains, near Carlsbad, New Mexico, and slides of rock and dirt were reported near Picacho, New Mexico. Well water and springs were muddied throughout the area. Also felt in parts of Oklahoma, New Mexico, and in Chihauhua and Coahuila, Mexico.

    Texas history courses could make some use of these data, for map reading exercises, and for general geography about the state. Click on the map below, the isoseismal map of the 1931 Valentine, Texas quake, and geography teachers will begin to dream of warm-up exercises right away.

    Isoseismal map of 1931 earthquake near Valentine, Texas

    USGS offers a wealth of information on Texas’ geology and geography — stream flow information, drought information — collected in one spot for each state in a “Science in your backyard” feature.

    Pick your state, pick your topic, and go.

    3 Comments | Geography - Economic, Geography - Physical, History, Images, Maps, Natural history, Natural resources, Science, Technology in the classroom, Texas, Texas history | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
    Posted by Ed Darrell

    Early Elvis Presley in Texas – a self-guided tour

    September 5, 2007

    Every Texas road traces history.

    Elvis signs autographs for fans in Dallas, Texas, 1955 - photo from Stanley Oberst's collection

    Some routes and sites are better known than others — few really know about Elvis Presley’s tours in Texas. Stanley Oberst knows, and he has shared it in a book. The Dallas Morning News featured a story on Oberst, listing some of the main sites one could visit to see where Elvis and Texas met. (Photo of Elvis signing autographs in Dallas, 1955, from Stanley Oberst’s collection)

    You drive about 20 miles north of Tyler, along gently rolling U.S. Highway 271. A few hundred yards over the Gladewater town line, past a liquor store and a fireworks stand, you come to a rock-strewn patch rimmed by pine trees.

    And that’s where you’ll find it: the spot where the Mint Club once stood, where a raw-boned 19-year-old rocker named Elvis Presley played in what many argue was his first concert in Texas.

    It’s a far cry from Graceland. But for Stanley Oberst, a retired Plano teacher headed to Memphis for today’s 30th anniversary of Elvis’ death, this is sacred ground. Here, Elvis began his yearlong tour of Texas in late 1954, honing his chops and whipping up a whirlwind that would thrust him to stardom.

    Stanley, 60, a lifelong fan, would like to see Elvis’ tour in Texas memorialized – perhaps as the “Hound Dog Highway” or “Pink Cadillac Trail,” after the custom-painted car that transported him around Texas. It must have looked like a spaceship speeding past farmers on tractors before landing in Gladewater.

    For now, Stanley has written a book, Elvis Presley: Rockin’ Across Texas. And as he drives to Memphis to sign copies, he winds through East Texas, pausing at places where Elvis left his mark.

    Oberst’s tour, on his way to Memphis and the anniversary commemoration of Elvis’ death, includes several stops.

    See the 3-minute video: Elvis author Stanley Oberst on a nostalgic East Texas road trip. (Dallas Morning News Video: Randy Eli Grothe/Editing: David Leeson II)

    Don’t confuse this book with the CD set “Rockin’ Across Texas,” which covers a 1970s-era tour.

    ______________________________

    Stanley Oberst’s Elvis Tour of Texas, The Pink Cadillac Tour along Hound Dog Highway: Stops listed below the fold.

    Read the rest of this entry »

    7 Comments | History, Music, Texas, Texas history, Texas Music, Travel | Permalink
    Posted by Ed Darrell

    Historic moment: Texas commutes a death sentence

    August 30, 2007

    Gov. Rick Perry commuted a death sentence today. This is the first commutation in eight years so close to an execution. Any commutation recommendation is rare in Texas.

    Is this just one commutation, or does it signal a change?

    Gov. Perry’s press release:

    Read the rest of this entry »

    3 Comments | Current History, History, Justice, Law, Texas, Texas history | Permalink
    Posted by Ed Darrell

    Saving Texas’s only natural lake

    August 3, 2007

    Aptly named, Salvinia molesta threatens to choke Caddo Lake to death. As Caddo Lake is the only natural lake in Texas, and a site of outstanding beauty and great natural treasure, the friends of Caddo Lake are fighting back.

    Spraying Salvinia molesta on Caddo Lake - NY Times photo by Michael Stravato

    The New York Times features a lengthy story on the lake and the fight to save it in this week’s Science section (July 31, 2007 – Science is part of the Times every Tuesday).

    Every Texas social studies teacher should know Caddo Lake and its stories as well as anything else. It’s the stuff memorable classes are made of.

    1. It’s the only “natural” lake in Texas, though it is formed by a dam. The “only honest lake in Texas,” in the local lingo. The original lake was formed by a monumental log jam on the Red River, probably trees blown down by a massive hurricane several hundred years ago.

    2. Caddo Lake is named after the Caddo Tribe, the tribe whose word for friend, “tejas,” gave the state its name. (See my earlier post on Caddoland.)

    3. Caddo Lake straddles what was once “no man’s land,” or the Neutral Territory, a buffer zone between English/French, then American, and Spanish, then Mexican settlements. It was a haven for criminals, scalawags, filibusterers and revolutionaries. The area plays a large role in the decades of fighting to steal Texas from the Spain, and later from Mexico. Texas history is much better understood when one knows the lake.

    4. Caddo Lake once was the means to make Jefferson, Texas, a port city. Until Col. Shreveport dynamited the logjam that made the lake in 1873, Jefferson was a bustling center of commerce. Today Jefferson boasts some wonderfully preserved historic remnants of that era, many converted to bed and breakfast inns, a great weekend getaway. Fishing is good, photography is great.

    5. Ladybird Johnson was born nearby, and her family still lives in the area.

    6. The Hughes Tool Company had its beginnings on Caddo Lake, where Howard Hughes, Sr., tested his drill bit, “the rock eater,” designed to cut through mud and rock to where the oil was; this is the home of the fortune that Howard Hughes, Jr., inherited, to build to one of the greatest fortunes in the world. That the younger Hughes was a rake, a mechanical genius, an air pioneer, daring movie producer, and weird as hell only makes the story better. Hughes named his movie production company after the lake, Caddo Productions.

    6. Contrary to most of Texas’s political leanings, local people around Caddo Lake have rallied to efforts to protect the lake and conserve its rare beauty. The area is designated for protection as a Ramsar Treaty critical wetlands site — a designation that most conservative Texans ridicule and fear (at one point the Texas Republican Party platform opposed conservation easements to protect the lake — bizarre). Latter-day Caddoans welcome the designation, and when we toured the area they sang the praises of Don Henley, the rock and roll musician who is aiding their efforts to save the lake. It’s an odd combination for any political work — uniquely Texas. (Here’s your chance to play the Eagles for your classes, teachers!)

    7. When it comes to Texas botany, zoology, and biology in general, Caddo Lake provides the local angle for water quality, water shortages (one proposal is to steal water from the lake for Texas cities far away), wildlife management, and of course, the invasion of exotic species.

    8. Everything about this area screams Texas quirkiness. Uncertain, Texas? An often-told story (accurate?) is that when the town applied for a post office, there was a dispute about what to call the town. The fellow who filled out the application wrote “uncertain” in the blank for the town’s name — and that’s how the U.S. Postal Service approved it. Another story holds that the name “Uncertain Landing” caught on because the landing was treacherous mooring for boats. You got a better story about your town’s name? I doubt it.

    Save the article from the Times, teachers! You’ll be glad you have it later this year.

    Add to FacebookAdd to NewsvineAdd to DiggAdd to Del.icio.usAdd to StumbleuponAdd to RedditAdd to BlinklistAdd to TwitterAdd to TechnoratiAdd to Furl

    6 Comments | 1836, A Good Story, Conservation, Geography - Economic, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, History, Natural history, Texas, Texas history | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
    Posted by Ed Darrell

    Heather Burcham, 31 — campaigner for HPV vaccinations

    August 3, 2007

    Then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry introducing Heather Burcham to Texas reporters, in Austin, Texas, Feb. 19, 2007 (AP Photo/LM Otero)

    Then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry introducing Heather Burcham to Texas reporters, in Austin, Texas, Feb. 19, 2007 (AP Photo/LM Otero, via Houston Chronicle)

    From The Dallas Morning News of July 25, 2007:

    Heather Burcham, HPV vaccine advocate, who died July 21, 2007

    Face of state’s HPV vaccine debate dies from cervical cancer

    Burcham worked to keep girls from getting cancer that killed her

    08:20 AM CDT on Tuesday, July 24, 2007

    Associated Press AUSTIN – The 31-year-old woman who put a human face on the state debate over whether to require that schoolgirls be vaccinated against the virus that causes cervical cancer has died from the disease.

    * * * * *

    Earlier in this year’s legislative session, Ms. Burcham spoke to reporters about the issue at Mr. Perry’s request. She also tried to testify before a House committee considering the vaccine ban, but the hearing ran so late that she was unable to stay at the Capitol.

    In a news conference to announce that he would not veto the bill, Mr. Perry closed with a video of Ms. Burcham speaking from her hospice bed.

    With oxygen tubes snaking out of her nose, she spoke of the pain she had endured for four years. She also mourned for the husband she’ll never meet and the children she’ll never raise. “If I could help one child, take this cancer away from one child, it would mean the world to me,” she said. “If they knew what I was going through, how incredibly painful that this was … then I feel like I’ve done my job as a human on this earth.”

    The governor said that Ms. Burcham “was intent on making a difference. Her life, she said, would not be in vain.”

    The strains of HPV that the vaccine prevents cause 70 percent of cervical cancer cases. But opponents said the vaccine was still unproven, and some objected to a state mandate involving a sexually transmitted virus. Mr. Perry’s order would have allowed parents to decline to have their daughters inoculate.

    _______________

    I post this notice more than a week late. A discussion at Pharyngula revealed that many people either had not learned from the Texas discussion, or had already forgotten the key points. Then Only Crook provided the link to a homeschooler’s rant against the vaccine (read, “in favor of our children getting cancer”). Dear Reader: Remember Heather Burcham, and remember the facts about HPV vaccines.

    Heather Burcham waiting to testify to the Texas lege

    A thumbnail version of Heather Burcham’s photo by Eric Schlegelman

    Update September 23, 2011:  Lots of hits on this post today, probably because of the association of Rick Perry with this issue.   Welcome, new readers.  I regret that the larger version of the photograph of Heather Burcham, by Eric Schlegelman of the Dallas Morning News, is no longer available at their website, to which I linked.  If you need a photo to publish, I urge you to contact the paper or Mr. Schlegelman to get a copy.

    11 Comments | Politics, Public education, Public health, Texas, Texas history, Texas Lege | Permalink
    Posted by Ed Darrell

    When things get tough, the patriotic listen to Barbara Jordan

    August 2, 2007

    Whose voice do you hear, really, when you read material that is supposed to be spoken by God? Morgan Freeman is a popular choice — he’s played God at least twice now, racing George Burns for the title of having played God most often in a movie. James Earl Jones?

    Statue of Barbara Jordan at the Austin, Texas, Airport

    Statue of Rep. Barbara Jordan at the Austin, Texas airport that bears her name. Photo by Meghan Lamberti, via Accenture.com

    For substance as well as tone, I nominate Barbara Jordan’s as the voice you should hear.

    I’m not alone. Bill Moyers famously said:

    When Max Sherman called me to tell me that Barbara was dying and wanted me to speak at this service, I had been reading a story in that morning’s New York Times about the discovery of forty billion new galaxies deep in the inner sanctum of the universe. Forty billion new galaxies to go with the ten billion we already knew about. As I put the phone down, I thought: it will take an infinite cosmic vista to accommodate a soul this great. The universe has been getting ready for her.

    Now, at last, she has an amplifying system equal to that voice. As we gather in her memory, I can imagine the cadences of her eloquence echoing at the speed of light past orbiting planets and pulsars, past black holes and white dwarfs and hundreds of millions of sun-like stars, until the whole cosmic spectrum stretching out to the far fringes of space towards the very origins of time resonates to her presence.

    Virgotext carried a series of posts earlier in the year, commemorating what would have been Jordan’s 71st birthday on February 21. (Virgotext also pointed me to the Moyers quote, above.)

    Now, when the nation seriously ponders impeachment of a president, for the third time in just over a generation, Ms. Jordan’s words have more salience, urgency, and wisdom. It’s a good time to revisit Barbara Jordan’s wisdom, in the series of posts at Virgotext.

    “There is no president of the United States that can veto that decision.”

    “My faith in the Constitution is whole.”

    “We know the nature of Impeachment. We’ve been talking about it a while now.”

    “Indignation so great as to overgrow party interests.”

    And finally:

    The rest of the hearing remarks are all here. It’s a longer clip than the others but honestly, there is not a good place to cut it.

    This is Barbara Jordan on the killing floor.

    This was a woman who understands history, who illustrates time and again that we are, with every action, with every syllable, cutting the past away from the present.

    She never mentions Nixon by name. There is the Constitution. There is the office of the Presidency. But Richard Nixon the president has already ceased to exist. By the time she finishes speaking, he is history.

    “A President is impeachable if he attempts to subvert the Constitution.”

    Also see, and hear:

    Virgotext’s collection of Barbara Jordan stories and quotes is an excellent source for students on Watergate, impeachment, great oratory, and Barbara Jordan herself. Bookmark that site.

    Barbara Jordan, in a pensive moment, in a House Committee room

    Rep. Barbara Jordan sitting calmly among tension, at a House Committee meeting (probably House Judiciary Committee in 1974).

    Update 2019: Here is the full audio of Barbara Jordan’s speech. It is still salient, and if you listen to it you will understand better what is going on in Congress today.

    Barbara Jordan, Statement on the Articles of Impeachment, at AmericanRhetori.com.

    3 Comments | Barbara Jordan, Democracy, Ethics, Famous quotes, Free press, Good Quotes, Heroes, History, History audio sources, Justice, Leadership, Patriotism, Presentations, Presidents, Quotes, Reason, Scandals, Texas, Texas history, Texas Lege, U.S. Constitution, U.S. House of Representatives, Watergate scandal | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
    Posted by Ed Darrell

    Textbook critic Norma Gabler, 84

    July 26, 2007

    Appropriate to a discussion of textbook approvals and the Texas State Board of Education comes this news: Norma Gabler died in Phoenix, Sunday. She was 84.

    Norma and her husband Mel started the practice of nit-picking textbooks during the approval process, always pushing to get a Christian view inserted into books, especially science and history books. Eventually they founded a non-profit group to criticize texts, Education Research Associates, based in Longview, Texas. Despite the deaths of both Gablers, the non-profit will continue.

    Steven Schafersman of Texas Citizens for Science alerted me in an e-mail. The Longview News-Journal carried the news of Mrs. Gabler’s death:

    The 84-year-old Longview resident died Sunday in Phoenix, Ariz., after serving for decades as the public face of an effort to bolster both accuracy and conservative beliefs in public school textbooks. She and her husband, Mel, who died in 2004, began their work in 1961 in Hawkins after finding errors in a textbook of one of their sons.

    They became nationally famous, and a Rice University professor who was head of the Texas Council for Science Education in 1982 said the Gablers were “the most effective textbook censors in the country.”

    They founded the Longview-based nonprofit organization Educational Research Analysts, which describes itself as a conservative Christian organization.

    Educational Research Analysts is dedicated to finding factual errors in textbooks, as well as to pointing out “censorship of conservative political or social views,” said Neal Frey, president of the organization who worked with the Gablers since 1982. The group’s work will continue, he said.

    The Gablers’ work, he said, had national impact because Texas is such a large buyer of textbooks; what is approved here is often repeated nationally by publishers.

    Update, August 2, 2007: Afarensis points us to NPR, who seem to speak admiringly of the dead. Awfully polite of them to do so, unless it’s getting in the way of accuracy.

    Leave a Comment » | Accuracy, Education, Education quality, History, History Revisionism, Texas, Texas history, Textbook Selection, Textbooks, Voodoo history | Permalink
    Posted by Ed Darrell

    World War II in Texas: Japanese internment

    July 23, 2007

    Girl Scouts at Japanese Doll Day celebration, in Crystal City, Texas, internment center, 1943-45

    “Girl Scout drama presentation for Hinamatsuri (Doll’s Festival), on Japanese Girl’s Day, at the Crystal City, Texas, internment facility operated by the Justice Department, 1943-45.

    Each of us has pockets of ignorance; some of the pockets are larger than others.

    How did I miss that there were Japanese-American internees in Texas? If I stumbled across that fact before, it really didn’t register. Reviewing the website for the University of Texas – San Antonio’s Institute of Texas Cultures, I came across the Spring 2007 Newsletter, which is dedicated to the Crystal City internment facility.

    Crystal City is unknown to many other Texans, too, I wager. Study of a list of the War Department “Relocation” camps shows nothing in Texas. Surprise! The U.S. Justice Department also operated camps of interned Americans of Japanese descent. The War Department rounded up Japanese Americans in west coast states and their neighbors; the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization Services, the old INS which was rolled into the Department of Homeland Security after the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, arrested and detained Japanese-Americans from the rest of the United States. INS operated at least four such camps in Texas. Read the rest of this entry »

    15 Comments | 1941-1945, Boy Scouts of America, Civil Rights, DBQ sources, Girl Scouts, History, Japanese American internment, Justice, Law, Lesson plans, Texas history, World War II | Permalink
    Posted by Ed Darrell

    News from Texas: Tech Meat Team wins national championship

    July 19, 2007

    Traveling Texas produces its own joys. In the past couple of weeks I’ve been through Wichita Falls, Amarillo, Dalhart, Eastland, Weatherford, Abilene and Lubbock, and a couple score of towns in between.

    I loved this headline last week in Texas Tech’s newspaper, The Daily Toreador: “Meat Team wins national championship.”

    Who knew there is intercollegiate competition in meat judging? Why isn’t this on ABC or ESPN?

    Humor aside, in beef states such skills are critical. Since I love a good steak more than the average person — and I love a good roast beef at least as well — this is the sort of competition I would probably take some interest in, were it covered in daily media outside the affected universities. The team from Tech deserves wider recognition, it seems to me, and I wish Texas newspapers like the Dallas Morning News and Houston Chronicle would give regular coverage to such achievements — not to mention the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (is that a great name for daily newspaper, or what?)

    The competition was held at the 60th annual Reciprocal Meats Conference, at South Dakota State University. Tech’s winning team had to beat another Tech team to get to the championship round, and there they faced another Texas team from Angelo State University in San Angelo (I haven’t made it there yet, this year).

    Tech’s two three-person teams began the competition strong, neither losing a round until they faced each other. The team of Megan Mitchell, Travis Chapin and Austin Voyles came out on top, with O’Quinn, Landi Woolley and Matt Sellers falling into the consolation bracket. Because it was a double-elimination competition, each team had to lose twice to be out of the contest.

    The Mitchell, Chapin and Voyles team lost one of their rounds later, leaving both teams in the consolation bracket. Winning their way through the consolation bracket, the two teams eventually faced each other once again, and this time O’Quinn, Woolley and Sellers won. They ended up competing against Angelo State University in the finals and emerged victorious.

    “It wasn’t really like two teams,” O’Quinn said. “It wasn’t like one Tech team won and the other Tech team lost. It’s just a matter of formality. If all six of us could have been on one team, we would have. We consider ourselves all one team. The Tech team won.”

    Rogers noted that combined the teams only lost three rounds.

    “Two of our losses were to our own team,” she said. “It really was a group win.”

    It was the third national championship for Tech in the competition in the past six years.

    Don’t laugh.  Does your university even have a meat judging team?

    And while in Lubbock, I had a great chicken-fried steak at River Smith’s. Eat the local fruits, I always say.

    2 Comments | Food history, Newspapers, Texas, Texas history, Travel | Permalink
    Posted by Ed Darrell

    4 Stone Hearth #19

    July 19, 2007

    Prehistory and archaeology fans will want to check out the latest archeaology carnival from the 4 Stone Hearth series — Number 19 is up at Sherd Nerd.

    Texans may want to pay particular attention to the links to John Hawks’s blog, where he talks about the coming display of Lucy, in Houston, with further links.  Hawks notes controversy among the U.S. community of Ethiopians; Texans may worry more about complaints from Texas creationists.

    Either way, you need to check it out.  You can link back here, to my post on stories and history, too (thanks, Sherd Nerd!).

    3 Comments | Archaeology, Evolution, Natural history, Prehistory, TEKS, Texas, Texas history | Permalink
    Posted by Ed Darrell

    Use the work of local photographers

    July 19, 2007

    The Dallas Morning News offers a column by a mensch named Steve Blow two or three times a week. Most good daily papers in America have something like it — a column by a reporter or former reporter, or sometimes just someone in the community who can write, that covers the beat of being alive in This Town, wherever this town is.

    About half the time the columns stake out positions on issues that make a few people angry enough to write letters demanding the column be burned and the author be dangled by the toes from the flagpole jutting out of the third story window of the newspaper building. The rest of the time, to careful readers, these columnists tell stories of the city, or talk about people you ought to know.

    On July 12, Steve Blow wrote about a guy who takes pictures of birds at Dallas’ White Rock Lake. Texas has three major bird migration flyways coursing through it, offering opportunities for Texans to see hundreds of different species through the year.  J R Compton takes advantage of this, photographing birds and then posting the photos at his website.

    Egret, from J. R. Compton

    These are great photos for use in geography, biology and environmental science classes.  Heck, a Texas history course ought to note Texas’ great bird viewing, too, since it’s an important industry (if somewhat smaller than oil or auto customizing).

    Most kids I see in school know almost nothing about birds.  Following bird migration routes is a fun and sneaky way to get kids thinking about geography, about paths of commerce for economics and history, and just to get them looking around their world to see what’s going on.

    Particularly for Dallas and North Texas, these photos offer kids a chance to see what they should be looking for, literally in their own backyards.

    Black-crowned night heron at White Rock Dam

    Compton’s photos can also be found at his websites, such as J R’s Birds, and Addlepated Birder.  His chief site is www.jrcompton.com.

    Especially with digital cameras so common, it is likely someone in your town is recording natural events, or pictures of the city that you can use in your classroom, too.  Be sure to credit them, to set an example for your students.

    • Photo of egret in flight and night crowned heron both taken at White Rock Lake in Dallas, Texas, photos copyright by J R Compton.
    • Update, April 19, 2010:  Mr. Compton wishes to be contacted before you use his photos (see his note in comments); if you’re using these in a classroom PowerPoint, drop him a note.  Students can probably claim fair use for papers, but you should encourage them to ask, too.

    2 Comments | Geography - Physical, Natural history, Texas, Texas history | Permalink
    Posted by Ed Darrell

    Lady Bird Johnson, 94

    July 12, 2007

    Did I mention that we considered Lady Bird Johnson to be a family friend?

    Ladybird Johnson among wildflowers

    • Ladybird Johnson in a field of Texas wildflowers, gaillardia and probably coriopsis, 2001; photo by Frank Wolfe, MacNeil/Lehrer Productions and KLRU-TV production, “Lady Bird”

    We didn’t know her that well, really. But for the two years prior to our move to Texas, when I staffed the President’s Commission on Americans Outdoors, she was a solid presence. A passionate advocate of wildflowers, she was well aware of the possibilities that the commission might make recommendations regarding gardening and walking and hiking, and preserving natural beauty. She had already convered Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander to the cause — he issued an executive order that Tennessee should not cut down wildflowers along roadsides, saving the state a bunch of money on mowing and adding to the beauty of the state’s roads all at once. Alexander chaired the commission.

    But she went to work on the vice chair, too — Gil Grosvenor, the president of the National Geographic Society. And she worked on the commission director, Victor Ashe, who had recently lost a U.S. Senate campaign to Al Gore and would go on to be mayor of Knoxville and chairman of the National Conference of Mayors. Lady Bird did not want to let any potential ally go unpersuaded. She had the phone numbers, and she made the calls, especially the late-in-the-day-catch-the-big-fish-without-a-secretary calls. Some of the people who go out of channels that way are very obnoxious. Lady Bird always produced smiles.

    She persuaded them and the other commissioners to her cause, the commission staff, and probably anyone who ever bothered to read the reports of the commission or who attended any of the several public hearings where the joys and value of wildflowers was discussed.

    And then we moved to Texas, and in the spring time we could see what Lady Bird’s passion was all about. It helped that Kathryn decided to chase her own passion for horticulture, and fell in with a great bunch of landscape designers and nursery people who emphasized Texas native plants. We joined the wildflower center Lady Bird set up in Austin, and actually met her on a couple of occasions. Kathryn and I both worked in the U.S. Senate, and we know stuffy people. Lady Bird was not stuffy, but always a woman of infinite charm and grace.

    Most recently, when our son James earned his Eagle rank in Scouting, Lady Bird’s name was on the list of those public figures who would be gracious enough to drop a note of congratulations if asked. We know how to recognize the letters signed by machines, and we know how to recognize letters written by software that mimics handwriting. So it was a pleasant surprise to get a hand-addressed note from Austin, and see that the handwriting on the note matched the envelope. That’s the way a lady does it.

    In Texas now, in the spring time there are bluebonnet watches, maps in newspapers showing a path to drive to see the best blooms, festivals, and trinkets galore. An entire industry of photographers revolves around getting families to sit among the flowers at the side of the road for a portrait. The flowers, other than the bluebonnets, show brilliantly to incoming airplanes. A flight from Houston or Austin to Dallas gives a passenger a floral sendoff and a floral welcome at the other end.

    You can read the stories. Lady Bird was the financial manager of the Lyndon Johnson family fortune. She was also the peacemaker, the one who got LBJ calmed down from his frequent flights of passion, calm enough that he could be the best legislator our nation ever had, including James Madison, and a great legislative master even as president, as no president before or since.

    Steel magnolias have nothing on Lady Bird Johnson, who understood the power of a blanket of flowers, the importance of roots and family, and how much grace can mean to those who get it.

    Teachers in Texas should hit the newstands today and get the papers with the special features — the Dallas Morning News front page and front section are full of good stories. Teachers should get to the news websites and get the stories that will disappear in a week downloaded for later use. U.S. history teachers would do well to do the same, to get the information about the American environmental movement, and to pick up additional history on Lyndon Johnson, Vietnam, the successes of the civil rights movement, and the amazing decade of the 1960s.

    America is better because of Lady Bird Johnson. She worked to be, and was, a family friend to the entire nation.

    Here are sources you can check from contemporary news:

    Dallas Morning News coverage

     

    Former first lady dies at 94

    LBJ trusted Lady Bird with his true self, warts and all

    Lady Bird cultivated natural beauty from Western wilderness to inner cities

    Journalist remembers her friend

    Remembering Lady Bird

    Editorial: She showed world grace, gentleness

    Timeline: Her life and times

    Services planned for Lady Bird Johnson

    Statement from President George W. Bush

    Statement from former President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Clinton

    Submit: Sign the online guestbook

    Photos: The life of Lady Bird Johnson

    Video:
    • Remembering Lady Bird Johnson (WFAA-TV)
    • Kay Bailey Hutchison on Lady Bird Johnson (WFAA-TV)
    • John Cornyn on Lady Bird Johnson (WFAA-TV)
    • Mrs. Johnson’s impact on Central Texas (KVUE-TV)
    • Lady Bird Johnson’s Legacy (KVUE-TV)
    • Family friend and spokesman Neal Spelce shares his memories of Mrs. Johnson (KVUE-TV)
    • Reaction from the LBJ Library and Museum staff (KVUE-TV)

    Links
    • Lady Bird Johnson Final Tribute
    • Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
    • Lady Bird Johnson biography
    • Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum

    Tip of the old scrub brush to O’Folks.

    5 Comments | Heroes, History, History and art, Natural history, Presidents, Public education, Texas, Texas history | Permalink
    Posted by Ed Darrell

    Blue Bell’s 100th; ice cream at the Farmers Museum

    July 1, 2007

    It looks like even the Farmers Museum in Cooperstown, New York, wants to get in on Blue Bell Ice Cream’s 100th anniversary, with a display on ice cream in America.

    Good Humor Ice Cream Truck, NYC c 1926; Unilever 1999, via Farmers Museum, Cooperstown

     

    But it’s only coincidence: Cooperstown is outside the Blue Bell distribution area.

    Nice idea, though.

    See my original post on Blue Bell’s 100th here.

    Leave a Comment » | Food history, Museums, Texas, Texas history, Travel | Permalink
    Posted by Ed Darrell

    Maps of lost worlds: Caddoland

    June 29, 2007

    Caddoland collage, UT-Austin, Texas Beyond History (Click on thumbnail for a larger view of this Caddoland Collage)

    Caddos, Anadarkoes, Tawaconies, Southern Delawares — so many Native American tribes disappear from U.S. history books, and from U.S. history. These histories should be better preserved and better taught.

    Texas history texts mention the Caddo Tribe, but largely ignore what must have been a significant cultural empire, if not an empire that left large stone monuments. Teaching this material in Texas history classes frustrates me, and probably others. Student projects on the Caddos are frequently limited in what they cover, generally come up with the same three or four factoids and illustrations.

    The Caddo Tribe lived in an area spanning five modern states, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and eventually Missouri. Here is an interactive map that offers more information and useful photos of Caddoland than I have found in any other source: The Caddo Map Tool.

    Basic map of Caddoland

    This is just an image of the tool — click on the image above and it will link to the actual site. One of the things that excites me about this map is its interactive features, especially the map that carries links to photos that show just what the local environment looks like.

    Read the rest of this entry »

    2 Comments | Archaeology, Geography - Economic, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, History, Lesson plans, Maps, On-line education, On-line learning, Place Names, Prehistory, Student projects, Teaching, Technology in the classroom, Texas, Texas history, Travel | Permalink
    Posted by Ed Darrell

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