June 1985

June 1985

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Features

Last One In

When the summer heat starts to get to you, cool your heels by plunging into an icy green swimming hole.

by Joe Nick Patoski

On the Wings of the Wind

Someday, when the weather is just right, glider pilot Joann Shaw will sail across the sky, alone among the silent and shifting clouds, for hundreds of miles.

by Stephen Harrigan

The Last Tarpon

My quest for this magnificent silver fish drew me to a lonely stretch of the Texas coast night and day, summer and fall, over and over again.

by Peter Barthelme

La Reina Diana

By her dedication, her rigor, her almost overwhelming enthusiasm, Diana Kennedy forced a generation of cooks to take Mexican food seriously and jolted Texans into realizing that there is life beyond the combination dinner.

by Alison Cook

Texas Primer: The Hi Sign

The laid-back Texas way of saying howdy on the road.

by Anne Dingus

The Desperate Search for Christi Meeks

When five-year-old Christi Meeks disappeared and the police couldn’t find her, her father turned to Bill Dear, one of the most controversial private detectives in Texas.

by Jim Atkinson

Cowgirls

Up-to-date Western fashions that’ll knock your boots off.

The Texas Six-Pack

The six freshman Republican congressmen from Texas are young, angry, and energetic. The only question is, can they be effective too?

by Peter Applebome

Western Art: Armchair Cowboy

An interpretation of a classic genre.

by George Kocar

Columns

Books

Going Whole Hog

Larry McMurtry’s grand epic, Lonesome Dove, opens with blue snake-eating pigs and goes on to describe unflinchingly the settlement of the American West. Mark Singer’s Funny Money examines the biggest bank failure in U.S. history.

by Jan Morris and Gregg Easterbrook

Behind the Lines

The testing of a test.

by Gregory Curtis

Jazz

Just One of Those Things

Jazz singers defy definition. They may scat, or they may not; they may be veterans or newcomers; they may decline the label of jazz singer. But their music always gives them away.

by Doug Ramsey

Movies

Aching Hollows

Heartbreakers has a drowsy punch, but it still stings; 1918 deposits us in nostalgia; My First Wife is all psychodrama, no wit; Sylvia is refined, reserved—and despairing.

Radio

Mornin’, Mr. Smitherman

Every day the citizens of Cameron rise and shine to the radio antics of Eugene “Unk” Smitherman and his creation, a lovable rube named Silas Strausberger.

Joseph Wills