Alan Peppard

Even while sleeping, Texas Monthly founder Mike Levy has more energy than an over-caffeinated puppy. Six weeks ago, when he retired from his post as the only publisher Texas Monthly has ever had, associates wondered where his legendary energy and tenacity would be focused.

Now we know.

Mike is exploring a run for mayor of Austin.

Although raised in Dallas and a graduate of St. Mark's, Mike is passionate about his adopted hometown.

The Austin American- Statesman reports that he has already hired political consultants and he could conceivably self-fund the campaign. In 1998, he sold Texas Monthly to Emmis Broadcasting for $37 million.

Mike is famously outspoken on civic issues, most especially those concerning emergency medical services.

The equally outspoken former Austin mayor and former gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn may also run, which would make for a very quotable campaign.

In other Austin news, actor James Cromwell will be at Thursday's Austin Film Festival premiere of the Oliver Stone film, W. In the biopic of George W. Bush, Mr. Cromwell plays the president's father, George H.W. Bush.

As the festival's opening- night event, the W. premiere will be at the Paramount Theatre, just steps away from George W.'s old stomping grounds in the Capitol and the Governor's Mansion.

Perhaps the best known father-son team in Dallas will be honored on Oct. 25 by the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth. Ross Perot and Ross Perot Jr. will be co-recipients of the 25th anniversary H. Neil Mallon Award.

To people under the age of 45, the name Neil Mallon may not mean much. But the president of the United States has a younger brother named Neil Mallon Bush.

Neil Mallon was a Yale classmate and fellow Bonesman with Prescott Bush, father of Bush 41.

In Dallas, he was chairman of Dresser Industries and mentored George H.W. Bush in the oil business.

Back in 1951, he founded the World Affairs Council of Dallas.

Each year, the Mallon Award is given to individuals who promote Dallas and Fort Worth as an international hub.

60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley will give the keynote address. Before his hair got so gray, Scott was a news reporter at Channel 8 in Dallas. He went on to be chief White House correspondent for CBS.

Today's happy thought for those watching the financial markets comes from Friedrich Nietzsche's snappy little page-turner, Beyond Good and Evil: "And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee."

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