Chilly Scenes of Dinner

The old tin tray, it ain’t what it used to be. Today’s TV dinner have become “frozen cuisine.”

by David Seeley

The Gambler

Jack Young was the eighties’ oil boom in the flesh. Unfortunately, he also personifies the aftermath of the bust.

by Joseph Nocera

Ask Jett Rink

The quintessential wildcatter fills you in on free enterprise, A-rabs, and Texas after oil.

And Yet the Dream Endures

Don’t give up! There’s still money to be made finding oil. Up in Graham the Creswells are striking it rich with the help of Jesus and, er, creekology.

by Joseph Nocera

The Journeyman

Ed Jones rode the oil boom to a white-collar job. It was a short trip.

by James Fallows

The Ten Best and The Ten Worst Legislators

We just rate them. You voted for them.

Compiled by Paul Burka, Alison Cook and Kaye Northcott

Texas Primer: The Ranch Gate

These days it seems every five-acre ranchette flaunts a gate worthy of the XIT.

by Terry Toler

Behind the Lines

The tardy teachers.

by Gregory Curtis

Movies

Wookiees on Parade

Return of the Jedi is a star shower of new creatures and old favorites that leaves you wowed but underwhelmed. Breathless is suffocating. WarGanes starts out with a bang and ends with a whimper. Flashdance has a certain twinkle.

by James Wolcott

Jazz

Jazz in Camouflage

The music of tenor saxman John Handy is rooted in Texas and the blues, and he uses his distinctive sound to lure more listeners to jazz.

by Doug Ramsey

Classical Music

Those Raucous Babylonians

This spring both of Texas’ top symphonies staged the late William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Fest. Dallas held back, but Houston made merry with the splashy biblical spectacle.

by W. L. Taitte

Art

Lady on the Edge

Photographer Carlotta Corpron moved to Denton in 1935, and the burst of avant-garde work she produced is, so far, unsurpassed in Texas.

by Michael Ennis

Books

A Knell for Eric

An Abilene man recalls the pluck and pain of his stricken son in This Is the Child. An El Paso professor creates a lovably uncool detective in Dancing Bear. An Austin meteorologist blows hot on Texas Weather.

by Jan Reid

Reporter

Texas Monthly Reporter

Saving the Fort Worth Stockyards; remembering the Hondo Hurrican; suing for peanuts’ rotting your brain on MTV.

by Peter Applebome

Roar of the Crowd

Behind bars.

Touts

Go with the flow; made in the shade.

by Patricia Sharpe

Puzzle

Seeing spots.

State Secrets

Briscoe’s beef; new wave health care; a bright idea for Houston Lighting & Power; the case of the lagging law school.

Edited by Paul Burka