1981 – Page 2 of 4

Touts

Shake and bake.

State Secrets

What the future holds for artificial hearts, utility customers, Phil Gramm, and the Republican party.

Roar of the Crowd

Women in the air, men in the House, snakes in the grass.

Reporter

Four great Texas discoveries: world-class barbecue in Taylor, gold fever in Brock, psychic delvings in San Antonio, historical triage in Canyon.

Puzzle

Old chiselers.

Spontaneous Combustion

Half a dozen Texas bands rev up and rock out.

Hot and Bothered

In Body Heat a lust-befuddled lawyer fails to notice that his lover is setting him up for murder. The spy plot and love story of Under the Rainbow pale next to the sideshow attraction of 150 dwarfs. Endless Love only seems endless. Victory scores some points.

Cattle Call

Trial by jury is a right most people charged with a crime never get to exercise. Instead, they accept a quicker, less risky alternative: the plea bargain.

Lord of the Flies

Fly-fishing is a particularly fastidious way of trying to fool a fish, but it’s also a particularly pleasant one.

Sixteen Strings

As befits masterpieces, Beethoven’s string quartets have been recorded a hundred times. Our trusty critic guides the novice through a maze of choices.

Blue-collar Sculptor

Dallasite Mac Whitney is his own one-man construction crew - producing towering steel-plate sculptures.

The Deal That Didn’t Work

Parceling out three new seats in Congress sounds like an easy job, but the Texas Legislature tried for two months and couldn’t do it.

Trial by Piano

Why knock yourself out for two grueling weeks at a piano competition in Fort Worth? For $12,000—and a string of concert bookings money can’t buy.

Play (It One Last Time With Feeling) Land

Before Six Flags, before Astroworld, there was Playland.

Country Boy

Texas cities are full of people who grew up in the country—and want everybody they meet to know it.

The Perfect River

From giant freshwater prawns to bikini-clad coeds, from ancient Indian artifacts to swimming pigs, there’s something for everyone on the San Marcos River.

She Followed Me Home, Mom, Honest

The dog that the family fell in love with was beautiful, well trained, and friendly. The only problem was, she wasn’t theirs.

Touts

High flying and fly tying.

The Neon Lights Are Bright in Dallas

Dallas productions of The Elephant Man and Children of a Lesser God proved that Broadway is getting closer to home.

State Secrets

Bombs away on the Franklin Mountains; why pro-nukes belong in the Nutt House; the Dallas News goes public; sportfishermen change their minds about redfish.

Roar of the Crowd

Bullets, Bibles, and buds.

Reporter

Mr. Boll Weevil goes to Washington; Dallas scholars go to the Sunbelt’s defense; Houston’s public abortion clinic goes down the drain.

Puzzle

Holey Rollers.

Angry Men

Texas Fathers for Equal Rights joined divorced men from all over the country to protest family courts that have always favored mothers in child custody cases.

Thrills, Chills, Action, Adventure

Raiders of the Lost Ark gets an A, but it’s still a B-movie. Arthur has a dead plot but lively humor. Stripes should have been scuttled.

Cruel and Unusual Parenthood

Every year thousands of men and women assault, molest, or murder innocent victims - their own children.

The Fifty Best Texas Books

One man’s favorite writings span a century and capture Texas in all its grimness and glory.

Unentitled

Artists and art organizations are getting cut off from the federal dole - and maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

A Simple Man

Archbishop Patrick Flores acts like a country priest, but he has a tough job: he is the most powerful Catholic clergyman in Texas, and perhaps the most powerful Mexican American as well.

I Remember Masa

The last word on tortillas: how to make them, when to eat them, and why they should be in every artist’s studio.

Space Cadet

Astronauts used to be dashing pilots. Now they’re doctors, scientists, and . . . sanitary engineers.

Touts

How you bean, kid?

State Secrets

A deal that failed; macho political ads, the unhappiest man in Texas; a big time legal goof.

Reporter

McAllen mayor Othal Brand fights for his political life; a killer storm ravages Austin; a Highland Park matron trades fancy parties for farming.

Puzzle

Diamonds are a boy’s best friend.

Fangs

Now is the time to unlearn everything you’ve ever heard about snakebite.

1981: The Ten Best and The Ten Worst Legislators

Nineteen people you voted for and one you didn't.

The Long Arm of the Oracle

John Catchings can sole crimes without witnesses, confessions, or clues. How? He’s a psychic.

The Kingfish Revisited

Tell It, Brother Hill!

A visiting revivalist lays some eloquent preaching on Pasadena Baptists. Nearby in Houston, the festival of Purim gives templegoers good reason to dress up, drink up, and raise a ruckus.

Driving a Soft Bargain

Take the “Art of Negotiating” seminar, and you too can learn to wheel and deal with a smile.

Behind the Lines

The war that won’t go away.

Get Out and See the World, Kid . . . or Bring the World Back Home

These gifts should activate the wanderlust in any recent graduate.

The Year of the Flower

What’s behind this year’s rampant display of wild flowers? The birds and the bees, of course.

The Coyote Wars

The stake is survival—for either the sheep and goat ranchers of West Texas or the smartest predator of all.

The Plane the Pentagon Couldn’t Stop

West of Fort Worth, General Dynamics builds the F-16, a good little fighter plane that could have been great if the Air Force brass had kept their hands off it.

Touts

About-face, inner space, and keeping pace.

State Secrets

Farmers and oilmen fight over water; a Houston gold rush for TV licenses; houses multiply faster than people; security for brokers.

Roar of the Crowd

Fire and brimstone on the right, Observer on the left, guns under the bed.

Reporter

Kirk Crocker’s radiation nightmare; Texas International tries to swallow Continental Air Lines - and chokes; Panhandle farmers confront the M-X missile folly; can Houston have its park and oil wells, too?