1984

Why They Won

The inside skinny on the elections.

Touts

Trivial Texas

Three Texas Trivia games separate Lone Star zealots from ordinary believers.

State Secrets

A new law takes the driving out of DWI; a new battle brews on the Texas Supreme Court; Exxon gets rid of an old burden; so does Clinton Manges.

Has Success Spoiled Snook?

After winning seven straight state basketball championships, the Snook Bluejays are learning that success has a flip side.

Scrolling Through the Bible

The Word Processor reveals the wisdom of the Good Book with a few keystrokes.

Roar of the Crowd

Texas Monthly Reporter

Kung’s underground hideaway; Dallas’ Cadillac wars; the Panhandle’s art terrorists; Houston’s poet-laureate; Austin’s airport quandary.

Puzzle

Texas Primer: The Texas Brag

It’s not quite a lie and not quite the truth. It’s a patriotic duty.

Double Trouble

Body Double settles for facile thrills; Comfort and Joy offers moments of magical bliss; The Little Drummer Girl is off-pitch.

O Christmas Tree

For a perfectly decorated tree, call Tom Osborn. But only if money is no object.

After Midnight

Holiday clothes go to the Longhorn Ballroom as easily as to charity balls.

So You Walk Into a Honky-Tonk and Some Three-Hundred-Pound Cowboy Says He Doesn’t Like Your Face. Now What?

Honky-tonks: how to get in, how to get out.

Is This All There Is?

Tales of Houston as it faces life after the boom.

Too Cool to Get Married

If marriage means commitment and trust, that’s fine. If it means never dancing in front of a Billy Idol video again, that’s no so fine.

Fishing With Dad

I took my son fishing because I wanted him to love the sport—and me.

Peddling Paranoia

Selling crime self-help devices has become a booming business. But do any of these gadgets really make us safer?

Classical Glass

The Houston premiere of Phillip Glass’ Akhnaten was a grand opera.

Behind the Lines

Clap, clap, clap, clap.

Beyond Kitsch

Frederick Barthelme’s first novel, Second Marriage, is a wondrous tale of love and absurdity set in the Gulf Coast suburbs.

Jambalaya, Crawfish Pie, Filé Gumbo

Son of a gun, they've got great food on the bayou.

How to Buy a Dress Without Going to the Store

Shopping from catalogs can keep you in fashion and out of the malls.

Touts

State Secrets

No joy in Cubville; deregulation is a gas; two airline wars—one cold, one hot; are the politicians back in control at UT?

‘Twas the Night After Christmas

And all through the house, every modem was stirring, and so was the mouse.

Roar of the Crowd

The Sheets of Laredo

Life after the oil bust is fair-to-Midland; bad News, hard Times in Laredo; I hear a timpani; a coach who believes winning is everything.

Puzzle

Texas Primer: The Marfa Lights

What is it that makes them dance across the desert night? A trick of physics—or something stranger?

Lawrence Welk Meets The Doors

Brave Combo’s World Dance Music brings wit and verve to an unlikely mix of sounds; the Sir Douglas Quartet is still recording after all these years.

Downer on the Farm

Country and Places in the Heart both heap on down-home moral uplift; Stop Making Sense is a joyous rockumentary; Amadeus spouts dingdong conceits.

4 BR, 2 BA, Needs Work

Why did I trade in my trouble-free condo for an aging country home with decrepit plumbing? I’m trying to figure that out myself.

Teagarden of Delights

Tribute to Teagarden captures the fullness and humanity of the late Texas trombonist’s art; plus a roundup of recent jazz releases.

Trashy Business

When Houston’s rich and powerful join forces with environmentalists to battle big corporations, they can be fighting over only one thing. Garbage.

Tiptoeing On the Ocean of Storms

What astronaut Alan Bean saw on the moon changed his life. Now, with paint and canvas, he’s trying to let the rest of us see it too.

Howdy, Son. I’m the Law in This County

These fourteen Texas sheriffs are everything you thought a sheriff ought to be. But look quick; the old-time county lawman is riding off into the sunset.

Behind the Lines

The proud and promising Froggies.

Back in the Huddle Again

Dan Jenkins’ new football novel, Life Its Ownself, picks up where Semi-Tough left off; Heat from Another Sun, a dark detective novel, turns on the gore.

Trevino’s Mother

Whistler had nothing on the 22 artists represented in a survey of Hispanic art.

Texas Primer: The Rich Girl

From lacquered debutante to fossilized ol’ gal, her greatest virtue is endurance.

The Politics of Armageddon

W. A. Criswell has spent forty years convincing his huge flock at Dallas’ First Baptist Church that the end of the world is near. He hopes you’ll believe it too.

Feasting on the Oil Glut

So you think that OPEC controls the price of oil and that the glut is hurting everybody in the oil business? Wrong. Traders on the international spot market are pulling the strings and getting rich in the process.

Touts

Hunting gear that even Natty Bumppo would approve of.

State Secrets

Bullock brings a touch of Las Vegas to Texas; two Texas congressmen covet the same plum; an oil company sends a signal to Wall Street; a court fight could cost UT and A&M $20 million; a big man belongs in Houston.

Terminal Education

Most educational software relies on the same old rote drills and other negative techniques—only now kids get nuked for missing a math problem.

Roar of the Crowd

Texas Monthly Reporter

Winners and losers from the Republican convention; a crash course for butlers; biting the bullet in Orange County; the peculiar appeal of the Texas State Guard; a bookie tells his trade secrets.

Puzzle