Taking Over

It’s a bank-eat-bank world out there.

by Nicholas Lemann

Ninety Miles From Nowhere

Presidio crouches on the border of Mexico and the extreme edge of life in America. There, Spanish is the language, hundred-degree heat is the norm, and the hoe is the crucial tool for scraping out life on the desert.

by Dick J. Reavis

They Say

Cabeza de Vaca hated it. Georgia O’Keeffe loved it. Seems like Texas leaves no one speechless.

by Anne Dingus

Mayor of the Unfinished City

To become more than a perpetual boom town, Dallas needs a foresighted leader and astute politician. Is Starke Taylor the man?

by Jim Atkinson

Football, Game of Life

When two high schools in Beaumont-one white, one black-were ordered to merge last fall, the outraged town watched as the drama of integration was played out on the football field.

by Geoff Winningham

Western Art: Stampede

Our new regular feature will reinterpret a much-maligned art form.

by Marshall Arisman

Texas Primer: The Open Container

Texans are sometimes driven to drink.

by Jan Reid

Behind the Lines

Playing by the rules.

by Gregory Curtis

Business

Wal-Marts Across Texas

An Arkansas chain has refused to discount small-town buying power. Now it’s ousting local mom-and-pop operations throughout Texas and even giving K Mart a run for its money.

by Rod Davis

Health

Medicine To Go

Minor emergency centers are fine for those who don’t need much more than a Band-Aid, a throat culture, or a summer-camp physical.

by Mimi Swartz

Books

Books Only A Mother Could Love

You too can be an author-if you’re willing to publish the book yourself. All you have to have is a stack of paper, a tale to tell, and a couple of thousand bucks.

by Dick J. Reavis

Texana

In the Boredom of the Storm

Hurricane Alicia roared through Houston, but somehow it seemed much more real on TV than it did outside my hotel room window.

by Joseph Nocera

Classical Music

Rose-Colored Ivories

Is Claudio Arrau the last great Romantic pianist?

by W. L. Taitte

Movies

Daniel’s Lot

In Daniel the hero has to bear the burn of his parents’ treason, while the audience must endure a lot of misery. The Moon in the Gutter is a film in search of eclipse. Education Rita is an enjoyable elective.

by James Wolcott

Reporter

Texas Monthly Reporter

Texas becomes a disaster zone; a magazine empire enters the twilight zone; the district attorney’s office in San Antonio is a war zone; problems crop up in the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport flight zone.

by Peter Elkind

Roar of the Crowd

State Secrets

The National Weather Service blows Hurricane Alicia; how the storm will blow insurance rates; Texas congressmen vie for a plum committee seal; a suggestion for spending the spare $2 million.

Edited by Paul Burka

Touts

Bench warmers and good lookers.

by Patricia Sharpe