Wide Open Spaces

The Chihuahuan Desert is a place of extremes, where the visitor not only observes but participates in the struggle for life and death.

by Stephen Harrigan

The Cowboys, The Indian, and The Computer That Fumbled

The most important new addition to the Dallas Cowboys is a veteran from the team’s early years computer genius Salam Qureishi.

by Aaron Latham

Requiem For a Roller Coaster

The state fair’s Comet: will it rust in space?

by Joe Nick Patoski

The Faulty Cure

Houston is famous for medical cures. But when British rock star Ronnie Lane came to town with a crippling disease and $1 million for research, all he got was crippling legal problems.

by Dick J. Reavis

Texas Primer: Ma Ferguson

She unmasked the Klan and worried about the role of women, but she listened more to her husband than to the suffragettes.

by Jan Reid

My Kind of Town

An enticing portfolio of what makes Houston Houston.

Photography by Geoff Winningham

Vote For Me, Por Favor. Now Let’s Eat

Mix election time, South Texas, and barbeque, and you get the pachanga circuit, where politics and barbeque are served with equal reverence.

by Alison Cook

Western Art: Zephyr, Texas

by Judy Pederson

Behind the Lines

by Gregory Curtis

Business

I Think I’m Rich, Therefore I Am

A new class of self-styled experts called prosperity consultants say they have the solution to Texas’ economic bust: the bad times are all in our heads.

by Barbara Paulsen

Texana

The Anglo-Tex Connection

A Dallasite enamored of British class gets her sesquicentennial wish—a Texas embassy in London.

by Ed Ward

Jazz

Midland’s Bebop Bash

What’s remarkable about this exclusive jazz party isn’t just that it’s in Midland. The biggest surprise comes when the music starts.

by Doug Ramsey

Movies

Getting Even Gets Old

Revenge has seldom been so incendiary, but Heartburn fails to ignite; Blue Velvet is for the brave; Club Paradise is for the jolly.

by James Wolcott

Reporter

Texas Monthly Reporter

Fashion shifts at Farah; Dave Pelz’s putter problems; will the Dallas establishment’s mayoral candidate please stand up?

by Kelly Fero

Roar of the Crowd

State Secrets

Are the Elissa’s sails trimmed for good? The Chronicle finds a possible buyer close to home—very close; mashing the mass transit tax.

Edited by Paul Burka

Shopping

From goggle that let you see in the dark to voice changers that you sound like Daffy Duck, the Counter Spy Store is stocked for the age of paranoia.

by Mimi Swartz

Touts

by Patricia Sharpe

Puzzle

The Quidnunc

Checking in with Corpus’ famous insurance writer; smelling celebrity flowers with Leonard Tharp; sharing some Jello-O with Dionne Warwick

by Mark Seal

Downtown

Bail bonding is one Texas business that’s recession proof.

by Jim Atkinson

Post-Modern Times

Two gleaming office towers are going up face to face in downtown Austin. Now their marketing managers have to rent the town asunder.

by Michael Ennis