The Death Shift

The three-to-eleven evening shift, Bexar County Hospital, San Antonio: nurse Genene Jones was on duty in the pediatric intensive care unit, and for months babies kept having mysterious—sometimes fatal—emergencies. Why?

by Peter Elkind

Texas Primer: Conjunto

Tex plus Mex plus electric guitar plus accordion equals... art.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

As Tolstoy didn’t say, every family’s vacation is the same, yet different. Here’s a report on the Tuley family’s.

by Laurie Erskine Williams

Hi! I’m Jimmy Dean and I’d Like you to Try My Pure Pork Sausage

The meat products business is no bed of top hogs.

by Fryar Calhoun

Secret Places

In the hidden corners of Texas’ outback-in the foresty swamp and shimmering desert-there are a few places that are still primeval.

by Griffin Smith, Jr

Art

Personal Space

Houston’s brash “alternative spaces” are doing more than the city’s mainstream galleries to keep Texas art fresh, rich and diverse.

by Michael Ennis

Behind the Lines

The revelation of the geese.

by Gregory Curtis

Business

Anyplace But Texas

Texans may secretly yearn to live east of the Mississippi or across the Atlantic, but the next best thing is a subdivision named Yorktown, Nottingham County, or village Green West.

by Anne Dingus

Classical Music

Something for Everyone

The ambitious San Antonio Festival went all out, with 73 acts-everything from Dallas ballet to Berlin opera, from Robert Merrill to Sarah Vaughan. Houston Grand Opera and Leonard Bernstein both made mistakes in A Quiet Place.

by W. L. Taitte

Movies

Slower Than a Speeding Bullet

The third time is not always the charm. In Superman III our hero finds himself in a blue funk, and his melancholia is the liveliest part of the show. The Survivors doesn’t make it. Escape your little gray cells and enjoy The Man With Two Brains. Trading Places exchanges wit and finesse for boorishness and bigotry.

by James Wolcott

Reporter

Texas Monthly Reporter

A tale of tree cities in the Panhandle; upscale fitness at the new Dallas Y; a return to those thrilling days of yesteryear with Riders in the Sky; another new plan to unclog Houston’s arteries.

by Peter Applebome

Roar of the Crowd

Beach, beach, beach.

Touts

Have map, will travel; will dance, please ask me.

by Patricia Sharpe

Puzzle

Letter perfect.

State Secrets

James Watt’s plan to thin the Big Thicket; the worst bridges in Texas; Republicans try to turn Clintgate into another Sharpstown; the Texas Supreme Court socks home buyers on the chin.

Edited by Paul Burka