Scarecrow Cops

Anybody can get a job as a security guard. Anybody.

by Dick J. Reavis

The Autumn of Alamo Heights

Welcome—well, sort of—to San Antonio’s dowager bastion.

by Tom Walker

James A. Baker III, Politician

How a Houston boy forgot his family’s advice about staying out of politics and became the White House chief of staff.

Oil Chic

Sounds like a joke, right? Cowboy chic was funny too, until it caught on.

The Case Of The Campus Crusader

Multiple-choice question: UT’s Tom Philpott is (a) thes best professor on campus, a selfless reformer, and the victim of an assassination attempt; (b) the worst professor on campus, a publicity hound, and a nut who staged his own shooting.

by Victoria Loe

Texas Primer: The Frito

Great fortunes have been made from this unassuming descendant of the tortilla.

by Nicholas Lemann

Behind the Lines

Emotional states.

by Nicholas Lemann

Crime

The Box

Used correctly, the polygraph can tell whether or not an accused criminal’s claim that he didn’t do it is true. Too bad the police can’t take that to court.

by Jim Atkinson

Books

Gimmie Silver

Beyond Greed is the tale of the Hunts’ journey from silver spoon to silver lust. In Sing Me Back Home Merle Haggard takes a quick look at his life (too quick). Billy Clayton has Gavels, Grit & Glory--or so says his biographer.

by John Bloom

Religion

The Shrine Of The Black Madonna

Albert Cleage, the self-styled holy patriarch of an ambitious sect, has already won over blacks in Detroit and Atlanta. Now he’s set his sights on Houston.

by Lucius Lomax

Classical Music

They’re Playing Our Song—Again

The Pachelbel Canon has gone Hollywood and become the best-selling classical piece in the country. Works by Bach, Mozart, and Wagner are managing to hold their own, too.

by W. L. Taitte

Movies

French Fries And Sympathy

Diner recalls the unbeatable glow when the gang was all together. The two friends in My Dinner With Andre find that not seeing eye to eye doesn’t keep them from talking heart to heart.

by James Wolcott

Dance

Mixed Company

The Dallas Ballet’s new director is moving the company from traditional works into daring—and sometimes absurd—modern choreography.

Suzanne Shelton

Reporter

Texas Monthly Reporter

A Texas farmer’s bitter harvest; a trucker’s paradise; Louisiana’s tastiest emigrant; NASA’s lunar fringe; the media’s favorite oilman.

by Peter Applebome

Roar of the Crowd

Blue blood and red-eye.

State Secrets

A new market for unstable oil; Colorado joins the hate-Texas club; Houston lawyers invade Dallas; a Republican litmus test.

Edited by Paul Burka