Lonesome Cowboy

A year after Robert James Waller left Iowa for the quieter climes of Big Bend, the best-selling author is discovering that it’s one thing to live like Texan and quite another to be one.

by Mimi Swartz

The Art of Running for President

Phil Gramm is a world-class fundraiser, but it will take more than money to carry him to the White House in 1996.

by Paul Burka

The Case of The Amateur Skull Boilers

Led by an owner of a roofing company, a group of novice sleuths solves gruesome crimes in San Antonio. It sounds like a TV show—and it may soon be one.

by Anne Dingus

Drug War!

How a small Houston biotech company and a giant California-based rival are battling over who developed what may be a revolutionary cure for asthma and allergies.

by Helen Thorpe

Clowning Around

They crack wise while bulls charge them, and fans eat it up. A look at rodeo’s real ring leaders.

Photographs and text by Brad Holland

Something’s Cooking

Meet the hip young chefs at two Texas restaurants that everyone’s buzzing about.

by Patricia Sharpe

Behind the Lines

A Case of Murder

More criminals are condemned to death in the Harris County courthouse than anywhere else in the world.

by Gregory Curtis

Music

Darkness Audible

Shawn Colvin, the latest pop émigré to land in Austin, sets the record straight on her long and difficult road to stardom.

by Helen Thorpe

Travel

Atomic War Fare

Now is the time to visit New Mexico, where the A-bomb exploded on the scene half a century ago.

by Carol Flake Chapman

Pop Culture

A Fan’s Notes

For sixty years, Austinite Raymond Daum befriended Hollywood’s biggest stars. Now he’s selling off his memories.

by Helen Thompson

Food

Shell Game

Son of a gun, you’ll have big fun—and terrific fresh crawfish—at these seven Louisiana seafood joints.

by John Morthland

Profile

Net Worker

When Susan Hadden was murdered, the country lost a visionary thinker on the information highway and the Internet.

by Gary Chapman

Reporter

All the Dead Horses

The Humane Society wants to rein in Beltex of Fort Worth, one of the nation’s largest slaughterhouses.

by Skip Hollandsworth

Reporter

Bad Air Days

Pollution from Mexico is already plaguing West Texas—and it's only going to get worse.

by Robert Bryce

Reporter

Word of Mouth

Never mind the bullocks, here’s Sincola: An Austin band tries to live up to the hype.

by Jason Cohen

Roar of the Crowd

Tech Talk

State of the Art

Entrance of the Zapatista Army into San Cristobal, 1994

State Secrets

Start Your Engines

by Skip Hollandsworth and Jan Jarboe Russell

Warm Lobster Tacos

State Fare

by Patricia Sharpe