1983

Touts

The halls are alive with the sound of music.

State Secrets

More trouble ahead for Jim Mattox; oil pipeline for sale—cheap; the EPA gets dumped over toxic dumping; raindrops on GTE’s head at Braniff Place.

Secrets of a Deep, Dark Game

Listen up, you Monday morning quarterbacks. How much do you really know about the classic triple option?

Roar of the Crowd

Banks play domino, Presidio plays it cool, Beaumont plays to win.

Texas Monthly Reporter

Masons in trouble; Wally in wonderland; vice in Amarillo; vitamins in Mount Pleasant; Czechs in print.

Puzzle

Perforations.

Texas Primer: Christmas on the Range

Yes, Virginia Sue, Texas really does have its own holiday traditions.

Terminal Endearment

Terms of Endearment features a Houston setting but also drab cinematography and cramped direction. The sickening Star 80 goes too far; the impressionistic Rumble Fish reaches too high.

The Proof Is in the Piano

Fabled Texas pianist Peck Kelley appears, at last, on a gold mine of an album. There’s lodes more with Red Garland, Pete Petersen, and other jazz whizzes.

Pearl Harbor Christmas

December 1941 in Clarksville was a time to celebrate peace on earth amid the rumblings of war.

The Texas Food Manifesto

Fie on the cilantro fad, greaseless barbecue, and indiscriminate mesquite-grilling. Let’s hear it for Frito pie, catfish plates, and other gems of Texas’ true cuisine

The Courage of Their Compositions

These days the Houston Symphony Orchestra isn’t playing the same old thing. Conductor Sergiu Comissiona battles boredom by playing brand-new works and little-heard older ones.

Good Christian Pageant Fans, Rejoice

Houston’s First Baptist Church wants to be number one in Texas, and an eye-popping Christmas spectacle is one way it beckons the faithful.

Behind the Lines

Dropping the aristocratic burden.

Another Pilgrim’s Progress

The last book by native Texan William Goyen, Arcadio is a weird and wonderful fable about a search for self-acceptance and peace.

Twofers

They are the quirky enterprises that offer two things under one roof—like shrimp and guns, steaks and loans, or eggrolls and gasoline.

Fantasy Island

It’s a high-rise developer’s dream. Houston’s old guard wants to turn 34 acres of downtown warehouses into an island of classy shops and pricey condos. They thought they had it wired, until Kathy Whitmire was elected mayor.

The Wild Ones

Quick! Get out your furs before it gets hot again.

Touts

The Palace of Pros

With The Palace of Amateurs, the Plaza Theatre brought a sparkling Mariel Hemingway to Dallas and a lofty new theatrical standard to Texas.

Local Menu Makes Good

Here’s to the unsung heroes of Eastland: my grandfather and his V.C. menu.

State Secrets

The Supreme Court scores one for Texas against the Yankees; blame the recession on InterFirst; why Phil Gramm makes a great Republican; an oil squabble matches the greedy little independents against poor, starving Big Oil.

Roar of the Crowd

Texas Monthly Reporter

A new era for Texas prisons; a new view of Wichita Falls; a new look, alas, for a Dallas street; a new metropolis in East Texas; a new generation of frat rats.

Puzzle

Duel for the Sun

Crosbytown and Texas Tech wanted to harvest a major local resource: the sun. But then the feds stepped in, and the issue switched from energy to power.

Cool Minds in a Hot War

Nick Nolte is a journalist dodging bullets and political involvement in Under Fire. The Right Stuff is about Americans, space, and manifest destiny. The Big Chill is a warm look at the cooling of sixties idealism.

Pieces of the Puzzle

Great moments in the conspiracy time line.

They Can’t All Be Right

After twenty years these are the assassination theories that still survive.

Still on the Case

Assassination buffs come in all shapes and convictions—archivists, technologists, mob-hit theorists, and more—but they are all obsessed with Lee Harvey Oswald, and his crime is the focus of their lives.

Why Do They Hate Us So Much?

A great man was dead and an outraged world desperately wanted someplace to lay blame. It chose Dallas and changed the city forever.

The Legacy of Lee Harvey Oswald

Twenty years ago he thrust himself into our lives; he is there yet.

A Soprano Is Born

Houston likes to think it discovered Erie Mills, but it’s willing to share the winning young star with the rest of the opera world.

Behind the Lines

Dueling cornucopias.

A Surfeit of Bimbos

In The Desert Rose Larry McMurtry’s heroines never blossom into believable women. The Franchise is a tough tale about graft and the gridiron.

The Roadside Eye

Robert Frank took casual but expressive snapshots that captured dramas of American life and altered the course of modern photography.

Texas Primer: The Open Container

Texans are sometimes driven to drink.

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?

Taking Over

It’s a bank-eat-bank world out there.

Touts

Bench warmers and good lookers.

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.

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.

Roar of the Crowd

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.

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.

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.

Rose-Colored Ivories

Is Claudio Arrau the last great Romantic pianist?

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.

Behind the Lines

Playing by the rules.