The Last of the Big-Time Spenders

It’s not Diamond Jim Brady, Bet a Million Gates, an Arab sheik, or Liberace. It’s a library.

by Gene Lyons

1978 Bum Steer Awards

Last year’s biggest bloopers, bleepers, blunders, bungles, boo-boos, bad breaks, bobbles, bevues, balks, and Briscoeisms.

Art Yucko / Design

How we learned to stop worrying and love the fifties.

by Cindy Bell and Mickey Troncale

The Good Old Girls

At the National Women’s Conference, the feminists changed their sandals for pumps and embraced mainstream America.

by Prudence Mackintosh

Politics

Corpus Delicti

Corpus Christi is the victim - what is the crime?

by Kaye Northcott

Behind the Lines

Like most wrong ideas, the concept of the sunbelt didn’t matter until people started putting it into practice.

by William Broyles, Jr

Lifestyle

The Line Forms Here

It’s tough to select food in a fast-moving serving line. A cafeteria is no place for the timid.

by Stephen Harrigan

Dealing

Split Decision

Analysts can’t decide whether Tom Browne, Inc., is a silk stock or a sow’s ear.

by Robert Barnstone

Country Notes

Poultry in Motion

There are two ways to raise chickens: the right way and this way.

by John Graves

Reporter

Texas Monthly Reporter

Larry Flynt hears the call; everyone hears Bob Bullock; McConn job in Houston; ghost in the newsroom; and cotton on the dinner table.

Review

Texas Monthly Review

Royal women reign in Houston; Spanish artist eats dough; new novel for the operating table; more UFOs from Hollywood; wanted: a conductor for the San Antonio Symphony.

Roar of the Crowd

Last words on the West, the remains of the defenders of the Alamo, and Larry McMurtry’s sagging shelf.

Touts

Hot tubs and chili pots.

Contest

Saying will make it so.

by Paul Burka