January 1990

Table of Contents

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Features

The 1990 Bum Steer Awards

A year of antagonistic attorneys, beleaguered Bushes, costumed cacti, dead dogs, espied Elvises, falling Fledermause, garbled grapes, hemline histrionics, imprudent impeachings, journalistic judges, kinky kindling, legislative largesse, mock McMurtrys, novelist’s nooks, overrated Odessas, phantom pharaohs, qualified quail, Ruby’s revolvers, spurious spies, tardy transcribers, U-charistic Uthanasians, vandalized vans, weird wienersm X-onerated X-ecutives, yapping Yankees, and zippered zoos.

A Case of Black and White

It wasn’t nostalgia that brought me back to my hometown. It was a black man’s violent death in a jail cell.

The Bucks Stop Here

The troubled Parks and Wildlife Department is supposed to protect the state’s natural resources. Instead, it protects its friends and, above all, itself.

The Call of the Wildman

To find their true masculine selves, wildmen dance and sweat, bond and meditate, renounce their mothers and grunt, “Ho!” I thought, “Hmmm.”

Texas Primer: The Windmill

But for this ever-so-practical invention, Texas history as we know it would be gone with the wind.

Swamp Thing

Snapping turtles are cantankerous, grotesque, and savage. And those are just a few of the reasons I like them.

Columns

Books

A Child’s Garden of Texas

The young—and even the not-so-young-can travel back through the state’s glorious past simply by opening up any one of these fourteen children’s classics.

Behind the Lines

UT goes lite.

Crime

Going By the Book

When his luck ran out, A.W. Gray ended up behind bars. Now he’s on a winning streak as a crime novelist.

Texana

A Slaughter, A Smuggled Painting, and A Raid

A customs seizure raises a perplexing question: Who owns our past-Texas or Mexico?

Health

Take It Off! Take It All Off!

With liquid diets, the pounds just seem to melt away. But what it takes to keep that unwanted weight off is sometimes even harder to swallow.

Reporter

Reporter

Bon-Furor

Bonfire-crazed yell leaders Keving Fitzgerald and Brant Ince foresee defeat for fire’s foes.

Reporter

Sultan Of Stink

Tim Johnson came out smelling like a rose when San Franciscans detected broken gas lines.

Reporter

Upscale Garage Saling

Shopper Ethel Sexton is dressed to the nines in her garage-sale finery.

Miscellaneous

Roar of the Crowd

Discovering the hero in every person; getting off the ground without ever leaving the airport; paying our respects to an ancient tree.

State Secrets

The right angle for striking oil; making book on the Bush library; a roving eye for GOP money; reining in rogue cops.

Domain: A TEXAS MONTHLY Editorial Supplement

Chefs on the Range

Most recipes for game birds amount to long, slow overkill. Only quick, hot cooking ensures that red-meat birds retain their rich flavor.

Venison Medallions

Recipe from Chefs on the Range.

Jalapeno Jack Spoon Bread

Recipe from Chefs on the Range.

A Grand Finale

Brownie point.

Fresh-Peppermint Fudge Brownies

Recipe from A Grand Finale.