Volume 26, Number 6
ON THE COVER:
features
Readers' and critics' favorites
news
Sparks says businesses are not responsible for smoking patrons' conduct
City dangles Bull Creek in front of bulldozers, but county won't take the bait
BY WELLS DUNBAR
Two downtown projects uneasily launched
BY KATHERINE GREGOR
Tidbits from the trail
While Iraq burns, official Washington wallows in the Foley scandal
BY MICHAEL KING
The downtown plan moves forward, but the direction is a little uncertain
BY WELLS DUNBAR
The Ungodly Pensions of CEOs; and Drinking Liberally
BY JIM HIGHTOWER
Screens
Film Reviews
Assorted workers vie for the coveted title of "Employee of the Month."
It's another Truman Capote picture about how the author wrote In Cold Blood – and it stands solidly on its own merits.
Maggie Smith, Rowan Atkinson, Kristen Scott Thomas, and Patrick Swayze come together for this dark British comedy.
Forest Whitaker becomes dictator Idi Amin in a ferocious performance that often dwarfs the more ordinary aspects of this picture.
A faith-based Western.
Spanish comedy about same-sex marriages and mothers-in-law.
Chinese film by veteran Zhang Yimou is a tale about good intentions and missed opportunities.
John Cameron Mitchell's sophomore film effort asserts – with great gusto and even a brass band – our universal right to sexual happiness.
In this prequel to the original Chainsaw, we learn how Leatherface grew up to become a monster.
A hard-boiled detective investigates a murder at a Buddhist monastery.
arts & culture
Arts Reviews
The title of Monika Bustamante's 'Stillborn' is no pun but a promise of what is to come: two hours of anger, rape, murder, and stillbirth that is upsetting, dark, and, unfortunately, not illuminating
The dance 'We Are Normal, Cha Cha Chaaa' is such a whirl of motion, bursting with youthful exhilaration, that it suggests nothing so much as five girls hard at play on a long summer's day
The pieces in 'Daniel Bozhkov: Recent Works' grab our eye with comic incongruities, but behind the visual joke is a story of how everything in our world is connected
columns
On onion rings, barbecue, and the never-ending "Best of Austin" debate
BY LOUIS BLACK
Our readers talk back.
On September 28, key rights guaranteed by our Constitution, plus the central tenet of the Magna Carta, were nullified by an act of Congress specifically, the Military Commissions Act of 2006
BY MICHAEL VENTURA
The Millie Bush Bark Park on the west side of Houston is the best leash-free dog park in Texas
BY GERALD E. MCLEOD
Statin drugs reduce serum cholesterol levels, but there is intense controversy over whether this translates into a reduction in deaths from heart attacks
BY JAMES HEFFLEY, PH.D.
My Neighbor's Dog Won't Stop Barking What Can I Do?
BY LUKE ELLIS
Royal tattoos, and the award for tallest actor goes to ...
BY MR. SMARTY PANTS
Alamo Drafthouse Downtown, Friday, October 13, 2006
BY THE LUV DOC
Letters to the editor, published daily
sports
Emily Anderson nets her first career college goal for the Lady Longhorns, and more
BY NICK BARBARO