Blogs

The Hopson switch (Fri Nov 6 at 3:56 PM)

House M.D. (Fri Nov 6 at 2:11 PM)

Raymond Jessop Guilty (Thu Nov 5 at 8:04 PM)

Bendels goodies (Fri Nov 6 at 11:32 AM)

Stuffed every morning (Fri Nov 6 at 5:58 PM)

Back Talk

Bill Crist ’73 says: I was a fish in Sqdn 4 the year we built the tallest Bonfire on record. I remember the bruises, the muscle pains, the cuts, the blisters, the pushups. It is all pale compared to the sacrifice our 12 brothers and sisters gave to our beloved school. Every Aggie Muster since that day I have said a "Here" for them. Their sacrifice is forever etched in our minds. Whether or not we ever see another official Bonfire does not matter; our traditions will survive. We are great. We are mighty. We are Texas Aggies. (November 5th, 2009 at 10:23am)

Send a message »

Katy Vine

Katy Vine

Katy Vine holds bachelor’s degrees in English literature and Classical Humanities from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she graduated with honors. Her work has appeared in the Best American Sports Writing 2005, the Best American Sports Writing 2006, the Oxford American, the Texas Observer, and on the radio program, “This American Life.”

Features

Last year’s child custody battle between the State of Texas and a fundamentalist Mormon sect prompted many people to wonder how 437 kids could have been ripped away from their parents. When the criminal trials of a dozen sect members get under way this month, the question may become, Was it really safe to send them home? (October 2009)

On our first-ever quest for the state’s best burgers, we covered more than 12,000 miles, ate at more than 250 restaurants, and gained, collectively, more than 40 pounds. Our dauntless determination (and fearless fat intake) was rewarded with a list of 50 transcendent burgers—and you’ll never guess which one ended up on top. Check out our Best Burger section. (August 2009)

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made history as the first humans to set foot on the surface of the moon. Forty years later, the researchers, astronauts, engineers, scientists, and NASA officials who made the voyage possible remember the day the Eagle landed. (July 2009)

(June 2009)

For Steve Kemble, having as good a time as humanly possible as often as humanly possible is very serious business. (June 2009)

Our exhaustive, exhausting, strictly scientific (and lamentably fattening) survey of the finest home cooking around, from Maxine’s on Main, in Bastrop, to El Paraiso, in Zapata. (December 2008)

Find out by taking our quiz. (October 2008)

How a fish called Ethel (seventeen pounds, ten ounces) caught by a fishing guide named Mark (Stevenson, in 1986, on Lake Fork) revolutionized a once-sleepy sport. (August 2008)

Eighteen hungry reviewers. 14,773 miles driven/flown. 341 joints visited. Countless bites of brisket, sausage, chicken, pork, white bread, potato salad, and slaw—and vats of sauce—ingested. There are only fifty slots on our quinquennial list of the best places to eat barbecue in Texas. Only five of those got high honors. And only one (you’ll never guess which one in a million years) is the best of the best. (June 2008)

Texas receives more federal funding for abstinence education than any other state. But is teaching kids not to have sex the same as sex education? (May 2008)

The future according to third-graders. (February 2008)

What Samir Patel learned in five years of not winning the national spelling bee (other than the root words of “eremacausis”). (November 2007)

How Dirk Fowler became the state’s latest, greatest poster artist. (June 2007)

On March 18, 1937, the residents of New London, southeast of Tyler, endured the worst small-town tragedy in U.S. history: an explosion at the combined junior-senior high school that killed some three hundred students and teachers. Seventy years later, 47 survivors share their memories of that horrific day. (March 2007)

Fernando Spada and Fernando Mendez are the Karpov and Kasparov of Brownsville: chess champions whose lifelong competition has produced a rivalry every bit as fierce as those of Ali and Frazier, McEnroe and Borg, or Nicklaus and Palmer. Did I mention that they’re in the fourth grade? (February 2007)

At the Giddings State School, violent teenagers come to terms with their horrific crimes—and learn how to avoid committing them again—through role-playing exercises in a jailhouse version of group therapy. This is what your tax dollars are paying for? Well, it works. For a while, at least. (November 2006)

And Saturday. And Sunday. The arrival of fall means weekends spent watching football, up close and on-screen, and yet another opportunity to love the greatest game on earth for all the usual reasons. Forty-nine of them, in fact. (September 2006)

How the fire to end all fires obliterated Ringgold—and how residents of the tiny North Texas town are putting their lives back together. (April 2006)

Bobbi Jo and Jennifer were young, in love, and on the road, with the wind at their backs and a happy future ahead of them. All that stood in their way was a dead body back in Mineral Wells. (September 2005)

A one-on-one with Brooklyn Pope reveals her to be— off the court, at least—a fairly typical fifteen-year-old girl. But when the game clock starts, she’s the future of women’s basketball. Maybe basketball, period. (June 2005)

From humble Oak Cliff roots did a hip intellectual giant grow. In this oral history, friends and fans remember the late Grover Lewis, one of the great magazine writers of our day. (March 2005)

Meet the 22-year-old hooker who, with her fellow “massage therapists,” scandalized Odessa (January 2005)

Although some might consider the Kilgore Rangerettes an anachronism, every summer dozens of fresh-faced teens from around the state flock to East Texas to perfect a seemingly effortless hat-brim-touching high kick—and preserve one of the state's great traditions. (September 2004)

Which means she's an expert at reading bovine body language, and that makes her, at the absurdly young age of thirteen—only four years after overcoming her fear of horses—one of the world's best practitioners of the art of cutting. (January 2004)

If you've ever thought of donating your body to science, read what happened at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston—and then ask yourself if a good, old-fashioned burial might not be a better idea. (August 2003)

Photographer Kenny Braun has been surfing the Gulf Coast for about thirty years. So naturally, when the water's just right, he grabs his . . . camera. (August 2003)

(May 2003)

Where are the best places to eat barbecue in Texas? Six years ago we published a highly subjective—and hotly debated— list of our fifty favorite joints, and now we’ve gone back for seconds. Ten intrepid souls drove more than 21,000 miles in search of 2003’s worthiest ‘cue. Here’s what they came back with: the top 5 and the next 45, plus honorable mentions, great chains, and meat by mail. (May 2003)

San Antonio's Marshevet Hooker is not just any old high school sprinter; she's an Olympic gold medalist in the making. Meet her and nine other women we're betting will lead the new Texas—and the world. (February 2003)

And not just any mall. The Marq*E Entertainment Center is a marvel of marketing: a teen-friendly hangout where kids from all over the city flock to shop, flirt, skateboard, and otherwise act their age. (September 2002)

Children of all ages! Step right up and get to know a South Texas clan whose nomadic way of life is a link to the past. (August 2002)

Rare books, blueberry pie, a faith healer's shrine—and one deep hole. (May 2002)

Mexican movies were muy caliente in the middle of the past century, and Harlingen's Rogelio Agrasanchez, Jr. has the posters to prove it. (October 2001)

(September 2001)

(September 2001)

Summer’s blast furnace is firing up. Luckily, Texas is a paradise of spring-fed pools, sparkling beaches, and more. Here are our picks for the best places to chill out, get wet, and go off the deep end. Plus extra web-only information! (June 2001)

He's produced albums for the likes of Roy Orbison and Elvis Costello for years, but now Fort Worth's T Bone Burnett is writing songs again and composing music for movies and plays. At 53 he's on a creative roll and, as he says, "Never bored." (March 2001)

Brandon and Denise were not like other people. They were smarter, more introverted. They adored computers, playing games online at three in the morning with people in Finland. When they and other hard-core techies moved to Walden, a Houston apartment complex with the fastest residential Internet connection in the world, it seemed like a wired paradise. For a while, it was. (February 2001)

(October 2000)

The places, people and stories behind Texas music. (May 2000)

He’s worth tens of millions of dollars at age 28, but money, as they say, can’t buy happiness: Two weeks in the life of Andrew Busey, dot-com hotshot. (February 2000)

Bronzes by Remington and Russell in Orange, Quanah Parker’s trail bonnet in Canyon: Ten spaces that excel at the art of exhibition. (March 1999)

Columns | Miscellany

After 118 years, Lubbock finally appears ready to allow liquor stores inside the city limits—unless a shutter salesman and a handful of Baptists can turn back the clock. (May 2009)

Why the closing of a footbridge to Mexico is bad for Candelaria. (October 2008)

Will the upscale shoppers of Plano really buy what Wal-Mart is selling? (June 2006)

The prison affected me personally. I grew up parking cars at the prison rodeo. I had a stepfather who was a prison guard. (December 2005)

"While I was in Hollywood, I wrote for Eddie Arnold and Ernest Tubb and Roy Rogers and Tex Ritter—everybody you can think of." (April 2004)

"I used to think, 'I can't perform in front of these people!' And then last night I did a show for more than 13,000." (April 2004)

How I got from the Fifth Ward to the Ivy League. (February 2003)

(September 2001)

The original Urban Cowboy. (September 2001)

(September 2001)

Critics praise him. Woody Allen loves him. And no one does a better Truman Capote. Meet Midland's Douglas McGrath, a writer-director who's ready to take center stage with his role in a new movie. (February 2001)

How Lubbock’s Legendary Stardust Cowboy stays legendary after all these years. (June 2000)

Why is he a cult hero to deejays and record collectors— and why is he such a recluse? I wanted to know, so I tried to find him. And I did, in an upscale Houston neighborhood. And we drank beer. (August 1999)

(July 2004)

(June 2004)

(May 2004)

(May 2004)

(May 2004)

(April 2004)

(March 2004)

(February 2004)

(February 2004)

(January 2004)

(December 2003)

(December 2003)

(November 2003)

(September 2003)

(September 2003)

(August 2003)

(December 2001)

(December 2001)

(November 2001)

(November 2001)

(October 2001)

(October 2001)

Alexis Bledel fits in as one of the girls. (March 2001)

Nicholas Gonzalez lands a knockout role. (February 2001)

Heidi Grant Murphy hits a high note. (December 2000)

On the set with Bruce Rodgers. (November 2000)

Juan Miró builds his legacy in Austin. (October 2000)

San Antonio brothers pen a sitcom that's all in the family. (September 2000)

Sixteen years ago, rookie filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen changed Austin with a Simple plan. (August 2000)

A Houston actress launches her career. (August 2000)

The Fort Worth whiz kid taken seriously on Wall Street. (July 2000)

Jessica Simpson wants to love you forever. (May 2000)

A Houston native who keeps score. (April 2000)

A ballerina on her toes. (March 2000)

Reporter

Juan Muñoz, sheriff’s deputy. (May 2009)

54, Hatter. (March 2009)

Letter Carrier. (December 2008)

Auctioneer. (June 2008)

Dave Hickey on being an art critic. (March 2008)

High school teacher. (September 2007)

The CEO of Blue Bell gives us the scoop. (July 2007)

A pro at helping cons. (May 2007)

Sixth Street and Lamar Boulevard, Austin. (April 2007)

Martha Josey on the basics of barrel racing. (March 2007)

Katie Wernecke is many things: a precocious, freckle-faced Bible-drill champ; the valedictorian of her seventh-grade class in Banquete; and—since she was diagnosed with cancer last year—a pawn in the custody battle that pits her parents against the State of Texas. (January 2006)

For going on five years, my admiration has grown for the weekly paper in the tiny Panhandle town of Miami (above). The New York Times it ain’t, but it tells me everything I could ever want to know about local births and deaths, windblown mail, bad potholes, and good yards. And Theo. (November 2005)

As mythical creatures go, Bigfoot is right up there with the Loch Ness Monster and the Abominable Snowman. But in Jefferson, the search for the hairy, hulking beast with the, er, big feet is big business—and deadly serious. (October 2005)

For several months, TV shrink Dr. Phil McGraw has been picking apart— in full view of his national audience—the life choices made by residents of the Central Texas town of Elgin, who are apparently too fat, too horny, and too domestically violent for their own good. The diagnoses have not been, shall we say, well received. (December 2004)

Brandon Hughey didn't ask to be a celebrity. All the San Angelo­born soldier wanted was to avoid fighting what he considered an unjust war. So he fled to Canada—and now the private's every move is public. (August 2004)

Restaurant mogul Tilman Fertitta means to redevelop Galveston into what some say will be a Gulf Coast version of Atlantic City. No wonder he's making waves. (July 2004)

A poker queen shows her hand. (June 2004)

Joe Moore reflects upon truth, justice, and Tulia. (December 2003)

They're ready for their close-up; are we? Our writer prejudges the thousands of celebrity wannabes at Austin's American Idol tryouts. (January 2003)

Jamie Foxx pulls no punches. (March 2002)

Freddy Fender sings a different tune. (December 2001)

Katy Vine gets animated with Richard Linklater. (October 2001)

Katy Vine checks up on the UT-Dallas chess team. (August 2001)

Katy Vine steps through a minefield. (August 2001)

Katy Vine sits down with the former mayor of Gun Barrel City. (August 2001)

David Gordon Greene gets the big picture. (January 2001)

Good neighbors, good fencers. (June 2000)

One family's racket. (January 2000)

(December 1999)

(November 1999)

There’s something unorthodox—to say the least—about the Christ of the Hills Monastery in Blanco. (October 1999)

(October 1999)

(September 1999)

(August 1999)

(July 1999)

(June 1999)

(May 1999)

(April 1999)

(March 1999)

(February 1999)

(January 1999)

(December 1998)

(November 1998)

(October 1998)

Web Exclusives

On October 26, the first FLDS criminal trial in Texas begins. What legal strategies remain for the defense? (November 2009)

It may well be at Arnold’s, in Amarillo. Think twenty pounds of unseasoned meat and some forty slices of American cheese (if you please). Can anyone say “supersize”? (August 2009)

Bob Hudgins, director of the Texas Film Commission, talks to Katy Vine about the “Waco” controversy, tax incentives, and how to get your movie made in Texas. (July 2009)

Ninety-four percent of Texas high school students receive abstinence-only education. More than half of these teens are losing their virginity. So what do the majority of Texans really want their kids to know about sex?  (March 2009)

(February 2009)

The El Paso City Council may override the mayor’s veto to create a debate on the current U.S. drug policies. In these interviews, the mayor, council members, and others explain their views. (January 2009)

The reason so many Texans testified in favor of strong language supporting evolution in the TEKS is because they’re having to play defense and they’re losing. (December 2008)

(November 2007)

Assistant Editor Katy Vine tells us what he said. (May 2001)

Assistant editor Katy Vine reveals what it was like to live for a week at Walden, an apartment complex in Houston that has the fastest residential Internet connection in the world. (See "Love and War in Cyberspace".) (February 2001)

From dog parks and swimming holes to picnic spots and close encounters with a llama, our favorite outdoor activities keep you busy year-round. (January 1000)

Rare books, blueberry pie, a faith healer’s shrine—and one deep hole. (January 1000)

Subscribe Now