April 1992 Issue

The Blood of the Farentholds

Sissy Farenthold’s family has long battled with its capacity for self-destruction. With the disappearance of her youngest son, the battle is once again joined.

By Robert Draper

Politics & Policy

“This Is the Alamo!”

If Congressman Charlie Wilson has his way, the humble wood chip will be the focus of a trade war between East Texas and Japan.

By Paul Burka

Columns

Books

Having a Cow

Beyond Beef blames cattle for the decline of civilization—not to mention famine, pestilence, destruction, and death.

By Elmer Kelton

This year is the twenty-sixth anniversary of the hardest test I ever took. Then, about to graduate from college with an English degree, I had been in school for so long and had liked it so much that I had no particular yearning to go out into the world. Perhaps

By Gregory Curtis

True Crime

Other People’s Money

A man with big ambitions, Paul Rush bought his way into San Antonio society. Too bad the money he spent wasn’t his.

By Kathy Lowry

Radio Central

Part history, part gossip, part stream of consciousness, Mattie Dellinger’s talk show speaks to the heart of Center, Texas.

By Dick Hitt

Texas History

Hard Rock

It chopped, it scraped, it cut, it carved! Texas’ own Alibates flint helped civilize a continent.

By Melanie Cole

Reporter

Business

Bingo Nation

The Choctaw Nation’s cavernous hall accommodates a weekly flood of fanatical game players.

Music

Western Exposure

Igor Fedotov and Eugene Cherkasov fiddle around in Midland.

Food & Drink

Liquor Licker

Larry Peterman is a revisionist where suckers are concerned. His new tequila lollipop con gusano (complete with the worm) is his take on making hard liquor palatable: “We tried using mescal,” he says, “but it tasted so bad—kind of like burned dirt with rubbing alcohol—that nobody would eat it.”

Travel & Outdoors

Aquarena Mermaids

Water acts may ebb and flow, but since 1950 the polyester-clad mermaids at San Marcos’ Aquarena Springs have barely had time to keep their heads above water. Their subaquatic dances are a tribute to the popularity of such swimming celebrities as Esther Williams and Johnny Weissmuller, a testament to

Shooting Star

Arms maker Jim Leatherwood produces one ugly gun.

Politics & Policy

The Write Stuff

Suzanne Coleman reveals the secret of her success: “You have to be a sentimental fool.”

Web

Recipes

State Fare: Chicken Tikka With Yellow Lentils and Crispy Pappadums

Avner Samuel has been around. Born in Jerusalem, he earned his chef’s toque at the celebrated La Varenne cooking school in Paris and has successfully navigated the tricky culinary waters of London and Dallas. He did stints at the Mansion on Turtle Creek and at the Pyramid in the Fairmont

By Patricia Sharpe

Miscellany

The Stand Up Desk

Corps Values

As a female member of Texas A&M’s Parsons Mounted Cavalry (“one of the units most determined to remain all male”), I want to clear up some of the misconceptions in Mimi Swartz’s “Love and Hate at Texas A&M” [TM, February 1992]. I have been a Drill and

Art

The Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup

Photojournalist Jim Cammack was struck by an odd sight at Sweetwater’s annual spring rattlesnake roundup: a man with a tail. No, the man, a Jaycees volunteer, was not participating in a roundup-sanctioned snake-wrestling contest. He was demonstrating one technique for holding the powerful Western diamondback while milking its venom.