ON THE COVER: Illustration by Theo Rudnak
January 1988
Table of Contents
Features
1988 Bum Steer AwardsA year of clumsy Clements, stupid stickups, ripped-off Rangers, cockeyed cops, agitated alligators, rotund cockroaches, jumpy judges, nitwit newsmen, addled Aggies, naughty newlyweds, randy retirees, and a pestered pontiff. The Sins of Walker RaileyHe had a wife and a girlfriend. His ambition was unchecked. He tried to commit suicide. But when I came face to face with the minister of my boyhood church, the sin we talked about was murder. Ode On a Hempstead UrnThat concrete urn you bought by the side of the road is making decorating history. |
This Land Is My LandGrowing up, I took the Panhandle’s plain nature for granted. Only after years away and a sentimental journey home did I take it to heart. Break the Bank!Don Dixon ran Vernon Savings the way Romans ran orgies, equating excess with success, until his empire collapsed. Texas Primer: The Cotton BowlThe ghosts of bowl games past recall an era when cotton and the Cotton Bowl were king in Texas. |
Columns
Behind the LinesThe big squeeze. EducationNot What the Doctor OrderedWhen Houston’s Hermann Hospital sought a cure for its financial ills, it decided to perform major surgery on its agreement with the UT medical school next door. |
LifestyleSweet FifteenMore than an excuse for a good time, the Mexican quinceaera party is a fifteen-year-old girl’s rite of passage. Popular MusicChantilly Lace and A Jolly FaceWhen Texas songwriter the Big Bopper died with Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens in a 1959 plan crash, his hit “Chantilly Lace” became the end rather than the beginning of a national career. |
Reporter
ReporterTexas Monthly ReporterDown but not out in Bent Tree; dishes only the devil could love; hello, Wal-Mart; stupid napkin tricks; gossip boys and Gorilla girls. |
Miscellany
Roar of the CrowdSpeaking up for unsung cowgirls; Greeks bearing gripes; Libertarians looking for a landslide. The National Tour of TexasOut itinerant reporter visits with a Lubbock man determined to preserve the American Way of Life; the doughty clan that brought beer to Levelland; a windy lady fascinated with the weather and a rusticated professor gone to seed. |
State SecretsDoes Texaco have a chance in the U.S. Supreme Court? Dukakis and Gore fight over Texas; a bad start for Kent Hance; the latest Disneyland-comes-to-Texas tale. |



