1. When Texas Monthly published its first issue in February 1973, how much did the magazine cost?
a. 75 cents
b. one dollar
c. two dollars
d. nothing; it was given away as a marketing ploy
2. The cover of the first issue featured a photograph of which of the following?
a. Willie Nelson
b. Lyndon Baines Johnson
c. Don Meredith
d. the Alamo
3. Texas Monthly‘s first editor, William Broyles, Jr., went on to fame as a Hollywood screenwriter. He wrote or co-wrote the screenplay for three of the following movies. Which is the odd one out?
a. Unfaithful
b. Unforgiven
c. Apollo 13
d. Cast Away
4. Broyles was one of only three editors in Texas Monthly‘s history. Who succeeded him?
a. Skip Hollandsworth
b. Gregory Curtis
c. Jan Reid
d. Mimi Swartz
5. Texas Monthly‘s third and current editor is Evan Smith, who was born in:
a. New York
b. New Jersey
c. Cut ‘n’ Shoot
d. Dime Box
6. For what annual feature is the magazine best known?
a. the Bum Steer Awards
b. the Ten Best and Ten Worst Legislators list
c. the Texas Twenty, a list of the most influential Texans of the year
d. the Texas 100, a list of the hundred richest Texans
7. Who is Michael R. Levy?
a. the founder and publisher of Texas Monthly
b. the magazine’s fashion editor and author of an annual Texas best-dressed list
c. the columnist who writes “The Last Round-Up,” the last page of the magazine
d. Texas Monthly‘s equivalent of Alfred E. Newman
8. Who is Gary Cartwright?
a. the author of White Hot Mama, a novel based on the 1992 Texas Monthly story about governor Ann Richards
b. the former publisher of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the current publisher of Texas Monthly
c. the magazine’s most veteran writer and reporter and the author of eight books
d. the long-lost brother of Hoss and Little Joe
9. From 1987 to 1990, Texas Monthly had a spinoff publication, a quarterly that focused on décor, fashion, and lifestyle. What was the name of that magazine?
a. Home on the Range
b. Texas Home
c. Homestead
d. Domain
10. Texas Monthly has published fiction only three times in three decades. Which of the following never appeared in the magazine?
a. an excerpt from The Evening Star, by Larry McMurtry
b. an excerpt from The Gates of the Alamo, by Stephen Harrigan
c. the short story “A New Santa,” by Lawrence Wright
d. the short story “A Large Nixon,” by Kinky Friedman
11. What appears at the end of every article in Texas Monthly?
a. a tiny black star
b. a tiny black cow skull
c. a tiny black Texas
d. a period
True or false:
12. More than two million people a month read Texas Monthly.
13. Model Jerry Hall, then Mrs. Mick Jagger, appeared on a 1997 cover in a discreetly shot nude pose.
14. From 1973 until 1977, Texas Monthly published a combined December-January issue.
15. About three-quarters of the Texas Monthly staff is female.
16. Van Cliburn is the only classical musician ever portrayed on the magazine’s cover.
17. Texas Monthly has won eight National Magazine Awards, the industry’s equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize.
18. Texas Monthly‘s best-selling magazine of all time was the January 1986 issue, a special issue that focused on:
a. Texas A&M University and Aggie traditions
b. the Texas film industry
c. the Texas music industry
d. the state’s sesquicentennial
19. What singer appeared on the second best-selling cover ever?
a. Selena
b. Willie Nelson
c. George Strait
d. Stevie Ray Vaughan
20. Which of the following parent-child combinations has never appeared on the magazine’s cover?
a. former first lady Lady Bird Johnson and her daughters, Luci Johnson and Lynda Robb
b. former president George Bush and his oldest son, President George W. Bush
c. Henry Cisneros, former mayor of San Antonio and former Cabinet member, and his son, John Paul
d. guitarist Lloyd Maines and his daughter Natalie, lead singer of the Dixie Chicks
21. Which of the following categories has inspired far more cover stories than the rest?
a. education
b. food
c. crime
d. travel
22. Which of the following subjects has never inspired a cover story?
a. farming
b. ranching
c. medicine
d. high society
23. Two people have appeared on Texas Monthly covers five times each. Who are they?
a. Ross Perot and Lyndon Baines Johnson
b. Lyndon Baines Johnson and George W. Bush
c. George W. Bush and Willie Nelson
d. Willie Nelson and Ross Perot
24. In 1978 Paul Burka, the magazine’s senior executive editor and acclaimed political writer, appeared on the cover with what substance dumped on top of his head?
a. oil, because he was writing about the oil glut
b. mud, because of his article about political mud-slinging
c. chili, because he hates it
d. water, to reinforce a cover line saying “The Texas Legislature Is All Wet”
25. What Texas governor appeared on the magazine’s third worst-selling cover ever?
a. John Connally
b. Ann Richards
c. George W. Bush
d. Rick Perry
26. Texas Monthly‘s August 1990 cover sold fewer than 20,000 copies, the lowest-selling issue ever. What was the subject of the cover story?
a. the increase in commerce between Texas and Rumania
b. atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair
c. a wheat-growers’ price-fixing scandal
d. a day in the life of a highway repair crew
27. Which of the following actresses has never appeared on the cover of Texas Monthly?
a. Sandra Bullock
b. Sissy Spacek
c. Renee Zellweger
d. Farrah Fawcett
28. All of the following actors have appeared on the cover of Texas Monthly. Which is the only one who appeared three times?
a. James Dean
b. Paul Newman
c. Fess Parker
d. Tommy Lee Jones
29. All of the following sports stars have appeared on the cover of Texas Monthly. Which is the only one who appeared three times?
a. Troy Aikman
b. Lance Armstrong
c. Nolan Ryan
d. Dennis Rodman
30. Which of the following has never appeared on the magazine’s cover?
a. Roy Rogers and Dale Evans
b. Elvis Presley
c. Jesus Christ
d. a jackalope
